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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2024

Abongeh A. Tunyi, Geofry Areneke, Tanveer Hussain and Jacob Agyemang

This study proposes a novel measure for management’s horizon (short-termism or myopia vs long-termism or hyperopia) derived from easily obtainable firm-level accounting and stock…

Abstract

Purpose

This study proposes a novel measure for management’s horizon (short-termism or myopia vs long-termism or hyperopia) derived from easily obtainable firm-level accounting and stock market performance data. The authors use the measure to explore the impact of managements’ horizon on firms’ investment efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors rely on two commonly used but uncorrelated measures of management performance: accounting performance (return on capital employed, ROCE) and stock market performance (average abnormal return, AAR). The authors combine these measures to develop a multidimensional framework for performance, which classifies firms into four groups: efficient (high accounting and high market performance), poor (low accounting and low market performance), myopic (high accounting and low market performance) and hyperopic (low accounting and high market performance). The authors validate this framework and deploy it to explore the relationship between horizon and firms’ investment efficiency.

Findings

In validation tests, the authors show that management myopia (hyperopia) explains firms’ decision to cut (grow) research and development investments. Further, as expected, myopic (hyperopic) firms are associated with significantly more (less) accrual and real earnings management. The empirical tests on the link between horizon and investment efficiency suggest that myopic managers cut new investments while their hyperopic counterparts grow the same. Ultimately, the authors find that myopia (hyperopia) exacerbates(mitigates) the over-investment of free cash flow problem.

Originality/value

The authors introduce a framework for assessing management’s horizon using easily obtainable measures of performance. The framework explains inconsistencies in prior empirical research using different measures of performance (accounting versus market). The authors demonstrate its utility by showing that the measure explains decisions around research and development investment, earnings management and firm investments.

Details

Review of Accounting and Finance, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-7702

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2023

Jacob Agyemang, John Azure, Danson Kimani and Thankom Arun

The paper examines financial resilience responses/capacities of governments from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana in relation to COVID-19. It highlights the governments’ fiscal…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper examines financial resilience responses/capacities of governments from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana in relation to COVID-19. It highlights the governments’ fiscal, budgetary and actions as either anticipatory or coping mechanisms towards the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Multiple case studies and secondary data were used, including official government documentation/records, expert views, policy publications by supranational organisations and international financial institutions and media reports. Textual analysis was conducted to evaluate the case countries’ resilience.

Findings

The paper highlights how governmental budgetary initiatives, including repurposing the manufacturing sector, can sustain businesses, aid social interventions and reduce vulnerability during health crises. In addition, the paper highlights that external borrowing continues to be indispensable in the financial and budgetary initiatives of the case countries. The paper finds that lessons learnt from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa within the last decade have shaped the anticipatory resilience capacities of the case countries against COVID-19.

Originality/value

The paper uses the notion of resilience, the dimensions of the resilience framework and the resource-based view (RBV) theory to unearth resilience patterns. This sort of combined approach is new to financial resilience studies.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 35 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 December 2020

Jacob Agyemang, Kelum Jayasinghe, Pawan Adhikari, Abongeh Tunyi and Simon Carmel

This paper examines how a “quasi-formal” organisation in a developing country engages in informal means of organising and decision-making through the use of calculative measures.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines how a “quasi-formal” organisation in a developing country engages in informal means of organising and decision-making through the use of calculative measures.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a case study of a large-scale indigenous manufacturing company in Ghana. Data for the study were collected through the use of semi-structured interviews conducted both onsite and off-site, supplemented by informal conversations and documentary analysis. Weber's notions of rationalities and traditionalism informed the analysis.

Findings

The paper advances knowledge about the practical day-to-day organisation of resources and the associated substantive rational calculative measures used for decision-making in quasi-formal organisations operating in a traditional setting. Instead of formal rational organisational mechanisms such as hierarchical organisational structures, production planning, labour controls and budgetary practices, the organisational mechanisms are found to be shaped by institutional and structural conditions which result from historical, sociocultural and traditional practices of Ghanaian society. These contextual substantive rational calculative measures consist of the native lineage system of inheritance, chieftaincy, trust and the power concealed within historically established sociocultural practices.

Originality/value

This paper is one of a few studies providing evidence of how local and traditional social practices contribute to shaping organising and decision-making activities in indigenous “quasi-formal” organisations. The paper extends our understanding of the nexus between “technical rational” calculative measures and the traditional culture and social practices prevailing in sub-Saharan Africa in general, and Ghana in particular.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 February 2019

Franklin Gyamfi Agyemang and Henry Boateng

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the factors affecting tacit knowledge transfer from a master to an apprentice in the informal sector among hairdressers in Ghana.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the factors affecting tacit knowledge transfer from a master to an apprentice in the informal sector among hairdressers in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study was used as the research design. Convenient sampling technique was used to select 47 master hairdressers. Semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection. Data were analysed using the thematic technique.

Findings

The study found that apprenticeship fee, fear of competition, delegation reasons, joy and pride of mentorship, apprentices’ attitude and time, to be significant factors influencing tacit knowledge transfer from a master to an apprentice. It was also evident that time spent with master as he/she performs or works is crucial to learning as most of the learning is through socializing with the master.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation of the study is the use of the convenient sampling technique in choosing the participants. The results of this study, if it has to be generalised to all hairdressers in Ghana, it may have to be done with caution since the participants were not drawn from a pool of all master hairdressers in Ghana.

Practical implications

The paper provides what apprentices must do to acquire the tacit knowledge of master hairdressers.

Originality/value

This paper focuses on the holder of tacit knowledge (master hairdressers) and reveals their motivations to transfer or hoard their tacit knowledge.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 61 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 August 2023

Kurnia Cahya Lestari and Noorlailie Soewarno

Building on the upper echelons and natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory, this study aims to examine the role of green innovation in mediating the relationship between female…

Abstract

Purpose

Building on the upper echelons and natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory, this study aims to examine the role of green innovation in mediating the relationship between female directors and firm value.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses panel data for 2016–2020 of 108 manufacturing firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange with 518 observations. This study collects data from the firm’s annual and sustainability reports and the Osiris database. This study uses feasible generalized least squares in controlling heteroscedasticity and correlation to validate the relationship.

Findings

The results show that green innovation mediates the relationship between female directors and firm value. The results support the upper echelons theory, which views that the impact of the female directors’ policy has a positive effect on green innovation. The results also support the NRBV theory, which views green innovation as an environmentally friendly resource capable of increasing firm value.

Originality/value

In examining the indirect effect of female directors on firm value, this study is one of the early works that discuss the mediation relationship using green innovation in the relationship of female directors to firm value drawn from upper echelons and NRBV theory.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal , vol. 39 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 November 2022

Jacob Mhlanga, Theodore C. Haupt and Claudia Loggia

This paper aims to explore the intellectual structure shaping the circular economy (CE) discourse within the built environment in Africa.

1916

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the intellectual structure shaping the circular economy (CE) discourse within the built environment in Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a bibliometric analysis approach to explore the intellectual structure of CE in the built environment in Africa. The authors collected 31 papers published between 2005 and 2021 from the Scopus database and used VOSviewer for data analysis.

Findings

The findings show that there are six clusters shaping the intellectual structure: demolition, material recovery and reuse; waste as a resource; cellulose and agro-based materials; resilience and low-carbon footprint; recycling materials; and the fourth industrial revolution. The two most cited scholars had three publications each, while the top journal was Resources, Conservation and Recycling. The dominant concepts included CE, sustainability, alternative materials, waste management, lifecycle, demolition and climate change. The study concludes that there is low CE research output in Africa, which implies that the concept is either novel or facing resistance.

Research limitations/implications

The data were drawn from one database, Scopus; hence, adoption of alternative databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Dimensions could potentially have yielded a higher number of articles for analysis which potentially would result in different conclusions on the subject understudy.

Originality/value

This study made a significant contribution by articulating the CE intellectual structure in the built environment, identified prominent scholars and academic platforms responsible for promoting circularity in Africa.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology , vol. 22 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 September 2021

Akosua K. Darkwah

Since the advent of digital activism, a lot of scholarly attention has been paid to the use of the internet, especially in Africa, for effecting changes in authoritarian rule…

Abstract

Since the advent of digital activism, a lot of scholarly attention has been paid to the use of the internet, especially in Africa, for effecting changes in authoritarian rule. This chapter extends the work done by such scholars focusing on the work of African digital feminist activists, thus adding to the growing body of work on digital feminist activism. Drawing on interviews and analyses of digital material produced by four different feminist groups in Ghana, this chapter explores the variety of ideas that such digital feminists express, and the manner in which such ideas are received by the larger Ghanaian society. It argues that, indeed, digital feminists are making a positive impact on the larger Ghanaian society. While these digital feminists are subjected to cyberbullying, there are also many ways in which other individuals, both Ghanaian and otherwise are showing support for these women and their ideas. Increasingly, with particular reference to the newest of these groups, it is clear that they have institutional support for their views as evident in public and private organizations sanctioning employees or associates whose digital language they have critiqued. As with activism targeted at authoritarianism, digital activism targeted at patriarchy gets results, changing mindsets and penalizing sexist behaviors.

Details

Producing Inclusive Feminist Knowledge: Positionalities and Discourses in the Global South
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-171-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2023

Sana Elhidaoui and Srinivas Kota

This research aims to comprehensively analyse the Agri-food supply chain, by identifying the barriers, and considering effective pathways towards a green supply chain. To the best…

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to comprehensively analyse the Agri-food supply chain, by identifying the barriers, and considering effective pathways towards a green supply chain. To the best of our knowledge, in the research area of supply chain, the majority of the research is oriented towards the evaluation of barriers and pathways or drivers to the implementation of green supply chain management in the manufacturing industry. The field of Agri-food is among the sectors of concern due to the quantum and basic necessity of the industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The contribution of this paper is to develop and evaluate a general framework of the most relevant barriers and possible pathways towards the green Agri-food supply chain, with the help of a hybrid approach combining both the ANP and ELECTRE I methods, via a case study of the fish canning industry.

Findings

Furthermore, the study findings will help both academicians and practitioners in developing and evaluating green supply chain frameworks in this area of study.

Originality/value

The results of this study show that the cost of greening the supply in terms of implementing sustainability standard, or advanced technology are the most relevant barriers, and that the social and operational pathways family is among the best effectives pathways.

Details

Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 July 2022

Jorge Juliao-Rossi, Mauricio Losada-Otalora and Diego Fernando Católico-Segura

This study aims to examine how corruption influences the voluntary disclosure of corporate governance (CG)-related information by developed country multinationals (DC-MNEs) and…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how corruption influences the voluntary disclosure of corporate governance (CG)-related information by developed country multinationals (DC-MNEs) and emerging market multinationals (EM-MNEs) investing in six Latin American countries.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses information from 300 MNEs included in the 2018 ranking of the 500 Largest Latin American companies (America Economía, 2018). Each MNE’s final annual report for the financial year ending 2018 was examined and coded to obtain the corporate governance disclosure index. Fractional probit regression was applied to test the hypotheses of the research.

Findings

DC-MNEs disclose more CG-related information in corrupt environments than EM-MNEs. This differentiated behavior occurs because DC-MNEs face higher legitimacy pressures in corrupt environments than EM-MNEs and because EM-MNEs are more experienced than DC-MNEs in dealing with such corrupt environments.

Practical implications

While both EM-MNEs and DC-MNEs need to continue investing in corrupt countries to grow, they need to disclose CG-related information as a strategic tool to manage the legitimacy issues triggered by corruption in the markets they operate.

Originality/value

Despite corruption being pervasive in emerging markets, its implications for firms’ strategic behaviors are still under-researched. This paper extends the scope of corporate governance and international business fields by studying how MNEs respond to relevant dimensions of the macro environment. This research shows that voluntary disclosure of CG-related information is a strategic response of the MNEs to gain legitimacy in corrupt environments.

Details

Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 May 2009

Yoshiko Nozaki, Rima Aranha, Rachel Fix Dominguez and Yuri Nakajima

One of the most significant worldwide transformations in education over the past several decades has been the drastic increase in women's access to colleges and universities…

Abstract

One of the most significant worldwide transformations in education over the past several decades has been the drastic increase in women's access to colleges and universities. Research suggests that the trend of the narrowing gender gap in higher education is remarkable (particularly, among the industrialized nations), and sometimes it involves an interesting phenomenon – women outnumbering men, in what some scholars refer to as a “reverse gender gap” (Goldin, Katz, & Kuziemko, 2006; Woodfield & Earl-Novell, 2006; King, 2006; Mortenson, 1999). This higher education gender gap trend is consistent with a general global trend of narrowing gender gaps in education in recent decades. The data – at least, analysis of statistical data from countries around the world – support the contention that the disparity between men and women, at all levels of education and in terms of both academic achievement and enrollment rates, is not as dramatic as it once was (Arnot, David, & Weiner, 1999; United Nations Children's Fund, 2005).

Details

Gender, Equality and Education from International and Comparative Perspectives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-094-0

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