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It is evident that human existence is highly dependent on information. Information is considered to be an essential right of every single individual to sustain life and enjoy it as well. The benefits of looking into the information behaviour of people can, therefore, not be overemphasised. However, there is a yawning gap in research conducted into the information behaviour of marginalised groups such as beggars. This study aims to investigate the information seeking behaviour of beggars in Ghana.

Through a case study design, the study used a qualitative approach and interpretivist paradigm to look into this phenomenon. In total, ten beggars were sampled from the beggar population in Accra through the use of convenient and snowball sampling techniques. A semi-structured interview schedule was used as data collection tool to solicit responses from the participants.

The study revealed that beggars in Accra lacked understanding of their information needs, although they were heavily dependent on information for their tasks and survival. Again, the findings of the study showed that beggars were faced with information seeking barriers such as illiteracy, lack of information literacy skills and financial resources. The study recommends the need for stakeholders to look into the social welfare and literacy needs of beggars.

The authors consider the study original both in conceptualisation and design. The main question being interrogated stems from identified gaps in the literature and the study intends to fill these knowledge gaps. The study’s originality also stems from the fact that there is a paucity of information on the subject of study in the context of Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between neighbourhood characteristics and fear of crime, and further explore how this relationship is mediated by collective efficacy. The background to this is that while research, mainly based on the experiences of western countries is conclusive on how collective efficacy plays a mediating role between neighbourhood structural characteristics and fear of crime, the situation in developing countries remains poorly researched.

The study drew from a baseline survey conducted in different socio-economic neighbourhoods in four cities in Ghana. With regards to the analysis, results from a series of ordinary least square multiple regression models were used to develop a path diagram to explain the direct and indirect relationships at the various study neighbourhoods.

Results from the study showed variations of the extent of neighbourhood effect on fear of crime and collective efficacy in the different socio-economic neighbourhoods. More importantly, the study revealed that collective efficacy mediated the effect of a number of neighbourhood characteristics on fear of crime in low-income neighbourhoods compared to middle- and high-income neighbourhoods.

The conclusion of the study brings to the fore the relevance of collective efficacy as a vehicle for building safer communities in Ghana since it relies on local initiatives in addressing criminogenic problems. More importantly, it is suggested that formal crime prevention efforts should be integrated with informal crime control measures, particularly in low-income neighbourhoods.

Using extensive survey data collected in Ghana, the study examines the applicability of collective efficacy, a western-based socio-ecological theory in a developing country context.

Leadership development is an essential yet complex process that manifests over a long period of time. Owusu et al. assert that in African researchers’ graduate programs, the learners receive theory, research methods and grant writing instruction without significant attention to leadership development. So, how do researchers, academics, administrators, and think-tanks plan and carry out leadership–followership development within organizational and transitional justice fields? The research capacity building of young African scholars in the knowledge production community has the potential to lead to the development and articulation of norms and values that will seek to address fundamental issues of transformation, direct, structural, and cultural violence, and assist in addressing a wide range of problems associated with violence of social injustice. We draw lessons from the Africa Young Graduate Scholars (AYGS) 2017 conference and writing retreat, which drew 22 young scholars (with 10 females and 12 males) who had completed original research and five facilitators (two females and three males) from universities in Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe for developing research leader–follower insights.

Building research leadership–followership capacity in knowledge production communities in the context of conflict prevention is crucial for establishing sustainable peace. It is recommended that: (1) the AYGS be replicated on other parts of the continent and throughout the diaspora; (2) publications from emerging leaders and followers in the research/knowledge production community begin to increase; and (3) establishment and expansion of leadership development programs for research leaders and followers in African graduate programs.

This study aims to investigate the behaviour of building users and how this impacts upon building energy performance. Specifically, the work examines the behavioural traits of able-bodied users of a large higher education building who erroneously access and egress the building using doorways intended for disabled users.

An inductive methodological approach is adopted that uses grounded theory to devise new insights into building users’ access and egress habits. Structured interviews are conducted to collect primary data from 68 building users of a large educational building over a four-week period. Responses to questions posed provide the basis for a tabularisation of behavioural traits.

Reasons for able-bodied building users’ preferences to using disabled access are identified and discussed; these are thematically grouped under the headings of apathy, convenience, emergency, ergonomics, ignorance and phobia. Building upon these findings, the research then offers insights into the approaches that could be adopted to change the erroneous behaviours. These approaches include education of building users on the impact their behaviour has upon building performance and environmental pollution, more stringent regulation to penalise repeat offenders and changes to building entrance design using obtrusive (i.e. radio frequency identification tags) and unobstrusive control measures (i.e. a second entrance doorway or slower opening mechanism).

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to investigate the rationale for able-bodied building users erroneously using disabled persons’ access and egress doorways within a building, which as a consequence, inadvertently reduces the building’s environmental performance.

This study aims to re-examine the corruption and sustainable development nexus in Africa and offer a contemporary analytical review and analysis of that relationship in the region.

Drawing on the available and accessible relevant data from credible sources, this work quantifies, outlines and analyses the nexus between corruption and sustainable development, as it applies primarily to sub-Saharan Africa. It uses the relevant disaggregated data and also complements that with the results of reliable empirical studies to further cross-reference and demonstrate the corruption and sustainable development nexus.

It is shown that corruption in Africa continues to be negatively associated with sustainable development objectives and that, in turn, will continue to affect the continent’s progress in achieving sustainable development. Undoubtedly, corruption is very damaging to economies across all nations and regions. However, in Africa, this impact on sustainable development has been particularly severe and ongoing. Consequently, the views expressed several decades ago of corruption being able to grease the wheels and potentially contribute to economic development is not valid and, in fact, has been severally discredited over the years.

The main value of the paper is the insights it provides, and with cross-reference to the empirical literature and time series data, on the corruption and sustainable development nexus in Africa.

The purpose of this study is to provide a harmonisation framework for the diverse accounting practices by extractive industries.

The study takes a three-stage approach. The first involves a comprehensive literature review of the historical evolution of accounting regulations by extractive industries. The second involves constructing an accounting practice index for extractive industries. The third involves constructing a harmonisation framework.

The accounting practice index provides empirical evidence of the wide diversity of accounting practices by extractive industries. Analysis of the literature review addresses the several attempts by accounting and regulatory bodies to standardise the diverse practices of accounting by extractive industries and reasons for the lack of successful standardisations. The authors extract lessons from these previous attempts and propose a harmonisation framework.

The proposed harmonisation framework can be used to align together the diverse accounting practices by extractive industries and enhance comparability and consistency of accounting figures and statements produced by these industries. Harmonising the diverse accounting practices is crucial for investment decision-making.

The harmonisation framework is the first of its kind that could enhance the comparability of accounts of extractive industries’ firms and be used to harmonise diverse accounting practices by other industries.

In today’s highly competitive milieu, many organizations are entering into the international market to gain greater share and take advantage of higher production. However, the introduction of advanced technology has brought a significant amount of competition within the supply chain especially within the bounds of the power distribution sector. This study aims to examine how information and knowledge sharing influence supply chain performance in the power distribution sector.

The quantitative method and cross-sectional survey design were used in the study. A sample of 200 officers specifically selected from power distribution companies was used for the study. Data was analysed using descriptive, correlation, regression and structural equation models.

The relationship between information sharing, knowledge sharing and performance of the supply chain are positively mediated by supply chain collaboration. The findings indicate that technological innovation positively moderates the relationship between information sharing, knowledge sharing and supply chain performance.

Information sharing, knowledge sharing and technological innovation are critical indicators driving the supply chain operation of power distribution organizations.

This study presents a contemporary approach towards understanding knowledge and information sharing as antecedents of supply chain performance.

The professional discourse on academic library planning and design is examined. A critical realist philosophical stance and a constructionist perspective constitute the theoretical framework that, paired with Fairclough's methodology for critical discourse analysis, is used to examine the constitution of interpretative repertoires and of a discourse constructing the academic library as a learning place. The information commons, learning commons, and library designed for learning repertoires are described and the effects of discursive activity are analyzed. Three types of effects are presented: (1) the production by the LIS community of discourse on academic libraries of a sizable body of literature on the information commons and on the learning commons, (2) the construction of new types of libraries on the commons model proposed by Beagle, and (3) the metaphorization of the library as business. The study concludes that the existing discourse takes a facilities management perspective dominated by concerns with technology, equipment, and space requirements that does not address the physical, psychological, and environmental qualities of library space design. Consequently, it is suggested that architectural programming techniques should be used in library planning and design that consider the architectural features and environmental design factors contributing to the making of a place where learning is facilitated.

While the concept of supply chain resilience has received lots of scholarly and policy interest over the past few years, empirical research examining its sources and outcomes remains inadequate, particularly, in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Grounded in the resource-based view and social capital frameworks, the study examines the relationship between social network relationship, supply chain resilience and customer oriented performance.

The study develops and empirically tests a research model that proposes social network relationships and customer-oriented performance as the antecedent and outcome respectively of supply chain resilience. Data was obtained from a survey of 110 SMEs in Ghana.

The findings of the study suggest that a firm's external and internal social networks can be leveraged to enhance its supply chain resilience and customer-oriented performance. Supply chain resilience was also found to enhance customer-oriented performance. Additionally, supply chain resilience was found to significantly mediate the effect of social network relationships on customer-oriented performance.

This is the first study that empirically explores and establishes the relationship between social network relationships, supply chain resilience and customer-oriented performance to the best of the authors’ knowledge.