Social entrepreneurial orientation (SEO) is an evolving concept. Though adequate literature has been accumulated about the concept, there is a lack of appropriate tool to measure…
Abstract
Purpose
Social entrepreneurial orientation (SEO) is an evolving concept. Though adequate literature has been accumulated about the concept, there is a lack of appropriate tool to measure individual SEO. The tools presently available mostly measure organizational SEO. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a tool to measure the concept of individual SEO.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for the study was collected using a questionnaire, from 342 randomly collected samples. Various time-tested methods and statistical techniques, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, were used to scientifically construct and validate the scale.
Findings
In tune with the purpose of this study, a 4-factor, 13-item SEO scale has been developed and scientifically validated through various acceptable and proven techniques. The developed tool is ideal to measure the orientation toward social entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
A review of literature revealed that there is paucity of a scientific tool to measure individual SEO. The study has succeeded in bridging this gap by constructing and validating a scale to measure SEO. This tool, it is expected, will help social scientists, academicians and researchers in conducting empirical examinations about SEO.
Details
Keywords
Emmanuel Coleman, Isaac Kwesi Nooni, Samuel Korenteng Fianko, Linka Dadzie, Ebenezer Nickson Neequaye, Jasmine Owusu-Agyemang and Edna Obuo Ansa-Asare
This study aims to investigate the attainment of quality in Government of Ghana’s (GoG) infrastructural projects through effective contract management and especially, relating to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the attainment of quality in Government of Ghana’s (GoG) infrastructural projects through effective contract management and especially, relating to qualification, competence and experience of supply chain stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey questionnaire and field observations were used to collect primary data from staff of the education ministry and construction professionals. Documentary analyses of contract documents were also undertaken.
Findings
The results show that executing agencies’ failure to apply appropriate contract management processes was linked to the gap between stakeholders’ knowledge and actual practice. This was confirmed by Spearman’s rho tests of correlation between overall mean ranks given by professionals and non-professionals, which indicated strong agreement between those groups. Factors such as contractors’ engagement of unqualified supervisory staff, lack of proper projects monitoring and evaluation by executing agencies mainly contribute to the poor quality of work.
Research limitations/implications
Investigations were limited to the Funds and Procurement Management Unit of the Ministry of Education, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and local contractors. Nonetheless, the methodology used could be used in future studies to analyse the socio-economic implications on the quality of education infrastructure.
Practical implications
Construction is booming in Ghana but the capacity to improve the work quality through effective contract management is limited. However, with the effort of stakeholder and statutory bodies’ support in capacity building initiatives, GoG projects could offer some novel solutions to improve quality of work.
Social implications
Construction industry professionals and students’ knowledge and perception on construction industry and contract management is significantly improved.
Originality/value
This study provides information on respondents’ knowledge on contract management process, which, if not properly understood, can lead to poor quality of work and loss of money.
Details
Keywords
Abdelaziz Amara Korba, Mehdi Nafaa and Salim Ghanemi
Wireless multi-hop ad hoc networks are becoming very attractive and widely deployed in many kinds of communication and networking applications. However, distributed and…
Abstract
Purpose
Wireless multi-hop ad hoc networks are becoming very attractive and widely deployed in many kinds of communication and networking applications. However, distributed and collaborative routing in such networks makes them vulnerable to various security attacks. This paper aims to design and implement a new efficient intrusion detection and prevention framework, called EIDPF, a host-based framework suitable for mobile ad hoc network’s characteristics such as high node’s mobility, resource-constraints and rapid topology change. EIDPF aims to protect an AODV-based network against routing attacks that could target such network.
Design/methodology/approach
This detection and prevention framework is composed of three complementary modules: a specification-based intrusion detection system to detect attacks violating the protocol specification, a load balancer to prevent fast-forwarding attacks such as wormhole and rushing and adaptive response mechanism to isolate malicious node from the network.
Findings
A key advantage of the proposed framework is its capacity to efficiently avoid fast-forwarding attacks and its real-time detection of both known and unknown attacks violating specification. The simulation results show that EIDPF exhibits a high detection rate, low false positive rate and no extra communication overhead compared to other protection mechanisms.
Originality/value
It is a new intrusion detection and prevention framework to protect ad hoc network against routing attacks. A key strength of the proposed framework is its ability to guarantee a real-time detection of known and unknown attacks that violate the protocol specification, and avoiding wormhole and rushing attacks by providing a load balancing route discovery.