Paul Agu Igwe, Chinedu Ochinanwata, Nonso Ochinanwata, Jonathan Olufemi Adeyeye, Isaac Monday Ikpor, Sanita Ekwutosi Nwakpu, Obiamaka P. Egbo, Ike E. Onyishi, Olusegun Vincent, Kenneth Chukwuma Nwekpa, Kingsley Onuoha Nwakpu, Ayodeji Adeyinka Adeoye, Precious Onyinyechi Odika, Henrietta Fakah, Olaleke Oluseye Ogunnaike and Evelyn Iyose Umemezia
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic lockdowns, stay at home or work from home, many have argued that the westernised non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) do not provide…
Abstract
Purpose
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic lockdowns, stay at home or work from home, many have argued that the westernised non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) do not provide remedial in low-income countries like Nigeria, where informal job seekers, street traders, informal labourers and artisans depend mainly on the informal economy. By applying social solidarity (SS) and community-based approach (CBA), the authors evaluate individual acts (trust, altruism and reciprocity) during the lockdown and how these practices evolve from individual approaches to collective actions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reflects on pragmatism research paradigm that enables researchers to maintain both subjectivity in their reflections and objectivity in data collection and analysis. The authors adopt a qualitative method through purposeful and convenience sampling procedure. Data were analysed thematically to identify elements of SS, individual acts, collective or community actions and perceptions.
Findings
The findings reveal that COVID-19 had a disproportionate impact (lack of food and a fall in daily income) on workers, informal job seekers, informal businesses operators and the poor households. As such, the study developed a reflective model of solidarity exhibited by individual acts and collective acts (practices of resource pooling, information sharing, women empowerment, distribution of palliatives and donations) within trusted circles that helped people cope with the lockdown experiences.
Practical implications
Solidarity represents beliefs, practices of values and norms. The SS exhibited by people through NPI would have implications on planning and monitoring the effectiveness of public health programmes during a pandemic in the future.
Social implications
The findings of citizens and community actions have implications related to the process of building communities – coming together – and solidarity that enhances social development with implications on community health policy agenda during disasters, emergencies and health pandemic.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to analyse the relationship between trust, altruism, reciprocity, SS and CBA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, it seems reasonable to clarify the concept of SS given the lack of clarity about the definitions from previous studies.
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Nnachi Egwu Onuoha, Grace Nyereugwu Ofoegbu, Regina Gwamniru Okafor and Vincent Aghaegbunam Onodugo
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent and quality of voluntary intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) by deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent and quality of voluntary intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) by deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a survey of 271 informants and content analysis of the annual reports of 12 DMBs in Nigeria. The data collected were analysed using factor analysis, t-test, Friedman test for related sample and Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Findings
The findings of this paper indicate that the extent of ICD is significant and higher than the quality of ICD, which is insignificant, with the extent of disclosure highest in the relational component of intellectual capital. It also shows that a significant difference exists amongst the extent of human capital, structural capital and relational capital disclosures, with the significant difference traced to the difference between the extent of disclosures of relational capital and human capital.
Research limitations/implications
The results can be interpreted across the target sample where the study covers a five-year period and 12 DMBs in Nigeria. However, the study provides a robust empirical basis for policymakers and regulators to develop future ICD regulatory guidelines for banks and push for improvement in the quality of ICD by DMBs.
Originality/value
No previous studies of voluntary ICD have considered the extent and quality of ICD by DMBs in Nigeria. Further, this study shed the light on a new human capital item related to “employee health and mental state”; therefore, it extends and supports the previous empirical literature on ICD.
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Ebere Ume Kalu, Uchenna Florence Nwafor, Chinwe R. Okoyeuzu and Vincent A. Onodugo
The purpose of this study is to investigate the energy–growth linkage in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with emphasis on real sectors’ contribution to aggregate growth using dynamic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the energy–growth linkage in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with emphasis on real sectors’ contribution to aggregate growth using dynamic panel estimation techniques that are practically and conceptually superior to the static models.
Design/methodology/approach
Dynamic panel econometric techniques pooled mean group, mean group and dynamic fixed effect were used to investigate the linkage among energy consumption, real sector value added and economic growth from 1967 to 2016 in 48 SSA countries.
Findings
A strong empirical evidence in favor of energy dependence and growth hypothesis in the investigated SSA countries was found. The finding that real sector value added and overall growth rate adjust reasonably to the shocks and dynamics of the energy consumption variables makes energy consumption an enabler for growth. This indicates that well thought-out and implemented energy development policy will not only increase energy consumption but also elicit multi-sectoral growth while addressing the obvious energy deficiency in the SSA region.
Research limitations/implications
It is also important to note the policy implications of the high adjustment profiles indicated by the error correction representations. All the speeds of adjustment of the three models denominated in time are slightly above a year and are all within predictable limits (they fall below unity or 100%). We found that when agriculture value added, manufacturing value added and overall economic growth rate in our SSA panel estimation exceed equilibrium levels as a result of deviations arising from energy related variables, downward adjustments at 66%, 62% and 78% per year, respectively, take place.
Practical implications
The study indicates that well thought-out and implemented energy development policy will not only increase energy consumption but also elicit multi-sectoral growth while addressing the obvious energy deficiency in the SSA region.
Social implications
Much as this study has made some addition to the literature on energy-growth nexus in the SSA region, which undoubtedly is an unveiling of economic forces in a collection of developing and energy deficient economies, it will be of great research significance if the form and style of this study is adopted for other economic blocs in the shapes and sizes of the SSA region.
Originality/value
This study ensured currency of data, novelty of approach and disaggregated energy consumption into emerging sources, traditional sources and geographical access.
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C.N. LINDA FAN, M.H. CHRISTABEL HO and VINCENT NG
This paper proposes conducting extensive cross‐profession comparison regarding perceptions of various professionals towards professional ethics as the first step in professional…
Abstract
This paper proposes conducting extensive cross‐profession comparison regarding perceptions of various professionals towards professional ethics as the first step in professional ethics inquiry. The authors argue that concepts and perceptions of professional ethics result from the prolonged professional socialization process during both college/university and industry training. Differences in professional ethics conceptions both within and between professions can be ascribed to differences in training. For college/university training these differences may lie in varying professional course contents and arrangements, diverse educational professional development (CPD) courses offered by various professional institutions, codes of conduct drafted by professional institutions and corporations, personal work experience may account for these differences. However, this pluralist explanation of these differences is not the end of the inquiry, but rather explicitly points to the difficulty of resolving the conceptual array in professional ethics inquiry.
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Louis Tay, Vincent Ng, Lauren Kuykendall and Ed Diener
The relationship between demographic factors and worker well-being has garnered increased attention, but empirical studies have shown to inconsistent results. This chapter…
Abstract
The relationship between demographic factors and worker well-being has garnered increased attention, but empirical studies have shown to inconsistent results. This chapter addresses this issue by examining how age, gender, and race/ethnicity relate to worker well-being using large, representative samples. Data from the Gallup Healthways Index and Gallup World Poll provided information on both job and life satisfaction outcomes for full-time workers in the United States and 156 countries, respectively. In general, results indicated that increasing age was associated with more workers reporting job satisfaction and fewer people reporting stress and negative affect. Women were comparable to men in reported job satisfaction and well-being, but more women reported experiencing negative affect and stress. Less consistent well-being differences in ethnic/racial groups were found. Finally, we found strong evidence for direct and indirect national demographic effects on worker well-being showing need for considering workforce demography in future theory building. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Xiaoliang Qian, Jing Li, Jianwei Zhang, Wenhao Zhang, Weichao Yue, Qing-E Wu, Huanlong Zhang, Yuanyuan Wu and Wei Wang
An effective machine vision-based method for micro-crack detection of solar cell can economically improve the qualified rate of solar cells. However, how to extract features which…
Abstract
Purpose
An effective machine vision-based method for micro-crack detection of solar cell can economically improve the qualified rate of solar cells. However, how to extract features which have strong generalization and data representation ability at the same time is still an open problem for machine vision-based methods.
Design/methodology/approach
A micro-crack detection method based on adaptive deep features and visual saliency is proposed in this paper. The proposed method can adaptively extract deep features from the input image without any supervised training. Furthermore, considering the fact that micro-cracks can obviously attract visual attention when people look at the solar cell’s surface, the visual saliency is also introduced for the micro-crack detection.
Findings
Comprehensive evaluations are implemented on two existing data sets, where subjective experimental results show that most of the micro-cracks can be detected, and the objective experimental results show that the method proposed in this study has better performance in detecting precision.
Originality/value
First, an adaptive deep features extraction scheme without any supervised training is proposed for micro-crack detection. Second, the visual saliency is introduced for micro-crack detection.