College of Economic & Management Sciences

Research recognition for two young CEMS academics

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Two young College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS) academics, Dr Catherine le Roux (Business Management) and Alicia Weber (Applied Management), received the Principal’s Award for Excellence in Research on 6 August 2021 during the virtual Research & Innovation Awards Ceremony. Each received R15 000 and a certificate of recognition for their work.

Academics had to apply for the award. They had to meet the eligibility criteria and demonstrate with motivations and evidence, including citations, H-index, and the impact factors and ratings of the journals they published in. They also needed to detail how they provide mentoring and supervising. They further had to demonstrate how their research was impactful, innovative, and contributed to community, society and the environment.

Dr Catherine le Roux

Dr Catherine le Roux (Business Management)

Dr Catherine le Roux’s area of research is the embeddedness of sustainability in management decision making. After obtaining her doctorate in 2018 and becoming the youngest female doctoral graduate of the year, she continued to publish in quality journals. She targeted a B-rated international journal on the ABD because of the special issue call as she knew her research could contribute to a highly debated topic. At the same time, she found international journals are more open to qualitative methodology, which is the methodology she prefers.

According to Le Roux, the rounds of revisions and reviews for the papers published were incredibly intense and lengthy—reflecting the quality of the review board for the journals chosen. “I had three rounds of reviews per article and had to work the articles down from major or minor revisions until it was accepted. It took me more than six months to write the article and a year to publish it.” It was tough, but she kept going despite advice from her colleagues to avoid special issues because of the difficulty associated with publishing in them.

“I was able to demonstrate how a South African organisation was leading the way in integrated reporting adoption and how other countries could learn from South African business,” she says.

The past four years have been hectic for Le Roux. After graduating in 2018, she had a ‘thesis baby’ who is now three years old and in 2020 she had a postdoc baby, who is now one. She now spends all her spare time with her young girls, Kaitlyn and Lucy.

Alicia Weber

Alicia Weber (Applied Management)

Intrigued by the challenges South African consumers and retailers face with omnichannel retailing, Alicia Weber has researched ways to modernise South African supply chains. She hopes that her research based on the dynamic capabilities required for supply chains in the fourth industrial revolution could be used as a springboard to modernise and decolonise their programme qualification mix (PQM) to provide an African perspective on ‘disruptive’ supply chains. She obtained her MCom degree cum laude and was rewarded with the Unisa Council’s Excellence Award for the top performance in a research-based master’s dissertation.

She is currently studying towards her PhD, for which she investigates omnichannel supply chain integration and hopes to submit her work early in 2022.

Weber’s doctoral study was selected for presentation at the 2020 IPSERA conference (International Purchasing and Supply Educators and Researchers Association), which was to be held in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the US. Due to the pandemic, the conference was unfortunately cancelled. She now hopes to present her findings at the 2022 IPSERA conference in Sweden.

This year marks Weber’s 10th anniversary at Unisa. Her doctoral studies do not leave her much free time, but when she does have some time, she loves to spend it with her husband, Wessel, and her dog, a spaniel named Summer. Alicia also loves to travel and is looking forward to visiting new and exciting places once the pandemic is under control.

*By Ilze Crous, Communication and Marketing Specialist, College of Economic and Management Sciences

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Publish date: 2021/08/15

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