ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Soapstone Carving Assemblage

“Resources are not but they become”, said Zimmerman, a South African Scholar. Ghana is endowed with many natural resources which have not been put to good use. This project is the result of a technical study conducted by the researcher. The main objective is to use soap stone as a sculpture material and to make it popular in Ghana as a material for assemblage. The research looked into the utilization of soapstone as a sculpture medium. The research also delved into the experimentation with natural rock carved in several pieces to constitute a work of art in the form of assemblage. This research was done in two main ways, that is: (a) Using jigsaw machine to take away unwanted portions of the stone. This allowed the relief work to be done and assembled or dismantled at any given time. (b) By carving and putting the composite forms one on the other to achieve a work of art in- the -round. To fulfill the objective of the research, further experiments were carried out to find out how broken pieces of stone could be mended, leading to the enhancement of the appearance of the finished work.

Source: KNUST
The SME financing gap in GHANA: multi sectoral evidence

SMEs are very instrumental in fueling economic development globally. Regardless of this their important role, several factors militate against them of which lack of access to credit is one of the greatest. The study investigated into the SME financing gap in Ghana on a sectoral basis. Data for the study was obtained through a survey of SMEs in Kumasi and Techiman. A total of 1200 SMEs were sampled with 200 each from Agriculture, Manufacturing, Retail, Transport, Construction and Hospitality. After applying parametric and non-parametric methods in the analyses of data, it was revealed that there are sectoral differences in SMEs credit constraints with the Agriculture sector being the most credit constrained whilst the Hospitality sector was the least constrained. Results of the study also showed that gender, marital status, ownership status, the sector in which the SME operates as well as the size of the business are significant determinants of credit constraints. It also came to light that the number of dependents, sector, location and number of assets that an SME has are significant determinants of being completely rejected by formal lenders whilst capital requirements and ownership status of the business determine the likelihood of having less than 40% of loan amount applied for. Furthermore, marital status, religion, sector, age of business are significant determinants of being rationed to 40- 59% of loan amounts applied for and the length of relationship the SME has had with the formal lender being a significant determinant of having 60-79% of loan amounts applied for. Finally, marital status again is a significant determinant of having 80 – 99% of loan amounts applied. Priority sector lending, credit guarantee programmes and group based lending amongst others are therefore recommended.

Source: KNUST
Soccer Academy, Obuasi

Sports is an important part of life today. The average person in many parts of the world has more free time than his ancestors did and more money to spend either on sports equipment for his own use or tickets to watch other engage in sporting activity. Modern sports transcend the lawful recreation organised to involve not just the individual, to refresh the body and mind, but the involvement of his neighbours as well, to promote greater social interactions. Today, sports and especially soccer in Ghana has become a big commercial and business venture where its success depends on the generation of funds and capital for the provision of equipments and facilities for training. Sports has become a very lucrative avenue for employment not only for those directly involve with the game or sports such as professional footballers, basketball and tennis stars, but also indirectly creates employment for commentators sports wears and equipment manufacturers, agents etc. For a country whose fanatism and passion for the game of soccer can only rival that of the religious followings in commands in Brazil and the life and death attitude of the Italians, it is sad to note that in recent times, little effort has been made to encourage the proper and organised development of the young talents and potential that the country abounds in either by the government or the necessary authorities. To recapture its place as a sporting giant on the African continent a much more professional attitude and total nurturing and development of the talents of sportsmen must be addressed. In exploiting the individual’s physical talents, academic potentials, and education must no longer be over looked this affords the sportsman the option of working off the field or still contribute to his sport once his or her active playing days are over. For too often sportsmen especially soccer players leave school at the earliest possible age, sign away their education in the hope of glory on the field. Where these dreams are not achieved these once promising and vibrant individual end up liabilities to their community, and country.

Source: KNUST
Social and economic factors affecting the dissemination of technology adoption of cassava cultivation; a study of selected districts in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana.

To achieve improved production levels, farmers need to master new skills and learn to manage and manipulate relevant agricultural information. Information is one of the basic human needs after air, water, food, and shelter and thus could be said to be one of the basic necessities of life. Therefore, how far farmers progress in their farm enterprises depends largely on the availability of and access to accurate and reliable information. This study is to assess dissemination path ways of improved technologies of cassava cultivation and the impact of adoption of these technologies on farm household’s yields, incomes, and food security. With the use of a concurrent mixed method approach, employed in the setting of Nsuta and Wenchi, with a sample size 150 participants for the quantitative, and for the qualitative, 2 focus group discussions and 4 key informant interviews in a selected districts in Ghana, the study found that farmers were more eager about accessing agricultural information from various dissemination pathways; predominantly extension agents, farmer fields, radio and demonstrations within their localities. However, access to agricultural information by the cassava farmers in this study setting were constrained by time, cost and cultural barriers. Therefore, the study recommends a sound communication strategy to effectively and timorously disseminate the latest agricultural technologies to farming communities and aid individual farmers in adopting them.

Source: KNUST
Social capital, innovativeness and performance of micro and small family businesses in Ghana

Notwithstanding the significance of the role of micro and small family businesses (MSFBs) in several economies, they are fragile and highly unstable and could barely survive beyond three years. The failure of MSFBs is therefore very high. The current study therefore seeks to investigate the mediating effect of firm innovativeness in the relationship between the social capital of family businesses and performances of the firms. The quantitative research was therefore carried out through the administration of a structured questionnaire to 278 micro and small family businesses selected through multistage sampling procedure. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were carried out to ensure higher validity and reliability of the study constructs using LISREL (8.5). The causal relationships were between the constructs were also carried out through a hierarchical multiple regression method. The result of the study revealed that both the structural and relational social capital dimensions positively influences the performances of MSFMs. The innovativeness of the small family businesses was also found to positively influence the performances of the MSFBs. The relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital were found to positively influence the innovativeness of the MSFBs. Furthermore, firm innovativeness mediates the relationship between the relational social capital dimension of small family businesses and both their operational and financial performances. Innovativeness was also found to mediate the relationship between the cognitive dimension of social capital and both the operational and financial performances of the firms. Based on these findings, the study recommends the training of managers or CEOs of MSFBs on innovativeness and further creates awareness about social capital asset to MSFBs in Ghana.

Source: KNUST
Social influence, financial literacy, and saving behaviour among university students

Youths of today place less importance on managing their finances and savings, which has a negative effect on their lives, makes them highly dependent on their family relations and government established agencies for financial support. This study aims at investigating the relationship between social influence, financial literacy, and saving behaviour among tertiary students in Ghana by assessing the mediating role of financial literacy on the relationship between social influences and saving behaviour. The study makes use of both primary and secondary sources of data in achieving its primary objective. The study uses quantitative survey approaches and collects data from master’s program students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology using convenience sampling form of non-probability sampling. The study employs SEM approach in testing the data. The study found a statistically significant relationship between peer as well as parental influence and financial literacy among the students. The study additionally demonstrates a direct, significant, and favourable impact of financial literacy on the saving habits of the students. Finally, the finding shows that financial literacy significantly mediates the association between influence from parents as well as peers and the savings behaviour of university students in Ghana. The study recommends that parents should be encouraged through informal education and media outlets to have open discussions about financial matters with their children. It is recommended also that Universities and colleges should offer peer-led financial literacy workshops, seminars, or clubs where students can share their experiences and knowledge with each other.

Source: KNUST
Social dimension of sustainability integration into construction project management practices: Ghanaian project managers’ view

The call for sustainable development has increased the awareness of the construction industry to support the sustainable development agenda by including social considerations throughout the entire construction project life cycle: planning, design, construction, operation, and deconstruction. This study discovered ways of integrating social sustainability into project management practices in Ghana. In pursuing this aim, three objectives were set out. These includes, identification of areas of impact of social sustainability on the practices of construction project management, identification of the critical success factors to integration of social sustainability into project management practices and identification of the difficulties associated with social sustainability integration into project management practices. A quantitative research method was used for the study. A structured survey was developed to collect primary data from project / site managers in Accra Metropolis. The sampling technique used for the study is a convenient sampling technique. The study reveals that all the areas under project management practices are very important for the incorporating social sustainability. However, among the areas, recognition of the context of the project was rated high followed by identification of stakeholders through to project handover which was rated last. Also, with the critical success factors top management support, competent project team, adequate project planning were very critical for the integration of social sustainability into project management practices. More importantly, it is interesting to see that, external factors like, lack of government supports, lack of the effective coordination between key players and issue of time are still key obstacles to promoting industrial innovations toward social sustainable developments.

Source: KNUST
Social protection strategies and poverty reduction in northern Ghana; a beneficiaries’ perspective of leap in Kumbungu District.

This study examined the impact of LEAP as a Social Protection Strategy in reducing Poverty in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region of Ghana using Ordinary Least Square regression analysis and focusing on the relationship between income and other variables including age, education, health, social networking and LEAP as a dummy variable with 1 for beneficiaries and 0 for non-beneficiaries. Beneficiary households were the treatment group with non-beneficiary households being the controlled group. Simple random sampling was employed in the selection of both groups to obtain primary data. Two stage sampling technique was used to generate the required primary data. First, 6 beneficiary communities were selected from 10 project target beneficiary communities. The OLS regression results showed that LEAP had positive relationship with income levels of beneficiaries through increased productivity and access to improved healthcare as LEAP gives free national health insurance registration to beneficiaries. There is also evidence of income levels improving and poverty declining in the district though the cash transfer amount is small to effect any rapid change. It is recommended that government should devote more of its budgetary support to the program in other that the coverage will be expanded to benefit many more districts in the country. In addition, the Department of Social Welfare should be strengthened to undertake more projects that will benefit LEAP and the extreme poor in society.

Source: KNUST
Social Response and Measles Dynamics

Measles remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally, even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available. Vaccine hesitancy and social response to vaccination continue to undermine efforts to eradicate measles. In this study, we consider data about measles vaccination and measles prevalence in Germany for the years 2008–2012 in 345 districts. In the first part of the paper, we show that the probability of a local outbreak does not significantly depend on the vaccination coverage, but—if an outbreak does take place—the scale of the outbreak depends significantly on the vaccination coverage. Additionally, we show that the willingness to be vaccinated is significantly increased by local outbreaks, with a delay of about one year. In the second part of the paper, we consider a deterministic delay model to investigate the consequences of the statistical findings on the dynamics of the infection. Here, we find that the delay might induce oscillations if the vaccination coverage is rather low and the social response to an outbreak is sufficiently strong. The relevance of our findings is discussed at the end of the paper.

Source: KNUST
Social support systems for the elderly in a Ghanaian rural community

The purpose of the research was to find out the actual social support for the older population, and how satisfied they are with the support they received. The population consisted of all the elderly from the age of 65 years and above living in the study area. The multi-stage cluster sampling technique was employed with a sample size of one hundred and fifty elderly people. Questionnaire was the main instrument for the data collection and the mode was personal face-to-face interview where respondents were visited at their homes. The data was analyzed with SPSS and Microsoft excel and the findings show that children (son /daughter) were the main providers of social support for the elderly in the family, followed by spouse and other relatives, with the most kind of support provided being financial assistance, medical expenses, food and emotional support respectively. Most of the old folks (78%) were very much satisfied with the support they received. I therefore recommend that there should be the need for recreational centers for the elderly both in the urban and rural areas, where the old folks can converge and socialize among themselves. This will help reduce loneliness among them and help boost them emotionally.

Source: KNUST
Socially responsible chain production in an emerging market: the role of institutional forces, top management support and supply chain ambidexterity

Supply chains sustainability are crucial for industrial enterprises to survive in highly competitive industries. Not only do supply chain sustainability dynamics shape business and working environments, but they also affect the business model opportunities and capacities. This study examines the major role of institutional force, top management support and the supply chain ambidexterity on socially responsible supply chain within the production. Industry. The study seek to achieve the following four specific objectives; determine the various institutional forces activities in the manufacturing sector in the Northern region, investigates the socially responsible supply chain activities in the Manufacturing Firms within the Northern Region and the two remaining objectives are to examine moderation role of supply chain ambidexterity on the relationship between top manage socially responsible supply chain and investigate the mediation role of top management support on the relationship between institutional forces and socially responsible supply chain. Quantitative design was adopted with a sample size of 285. Among the key findings of the study were that both direct and indirect institutional forces positively and significantly affect both the top management support system and socially responsible supply chain management practices. Also, at the higher supply chain ambidexterity practices top management support system influence the socially responsible supply chain management practices positively. The study therefore recommended that management should invest more into socially responsible supply chain in order to get more production firms running in the Country.

Source: KNUST
Societies in transition: a comparative study of Thomas Hardy’s the Mayor of Casterbridge and Chinua Achebe’s things fall apart

Literatures about Africa’s past have been distorted and misrepresented. In the light of this, the researcher wishes to undertake a two dimensional comparative study of a European novel and an African novel. The Mayor of Casterbridge and Things Fall Apart have been chosen to study agrarian societies in transition, with all the attendant problems. The study of the literary works of the two fabulists, Thomas Hardy and Chinua Achebe, will establish firmly a universal phenomenon that societies in their formative years have a lot of anthropological traits in common. The discovery of this fact will enable literary critics to appreciate the problems of such societies in transition. Furthermore, the findings of the research will encourage societies in transition to put their problems in the proper historical context and shed any inferiorly complex Finally, the findings of the research will establish that modem civilization is the poorer for the loss of so many spiritual values in the rural communities

Source: KNUST
Socially responsible supply chain management in firm performances: the moderating role of institutional pressures.

Businesses have progressively embraced SRSCM (Socially Responsible Supply Chain Management), integrating social factors into their supply chain management practices, in response to the growing challenges presented by the escalating social pressures associated with global sustainability. This study focuses on the increasing importance of social responsibility, human capital, and technology in supply chain management within the context of TECON. The objectives of the study include analyzing socially responsible supply chain practices in pharmaceutical companies, examining their performance, assessing the impact of socially responsible supply chains on performance, and exploring the role of institutional pressures. The study employed a descriptive survey as a research design. A Stratified Sampling Technique was used to collect data from 100 TECON staff members through a Self-Administered Questionnaire. Subsequently, the collected data was analyzed using SPSS software. Key findings indicate that Socially Responsible Supplier Selection Processes are known, efforts are made to improve delivery performance in Socially Responsible Supply Chain Management, social capital plays a role in supply chain management, and institutional social pressures impact delivery performance. The study recommends tailoring supplier selection processes to address social constraints, ensuring transparency, improving delivery performance, maintaining social capital, and addressing institutional pressures to enhance the positive impact of socially responsible supply chain management on pharmaceutical product distribution and sales targets.

Source: KNUST
Socially responsible chain production in an emerging markets: the role of institutional forces, top management support and supply chain ambidexterity

Supply chains sustainability are crucial for industrial enterprises to survive in highly competitive industries. Not only do supply chain sustainability dynamics shape business and working environments, but they also affect the business model opportunities and capacities. This study examines the major role of institutional force, top management support and the supply chain ambidexterity on socially responsible supply chain within the production. Industry. The study seek to achieve the following four specific objectives; determine the various institutional forces activities in the manufacturing sector in the Northern region, investigates the socially responsible supply chain activities in the Manufacturing Firms within the Northern Region and the two remaining objectives are to examine moderation role of supply chain ambidexterity on the relationship between top manage socially responsible supply chain and investigate the mediation role of top management support on the relationship between institutional forces and socially responsible supply chain. Quantitative design was adopted with a sample size of 285. Among the key findings of the study were that both direct and indirect institutional forces positively and significantly affect both the top management support system and socially responsible supply chain management practices. Also, at the higher supply chain ambidexterity practices top management support system influence the socially responsible supply chain management practices positively. The study therefore recommended that management should invest more into socially responsible supply chain in order to get more production firms running in the Country.

Source: KNUST