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Item Digital economy, financial development and energy transition in Africa: Exploring for synergies and nonlinearities(Applied Energy, 2024) Horvey, S.S.; Odei-Mensah, J; Moloi, T.; Bokpin, G.A.The transition to sustainable energy for all is a crucial aspect of the sustainable development goals, particularly Goal 7, which underscores the need for clean and affordable energy. This requires the development of digital infrastructure and a strong financial system. As a result, this study contributes to knowledge by exploring the synergies and nonlinear effects of the digital economy and financial development on renewable energy, which remains underexplored. To this effect, this study recruits the dynamic panel threshold and the generalised method of moments estimations to evaluate the linear, synergies and nonlinearities among these factors using a panel of forty-seven African countries. The key empirical results are stated as follows: (1) renewable energy is positively impacted by the digital economy; (2) the impact of the digital economy on renewable energy is moderated by financial development. This suggests that to ensure the propelling effect of the digital economy on renewable energy, there is a need for a stable and robust financial system; and (3) the study further found nonlinear effects of the digital economy and financial development on renewable energy, which takes a U-shaped relationship, implying that low level of digitalisation and financial development may hinder the transition to renewable energy, while high levels of these factors are essential to expedite the transition to a more sustainable energy system. Hence, African countries must embrace digitalisation and commit significant financial resources to developing their digital infrastructure to facilitate the achievement of the net zero agenda.Item Defining ‘Smart Rural’ in the Framework of Regional Digitalisation(IST-Africa 2021 Conference Proceedings, 2021) Lindblom, P.; Kolog , E.A.; Nygren, E.; Sutinen, E.In this paper, we explored how a smart development framework could be harnessed for enhancing small and medium enterprise (SME) activities in rural communities. With this aim, this study considered and compared the landscape of the SME ecosystems in Ghana and Finland. Alongside the deprived countryside or remote work context, it has become clear that contemporary digital platforms and collaborative media represent an integral part of smart development. In addition, remote working possibilities help tackle challenging times or even a state of emergency, such as the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. We created our Smart rural development model (SRDm) to facilitate the digital transformation of SMEs and strategies in peripheral settings. Our SRDm was developed from the exploration of smart development literature in regional settings, and filtering numerous initiatives utilutilizedhin digitalization SME development context. The key target groups who can benefit from our research endeavor are the various strategic development organizations, financing authorities, and of course regional stakeholders, policymakers, business clusters, SMEs, and individuals.Item “It’s the patient that suffers from poor communication”: Analyzing communication gaps and associated consequences in handover events from nurses’ experiences(SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 2024) Atinga,R.A.; Gmaligan,M.N.; Ayawine,A.; Yambah,J.K.Background: Although routine communication gaps among clinical shift teams significantly account for adverse care and treatment outcomes, existing analysis of the phenomenon remain limited in low middle income countries battling with patient safety issues. This study analyzed the drivers and associated episodic consequences of communication gaps from nurses’ experiences in Ghana. Methods: Qualitative design implemented in two referral hospitals. Data collection involved site observations and in-depth interviews with general nurses, midwives, and staff nurses across 3-cycle shift regimes in the emergency, ICU, inpatient wards, and maternity units. A two-stage data analysis was adopted by integrating deductive and inductive codes into broad thematic typologies explaining drivers of communication gaps and the consequences thereof. Results: Communication gaps among shift teams were largely driven by a combination of three broad factors: a) Attitudinal elements of poor work ethics, poor documentation, interpersonal conflicts and use of unconventional language that impaired effective communication; b) organizational dynamics of taxing job demands, limited training exposure and lack of formal handover communication procedures which allowed shift teams to adopt default patterns of communication behavior; and c) cultural values, stereotyping and prejudicing behaviors that restricted inclusive interactions among shift teams. These communication gaps produced adverse episodic effects of diagnostic and treatment errors, complications, and extended hospitalizations. Conclusion: The findings underscore the need to develop standard guidelines to direct structured communication alongside equipping shift teams with competences on emotional intelligence to overcome cultural and behavioral adversities that influence communication breakdown.Item Government-Led digital transformation in FinTech ecosystems(Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 2024-08-01) Senyo,K.P.; Karanasios,S.; Agbloyor,K.E.; Choudrie,J.In this paper, we report on a qualitative exploratory case study of a national-level government-led digital transformation. We depart from most studies on government digital transformation that largely focus on improving existing services, bureaucratic processes, or adopting emerging digital technologies. Instead, we analyze the process of a government-led digital transformation aimed at addressing significant institutional voids within a resource-constrained context. Drawing from 60 interviews with stakeholders in the Ghanaian FinTech ecosystem, we theorize the concept of digital branching strategy as an alternative lens to envisage government-led digital transformation that considers the resource-constrained context and characteristics of governments. Our findings show that governments, especially those in resource-constrained contexts, pursue digital transformation through exploring frugal innovations and leveraging established resources, structures, and relationships within an ecosystem. We subsequently develop a process model to explain the mechanisms of a national-level government-led digital transformation. Based on the findings and the model, our study offers critical insights to re-imagine government-led digital transformation in resource-constrained contexts by demonstrating how pursuing a digital branching strategy leads to planned and emergent outcomes because of the generative nature of the transformationItem Pooled procurement program in the quality improvement of medicines of the National Catholic Health Service in Ghana: using the Donabedian model(Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, 2020) Domfeh, K.A.Objectives This study evaluates structures that determine the quality of medicines procured through the pooled procurement program (PPP) in the National Catholic Health Service (NHS) using the Donabedian model. The challenges faced in the PPP are also revealed. Method A qualitative multiple case study was used to collect information from twenty top and middle-level administrators in the NCHS through in-depth interviews. After the data transcription, it was then analyzed using the thematic content analysis approach. Key findings The study found that the structures for quality of services in the health facilities are moderately satisfactory. The structures of the NCHS included experienced healthcare workers, adequate physical infrastructures, functional Drug and Therapeutic Committees (DTCs), and a rapid-testing laboratory facility to ensure that medicines procured were of high quality. This paper established that suppliers of medicines to the health facilities in the NCHS had to register with the NCHS subject to annual renewal. Suppliers are also required to have the Pharmacy Council (PC) and the Food and Drug Authority (FDA), certification to supply medicines to health facilities. However, the predominant challenges that confronted the health facilities were delays in health insurance claims processing and payments and lack of management commitment in implementing the PPP. Conclusion The study contributes to the pharmaceutical health services literature in the context of the pooled procurement approach in the sourcing of medical goods in the health sector. Significant implications for research and management are also presented.Item Policy Responses to fight COVID-19; the case of Ghana(Brazilian Journal Of Public Administration, 2020) Antwi-Boasiako, J.; Abbey, C.O.A.; Ofori, R.A.; Ogbey, P.This paper focuses on the policy responses of Ghana’s government with a focus on three areas: health, economic, and social. Ghana has made several policy interventions in these three areas. The study highlighted the adoption of the 3T approach in health, CAP-20 in economics, and free water and subsidized electricity for citizens as social interventions. The study concludes that the measures undertaken by the Government of Ghana have yielded significant results even though some challenges with delivery mechanisms are identified. The available statistics as of October 25, 2020, on the COVID-19 situation in Ghana further affirm the gains.Item Drivers of Global Social Network Adoption: A Technology-Organisation-Environment Perspective(International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications, 2020) Alhassan, M.D.; Adam, I.O.; Nangpiire, C.This study aims to explore the drivers of social network adoption at a global level. Past research has largely focused on social network adoption at the country level with few studies conducted at the worldwide level. Furthermore, the mediating role of ICT access on social network adoption has been given limited attention. To fill this gap, this study employs the Technology Organization-Environment (TOE) framework to investigate factors that may influence global social network adoption. Relying on archival and cross-sectional data from 135 countries and using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling, our findings show that social network adoption at the global level, is positively influenced by ICT access of a county and that ICT regulation and the development of the human resource will not directly influence social network adoption. Although technological, organizational, and environmental factors accounted for 55.5% of the variance in social network adoption, the mediating role of ICT access and the effects of human resource development on social network adoption was found to be significant. Our findings provide a fresh insight into the adoption of social network sites at the global level. Our study provides some implications for research and practice.Item Financial inclusion and inclusive growth in Africa: What is the moderation role of financial stability?(Cogent Economics & Finance, 2023) Iddrisu, K.; Abor, J.Y.; Doku, J.N.; Dziwornu, R.This article aims to explore the interplay between financial stability, financial inclusion and inclusive growth in 40 African countries during the period 2004–2020. It acknowledges that an unstable financial system has the potential to erode confidence and hinder the essence of financial inclusion in promoting inclusive growth. However, studies regarding the combined effect of financial inclusion and financial stability on inclusive growth are hard to find, especially in Africa. By examining the effects of financial inclusion on inclusive growth and the synergistic relationship between financial stability and inclusive growth, this study seeks to shed light on how these factors interact in the context of African economies. To To cater for endogeneity issues, we used a two-step system-generalized method of moment. Our result reveals three outcomes: First, financial inclusion promotes inclusive growth. Second, financial stability alone is less effective at enhancing inclusive growth. Lastly, financial stability forms synergy with financial inclusion to further spike inclusive growth. It is recommended that policymakers strive to enhance financial inclusion by promoting financial stability.Item Challenges of income diversification and food security in Northern rural Ghana(Cogent Social Sciences, 2023) Salifu, G.A.; Salifu, Z.The relationship between income diversification and food security gained considerable attention in the academic literature in the last two decades. Smallholder farmers undertake income diversification activities to ensure improved food security amidst changing patterns of climate and rural socio-demographics. Understanding the challenges of smallholder farmers in income diversification strategies is critical to assessing the effectiveness of food security measures in savannah regions threatened by weather variability and environmental shocks. This study aims to shed light on the challenges of income diversification in Northern rural Ghana and to add to the growing body of research seeking to understand the challenges of income diversification and its link to the food security status of smallholder farmers in the deprived context of rural Africa. By exploiting a unique sample of 500 agricultural households in rural Ghana, we show that income diversification and the food security status of smallholders are positively related to both food access and nutritional diversity. Our results show that income diversification played a significant role in improving food access and dietary consumption. Highly diversified households were more likely to report being food secure as higher income diversification translated into higher incomes and food security. The single most important factor which stood out as an explanatory variable for food security in Northern rural Ghana was spousal incomes generated from diversification. Spousal incomes accounted for (29.2%) of the share of total household incomes used to purchase food for farm families in distress seasons. The findings support the use of spousal income diversification pathways as a means of reducing the negative impacts of food insecurity in the Yendi and Bimbilla Municipalities of the Northern Region. The study highlights the need for Ghana’s economic policy frameworks to address the following three cardinal challenges of income diversification : (1) poor access to start-up capital or funds, (2) poor condition of infrastructure, and (3) high costs of transportation, directly linked to the underdevelopment of Northern Ghana.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.