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Offers practical advice to a company experiencing cash flow difficulties. Advocates a repackaging plan. Advises on how assets and investments should be treated, how to generate cash via the profit and loss account and how to restructure the financial profile of the company. Provides advice on how to negotiate with bankers in order to obtain maximum support through the difficult period.

Looks at the acquisition of a portfolio of properties by the private subscription of shares. Considers the assembling of the portfolio and the professional team. Examines the financing structure and how the senior debt is raised. Describes raising the shares and sourcing the shareholders. Comments on the scheme′s performance.

A close reading of the Gospels of The New Testament reveal that the various authors were clearly aware of certain key principles of marketing and advertising which we have rediscovered in the twentieth century. Specifically, the pros and cons of “global” vs. “local” marketing and copywriting were understood and the authors made conscious choices to cater to various target markets. In addition, the basic techniques of public relations and lobbying were clearly understood and consciously applied. The examples presented are not isolated analogies quoted out of context; the various authors clearly comprehended the basic principles of marketing and overtly orchestrated them in thoughtful and coherent ways. A study of The New Testament, therefore, reveals the significant degree to which ancient people were aware of advertising and marketing techniques. How marketing, as a discipline, can help other scholars interpret the events they study is described.

This paper contributes to the capital structure literature by examining the impact of financial leverage on firm performance and also the extent to which firm size and crisis matter in the leverage -performance relationship.

Using data from 2403 Indian firms during the period 1995–2014, generating a total of 19,544 firm-year observations, panel econometric methods are employed to test the leverage-performance relationship.

Drawing insights from agency theory and using Tobin's Q (TQ) as our main measure of performance, the authors uncover that financial leverage is negatively and significantly related to firm performance. The authors also observe that the impact of financial leverage on firm performance is lower for smaller firms than larger ones. Finally, the authors show that the 2007/08 financial crisis had no significant impact on the relationship between financial leverage and firm performance.

The paper provides fresh evidence on the impact of leverage on performance, particularly from the Indian context. This study is also among the first studies to examine the role of firm size and financial crisis in the leverage-performance relationship.

The integration of building information modelling (BIM) and life cycle assessment (LCA) is an effective means of achieving sustainability in the built environment. However, research remains scant on BIM-LCA integration in the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI). This study aims to evaluate the barriers to BIM-LCA integration in the GCI from the perspective of construction professionals.

Epistemologically relevant theory was developed using interpretivism and post-positivist principles and tested using primary quantitative data. Firstly, a comprehensive literature review identified and examined BIM-LCA integration barriers. Structured surveys of 216 Ghanaian construction professionals collected data on BIM-LCA integration barriers. Data was then analysed using exploratory factor analysis.

Findings revealed three clusters of barriers, namely, organisational barriers; technical complexity; and knowledge and education. These findings identify and recommend solutions to BIM-LCA integration barriers to standardise processes, raise awareness and integrate project management systems. BIM-LCA adoption will increase productivity, sustainability, construction sector employment (and skills development) and economic growth. This paper concludes with future research on how artificial intelligence and machine learning could improve BIM-LCA integration in building designs. Such work would reveal how new technologies can be used to overcome adoption barriers and promote sustainable building.

This research provides novel knowledge on the barriers to BIM-LCA adoption in Ghana. Practical recommendations for overcoming these barriers are also proposed, e.g. developing standardised procedures and protocols, increasing awareness and education and integrating BIM-LCA into project management systems.

IT WAS DIFFICULT to believe the tidings that have only just reached me, the news that Stanley Snaith died in Dorset on December 19 last, a few days after his 73rd birthday. The rising generation of librarians may say ‘Who was Stanley Snaith?’, so all the more reason for this tribute.

The selection of a suitable contractor for a project has a significant impact on project success. In order to avoid the selection of an incapable contractor, the capabilities of contractors must be assessed prior to tendering through pre-qualification. However, the pre-qualification process is characterized by partiality and ambiguity. In view of this, numerous models have been developed to solve the pre-qualification problems. Prior to the development of such models, it is very important to assess how the pre-qualification criteria impact project success criteria so as to aid in the selection of pre-qualification criteria while considering the project and client’s objectives. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to ascertain the relationship between contractors’ pre-qualification criteria and project success criteria.

The study utilized explanatory research design in testing 35 hypotheses. The views of 121 practising quantity surveyors were solicited using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using the partial least square structural equation modeling to validate the hypothesis.

In all, 13 of the 35 hypotheses were not supported. The findings indicated a clear relationship between contractors’ pre-qualification and project success.

Therefore, it is evident that the practice of lowest evaluate bidder is not adequate for providing a satisfactory project outcome. It is, therefore, suggested that more emphasis should be placed on contractor’s technical abilities, health and safety and management capabilities as they have proven to have a significant correlation with the project success.

This study provides insights to the how various pre-qualification criteria can impact the project success criteria and further contributes to the symbiotic that exist in the literature on pre-qualification and project success.

In the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI), the option for stakeholders to adopt formwork design as a building construction requirement is uncommon place. This is due to the low level of awareness and practice of formwork design. As a result of this, there have been formwork accidents, cost and time overruns in construction. This paper aims to solicit the view of stakeholders on the awareness of formwork design practices in the GCI.

This paper adopted the interpretivism research philosophy and inductive reasoning. Through a semi-structured interview guide, data was collected. The data (interview) recorded was transcribed using the Amberscript web application. This study used thematic analysis in analyzing the data collected using Nvivo 10 software.

The data collected from the 22 professionals indicated that the respondents were unaware of the concept of formwork design and its practice, neither could they speak to the existence of any specific regulation nor code of practice. However, the respondents established that there was a need to design formwork and stated some benefits of it.

From the literature, little research has been done on formwork design and its context in the GCI is yet to be explored. This research attempts to fill this gap. The findings indicate that to practice formwork design, there must be education and training of human resources for formwork design, there must be a code of practice to guide the design process and legal backing through policies and regulations to mandate the design.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how strategies are put in place to formulate policies regarding the introduction and implementation of relationship marketing (RM) in the health sector, and how RM strategies are designed as part of the curricula for the training of prospective health professionals in Ghana.

Data were gathered using interviews and documentary review. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit policy makers and health educationists in Accra for in-depth interviews. Qualitative interviews were analysed using framework analysis.

The findings revealed that, currently, there is no policy framework on RM in the health sector nor included in the curricula of health training institutions in the country.

Due to limited time and funding constraints, the study could not include many policy makers, educationists, health providers, facilities and regions outside the Greater Accra region of Ghana. This means that the authors missed out on useful insights from other relevant policy makers/educationists who would have added to the knowledge that this study contributes. There were still some areas that this study could not cover, including the lack of an exploration of the perceptions of health providers and patients.

Evidence from the current research provides the basis for scaling up of a similar study to the whole country to address the perennial RM or quality of care/patient satisfaction issues persisting in health facilities in the country. The outcome of this large-scale study would help to confirm the findings of the current study on the adoption and incorporation of RM into both policy framework and curricula of health training institutions in Ghana. The findings would culminate in the preparation and utilisation of guidelines on RM for client-centred service delivery in the health sector of the country.

This paper argues that RM orientation could enable health professionals to improve upon their healthcare service performance and quality of care so as to enhance patient satisfaction.

The study recommends that RM should be adopted by health policy makers and designers of curricula for health training institutions.

The purpose of the study is to assess the role of academic libraries in digital scholarship at the University of Cape Coast. The study adopted the descriptive survey design and used teaching staff (lecturers) as the population of the study.

A sample size of 278 was used for the study. The study used questionnaires to obtain data from participants. The study revealed that faculty members appreciate digital scholarship through the services offered by Sam Jonah Library are relevant to the current higher education context, reliable information, preservation of information resources and facilitating the integration of library services into the learning process are closely integrated into the library service, transform scholarly communication, teaching and learning style and research paradigm.

The study revealed that digital scholarship contributes to faculty members' delivery at the University of Cape Coast through the provision of information literacy training for new students, provision of reference lists of materials available in the library and provision of lists of new materials. The study revealed that faculty members face inadequate facilities to enhance digital scholarship, inadequate open access to reading materials (articles, books, etc.), inadequate platforms or suite of tools for librarians to take faculty.

The application of digital scholarship provides an expansion to the core competitiveness of librarians new services which enables innovativeness and transformation of libraries. Students will be equipped with digital literacy skills; it affords instructors to approach teaching with innovation and scholars are also engaged to perform novel practices in scholarship acquisition. Digital scholarship is the umbrella under which all academic technologies comes under to foster collaboration and better learning experience.

This paper offers an insight of the role digital scholarship in promoting and advancing scholarship in the academic environment. It highlights a number of digital scholarship platform available in the library. It is observed that digital scholarship practices must be encouraged in the library because it facilitates the role of academic library which is to support teaching, learning and research.