Browsing by Author "Turkson, C."
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Dynamic cost productivity and economies of scale of Ghanaian insurers(Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance: Issues and Practice, 2019-01) Ohene-Asare, K.; Asare, J.K.A.; Turkson, C.Previous insurance efficiency studies have focused on cost efficiency or static and dynamic technical productivity and therefore ignored dynamic cost productivity. Previous studies have also failed to consider economies of scale at the firm level. This study employs a panel data of insurers to assess the dynamic cost productivity growth in Ghana from 2005 to 2014. We also explore the determinants of cost productivity growth in the Ghanaian insurance industry. We find that the introduction of the Insurance Act of 2006 saw some large cost productivity growths; however, since 2012 the industry has been facing some marginal cost productivity decline. The cost improving policies in the Act that encouraged cost efficiency must be revisited by regulators, as it seems that the industry is going back to the pre-regulation cost environment. Additionally, not many insurers have been operating at the optimal production scale over the period.Item Dynamic Productivity Differences between State and Private Ownership in the International Oil Industry(University of Ghana, 2015-07) Turkson, C.; Ohene-Asare, K.; Afful-Dadzie, A.; University of Ghana, College of Humanities, Business School, Department of Operations and Management Information SystemsThe participation of countries in the international oil industry in the form of national oil companies started in 1914 and has continued to this date. Although their role in market systems has been seen in literature to be a major cause of inefficiency, active state participation does not seem to be waning. This is primarily because of state dependence on oil products, growth of major state-owned oil companies and the belief that state control over its resources is a major sign of national sovereignty. This study provides insights on decisions operations managers of such state firms can adopt to make their operations more efficient. This was achieved by assessing whether multinational operations can offset the inefficiencies state-owned oil firms face due to home-country political influences. This was done by comparing efficiency and productivity differences between state and private oil companies as well as state multinationals and private multinationals globally. It also compares various efficiency and productivity measurement techniques in performance measurement in the industry with the aim of providing operations managers with the appropriate techniques for performance benchmarking. An unbalanced panel of 66 unique oil firms from the Petroleum Intelligence Weekly Database of Energy Intelligence was used for this study. Data on the 10 year period from 2001 to 2010 was assessed using relevant productivity measurement techniques in operations management and management science. From the findings, private firms are seen to out-perform state firms. Similarly, multinationals are seen to out-perform local firms. Multinational operation was also found to be a useful and relevant policy direction towards reducing productive inefficiencies of state-owned oil firms. However, multinational operations could not offset scale inefficiencies of state firms. Therefore, whereas state firms should be advised to incorporate multinational operations into future policies in order to reduce home-country inefficiencies, further efforts need to be directed towards reducing the size of operations since size is a major source of inefficiency.Item Inter-group performance of oil producing countries: a meta and global frontier analysis(International Journal of Energy Sector Management, 2018-09) Ohene-Asare, K.; Gakpey, V.S.; Turkson, C.Purpose The purpose of this study is to compare the production efficiencies and frontiers differences of oil-producing countries (OPCs) in four inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) in the international petroleum industry with the aim of providing such countries understanding of group characteristics that help maximize their supply interests. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis is based on 14 years of panel data covering the period from 2000 to 2013. In all 46 unique countries who are members of four IGOs relevant to the international petroleum industry are examined on individual and group bases. The authors use both metafrontier analysis and global frontier difference in examining the group average and group frontiers, respectively. Findings Groups with high inter and intra-group collaborations which ensure exchange of information, organizational learning and innovation tend to do better than groups with even higher hydro-carbon endowment. Additionally, hydro-carbon resource endowment may not be the solution to group inefficiency without higher endowment in human capital, economic stability, technology and infrastructure. Practical implications Choice of inter-governmental organizational membership should be based on the level of inter- and intra-group collaborations, human capital endowment among others and not mere historic links or even resource endowment. Originality/value This is among the few studies to compare and rank IGOs. Specifically, it is among the first studies to analyze the petroleum production efficiencies of IGOs involved in the international petroleum industry. This study assesses the performance differences among OPCs with the aim of identifying for OPCs the characteristics of inter-governmental groups that are beneficial to efficiency in upstream petroleum activities.Item A TOPSIS Extension Framework for Re-Conceptualizing Sustainability Measurement.(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2016) Afful-Dadzie, A.,; Afful-Dadzie, E.,; Turkson, C.Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a sustainability measurement and scoring system for assessing the efforts of organizations at meeting sustainability targets. Using technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) as the basic framework, the proposed method incorporates all three sustainability dimensions – economic, environmental and social – to establish a threshold below which an organization is considered to have failed a sustainability test. In Addition, an introduction of a time-independent threshold enables a clearer comparison of performance of organizations over time. The proposed method includes plots for visualizing the sustainability performance of organizations under review. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed method first assigns target values to a hypothetical organization. TOPSIS is then used to generate composite scores in which the score of the hypothetical organization is set as the threshold below which organizations are deemed to have failed a sustainability test. Using the square of the closeness coefficient of TOPSIS, the final composite score is decomposed into three components to reflect the contribution of the three dimensions of sustainability to serve as a guide to determining which dimension to focus on for improvement. A relative comparison score is then proposed to track the performance of organizations over time. Findings – The proposed method with its ability to set a threshold is able to determine organizations that have passed a sustainability test from those that have failed. The tracking of organizational performance over time also serves to highlight progress being made by organizations to meet an agreed sustainability target. Results from the application of the proposed method for evaluating sustainability of banks under the three dimensions of sustainability highlight its practical applicability. The proposed method can also be applied to a wide range of comparison problems including make-or-by decisions and award selection. Practical implications – As most industries and organizations become conscious of the pressure to adopt sustainable practices, the proposed measuring system would help identify those that are meeting sustainability targets as well as to track their progress over time. Originality/value – Most sustainability measurement indicators rarely have thresholds to determine whether an organization has met or failed to meet a sustainability test other than ranking them from top to bottom. The proposed method provides a threshold as well as a procedure for tracking the sustainability performance of organizations over time.Item Total-Factor Energy Efficiency and Productivity of ECOWAS States: A Slacks-Based Measure with Undesirable Outputs(Routledge, 2018) Ohene-Asare, K.; Turkson, C.Sub-Saharan Africa consumes far less energy per capita than world energy use per capita, yet energy efficiency is far lower in Africa. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been active in developing an energy efficiency policy aiming to improve efficiency levels in the region to be comparable to world levels. However, benchmarks used for the policy are based on traditional efficiency and intensity ratios. We examine the energy efficiency and energy productivity changes of ECOWAS members using nonparametric non-radial efficiency and dynamic productivity assessment techniques that take into consideration undesirable outputs. We find differences in the nature and levels of energy efficiency and sources of inefficiency among member states. We also observe that the major source of energy productivity growth in the region mainly relates to technical changes outside direct state control. There is a need for institutionalization of energy efficiency in the region by considering country-specific policies. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis