Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
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Item Towards a Greater Understanding of the Prevalence of Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy of Ghana: An Institutional Theory Perspective(Journal of African Business, 2023) Adom, K.; Ackom, B.This study aims to explore the prevalence of immigrant entrepreneurship in Ghana's informal economy through institutional theory. Specifically, the study sought to understand how the elements of the institutional theory (norms, culture, and regulations, which form formal and informal institutions) support or discourage immigrant entrepreneurship in the Sub-Saharan African context, with insights from Ghana. It is qualitative research that involves an in-depth face-to-face interview with 30 respondents. Analyzing the data from the interviews, the key findings are immigrants' inability to find paid jobs, failure to gather sufficient funds to operate in the formal sector, and the willingness to use innate ability. The Ghanaian culture of hospitality and the government's inability to implement trade regulations have been an enabler to the prevalence of immigrant entrepreneurship in Ghana. The legal frameworks that prevent immigrants from participating in retailing, especially in the informal economy of Ghana are well known by immigrant entrepreneurs, albeit it has yet to adhere. Therefore, there is a call for policy measures to address the weak institutional framework, which encourages disregard for the country's laws. Immigrant entrepreneurs who wish to remain in business in Ghana must obey the rules or suffer the punishment thereof.Item Fundraising through poverty porn: Ethical concerns(Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing, 2024) Mahmoud, M.A.; Nang, D.Y.This study aimed to assess the ethical dilemma in using poverty porn as a means of fundraising by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Ghana. The paper focuses on the ethical concerns from NGOs' perspective as they engage in charitable work to help reduce poverty in society. The study sought to answer the research questions using a qualitative approach by studying some selected NGOs in Ghana, West Africa. In-depth interviews were used to solicit responses from management members in charge of fundraising in 22 NGOs. The data were analyzed using thematic textual analysis (TTA). From the findings, it became evident that NGOs in their use of poverty porn believed the practice is a better alternative to raise more donations. They feel that the good side of the practice, which is supporting the needy, is more important and outweighs any counterarguments. They believed the end justifies the means. To the best of the researchers' knowledge, this is one of few studies that attempt to focus on the ethical concerns of poverty porn by NGOs.Item To Explore or to Exploit? Opportunities, Dynamic Capabilities, and Performance of Maritime Enterprises in Ghana(Journal of African Business, 2023) Acheampong, G.; Aggrey, O.K.; Hansen, A.S.This study investigates how the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities influence small business performance via interactions with firm-level innovation capability and learning orientation. We frame the study within the maritime-sector context and seek to contribute to the understanding of how the interplay between opportunity recognition, exploitation, innovation capability and learning orientation affects the entrepreneurial performance of local businesses when there is a technological policy change. The study further frames its arguments from a dynamic capability perspective and tests its arguments with data from 284 local businesses operating in the Port of Tema. Findings reveal that opportunity exploitation and learning orientation as well as their interplay have a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial performance. The study consequently presents local micro-entrepreneurial reactions to macro-level policy changes within the maritime sector, an issue that has largely remained uninvestigated in the African business literature due to maritime blindness.Item Relationship Marketing and Customer Loyalty in Ghana’s Informal Economy: Does Customer Perceived Value Matter?(Journal of African Business, 2022) Tettey, L.N.; Aggrey, O.K.; Acheampong, G.In this study, we seek to understand the role of relationship marketing in achieving customer loyalty in Ghana’s informal economy. The study further investigated the role of customer perceived value as a pass-through mechanism for the relationship between relationship marketing and customer loyalty. We collected primary data from 229 customers of informal economy operators in Accra. The data was then analyzed using structural equation modeling using the STATA 15 Package. Our findings indicate that commitment is the only fundamental relationship marketing factor investigated that has a direct influence on customer loyalty in the informal business context. Trust and conflict handling, on the other hand, benefit significantly from the presence of customer-perceived value whereas communication seems to have negligible effects. Consequently, scholars and marketing practitioners seeking to deploy the relationship marketing concept in the informal economy need to be aware of these contextual interplays and how they shape further discussions of the relationship marketing theory.Item Digital content marketing and consumer brand engagement on social media- do influencers’ brand content moderate the relationship?(Journal of Marketing Communications, 2023) Odoom, R.Digital content marketing (DCM) has been found to be effective in engaging consumers with brands, particularly on social media. Complementing DCM pursuits with social media influencers’ (SMIs) brand content can further enhance the ameliorating results. This study aimed to empirically assess DCM’s relationship with consumer brand engagement on social media and how SMI’s brand content moderates this relationship. Through a quantitative approach, the empirical data was purposefully collected from 1022 respondents via a web-based survey questionnaire. The findings indicate that DCM campaigns with information, entertainment, commercial and emotional focus have positive relationships with consumer brand engagement, except when DCM campaigns have negative emotional elements. Moreover, the brand content of SMIs significantly moderates the relationship between DCM elements and brand engagement. However, DCM campaigns with negative emotional elements have a negative relationship on brand engagement when SMI is a moderator. This study is significant as it empirically tests the interplay among DCM, SMIs, and brand engagement on social media, contributing to the literature on this topic.Item The moderating influence of celebrity endorsement on intention to engage in infection prevention behaviours(Health Promotion International, 2023) Coffie, I.S.; Tweneboah-Koduah, E.Y.; Ocloo, E.C.; Mann, V.Although the use of celebrities for communication within social marketing to influence voluntary behaviour change has received significant attention, its application to promote infection-preventive behaviours, such as frequent handwashing with soap, has received limited attention. Using the health belief model (HBM), the study examined the moderating effect of celebrity endorsement (CE) on the relationship between the predictors of HBM, such as perceived severity, susceptibility, benefits, barriers, self-efficacyand target audiences’ intention to avoid handshaking, frequently wash hands with soap and cover mouth with an elbow when coughing. Data from 562 respondents were analysed using PLS-SEM. The result shows that CE is significantly moderate the relationship between target audiences’ perception of severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy and cues to action and intention to perform the recommended infection-preventive behaviours. Thus, when a celebrity is employed as a conduit for delivering a social marketing message, particularly about infection preventive behaviour, target audiences are more likely to take action to perform the recommended behaviour. Theoretically, the study shows that although the HBM has been extensively applied to explain health-related behaviours, using celebrities to endorse the various constructs of the HBM significantly enhances the predictive ability of the model.Item Stakeholder legitimacy and efficiency: the case of innovation at the Port of Tema, Ghana(International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2022) Acheampong, G.; Aryee, J.; Andersen, T.; Hansen, A.S.Our study set out to explore the relationship between legitimacy in the form of social license that stakeholders grant the National Single Window Project (NSWP) and port efficiency at the Port of Tema, as well as bounding conditions on this relationship. We collected stakeholder legitimacy data in line with with the social license to operate (SLO) framework on the National Single Window Project implementation at the port and stakeholder-perceived port efficiency in Tema. We found that there is an -shaped relationship between legitimacy and port efficiency. We also found that port cooperation and relational intensity dampens the relationship between legitimacy and portability. efficiency. Our study offers an alternative perspective on port management that view ports as isolated units, which provides a partial understanding of their functioning. We opine that viewing ports as networks of stakeholders provides an improved understanding.Item An analysis of the effects of customer satisfaction and engagement on social media on repurchase intention in the hospitality industry(Cogent Business & Management, 2021) Majeed, M.; Abubakari, A.; Asare, C.; Fatawu, A.The purpose of this quantitative-deductive paper is to explore the link between amongst customer satisfaction and engagement on social media on repurchase intention in the hospitality industry. The study was conducted on social media because it is the fastest-growing media in history. Data was collected from hotels in the three major business hub cities (Accra, Tamale and Kumasi) in Ghana. A total of 504 valid responses were obtained from respondents in the selected cities. SmartPLS software was used to analyze the data using the PLS-SEM method. The results show that customer satisfaction has a positive and significant relationship on the dimensions of customer engagement. The three dimensions of customer engagement (contribution, consumption and creation) were found to significantly influence repurchase intention. Finally, two dimensions of engagement (contribution and consumption) were found to mediate the relationship between customer satisfactions and repurchase intentions. The study is among the few to combine the COBRA model and Social Exchange Theory to assess the nexus between customersengagement in an online environment and its linkages with satisfaction and repurchase intentions. Marketers should consider creating posts with photos, videos, and animation that consumers find entertaining and enjoyable, as this stimulates their desire to consume, contribute, and create content on social media pages for hotel brands.Item Value co-creation and employee service behaviours: The moderating role of trust in employee - hotel relationship(Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2022) Boadi, E.A.; Hinson, R.E.; He, Z.; et al.Value co-creation (VC) is generally considered to have mutually beneficial implications for all actors involved. Nonetheless, emerging evidence on value co-destruction and its consequences on the wellbeing of co-creating actors implies that narrowing down on specific fallouts of this process is needed for managerial interventions. This paper contributes to the value-co-creation literature by exploring the relationship between customer participation in VC on some difficult-to-detect employee service behaviors: workaholism and fear-based silence. The extent to which employee trust (TRS) in employee-hotel relationship moderates these relations is assessed. While the findings from 422 frontline employee-customer data within luxury hotels in Ghana support a negative effect of VC on fear-based silence and workaholism, TRS buffered these effects. We recommend that VC be in service failure and recovery should be approached with tact, compassion, and forgiveness.Item Exploring customer stewardship behaviors in service firms(European Business Review, 2022) Boateng, H.; Hinson, R.E.; Amenuvor, F.E.; et al.Purpose: The existing literature has emphasized the importance of frontline service employees developing a sense of ownership for the overall well-being of customers. However, studies into why frontline service employees develop ownership and responsibility for customers are still lacking. The purpose of this paper is to address the question, “Why do frontline service employees engage in responsible customer service? behaviors and protect the interests of customers in Ghana? Design/methodology/approach – A semistructured interview with 61 frontline service employees was used in the study. This study used a thematic analysis technique to analyze the data. Findings: The findings show that frontline service employees develop a sense of customer stewardship because of organizational values and human resource management initiatives (rewards and in-service training) and ownership and accountability. Originality and Value: Studies on why frontline service employees engage in responsible customer service behaviors and protect the interests of customers is limited. This study addresses this gap in the literature