ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Entrepreneurial intent: A twelve-country evaluation of Ajzen's model of planned behavior

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test the ability of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior to predict entrepreneurial intent in 12 countries representing all ten of the global regional clusters as identified in the GLOBE project. Design/methodology/approach: Ajzen's model was operationalized to address entrepreneurial intent and a questionnaire was developed consisting of previously used scales, as well as a new measure of entrepreneurial autonomy. A total of 1,748 usable questionnaires were collected from university business students in 12 countries. Findings: The results suggest that Ajzen's model of planned behavior, as operationalized in this study, does successfully predict entrepreneurial intent in each of the study countries, although as foreseen by Ajzen, the significant contributing model elements differ by country as does the percent of the variance explained by the model, although one model element, social norms, was a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intent in each country. Originality/value: This is the first paper to provide insight to the role of cognition in the entrepreneurial process by examining a model of planned behavior in countries representing all global regional culture clusters. The paper also provides guidance for future entrepreneurial research and individual development of entrepreneurs. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurial leadership and performance of female-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in Ghana

This study sought to investigate the effect of entrepreneurial leadership attributes on performance of female-owned SMEs in Ghana. This quantitative study adopted a survey research design and simple random sampling technique to select 257 female entrepreneurs in Ghana. SPSS and structural equation model (SEM) were used to analyse the field data. The study result shows a significant effect of female entrepreneurial leadership behaviour on business performance. The paper found that innovation, proactiveness and vision significantly influence firm performance. The paper recommends that female entrepreneurs should develop self-motivating drive, improve their knowledge and skills through training and education in order to improve their innovative abilities, take 'calculated risk' and explore more opportunities. The paper has revealed that entrepreneurial leadership is not a preserve attribute for male entrepreneurs. Again, the paper revealed clear dynamism in female entrepreneurial literature by revealing that female entrepreneurs are innovative, proactive and visionary, risk averse and less motivated.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurial orientation and SMEs export performance: The role of social media capital and business network ties

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) theory, the purpose of this research is to examine the influence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) export performance with the moderating effect of social media capital and business network ties. A quantitative survey design was employed for this study. Empirical data for this paper were drawn from 369 Ghanaian SME exporting firms, using the purposive sampling technique, and the hypothesized relationships were analyzed using AMOS v.23 in structural equation modeling. The study reveals that export performance of SMEs is principally determined by their EO. In addition, this effect is reinforced by the social media capital and business network ties, exerting a positive moderating role. The paper provides practical implications for SMEs and policymakers on the need to leverage social media capital and business network ties, given their importance to improving export performance, rather than focusing solely on EO.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurship And Development In Africa: The Role of Tech Start-Ups on Ghana’s Socioeconomic Development

There is a new wave of optimism across Africa with the advent of open market and support of private enterprise by many governments after years of a tight public sector led development. Accompanying the euphoria of entrepreneurship is the phenomenon of tech start-ups. The study of tech-start-ups is still in its nascent stages in academic circles on the continent. There is limited literature on the prospects tech start-ups can have on socioeconomic development in Africa. As a result, this study was centred at finding role-played by tech start-ups on the socioeconomic development in Ghana in particular. The study employed the qualitative research methodology and relied on semi-structured interviews and observation to gain more insights into Ghana’s start-up ecosystem from major stakeholders in different components of the tech start-up ecosystem in Ghana. There was also a review of the relevant literature on the topic. The study found that the major roles of tech start-ups in Ghana are harnessing innovation, creation of jobs, and increased competition for firms. The major challenges that are obstacles to the prospects of tech start-ups were identified by the study included poor infrastructure, financial constraints, unfavourable regulations and an immature ecosystem. The study proposed recommendations which included the need to have more academic research on the significance of tech start-ups to Ghana’s development, the need for tech entrepreneurs to explore crowdfunding as a solution to their financial constraints and the need for annual reports on the state of the Ghanaian tech start-up ecosystem to help identify progress made and challenges. It is imperative to find solutions to these challenges to improve upon the ecosystem in Ghana and enhance their global competitiveness.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurship and innovation in the Triple Helix: The perspicacity of intermediate ties

Inherent Simmelian foundations anchor the theoretical base of the Triple Helix model. The Triple Helix model polishes the theoretical lens of Georg Simmel, revealing the empirical basis of intermediating ties in entrepreneurship and innovation. This Viewpoint article takes the path-breaking weak and strong ties approach of Mark Granovetter a step beyond the search for existing jobs into the realm of entrepreneurship and innovation: the task of creating new jobs. Building on Granovetter’s counter-intuitive social ties model, the perspicacity of intermediate ties is that they constitute an often invisible category of collegial and friendship ties that may be induced or repressed in varying organizational formats. Such ties are key building blocks, supplying missing dimensions of talent and mediation in entrepreneurial start-ups, often making the difference between success and failure.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurship and internationalisation: to what extent do the perceptions of male and female entrepreneurs differ on success factors

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore gender variations in entrepreneurship and internationalisation from the perspective of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm; in particular, the paper explores how differences in the personal idiosyncrasies of both males and females in part account for the variations in export internationalisation. Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on extant literature on the critical success factors in entrepreneurship and internationalisation research (e.g. foreign market knowledge, firm-level technology and firm age) as the conceptual framework to explore the issue. The study is based on 21 male and 17 female export entrepreneurs from Ghana and uses a descriptive research design (i.e. frequencies and chi-square test) to analyse the results. Findings – The results show that the perceptions of male and female exporters differ on key internationalisation success factors based on extant literature. Implicitly, whilst both groups shared a similar degree of basic knowledge on a few export success factors, across most of the other key export success factors, the male counterparts demonstrated a more expanded view compared to the females. The results support the assumption of the RBV theory applied in this study to argue that to account properly for the internationalisation outcomes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the personality characteristics of the owner entrepreneurs are critical resources which cannot be ignored. Research limitations/implications – In terms of limitation, the study is exploratory study based on non probability sampling methods using descriptive frequencies tables and analysis of chi-square test and so readers must bear this limitation in mind in interpreting the results to improve on future studies. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the empirical literature by offering a unique perspective regarding how women and men perceive and interpret export success factors and how that impacts on the internationalisation outcomes of women and men. The paper responds to calls by researchers (e.g. Terjesen et al., 2011; Ratten and Tajeddini, 2018; Kuschel and Labra, 2018; Javadian and Richards, 2020) to populate studies on the topic to deepen the present understanding. By using data from Ghana, West Africa, the study sheds a fresh insight on the topic from an under-studied and under-researched geographical context

Source: UG
Entrepreneurship and internationalisation: to what extent do the perceptions of male and female entrepreneurs differ on success factors

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore gender variations in entrepreneurship and internationalisation from the perspective of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm; in particular, the paper explores how differences in the personal idiosyncrasies of both males and females in part account for the variations in export internationalisation. Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on extant literature on the critical success factors in entrepreneurship and internationalisation research (e.g. foreign market knowledge, firm-level technology and firm age) as the conceptual framework to explore the issue. The study is based on 21 male and 17 female export entrepreneurs from Ghana and uses a descriptive research design (i.e. frequencies and chi-square test) to analyse the results. Findings – The results show that the perceptions of male and female exporters differ on key internationalisation success factors based on extant literature. Implicitly, whilst both groups shared a similar degree of basic knowledge on a few export success factors, across most of the other key export success factors, the male counterparts demonstrated a more expanded view compared to the females. The results support the assumption of the RBV theory applied in this study to argue that to account properly for the internationalisation outcomes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the personality characteristics of the owner entrepreneurs are critical resources which cannot be ignored. Research limitations/implications – In terms of limitation, the study is exploratory study based on non-probability sampling methods using descriptive frequencies tables and analysis of chi-square test and so readers must bear this limitation in mind in interpreting the results to improve on future studies. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the empirical literature by offering a unique perspective regarding how women and men perceive and interpret export success factors and how that impacts on the internationalisation outcomes of women and men. The paper responds to calls by researchers (e.g. Terjesen et al., 2011; Ratten and Tajeddini, 2018; Kuschel and Labra, 2018; Javadian and Richards, 2020) to populate studies on the topic to deepen the present understanding. By using data from Ghana, West Africa, the study sheds a fresh insight on the topic from an under-studied and under-researched geographical context.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurship Marketing An Overview In Entrepreneurship Marketing Principles and Practice of SME Marketing Nwankwo and Gbadamosi (eds)

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dominate the market in terms of sheer number of organizations. Their role in the business world is difficult to overstate. Despite this, there is a high failure rate among smaller organizations, which can be explained to a significant degree by a lack of marketing understanding in this sector. Introducing the importance of marketing to entrepreneurial firms this book guides the student through the fundamentals of marketing within the SME context, providing a more value-added learning experience than your standard marketing run-through. The authors deal directly with "people issues" (i.e. everyday entrepreneurial marketing interactions) to prepare students for the "dragon’s den" of entrepreneurialism. This new and lively textbook provides a fresh and unfettered approach for marketing students who require a more real-world understanding of the impact of their discipline on entrepreneurial firms. The growing student body involved with studying entrepreneurship will also benefit from the customer insight offered by this approach.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurship, foreign direct investments and economic wealth in Africa

The paper seeks to examine the joint effect of entrepreneurship and FDI inflows on economic wealth in Africa. It employs a dynamic system called GMM for a panel dataset of 52 African economies between 2006 and 2020. The study finds that FDI inflows induced a negative impact on the ease of doing business but it increased the business capital start-ups of entrepreneurs. We find that entrepreneurship reduces economic wealth in the short term but in the long- term, entrepreneurship positively affect economic wealth. The results show that FDI inflows increase economic wealth and that FDI is an important channel through which entrepreneurship can impact economic wealth. We find evidence to support the ease of doing business and FDI inflows are substitutes, while minimum capital of starting business complements FDI inflows in determining economic wealth. Based on the marginal effects, we conclude that entrepreneurship reduces economic wealth but improves economic wealth when the level of FDI inflows increases in a country. The implementation is that countries should provide strategies that promote economic wealth. individuals, people and entrepreneurs through prudent business development frameworks and FDI support in the short term.

Source: UG
Environmental and genetic factors determine whether the mosquito aedes aegypti lays eggs without a blood meal

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG
Environmental and socio-economic benefits of a circular economy for bioethanol production in the northern part of Ghana

Sweet sorghum grains (SSG) cultivation are the primary source of income and subsistence for approximately 80% of poor smallholder farmers in the northern part of Ghana. Regrettably, sorghum prices in rural markets are constantly falling, resulting in a small income for smallholder farmers and a negative impact on their socioeconomic lives. This study presents a shift towards a circular sweet sorghum supply chain in the northern part of Ghana through bioethanol production from excess sweet sorghum. The study looks at using excess red and white sweet sorghum grains (RSG and WSG) grown in northern Ghana to produce bioethanol. The SSG was pre-treated and fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast to produce 87.6 g/L and 84.24 g/L of WSG and RSG bio ethanol, respectively. This was equivalent to an estimated yield of 91.57% (WSG) and 89.24% (RSG). Likewise, the bioethanol volumetric production of SSG was between 3.50 g/h⋅L and 3.70 g/h⋅L, indicating that its production was efficient after 24 h of fermentation. The fuel properties of the bioethanol were also found to be acceptable for commercial use in bioethanol cookstoves, reducing the reliance on firewood in the northern part of Ghana. A sweet sorghum supply chain based on two different models was developed and could be implemented in the northern sector to benefit smallholder farmers and to save the environment.

Source: UG
Environmental Consciousness of Entrepreneurs in Ghana: How Do Entrepreneur Types, Demographic Characteristics and Product Competitiveness Count?

Businesses are believed to be partly responsible for upsetting the balance of local biodiversity through activities that degrade the environment. Critically, entrepreneurship is increasingly being cited as a key sector that can bring about sustainable transformation in production and distribution. Ghana’s total entrepreneurial activity rate is estimated at 37%, with businesses operating unsustainably. Meanwhile, little has been explored empirically on the factors that influence businesses’ sensitivity to the environment in Ghana. Using the 2013 GEM data in estimating seven different logic regression models coupled with a qualitative analysis, this paper fills the gap by investigating how the demographic and entrepreneurial characteristics of entrepreneurs in Ghana influence their environmental consciousness. The empirical evidence suggests that education fosters environmental consciousness, while owner-manager and female entrepreneurs as well as rural locality entrepreneurs in Ghana tend to be more environmentally sensitive. The qualitative data also revealed general concerns for the environment as motivating factors for entrepreneurs to be more environmentally conscious. The findings therefore draw attention to the inadequate focus on green entrepreneurship in Ghana. Embarking on educational campaigns to promote the adherence to environmental regulations by all businesses, especially those in urban areas, could help build a robust eco-preneurship landscape in Ghana

Source: UG
Environmental disclosures and financial performance amid banking crisis and COVID-19: evidence from Ghana

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of environmental disclosures (END) on the corporate financial performance (CFP) of listed companies in Ghana before and during the Banking crisis (BKC) and the COVID-19 pandemic (COV). Design/methodology/approach – This study used data from 16 companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange between 2012 and 2021. The END Index was used, which uses percentile ranking and is guided by Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. A diverse set of empirical tests were used to examine whether ENDs affect CFP during crises. Findings – The study offered support for the stakeholder and signalling theories generally applied to the study of END. The results confirmed that ENDs have a significant positive effect on CFP measures, return on equity and earnings per share, before and during the crises. The BKC and COV had no impact on the CFP. Practical implications – As Ghana is still recovering from the 2017 to 2020 BKC and COV, the findings of this study highlight the need for managers to embrace END reporting and engagement strategies to improve CFP and firm reputation. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of END on CFP in the context of before and considering the Ghanaian BKC and COV. In addition, it is one of the few studies that investigates how ENDs affect the CFP of Ghanaian-listed firms.

Source: UG
The environmental effects of economic growth and globalization in Sub-Saharan Africa: A panel general method of moments approach

The study examines the impact of economic growth and globalization on environmental quality and sustainability proxied by carbon dioxide emissions and Adjusted National Savings respectively as well as the satisfaction of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for 36 Sub-Saharan African countries using panel data for the period 1990 to 2013 and the system General Method of Moments estimation technique. The results reveal a positive relationship between economic growth and environmental quality and sustainability. Evidence of the satisfaction of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for both environmental quality and sustainability was also observed. Globalization was found to have a worsening effect on both environmental quality and sustainability and its negative effect outweighs the positive income effects on environmental quality and sustainability. We recommend that Sub-Saharan African countries strengthen their environmental norms in their effort to increase growth and participate in globalization through the use of cleaner technologies and products as well as reducing the depreciation of natural and fixed capital through investments in green infrastructure and nature-based projects while increasing educational expenditure and combating the ecological crises that arise from environmental quality degradation.

Source: UG
Environmental factors associated with the distribution of Anopheles gambiae s.s in Ghana; an important vector of lymphatic filariasis and malaria

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG
Environmental hazard and migration intentions in a coastal area in Ghana: a case of sea flooding

Recently, there has been significant debate about whether ‘environmental migration’ can constitute a form of adaptation to environmental change, as opposed to forced or flight migration. The Foresight Report on Migration and Environmental Change (2011) suggested environmental factors are one driver of migration, as well as political, social, economic and demographic drivers, and that—under the right conditions—migration can be a form of adaptation to changing climatic conditions. However, this is dependent on migrants having adequate social and financial capital to undertake beneficial types of migration; it further argues that environmental change may result in ‘trapped populations’ whereby people who lack the necessary resources to re-establish livelihoods elsewhere may be left exposed to increasingly severe environmental shocks and stresses in situ. Research on the climate-migration nexus in West Africa has largely focused on out-migration from the semi-arid Sahel with more limited evidence about how sea flooding interacts with migration flows. This paper attempts to help fill this knowledge gap. Using data from a representative survey of households across three coastal communities in Ghana’s Volta River Delta, this paper concludes that exposure to sea flooding may not be a primary cause of out-migration as other community, economic and political factors influence migration intentions and decisions. Thus, it is important for planned adaptation interventions to be strengthened in situ to enable households, particularly farming households, sustain their livelihoods.

Source: UG