Anneline Morgan
DPhil in Innovation and Development
Blanche Mpofu
Study Title:
Generative AI and creative skilled workers in the South African banking sector
Summary:
This study examines the evolution of banking from traditional, rule-based technologies to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and, more recently, generative AI (GenAI). It explores how AI has transformed core banking functions such as risk management, fraud detection, and customer service. The study places particular emphasis on the emerging role of GenAI in creative functions within banks, such as Marketing, Design, Communications etc. Focusing on the South African banking context, it highlights the slow and uneven adoption of GenAI in creative departments. Finally, the study investigates the opportunities and challenges GenAI presents for creative professionals, especially in relation to job transformation, reskilling, and the balance between human creativity and automation.
Bulelwa Mazwi
DPhil in Innovation and Development
Thembumenzi Kunene
Study Title: Understanding the Diffusion of Innovation to Improve Service Delivery in the Public Sector
Summary:
This study explores how 4IR technologies and digital tools are adopted to enhance policy-making and service delivery in the public sector. Using Eswatini as a case study, it examines the enablers, barriers, and outcomes of innovation in government systems.
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Study Title:
Scaling Grassroots Innovation: Adaptive Governance for Sustainable Environmental Policy
Summary:
This study explores how local environmental initiatives can influence broader policy through structured experimentation and adaptive governance. Grounded in socio-technical systems thinking, it uses place-based innovation theory and DUI learning to build a framework for scaling grassroots solutions. By analyzing real-world cases in climate adaptation, air and water quality, and the circular economy, the research highlights how diverse actors co-create knowledge and enable systemic change in environmental governance.
Gugulethu Nyoni
Study Title:
Applying Systems Thinking to develop a Contextualized Systems Innovation Framework (CSIF) for Robotics in South Africa鈥檚 automotive sector.
Summary:
This study interrogates the paradox within South Africa’s automotive sector, where the strategic adoption of imported robotics for global competitiveness may be inadvertently stifling local innovation and R&D ecosystems. It investigates the extent to which this reliance creates systemic failures鈥攕uch as chronic technological dependency and a policy-practice divide鈥攁nd asks how these can be resolved. Through qualitative case study analysis, the research aims to develop a Contextualized Systems Innovation Framework (CSIF) to provide actionable strategies for balancing technology imports with the strengthening of domestic innovation sovereignty.
Tafadzwa Chirowaman
DPhill in Innovation
Simbashashe Sibanda
DPhil in Innovation
Llyod Nodohe
DPhil in Innovation
Wandile Kelly Mlilo
Study Title:
The Influence of Politics on Renewable Energy Innovation in South Africa and Kenya
Summary
The study explores how and why various political factors influence renewable energy innovation in South Africa and Kenya. The study employs the Political Economy Analysis (PEA) framework, which enables analysis of underlying issues, including institutional influences, structural factors, and the roles of actors.聽Emphasising a politically oriented approach within the PEA framework, the research addresses the often-overlooked power dynamics alongside traditional economic considerations.
Gaboile Mabeba
Study Title:聽
The role of Digital Technologies in supporting the continued use of Indigenous Knowledge Games in South Africa
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The study explored the potential of Indigenous Games (IGs) as vehicles for preserving and transmitting African values, beliefs, principles, and cultural practices, in the context of South Africa鈥檚 digital transformation. The study adopted a qualitative methodology, using semi-structured interviews with Indigenous Knowledge (IK) holders, game players, commercial and non-commercial game developers, and government officials. 聽The study revealed that IGs聽remain integral to cultural identity, social cohesion in many South African communities, and that digitalizing IGs requires a wide range of capabilities and technical skills. The study proposes聽“Re dira Mmogo鈥� 鈥�聽a collaborative, Afrocentric framework that puts IK at the centre of the co-creation process of emerging technologies. This framework advocates for inclusive partnerships and collaboration across key stakeholders 鈥� i.e., IK holders, academia, industry, and government 鈥� and urge them to be mindful of Africa鈥檚 identity, heritage, culture, and shared values, which make Africa distinct from other regions
Wondia Mireille Yeo
Study Title:
Power, Finance, and Gender: Navigating the Political Economy of a Just Energy Transition in Cote d鈥橧voire
Summary:
This study explores how power relations, finance, and gender shape the energy transition in Cote d鈥橧voire. It examines the influence of neo-colonialism and political interests in the electricity sector, while also highlighting gender gaps in the solar workforce and the shortcomings of gender mainstreaming in energy policies. The aim is to identify barriers to a just and inclusive energy transition.
Tebogo Ramaoka
DPhil in Innovation
Amanda-Leigh O鈥機onnell
Study title:
The role of finance in South Africa鈥檚 energy transition to green hydrogen
Summary:
This study examined the role of finance in sustainability transitions to understand its structuring role and implications in a Global South context. It adopted an instrumental case study design, focusing on South Africa鈥檚 energy transition to green hydrogen and used speculative science fiction as a method of theoretical synthesis. The findings reveal finance as a highly coherent, stable, and expansionary regime of power that is resistant to change, structuring emerging technologies to align with vested interests. Given this stability and resistance, policy interventions in the Global South must develop and protect emerging financing alternatives to mitigate destabilising reprisals. Crucially, the research identifies key financing structures鈥攑articularly those that define rights, obligations, and control鈥攁s strategic sites for policy intervention to advance more sustainable, just outcomes.
Liesel Kassier
Study Title:
Sustainable Business Models: Redesigning corporate financial resilience measurements to promote socio-ecological transitions.
Summary:
This research examines how corporate financial resilience measurement can be reconstituted to account for socio-ecological conditions, addressing the limitations of conventional diagnostics such as the Altman Z-Score that treat sustainability as external to firm performance. It demonstrates that prevailing scholarship and corporate reporting practices remain fragmented and largely compliance-oriented, thereby obscuring systemic and transition risks associated with ecological overshoot and social shortfalls. The central contribution is the Socio-Ecological Financial Resilience (SEFR) model: a boundary-aware adaptation that preserves the Altman Z-Score鈥檚 interpretability while prudentially re-thresholding its distress/grey/safe cut-offs using a transparent context parameter derived from a revenue-weighted Sustainable Development Index (SDI).
Gerard Ralphs
Study Title:
Measuring Innovation Differently: Experimental Approaches in South Africa鈥檚 Cultural and Creative Industries
Summary:
This study explores new ways of measuring innovation within South Africa鈥檚 cultural and creative industries. Combining innovation surveys with autoethnography, it develops small-scale experiments across business, public, and household sectors. The aim is to build a reflexive, systemic framework that better captures diverse forms of innovation. Grounded in decolonial and transformative innovation policy thinking, the research contributes to more inclusive national science, technology, and innovation indicators.
Busisiwe Ntuli
DPhil in Innovation