By Prof Joshua Chukwuere

Emerging technologies, or technology itself, have become the fabric of humans in this century. The implications of technology or emerging technologies are dual in nature. However, can we say that the positive implications outweigh the negative aspects? Regardless of the answer to the question, many people are worried when they think of the transformative nature of technologies in this time and age. For example, there is a massive amount of data and content online today, and cybercriminals are getting smarter and more sophisticated, so that online data is consistently under attack. Now, should the users of technology be worried?

This inaugural address (lecture) looks into the critical aspect of emerging technologies (technology) with the theme and question "This world of emerging technologies (technology): Should you be worried?” This theme and question aim to look at the inception or origin of technology and then fast forward into the present to understand the transformations, areas of concerns and the scholar's perspective and personal research perspective.

From this inaugural address and empirical facts it can be seen that emerging technologies (technology) present many negative issues for users, such as anxiety, depression, fear of missing out (FOMO), and so on. These issues cause concerns that continue to increase and make the technology user’s experience difficult. However, users should not worry, since academics – including me – continuously try to find ways to mitigate and eliminate the negative challenges.

By Prof Suné Ferreira-Schenk

The traditional investor life cycle has been used to indicate investor decision-making behaviour during different life cycle phases. However, in a South African environment, when this theory has been applied, it has been found that investor behaviour deviates from the traditional model based on their individualistic financial needs. The emergence of an amended investor life cycle in a South African context indicated a two-phased investment life cycle trend consisting of only two categories, growth investors and defensive investors. Her research contributes to the financial and investment industry by establishing a profile for more defensive investors as opposed to growth investors. The profile indicated the various factors that could influence the financial decisions of defensive and growth investors during their investment life cycle phase.

By Prof Oladipo Olalekan David

Controversies between technophiles and technophobes have generated a divide of arguments as to whether digitalisation is an economic cure or a curse. In most developed and developing countries like Africa, the advent of digital technology has led to efficiency. However, the other side of the argument believes that digital technology/digitalisation will breed mental laziness and hurt the organic development of mankind. The empirical studies conducted in Africa opined that digitalisation is a cure for economic prosperity due to positive connections between digitalisation convergence and economic expansion indicators – economic diversity, growth, development, healthcare services and food security. It is evident in some of the studies that digitalisation convergence in landlocked countries is still slow when compared to coastal countries and it limits economic activities in Africa.