The Southern African Institute for Management Scientists (SAIMS) is an organisation that was established in 1988 to promote the interests of Management Scientists in Southern Africa and to act as a forum to discuss management education and research. In addition, the role of SAIMS is to initiate the collection and process of relevant information in the field of Management, and to make this information available to interested stakeholders by means of, amongst others, publications, an annual conference and contact between local and international Management Scientist in Southern Africa and abroad. The main objective of this collaboration is to encourage and extend appropriate developments in Business Management pre-eminently with a view to future challenges and demands and to promote the status of Management Scientists. The annual SAIMS Conference is hosted on a rotation basis by South African universities whose staff are members of SAIMS. During this conference, management scholars, students and practitioners from across South Africa and abroad, have the opportunity to interact and share best practices and information in order to grow the body of management knowledge. This conference also gives academics and other interested parties the opportunity to reflect on issues that are important for management theory, research and practice in an ever-changing global environment. Besides publishing of all conference papers (after a double-blind review process) in the official conference proceedings with an ISBN number, the Southern African Institute for Management Scientists (SAIMS) is patron to the accredited South African journal, called Management Dynamics. The quality of papers presented in this journal is of outstanding quality. See the website of Management Dynamics for submission details and guidelines. On behalf of the Board I want to welcome existing and potential members to this organisation. It is my vision that the membership of SAIMS will grow to be representative of all race, age and gender demographics of management scientists and academics. I hope you will experience this diversity while having an intellectually stimulating and enjoyable time being a member of SAIMS. - Prof Elmarie Venter, SAIMS President
