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The aim of the study is to examine the role of social capital in the formation of mobile financialservice users’ adoptive behaviours toward service providers in the context of the financialtechnological regime of Ghana. The study used a total of 417 sample data from a self-administeredquestionnaire to achieve its objectives. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze thedirect effects of social capital and the mediation role of cognitive-based trust and affective-based truston mobile financial service. The results of the study demonstrate that social capital, cognitive-basedand affective-based trust collaboratively impact on the adoptive lifestyle of mobile financial serviceusers. Specifically, both cognitive-based and affective-based trust mediate between social capital andmobile financial inclusion to inform users’ behavioral intentions. The results however, reveals thataffective-based trust plays a significant role in shaping mobile financial service users’ behavioralintentions than cognitive-based trust. In detail, the study indicates that social capital directly impactson the adoptive behavior of mobile financial service users. It is therefore, recommended that in thepresent era of Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant social distancing protocols, mobile financialservice providers should invest heavily in social media channels to develop their corporate socialcapital brand in order to deepen their bondage with users. The study makes a vital contribution to theevolving debate on mobile financial inclusion, information system and consumer psychology fromAfrican perspective. The study acknowledges the contributions of prior studies to the afore-mentionedstrands of discipline and the chasm in literature. Specifically, this study is the first of its kind toempirically examine the influential functions of social capital, cognitive-based trust and affective-basedtrust on mobile financial inclusion from the len of the Ghanaian financial technological landscape.The study will equip industry players with the needed know-how to enhance their profitability andoperational competitiveness.

Drawing upon the cognitive evaluation theory, this study examined the relationship among the three dimensions of paternalistic leadership, namely, authoritarianism, benevolence, and morality on both employee creativity and intention to stay. Data from 344 subordinates and 132 leaders/supervisors were collected from 32 SMEs in the manufacturing industry of Ghana. The findings of the study revealed that while authoritarian leadership has a negative relationship with creativity, benevolent leadership impacts positively on both creativity and intention to stay. No significant relationship was recorded between moral leadership and creativity, as well as authoritarian leadership and intention to stay. Moreover, psychological empowerment was found to mediate the relationship among benevolent leadership, creativity, and intention to stay, as well as between moral leadership and intention to stay. The study provides a fresh practical and theoretical perspective on the underlying mechanism pertaining to the relationship among paternalistic leadership, creativity, and intention to stay.

Renewable energy transition has become popular in the wake of rapid climate change and energy volatility. National governments and global stakeholders have instituted several policy mechanisms to enhance cleaner energy transitions. However, extant literature has indicated the inadequacy of mere supportive policies in the transition process. Herein, we integrate intuitions from different academic traditions to develop a framework to investigate entrepreneurs’ solar energy adoption in Ghana. Overall, two constructs from the innovation-diffusion model (relative advantage and observability), two from environmental psychology (personal and social norms), and a policy incentives factor constituted the research model. Cross sectional survey response from small-and-medium scale entrepreneurs (N = 320) was obtained. By employing the structural equation modelling technique, pro-environmental norms showed relatively stronger association with solar adoption. The integration of hypotheses from different research traditions offers higher insights than the value of each model tested independently. The findings can be useful to both researchers and policymakers towards the fight against climate change.

The study was commissioned to investigate the complex behavioral dispositions of the mobile money service industry in Ghana, and its associated operational challenges. To achieve this, the views of 417, participants were sampled via a structured survey instrument. Tosmana and AMOS Graphics were used to analyze the sample data. The findings of the study demonstrate that the behavioral dispositions of mobile money clientele can be explained through twelve complex solutions. The six-factor model of the study constructs produced an overall solution coverage of 0.94, and an overall solution consistency of 0.80. Furthermore, the AVE and Cronbach’s alpha statistics of the study constructs were found to be above the recommended threshold of > 0.5 and ≥ 0.7, respectively. Moreover, cyber fraud, risky service landscape, poor network, insufficient electronic funds, unforgiven competition, and low financial literacy were identified as the main challenges bedeviling the mobile money industry. It is therefore, recommended that mobile money service providers as a matter of urgency must devise strategies to arrest these challenges in order to heighten service quality in the industry. Again, to ensure market leadership within the mobile money service industry, managers must develop varied product offerings to meet customers’ expectation in each stratum of the twelve complex solutions as enshrined in the findings of the study. Citation: Ampaw, M. E., Adu-Sackey, A., Baffoe, S., Frempong, J., Nbolen, M. N. A. and Azaare, J. (2021). More than one road goes to Rome: Understanding the complex behavioral solutions of mobile money clientele from the lens of fsQCA. International Journal of Technology and Management Research (IJTMR), Vol. 6 (2): Pp.1－20. Received: January 3, 2021Accepted: September 1, 2021

Employees are the core asset of every company. Employees’ innovative behavior (EIB) helps to improve the performance of enterprises. High-quality leadership is one of the key factors to promote employee innovation. As companies pay more attention to innovation, the attention to EIB continues to increase. In the process of employee innovation, the leadership style of the company’s senior managers plays an important role. This is mostly so in ambidextrous leadership (AL) enveronment where paradox and contradictory thinking needs to be explored on EIB. Based on the theories of innovation and leadership, this paper explored the impact of AL on EIB and its mechanisms. We analyzed data on 478 staff working in industrial enterprises in China.The empirical results revealed a positive correlation between AL and EIB and the role of creative self-efficacy (CS) and cognitive flexibility (CF). The analysis of the mediating effect of multi-level regulation shows that: firstly, CS acts as an intermediary between AL and employee’s incremental innovation (EII) and employee’s radical innovation (ERI); secondly, CF positively adjusts the relationship between AL an d CS. Lastly, AL indirectly affects EII and ERI through CS, and this positive indirect relationship is more pronounced when CF is higher. The observations of the study provide a new perspective for leaders to break the traditional single behavior path and adopt dynamic complementary AL behavior to improve the level of employee innovation. Again, these insightful revelations have important practical significance for enterprise innovation management to adopt the appropriate remedial measures that will strengthen and deepen employee’s innovative behavior for optimal gains. This study helps to deepen the understanding of the influence mechanism of EIB, improves innovation efficiency literature and promotes the healthy development of enterprises.

This study examined risk exposure and auto insurance premium determinants in Ghana. We analysed an existing data set of 23 434 policies (without claims = 84.1%, policies with claims = 15.9%; compre...

Over the past few years, the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has seen a marked increase among state-owned enterprises and large organizations. However, SMEs especially, those in Africa are yet to exploit the full potential opportunities embedded in the BRI. This study takes the initiative to systematically identify and rank the set of factors that enable the implementation of the BRI among Sub-Saharan African (SSA) SMEs using survey data from 178 stakeholders. In total, we identified twenty-two factors and categorized them into five broad headings. These are governmental, technical and innovation, firm-specific, network and cooperation, and BRI policy factors. Subsequently, the picture fuzzy projection-based TOPSIS technique was applied to rank the factors and sub-factors. The utmost ranked factor in the five categories was the governmental factors, while transparency in BRI policy, subsidy for SMEs, flexible trade agreements and clarity in the BRI policy framework emerged as the top four factors respectively within the 22 sub-factors. The study demonstrates that the BRI is embodied with its unique features, hence, the factors explored in this study could provide policymakers and SMEs in Africa and beyond with more useful information to understanding the nature of BRI projects objectively and comprehensively.

This study analytically examines the structure and characteristics of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and African trade networks by applying network analysis techniques through a critical and in‐depth description of the international trade of Eastern African countries as part of the world trade network. Sixty‐four countries' trade flow data between 2000 and 2018 from the International Monetary Fund, was used, and the network indices indicate that the BRI significantly enhances the trade network's connectivity. The empirical results indicate that density, the degree of centralization, and average node intensity are typically growing, and China is in the central position of the network. Furthermore, East African intra‐regional trade tends to be more densely connected under the BRI. This, in effect, demonstrates that the BRI countries have experienced a rise in intra‐regional trade at different levels of economic development. Therefore, this study recommends that policymakers should consider the BRI's critical role in reforming trade policies to build a resilient and sustainable African economy.

PurposeDrawing upon the institutional theory, the present study investigated whether or not small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and how the latter influences the internationalization of the former.Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth interview was conducted by using 26 SME managers/owners who are engaged in international activities in the “Belt and Road” countries. The sample was chosen from four East African countries across three industries. The theoretical framework emerged from the grounded theory analysis of the primary data.FindingsThe authors found that the BRI as a formal institutional force generates both direct and indirect influences on SMEs' internationalization. Three key driving forces, namely partnerships, specialized services and innovativeness underpin the internationalization of SMEs. Additionally, sectoral analysis of the similarities and differences in responses reveals no remarkable differences in the drivers and impact of the BRI on SMEs in all the three industries investigated.Research limitations/implicationsThe internationalization process of East African SMEs could be augmented through formal institutions like the BRI, and the internationalization of SMEs along the “Belt and Road” countries mimic an integrative approach. The theoretical framework demonstrates significant potential for further benefits that SMEs may obtain through the BRI by taking advantage of certain BRI opportunities and adopting crucial strategies to internationalize rapidly.Originality/valueThis is the first study to employ a qualitative approach to study the influence of the BRI at the firm-level. Specifically, the paper covered the hub of BRI countries in East Africa. Hence, the study makes substantial theoretical and policy contributions to the literature.

In recent decades, cleaner production (CP) has emerged as a new concept to cope with the astronomical environmental degradation associated with the expanding industrialization. We conducted a review of scientific data on the conceptualization of "cleaner production" using published documents from 2011-2021-year periods. Data extraction was based on two major databases: the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of science (WOS). The Citespace software was used to track the developmental process and trend of future research on cleaner production. We report that:(1) While literature on cleaner production in CNKI is decreasing, that of WOS has been increasing by the year. (2) Even though, clear instances of different research priorities exist between WOS and CNKI, research problems addressed in the two databases, however, are mostly common. In terms of research collaboration, WOS is more likely to accept papers with cross-institutional authorship. The study further identified that there is no aggregation effect between Chinese research institutions. (3) In WOS, the Journal of Cleaner Production is the most published and influential journal, and in CNKI the Chinese Journal of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning leads in CP publications. (4) From the research hotspots, there are obvious differences between WOS and CNKI. Finally, we put forward the future prospect of cleaner production research.

This study investigates the relationship among CO2 emissions, human development index, and fossil energy usage. Essentially, the study was informed by the Sustainable Development Goal 7, which stipulates universal access to renewable and contemporary energy technologies. We employed the novel dynamic autoregressive-distributed lag (DARDL) simulations with a dataset spanning between1980 and 2020 from East Africa Community (EAC). The study revealed that human development, access to electricity, and trade have a strong correlation with carbon emissions in the long term, whereas fossil energy usage and economic growth have a negative connection with carbon emission. On the other hand, in the short run, human development and fossil energy usage have a positive correlation with carbon emission, while economic growth and foreign direct investment have a negative correlation with carbon emission. Thus, policies that are tailored to enhance the political environment in East Africa are crucial to ensuring realistic access to clean and modern electricity.

This study investigates the relationship among CO

Cleaner production (CP) has emerged as a new concept to cope with the astronomical environmental degradation associated with the expanding scope of industrialization. We conducted a review of the scientific data on the conceptualization of “cleaner production” using published documents from the 2011–2021 period. Data were extracted from the CNKI and WOS databases—two major databases based in China and the United States, respectively. Citespace software was used to track the developmental process and trend of future research on cleaner production. We report the following findings: (1) While the literature on cleaner production in CNKI is decreasing, the literature in WOS has been increasing annually. (2) Even though clear instances of different research priorities exist between WOS and CNKI, the research problems addressed in the two databases, however, are mostly common. In terms of research collaboration, WOS is more likely to accept papers with cross-institutional authorship. The study further identified that there is no aggregation effect between Chinese research institutions. (3) In WOS, the Journal of Cleaner Production is the most popular journal for researchers, and in CNKI the Chinese Journal of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning leads in CP publications. (4) Regarding the research hotspots, there are obvious differences between WOS and CNKI. Finally, we put forward the future prospects for cleaner production research.

Background: The mobile insurance industry plays a crucial role in the insurance ecosystem of developing countries, yet the overarching factors that impinge on and shape clients’ behavioural intentions towards service providers have not been given the necessary attention they deserve. Objectives: This study explores the role of corporate identity, clients’ satisfaction, Service Quality (SERQUAL) and institutional-based trust in shaping clients’ loyalty (CL) towards mobile insurance (M-insurance) service providers. Method: Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse a total of 334 questionnaires obtained from clients of selected M-insurance service points in Accra, Ghana. Results: Our results indicate that SERQUAL, institutional-based trust, satisfaction and corporate identity, corroboratively, impact positively on CL within the M-insurance ecosystem, albeit in varied proportions. The results also demonstrate a high degree of causality among SERQUAL, institutional-based trust and corporate identity. Conclusion: SERQUAL has both direct and indirect significant positive relationships with CL. Thus, in order for M-insurance service providers to attract and retain clients, the former must pay a great deal of attention to SERQUAL owing to its striking halo effects.

The study aims at establishing the benefits of actively utilizing the intangible resources of solid waste management customers in designing and implementing solid waste collection services, using the social media platforms. While Ghana generates high volumes of solid waste on a daily basis, less than half of it is effectively collected and disposed of. This calls for the adoption of innovative strategies to better connect and serve customers. Adopting a marketing approach to solid waste management has not been given much needed attention in Ghana and Africa, and this research sought to contribute in that direction. There is high usage of mobile telephony services in Ghana which a waste firm can explore to change negative attitude to waste disposal by the populace. Online co-creation is seen as a modern marketing approach leading to behavioral change in consumers. In this regard, the study looked at customer online co-creation in the solid waste collection sector in Ghana. The study adopted the survey strategy using structured questionnaire as the measure instrument, and data analyzed using both the structural equation model (SEM) and hierarchical multiple regression. The key findings are that customer intangible resources (online experience and skills) can be tapped by waste firms to co-create services that would generate positive attitude towards sanitation issues and the willingness to advocate the services and programs of the firm. Similarly, waste firms must invest in well-functioning and information rich digital platforms, and to devise innovative strategies to direct traffic to these platforms for effective customer participation.

In recent times, waste management has engaged the attention of governments, policy makers, and academics as it has ramifications for the health and well-being of citizens, the environment, and the economy. In this regard, waste management firms and policy makers are employing strategic approaches to waste management efforts by empowering relations among various stakeholders to innovate. Thus, customer and stakeholder value co-creation is one such strategic approach waste management firms can adopt to create value and to brand. Previous studies of co-creation in waste management are largely broad in perspective. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to assess the relationship among customer operant resources, online value co-creation and digital branding through electronic word-of-mouth in the Ghanaian waste collection industry. Using the positivist research paradigm approach, a structured questionnaire was used to collect data from customers through social media platforms. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. The relationships among customer operant resources, co-creation and electronic word-of-mouth were all significant. Customer value co-creation positively mediates between customer operant resources and electronic word-of-mouth. Firm web-based platforms also positively moderate the effects of customer operant resources on customer online value co-creation. The results of the study can guide management of the firms to design appropriate strategic and educational programs for the customers. This study has advanced knowledge on the importance of customer operant resources in waste management value co-creation by demonstrating the degree of impact of each of these customer resources.

The relationship between inflation and interest rate is of interest to many economy planners. The objective of this paper is to establish the relationship between interest rate and inflation in Ghana. Using monthly data for the period January 2003 to December 2013, this paper employ time series techniques, namely unit root tests, cointegration test and Granger causality to the data. The unit root test showed that both interest rate and inflation are non-stationary at the levels of the process but stationary at first difference. Again, the cointegration analysis revealed that there is exist cointegration among inflation and interest rate for the period under study and that interest rate causes inflation but the converse is not true. The paper recommends that managers of the Ghanaian economy should focus more on regulating the conduct of commercial banks in terms of managing the interest rates commercial banks set since it has be found that the interest rate drives inflation more than inflation driving interest rate.