The importance of forecasting, tracking and analysing trends – both nationally and internationally – are vital to the development of contemporary business and growth within the consumer environment.

This is according to Prof Ayesha Bevan-Dye, research leader of the newly established research group, TRENDS, in the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences on the campus in Vanderbijlpark.

Prof Bevan-Dye explains that TRENDS represent the amalgamation of the research endeavours of ProGenY (Profiling the Generation Y consumer behaviour) with trends in accounting, entrepreneurship, sport management, marketing, spectator psychology and multidisciplinary gender studies. The research group was officially launched in 2017.

The scientific focus of TRENDS is on analysing tendencies in the business and consumer environments within the fields of marketing and consumer behaviour, business management and entrepreneurship, the accounting sciences, sport management and marketing, and financial and risk management, and the implications thereof to contemporary business principles and practices. TRENDS comprises members from the Schools of Economic, Accounting and Management Sciences, and consists of the following six distinct but interrelated sub-programmes:

• ProGenY, under the leadership of Prof Ayesha Bevan-Dye, which focuses on profiling the consumer behaviour of Generation Y. This subprogramme includes the influence of various digital and social media platforms on Generation Y’s consumer behaviour, Generation Y’s attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviours, fashion trends and financial management, and Generation Y’s sport spectator psychology.
• Trends in accounting sciences, under the leadership of Prof Jaco Fouché, which focuses on disruptions and trends in the financial environment that affect entities, individuals and academia and have implications to the principles and practices within the accounting sciences.
• Trends in branding and marketing, under the leadership of Prof Natasha de Klerk, which focuses on brand management practices and marketing trends, and the marketing implications thereof.
• Multidisciplinary gender studies, under the leadership of Prof Diana Viljoen, which focuses on gender comparison studies in the fields of risk and financial management.
• Trends in sport management, marketing and spectator psychology, under the leadership of Dr Anita Lennox, which focuses on analysing contemporary management and marketing practices in the sport industry, together with analysing spectator psychology.
• Trends in entrepreneurship and business management, under the leadership of Ms Natanya Meyer, which focuses on contemporary business management and entrepreneurship issues, with a particular focus on women in entrepreneurship.

For further information on any of our subprogrammes, please contact:

Ms Lorenda Minne (administrative officer)

+27 16 910 3394

Lorenda.Minne@nwu.ac.za

 

Prof Ayesha Bevan-Dye