This paper investigated the entrepreneurial intentions of 355 final year commerce students from two universities in the predominantly rural provinces of South Africa, namely Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. The study was based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The objectives of the study were to test whether the TPB can help explain the entrepreneurial intentions of rural university students in a South African context and to assess whether these students will have the intentions to start their own businesses in the future. The study was conducted by means of a survey using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regression were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that the TPB is a valuable tool in understanding entrepreneurial intentions, and that the majority of students intend to start a business in the future. The attitude towards becoming an entrepreneur explained the most variance in entrepreneurial intention of the respondents, followed by perceived behavioural control. Subjective norms did not have a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. The results suggest that the TPB could be a valuable tool for measuring entrepreneurial intentions as part of a comprehensive entrepreneurship development programme in rural areas.

The purpose of this research was to investigate whether students with different levels of exposure to entrepreneurship education would perceive their own entrepreneurial self-efficacy differently from those without such exposure, and whether there is a relationship between perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intent. The study was carried out by means of a survey. The sample consisted of 355 final-year commerce students from two South African universities based in rural provinces, namely the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. SPSS was used to analyse the data. The results revealed that students who had had exposure to entrepreneurship education were statistically significantly different from those who had not in terms of the way in which they perceived their own entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy had a statistically significant relationship with entrepreneurial intent.

Background: In South Africa, deemed the ‘gateway to Africa’, there is limited evidence of the existence of a survey ranking third-party logistics providers (3PLs). This lack of comparative information of the major 3PLs based on key outsourcing and ranking criteria complicates the selection process for companies that intend to contract 3PLs.Objective: The purpose of this article was to determine the critical selection and ranking criteria for the creation of an index to evaluate 3PLs in South Africa for developing a 3PL benchmarking index.Method: Survey data were collected from 103 of the Top 500 Companies in Africa that use 3PLs and operate within the sectors that mostly outsource logistics services in South Africa. A factor analysis method was employed.Results: Three factors for 3PLs selection converged: service quality, information management and compliance, and collaboration. The top three ranked categories for 3PLs selection are cost and price structure, service delivery and the relationship with the 3PL provider. Most respondents (90%) confirmed a need for a 3PLs index in South Africa.Conclusion: The results help managers with the strategic selection of 3PLs as these critical logistics outsourcing selection criteria can be used to evaluate and rank 3PLs prior to contracting. Based on the selection criteria for logistics outsourcing identified and ranked in this article, a ranking index for 3PLs in South Africa can be developed.