Abstract

OLIVER, P  and  MPINGANJIRA, M. Use of barter trade in the South African media industry. JCMAN [online]. 2010, vol.7, n.1, pp.22-33. ISSN 1815-7440.

Barter trade is often associated with high levels of inefficiencies when compared to modern monetary transactions. Despite this, there has been a reported resurgence of this trade worldwide since the 1990's. This resurgence has however not been matched with research interest in the field. This paper aims at empirically investigating the use of barter trade in the South African media industry. Data was collected from a sample of 70 media organisations. A structured questionnaire looking at a number of issues relating to barter trade including current use; past practices and future prospects regarding use; products commonly accepted and perceived benefits was used to collect the data. The results show that use of barter trade is a very common practice in the South African media industry and many firms in the industry plan on continuing to engage in the practice. A wide range of products are commonly accepted in barter deals including advertising/media space, travel and hospitality services as well as various types of fixed assets. The findings show that both barter practitioners and non-practitioners perceive a lot of benefits associated with barter trade. The high barter trade prevalence in the media industry offers opportunities for firms to better manage their promotional efforts without incurring huge cash outlays.

Keywords : Barter trade; media Industry; South Africa; countertrade.

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