Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the rights of shareholders, particularly those of minority shareholders in the management of firms in Ghana.

As a result of the largely unexplored nature of this issue in Ghana, a qualitative analysis was conducted to offer a painstaking understanding needed. The case study design is in particular relevant for exploring such phenomenon, as it evolves through the experiences of several key players.

Data indicate that minority shareholders’ influence is, in most cases, nil in every aspect of their firms. Whilst majority shareholders have an absolute right to appoint or influence the appointment of top officials of the firms, minority shareholders’ role in the selection is limited. In addition, in regards to control of corporate decision-making processes, unlike the majority shareholders, the minority shareholders do not have any influence on them. Further, in terms of relevant information, whilst the majority shareholders have absolute access to them anytime they desire, the minority shareholders only rely on annual general meetings to get hold of them, thus limiting their access to corporate information. The revelations unambiguously grant the majority shareholders of the firms absolute control rights whilst undermining the rights of the minority shareholders. This paper was concluded by itemizing the implications of our findings for management, regulators and governments.

It is believed that this is among the handful of studies that have been conducted using developing or emergent economy data to empirically analyse how minority shareholders wield their rights in emergent economies and to add to the mounting pool of scattered cross-country evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between country-level governance and ethical behaviour of firms in African countries in the period 2009-2012.

It uses a broad set of country-level governance ratings by the World Bank and data on ethical behaviour of firms by the World Economic Forum’s report on Global Competitiveness. Full data of a total of 39 African economies out of the 54 (including two disputed) economies over the sample period were obtained for this analysis.

The authors find a statistically significant and positive relationship between country-level rule of law, regulatory quality, control of corruption and democracy, and firm ethical behaviour of firms in African economies. This implies that improvement in country-level rule of law, regulatory quality, control of corruption and democracy tends to be associated with sound ethical behaviour of firms in African economies. However, the authors did not find any statistically significant relationship between country-level accountability, political stability, outsider model of governance and ethical behaviour of firms.

As a continent that is yet to fully discover its potential, the practice of good governance is particularly germane, as this may not only help ensure sound ethical standards of corporations, but may also aid the continent to attract foreign investors, which will beneficially impact economic growth and development of African economies. In this respect, efforts by governments across the continent to ensuring good governance are laudable. One possible way is to ensure an effective and transparent enforcement of laws to stimulate compliance in a specifically clear-cut manner by crafting costs for non-compliance (for instance, legal costs, investigation cost, imprisonment, dent to image and fines).

This paper reinforces the belief that the existence of country-level good governance could provide and enhance cohesive and internally consistent ethical standards of companies.

The purpose of this study is to explore the contribution of what the authors have termed, “managed opportunities for independence” (MOI) in building the resilience of young people in care.

The study used a qualitative, grounded theory methodology. Nine child and youth care workers were purposively sampled from various child and youth and care centres in South Africa.

Findings indicate that MOI contribute to the development of resilience of young people in care.

Care-leaving literature recognizes that too much protection does not adequately prepare young people for independent living. There is also increasing attention to the resilience processes that enable care-leavers to thrive during the transition from care to independent living. However, there is limited empirical research that looks at how in-care programmes develop young people’s resilience. In addition, very little is said about what it means for child and youth care practice. This study’s focus on the contribution of “managed opportunities for independence” in building the resilience of young people in care provides a foundation for understanding the care-leaving process better.

Fraud is a global economic menace which threatens the survival of individuals, firms, industries and economies, and the mobile money service is no exception. This paper aims to explore the main causes of fraud in the mobile money services in Ghana and the measures to combat the menace by the key stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. The paper is motivated by recent reports of numerous fraudulent transactions on the mobile money platform, and the need to clamp down these nefarious transactions with effective and practical measures to sustain the service.

A thorough review of existing studies on fraud risk relating to mobile money services was done revealing a paucity of literature on the subject. Primary data were gathered using an interview guide to explore the magnitude of the problem based on the views of employees of mobile money operators, mobile money agents, banking supervisors from Bank of Ghana, employees of partnering banks, employees of National Communications Authority and mobile money subscribers.

The study revealed that fraud in mobile money services is caused by weak internal controls and systems, lack of sophisticated information technology tools to detect the menace, inadequate education and training and the poor remuneration of employees. These factors disrupt the growth, and the smooth-running of the services. To curb this menace, a detailed legal code and internal fraud policy should be developed and used by mobile money operators and partner banks. Adequate training for mobile money agents should be encouraged coupled with public awareness campaigns to educate stakeholders especially the mobile money subscribers on the tricks of the fraudsters.

With the chosen research methodology and limited sample size, the findings may not reflect the views of all the stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. Therefore, future studies on this subject are entreated to use research methods which embrace larger samples to get more details about this menace.

The study will assist in tackling the mobile money fraud to sustain the service in the foreseeable future.

This paper contributes to scanty literature on fraud relating to the mobile money services by drawing lessons from a middle-income country.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of environmental disclosures (END) on the corporate financial performance (CFP) of listed companies in Ghana before and during the Banking crisis (BKC) and the COVID-19 pandemic (COV).

This study used data from 16 companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange between 2012 and 2021. The END Index was used, which uses percentile ranking and is guided by Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. A diverse set of empirical tests were used to examine whether ENDs affect CFP during crises.

The study offered support for the stakeholder and signaling theories generally applied to the study of END. The results confirmed that ENDs have a significant positive effect on CFP measures, return on equity and earnings per share, before and during the crises. The BKC and COV had no impact on the CFP.

As Ghana is still recovering from the 2017 to 2020 BKC and COV, the findings of this study highlight the need for managers to embrace END reporting and engagement strategies to improve CFP and firm reputation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of END on CFP in the context of before and considering the Ghanaian BKC and COV. In addition, it is one of the few studies that investigates how ENDs affect the CFP of Ghanaian-listed firms.

A voluminous amount of research has been conducted on project delay in the recent past; however, the persistence of the problem demands that a relentless quest for solutions is upheld. It can be argued that the problem is likely to be more pronounced in areas where development pressure is the highest. One such area is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where the construction industry is said to have reached an unparalleled position in the last decade. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most significant causes of delays in the UAE construction industry.

A survey was conducted targeting three key types of stakeholders, namely clients, contractors and consultants. Validity and reliability were achieved by first assessing the plausibility of construction delay variables in UAE. The verification took place after the interpretation of quantitative data, this involved presenting the findings to the main participants. The validation took place after the verification process. Rigour was achieved by engaging participants previously engaged in UAE and focussing on verification and validation, this included responsiveness of the researchers during group discussions, methodological coherence, appropriate sampling frame and data analysis.

From the analysis, the study unveiled a number of important causes of construction delays in the UAE, ranging from unrealistic contract durations to poor labour productivity, with consultants and clients seemingly shouldering the bulk of the “blame game”. It was evident that all the three main stakeholders in a construction project (clients, consultants and contractors) need to change their existing practices in order to ensure timely delivery of projects. The research also confirms that delays are country specific and appear to be time related hence they should be viewed within the social, economic and cultural settings of the UAE.

A major limitation of the current study was the use of a single approach to facilitate data collection.

It was evident that practitioners need to change their existing practices in order to ensure timely delivery of projects. Continuous coordination and relationship between practitioners are required through the project life cycle in order to solve problems and develop project performance.

As suggested in this study methods should be put in place to reduce long and bureaucratic processes within the client’s organisations, not only to fulfil the requirements of the contract but also to suite fast-track projects.

Market orientation is widely held as a credo for organisational success. Essentially, this means that organisations that are market oriented tend to perform better than those that are not. As a result of this logic (i.e. market orientation‐performance link), scholars from a wide array of disciplines are showing an increasing interest in fleshing out the factors that determine organisational market orientation stances. Based on a sample drawn from the UK's facilities management industry, this paper examines the impact of organisational climate factors on market orientation stances of facilities management firms. The results reveal that organisational climate has a determinant influence on market orientation stances.

This study aims to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore mental health in Australian construction apprentices from the perspective of key stakeholders in the apprenticeship model. In particular, this study explored how construction apprentices, Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers, industry employers and mental health workers understood the construct of mental health, factors associated with the dimension of psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, and factors associated with the dimension of mental wellbeing.

This study used an exploratory qualitative research design. Data from 36 semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants comprised 19 Australian construction apprentices, 5 VET teachers, 7 industry employers and 5 mental health workers.

In total, 14 themes were generated from the data set. Participants across stakeholder groups reported a limited understanding about mental health. Participants cited a range of negative personal, workplace and industry factors associated with psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, but only reported a few factors associated with mental wellbeing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore the mental health of Australian construction apprentices, and to explore the factors associated with both dimensions of this model from the perspective of key stakeholders in the Australian construction apprenticeship model.