Lee Felix Anzagira, Daniel Yaw Addai Duah, Edward Badu, Eric Kwame Simpeh, Alexander B. Marful and Samuel Amos-Abanyie
In Ghana, the adoption and application of green building concepts and technologies have not been fully explored. The study aimed to look into the key barriers and how they affect…
Abstract
Purpose
In Ghana, the adoption and application of green building concepts and technologies have not been fully explored. The study aimed to look into the key barriers and how they affect this.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select a total of 292 construction industry stakeholders in Ghana who provided information via a questionnaire survey used for the data collection. Exploratory factor analysis and Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) were used for computing the data analyses.
Findings
According to the study findings, the top five most critical barriers to the uptake of green building concepts and technologies (GBCs and Ts) in Ghana are: lack of government incentives/supports for implementing green building technologies (GBTs), lack of knowledge and awareness of GBTs and their benefits, lack of GBTs databases and information, Lack of green building (GB) expertise/skilled labour and Higher costs of GBTs. Principal Component Factor Analysis was used to further analyse the data, which allowed for the reduction of the 27 (27) factors to just four (4) underlying critical barriers: (1) government and knowledge-associated barriers, (2) technical barriers, (3) cost and finance barriers and (4) stakeholders’ attitude barriers. PLS-SEM techniques were used to analyse this collection of barriers, and the results showed that stakeholders’ attitude-associated barriers and cost and finance-related barriers have a significant negative influence on the uptake of GBCs and Ts in Ghana. This study’s findings have provided empirical evidence of the critical barriers to the uptake of GBCs and Ts from all stakeholders. Stakeholders desirous of implementing GBCs and Ts would work against the negative influences on the uptake of GBCs and TS.
Originality/value
Although there has been an abundance of research to examine the critical barriers to GB, however, the uniqueness of this study is nested in modelling the influence of the barriers on the adoption of GBCs and Ts using the PLS-SEM path modelling.
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Paramita Ray and Amlan Chakrabarti
Social networks have changed the communication patterns significantly. Information available from different social networking sites can be well utilized for the analysis of users…
Abstract
Social networks have changed the communication patterns significantly. Information available from different social networking sites can be well utilized for the analysis of users opinion. Hence, the organizations would benefit through the development of a platform, which can analyze public sentiments in the social media about their products and services to provide a value addition in their business process. Over the last few years, deep learning is very popular in the areas of image classification, speech recognition, etc. However, research on the use of deep learning method in sentiment analysis is limited. It has been observed that in some cases the existing machine learning methods for sentiment analysis fail to extract some implicit aspects and might not be very useful. Therefore, we propose a deep learning approach for aspect extraction from text and analysis of users sentiment corresponding to the aspect. A seven layer deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to tag each aspect in the opinionated sentences. We have combined deep learning approach with a set of rule-based approach to improve the performance of aspect extraction method as well as sentiment scoring method. We have also tried to improve the existing rule-based approach of aspect extraction by aspect categorization with a predefined set of aspect categories using clustering method and compared our proposed method with some of the state-of-the-art methods. It has been observed that the overall accuracy of our proposed method is 0.87 while that of the other state-of-the-art methods like modified rule-based method and CNN are 0.75 and 0.80 respectively. The overall accuracy of our proposed method shows an increment of 7–12% from that of the state-of-the-art methods.
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Felix Chari and Bethuel Sibongiseni Ngcamu
The world-over, it is evident that, numbers and frequency of natural disasters have increased tremendously. The effects have given birth to a worldwide, all-inclusive humanitarian…
Abstract
Purpose
The world-over, it is evident that, numbers and frequency of natural disasters have increased tremendously. The effects have given birth to a worldwide, all-inclusive humanitarian response and preparedness. In Zimbabwe, Cyclone Idai has ushered in the exploitation of various social media platforms by humanitarian organisations as a way of reaching out to the wider population on critical issues pertaining to the devastating effects of the cyclone. This study herein, aims to interrogate the efficacy of various social media platforms that were exploited by various humanitarian organisation involved in the Cyclone Idai humanitarian response. The various social media platforms are interrogated to establish their contribution to inclusivity or lack of it in relaying humanitarian interventions.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method approach was used to conduct the research. Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to gather the data. Quantitative data was collected using questionnaires with Likert scales and other closed questions provided. These were administered to representatives from the government, United Nations, donors, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and members of the community. On the contrary, qualitative data was gathered from members of the community and humanitarian organisations through open-ended responses provided from interviews. Quantitative data was collected from a total of 384 stakeholder representatives who were randomly selected from Chimanimani district of Manicaland province. In addition, 12 interview participants were purposively selected to complement the research tools listed above.
Findings
The study findings show that social media platforms to a greater extent are effective tools for creating inclusive humanitarian response. The study findings reveal that social media has a significant positive influence on inclusive humanitarian response, with a 5% level of significance. These quantitative results agree with results obtained from interviewed participants. Managers of NGOs, community-based groups, government agencies and churches engaged in managing rescue, relief and humanitarian aid are supposed to access the study's findings in the future, and may find the results resourceful.
Research limitations/implications
This study's generalisability to other districts and countries is constrained because it was conducted in the setting of the Chimanimani district. Future research can therefore be expanded to other Zimbabwean areas as well as to other countries in the Southern African region and beyond.
Practical implications
Humanitarian supply chain managers engaged in managing rescue, relief and humanitarian aid are proposed as having access to the study's findings in the future as they may find them useful.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by providing insights that can improve information flow. This can be achieved by including different stakeholders in decision-making through the use of social media during disaster preparedness and response processes and helping them to better prepare for and respond to future disasters.
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Jorge Alberto Marino-Romero, Pedro R. Palos-Sanchez and Félix Velicia-Martin
The aim of this research is to analyze the success of digital transformation (DT) in the management and performance of organizations. To do so, the role of IT and its ability to…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to analyze the success of digital transformation (DT) in the management and performance of organizations. To do so, the role of IT and its ability to integrate in organizations that provide professional services with high added value for their clients are investigated. These services require highly developed skills as they solve complex problems for the clients and this means that success depends on gathering knowledge from different sources (customers, public administrations and competitors). This study analyses the decisive and complementary role of IT in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis combines quantitative and qualitative methods. After questioning managers of Spanish KIBS companies about certain components of DT, the gathered data are subsequently processed with PLS-SEM to establish causal relationships.
Findings
The results show that digital capability is the determinant of DT. It has a positive effect on the digital resources integrated in KIBS companies and on their organizational performances.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should continue to analyze other components of TD that drive the organizational performance of KIBS firms, such as technological culture or government policies that encourage digital transactions. The present study analyzes data from companies that are part of a single economic sector in Spain which may limit the conclusions drawn. It would be particularly useful to confirm the applicability of the results in companies operating in different markets to explore the direct relationship between digital capability and organizational performance.
Practical implications
This research has implications for managers of KIBS companies, as it shows the high potential of the ability of IT to implement and manage a TD process. Managers can benefit from IT management practices using the appropriate tools (ERP, CRM and management software) to gain more knowledge of customer behavior with the possibility of easily codifying and analyzing the data, which significantly influences innovation activities. The objective is to develop a strong internal capability to absorb knowledge from day-to-day interactions with customers by using IT effectively. This process leads to an improvement in the organizational performance of KIBS companies, as they become more effective in decision making with improved internal communication, generate greater employee satisfaction and reach new customers. Following strategies aimed at the implementation and use of the technological resources studied creates more agile firms and helps to close the production gap between SMEs and large companies.
Social implications
The results obtained can help create sustainable businesses through cloud-based technology tools. It can provide insights for policy makers to implement economic policies that help SMEs to become more competitive and sustainable.
Originality/value
The development of digital technologies and the ability to manage them is one of the decisive factors that conceptualizes DT and improves organizational performance. This research contributes to the understanding of the need for managers of KIBS companies to follow strategies oriented towards the digitization of their organizations and for the collaborators to have a high level of IT training, especially in the use of cloud technology.