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The global “Specialty Coffee” (SC) market is expected to grow from USD 53.67 Billion in 2021 to USD 152.69 Billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 12.32% during the forecast period 2022-2030. This growth mainly depends on prices coordinating the SC supply chain through information exchange. However, the current coffee price crisis threatens the sustainability of the coffee industry and the livelihoods of millions of coffee-growing families due the information asymmetries. This study investigates the determinants of SC prices that influence the optimal selling decision of small SC farmers, then as main contribution of this study we hypothesised that seven factors determine SC prices, factors which have been studied by different researchers but in an isolated manner, taking into account these factors at the same time, small specialty coffee farmers could make optimal selling decisions by choosing the best coffee price. The study used: IBM software chi-squared statistic and thematic analysis to determine the mean selling decisions factors which stablish the price of coffee. Primarily data was collected from 52 small SC farmers from Planadas Tolima involved in the local business adopting a purposive sampling technique. Research findings revealed a positive correlation between price and the seven independent variables object of this study with a significance of 95%. We concluded that there is a need to consider the variables being studied to solve the information asymmetries in the small SC industry so farmers can make optimal selling decisions. As knowledge of the availability of market information factors examined along the coffee supply chain is deeply understood, we might be able to provide the measurement of information asymmetry in the SC industry and propose a solution in order to solve the SC market disparities to benefit small farmers.

Financial literacy education in South Africa is an active and growing field, especially promoted by major financial institutions while also included in the school curriculum. Despite these efforts, the country has scored poorly in international surveys of economic and financial literacy. Households are experiencing rising financial stress, with the household debt-to-income ratio near historical highs and the household savings-to-income ratio in negative territory. Part of the reason for the apparent ineffectiveness of financial literacy education may be that adult financial literacy has only been actively promoted since 2004 when South Africa’s Financial Charter came into effect. This chapter suggests that a more fundamental reason for the ineffectiveness is that many financial literacy programmes are not always well-suited to the realities found in dualistic economies like South Africa. The chapter proposes that financial education programmes need to be adapted in order to become more effective.

In South Africa, there is still no clear policy of internationalisation of higher education, partly due to limited research. So far, only two efforts – at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in 2004 and Rhodes University in 2005 – have been made to determine the expenditure and foreign revenue impact of international students on South Africa. Each of these papers sampled only a single university, so they are of limited use for national impact analysis. To build on these studies, this research was conducted at six South African universities that admit the largest number of international students and also included the economic effects of spending items hitherto neglected. We show that international students (mainly from Africa) contribute significantly to South African GDP and balance of payments, but that South Africa still lags behind in exploiting and enhancing these benefits.

There has been a significant increase in the number of international students, especially in those from other African countries, at South African universities over the last ten years. This has elicited some research, notably from Ramphele, Crush and McDonald (1999); Hall (2004); and Snowball and Antrobus (2005; 2006). However, none of these scholars considered the possibility of exploiting the skills potential of international students in South Africa, especially at a time when the country faces skills shortages. The authors conducted a survey at six higher education institutions (HEIs) in 2008, which sought to determine the skills profiles of international students in South Africa. It was found that the majority of international students are registered in disciplines where skills shortages exist, that a significant number of these students are young and that many would like to remain and work in South Africa. Labour policy makers in South Africa seem to be unaware of this, hence policy is ill-ad...

This paper develops a theory of what makes ideas interesting and provides guidelines on how to use it (especially in teaching and presenting).

Creative thinking emerges from an interplay between affirming and negating constraints. This paper presents a visual tool that may be used to explore the possibility space and generate new ideas that exploit the power of this interplay, and explains how to construct it. It is illustrated by actual situations: Einstein's theory of relativity, Zipcar's strategy, the Mann Gulch disaster and a case in which the author consulted.

Social presence refers to the ability of students to project themselves as ‘real people' in an online learning community. While it is difficult to create social presence in large classes, educational technologies can enhance the social dimension of online learning if educators relinquish the use of technology as an instrument of control. This article argues the importance of social presence as a building block of successful learning environments and presents some of the ways in which lecturers can purposefully create and maintain social presence. An illustrative case study is presented of a technology-assisted course with 3000 students. The narrative explains how the facilitator was able to create and use the social dimension of the course to the benefit of his students. It became clear that there was no trade-off between increased social interaction and academic participation in the course. In fact, social presence seemed to have formed a foundation for learning and teaching. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 21 (4) 2007: pp. 654-667

Advances in economics result from new ideas, but economists have no formal tools to generate such ideas. Yet logical processes for idea generation exist and can be applied to economic theorising. If an economic problem is reframed as a proof problem, economists can use familiar logical tools to channel their creative thinking and so advance economic theory. This paper develops a formal and reproducible logical method for generating economic ideas using the time-inconsistency problem and Rogoff’s (1985) original contribution as a case study.

How can more theoretical innovation in economics be stimulated? Clues to the answer can be derived from the work of theorists who have been recognised for their innovative contributions to economic theory and from the philosophy of scientific progress. This paper takes the view that scientific progress is propelled by the need to address unsolved problems. From problem theory it is derived that these unsolved problems are generated by inconsistent assumptions and slows down theoretical progress for as long as such problems remain unsolved. Gifted economic theorists intuitively recognise logical inconsistencies, and employ various abductive reasoning strategies to find assumptions that remove these inconsistencies. Their research often produces new inconsistencies, and so triggers further theoretical innovation by others. A rational reconstruction of the seminal work of Nobel Prize winners Kydland and Prescott (1977) provides a running illustration, and shows that an understanding of the structure of economic problems can allow more economists to deliver innovative theoretical work.