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Education and knowledge have become the prerequisites for the growth and development of any economy or region. Knowledge is a liberator of individuals and societies from human poverty and is a precondition for rapid advancement in today's global knowledge economy (KE). Any nation or region which does not key into the global KE trend may find it very difficult to catch up and become competitive in the global market so as to benefit from the power of knowledge. The objective of this chapter is to investigate whether knowledge and human capital have contributed to the growth of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Out of the four pillars of KE – the economic and institutional regime (including governance), education and human resources, the innovation system, and information infrastructure – this study focused on education and human capital in the estimation of how knowledge has contributed to growth of SSA countries. The data for the study were sourced from World Development Indicators published by The World Bank Group. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was applied and the results show that knowledge variables have a significant impact on economic growth of SSA countries. It is therefore recommended that welfare and working conditions of the labor force be improved so as to be more productive; SSA countries should key into the KE policies so as to be competitive in the production, use, dissemination and transfer of knowledge, ICT, and science.

In Nigeria, insecurity has been breeding very rapidly given the Nigerian economic conditions in the recent past. Insecurity exposes enterprise development and survival to a serious threat. It has serious effects on lives and properties, obstructs business activities and discourages local and foreign investors, which in turn militate against Nigeria’s overall economic growth and development. This rising wave of insecurity has assumed an unsafe facet to enterprise development and its subsequent survival, hence, if unchecked, it can threaten the overall communal existence of the country as one entity. The purpose of this study is therefore, to examine the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria.

This study used the most recent Nigeria Enterprise Survey data (2014) and applied multi-nomial logistic regression model to examine the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria.

It was found among others that all the captured insecurity variables in this study have negative significant impact on enterprise development and as such significantly retards enterprise growth and development except for corruption and availability of strong, fair and impartial legal system (comparing partnership and limited partnership enterprise to the sole proprietorship), which were found to have positive impact on enterprise development in Nigeria.

This study therefore recommended among others that government at all levels – federal, state and local – should try harder to live up to its primary constitutional function of providing adequate security of lives and property to its citizenry.

There is no known study that has investigated the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria. There is dearth of literature in the study area, hence this study enormously contributes to the growing literature on insecurity and enterprise development.

The study examined the penetration of financial inclusion in the agricultural sector, using small-scale farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria, as evidence.

The study utilized survey data generated from 425 questionnaires administered to small-scale farmers in both rural and urban locations in Enugu State. The study applied the adequacy gap, timeliness gap and penetration gap indices to measure the penetration of financial inclusion among the small-scale farmers in Enugu State.

It was found that different lending agencies, except for some cooperative societies, were unable to meet the credit needs of small-scale farmers in Enugu State as shown by the adequacy gap index. The timeliness gap index revealed the existence of time gap in the credit receipt of small-scale farmers given that agriculture is rain-fed in Enugu. The penetration gap index indicated that there is gap in the penetration of agricultural credit grants to small-scale farmers in Enugu State, showing a shallow penetration of financial inclusion in agricultural sector.

The research is limited in scope as a result of data and the desire to study small-scale farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria.

The study recommended among others that government should encourage cooperatives more to meet credit needs of farmers in order to raise the level of financial inclusion penetration.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the only study that examines the penetration of financial inclusion among small-scale farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria. This study contributes to the growing literature on financial inclusion in the agricultural sector as there is dearth of literature in this study area.

This chapter examines the design and impact on student learning in two STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) capstone undergraduate research courses at Saint Augustine’s University. It discusses how these courses help student metacognitive capabilities as they synthesize their learning across the program, demonstrate holistic development, and successfully negotiate the transition to their next academic and career pathway. It couples data from these capstone research courses with a review of the literature to elucidate the conditions and impact that undergraduate research STEM capstone courses have benefited students, faculty and the University. These best practices for the capstone courses may be used as a model for other HBCUs capstone courses or undergraduate research experiences. Throughout this chapter, the following questions are addressed: How do the capstone courses prepare students for graduate school and/or the STEM workforce? How are the capstone courses enhancing student undergraduate experiences? How do the capstone courses offer authentic research experiences for each student in spite of limited resources and faculty? How do students and faculty feel they have benefited from the capstone course experience? How have students overall learning been enhanced because of the capstone courses?

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 this paper is to determine the factors that influence patients’ long-term relationship with healthcare providers in healthcare delivery at hospitals.

Data were gathered using 170 patients in a cross-sectional survey with quantitative research methods at a public regional hospital. Results were obtained using descriptive analysis and regression analysis.

Generally, the study found that the health-related factors (the reception of staff, providers’ attitude, waiting time, competence and expertise and the hospital environment) that influence patients’ long-term relationship with the healthcare providers/hospital were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The findings showed that overall 90.0 per cent of the patients were very satisfied with the overall healthcare services at the hospital.

Limited sample size, lack of examination of healthcare providers’ perspectives and non-application of qualitative methods make it difficult to give a true picture of how these can enhance patients’ intent to keep a long-term relationship with the healthcare providers/hospital.

The paper suggests that health policymakers and practitioners need to enhance measures that will make patients satisfied leading to their long-term commitment and cordial relationship with the healthcare providers/hospital.

The study demonstrated how health-related factors will be associated with the patients’ agreement/intent to keep a long-term relationship with their service providers at hospitals. Thus, the overall hypothesis was true that there is a relationship between patients’ satisfaction with the healthcare experienced and their long-term relationship with healthcare providers/hospital.

This is one of the few studies conducted on the topic in the context of Ghana’s health sector. It recommends that there should be a good interpersonal relationship between healthcare providers and patients, as patients’ satisfaction is not based on only receiving treatment at the health facility.

The purpose of this paper is to assess available human resources for neonatal care and their skills, in order to explore health providers’ perceptions of quality of neonatal care in health facilities in Ghana.

Data were gathered using qualitative interviews with health providers working in the maternity and paediatric wards and midwives; direct observation; and documentary review at a regional hospital, a municipal hospital and four health centres in a municipality in a region in Southern Ghana. Data were analysed using thematic framework through the process of coding in six phases to create and establish meaningful patterns.

The study revealed that health providers were concerned about the number of staff available, their competence and also equipment available for them to work more efficiently. Some essential equipment for neonatal care was either not available or was non-functional where it was available, while aseptic procedures were not adhered to. Moreover, personal protective equipment such as facemask, caps, aprons were not used except in the labour wards where staff had to change their footwear before entering.

Limited number of health providers and facilities used, lack of exploration of parents of neonates’ perspective of quality of neonatal care in this study and other settings, including the teaching hospitals. The authors did not examine issues related to the ineffective use of IV cannulation for neonates by nurses as well as referral of neonates. Additionally, the authors did not explore the perspectives of management of the municipal and regional health directorates or policy makers of the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service regarding the shortage of staff, inadequate provision of medical equipment and infrastructure.

This paper suggests the need for policy makers to redirect their attention to the issues that would improve the quality of neonatal health care in health facilities in Ghana and in countries with similar challenges.

The study found that the majority of nursing staff catering for sick newborns were not trained in neonatal nursing. Babies were found sleeping in separate cots but were mixed with older children. The study suggests that babies should be provided with a separate room and not mixed with older babies.

There seemed to be no defined policy framework for management of neonatal care in the country’s health care facilities. The study recommends the adoption of paediatric and neonatal care nursing as a specialty in the curricula of health training institutions. In-service trainings should encompass issues related to management of sick babies, care of preterm babies, neonatal resuscitation and intravenouscannulation, among others.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of insecticide-treated net (ITN) use in the control of malaria amongst pregnant women attending antenatal clinic.

Data were gathered using interviews and documentary review. Framework analysis was applied to classify emerging themes and the findings interpreted using the health belief model.

The findings showed that the pregnant women had appreciable knowledge, both the positive and negative attitudes and the perceptions of insecticide treated nets. To most of them, sleeping under an ITN would not affect pregnancy/cause abortion, but rather prevent mosquito bites and associated malaria.

The limitations include the sample size of participants and health facilities used. Lack of application of a quantitative research method meant that the authors could not quantify the findings to ensure generalisation to the entire population.

The findings suggest that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals need to appreciate the perception and the attitude of pregnant women when designing policy guidelines for the malaria control programme.

This paper helps to elucidate on how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of ITN usage amongst both pregnant women and people in malaria endemic communities.

This paper suggests that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals have to devise strategies to address socio-cultural beliefs and practices in the scaling up of malaria control programmes.

This is an empirical study of a business ethics issue. It examines the question of when an untrue statement in a negotiations context is considered unethical behavior. Four types of untrue statements are considered. A questionnaire was used to determine (1) if the types of untrue statements were distinct, (2) if they formed a continuum, and (3) whether the collective perspective of reasonable people was able to “draw a line” in such a continuum between ethical and unethical behavior. The results showed a consensus of moral intuition and the ability to draw a line between ethical and unethical behavior. Implications and future research directions are discussed.