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By relying on the Theory of Planned Behavior, this paper aims to understand the relative importance of attitude, subjective norm (SN), behavioral control, self-identity (SI) and past behavior in the prediction of green purchase behavior among Ghanaian consumers.

In total, 306 graduate students were surveyed on the environmental considerations in their purchase behavior using hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results of the study indicate that, in general, attitude and SI are more important than SN in influencing green purchase intention in a collectivistic country, such as Ghana. Yet, most respondents were neutral in their responses to questions as to whether they are green consumers and/or if they consider themselves to be concerned about environmental issues.

This is the first attempt to study environmental consideration in purchase decisions in Ghana, a resource-rich, emerging and one of the strongest economies in sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of the study was to identify the apparel shopping styles of Ghanaian female young adults and to assess the applicability of the consumer styles inventory (CSI) within the Ghanaian context.

A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 405 Ghanaian female undergraduate students aged 18–25 years from the University of Ghana. The CSI was used to collect data and these were analyzed using principal component analysis.

The results showed that the subjects adopted multiple shopping styles when scouting for stores and selecting apparel for managing their appearance. Seven of the CSI dimensions were confirmed (perfectionism, brand consciousness, novelty-fashion consciousness, confused by over-choice, impulsive carelessness, recreational hedonism and habitual brand loyalty). A new shopping style, indifference shopping orientation was identified.

Market segmentation, product development and marketing strategies should be tailored to the shopping styles of female young consumers in Ghana.

This study, for the first time, uses the consumer characteristic approach and the CSI to identify the apparel decision-making styles of young adult female Ghanaians. This fulfils the need for the study of shopping styles, which is vital for producers and marketers to enable them to make informed decisions to meet specific needs and expectations of these cohorts of consumers.

Weaknesses in the grades and standards system in low-income countries across Sub-Saharan Africa undermine the transparency of agricultural markets. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana and Mozambique rice is predominately sold in open bags and if rice price does not reflect its quality, then inefficiencies may lead to consumer welfare losses. Importantly, it is possible that impoverished communities are priced out of the market due to inflated and inefficient prices. The objective of this study is to examine determinates of rice price by estimating the impact of selected rice quality attributes on rice prices in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Mozambique.

We collected 363 rice samples from open air markets in Bukavu (DRC), Nampula (Mozambique) and across Ghana in 2019. Each rice sample was analyzed in a food science lab for the quality attributes: percentage of chalk and brokens, chalk impact, length and length-to-width ratio. We used multiple regression analysis to estimate if and to what extent quality attributes were the drivers of price.

Findings suggest that there are irregularities in the Ghanaian market for broken rice and that regardless of quality, imported rice is priced higher than domestic rice. In the DRC and Mozambique, our results indicate price is driven by length and length-to-width ratio in the former and length-to-width ratio in the latter.

Rice samples were purchased from market vendors and thus consumer preferences for attributes were not revealed.

These results provide valuable insight to policymakers regarding the need for proper labeling and regulation of open bag rice sales in an effort to increase consumer welfare and improve food security.

The pre-purchase phase of consumer behaviour for financial services, especially retail banking, has been under-researched. This study explored the determinants of consumer pre-banking behaviour (BAB) in the Ghanaian banking sector.

A quantitative approach was employed by extending the constructs of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and technology acceptance model (TAM) to include affective and conative components and utilising a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis.

Affective, conative, cognitive attitude, emotions and perceived trust (PT) were significant determinants of consumer pre-BAB. From a practical point of view, marketing managers need to be emotionally connected with their potential consumers to enhance the propensity of automatic purchasing.

The country context, sample type and size are limitations and so extending the study to other countries, with larger samples and additional insights on subjective norms (SNs), could help improve the model's efficacy.

The results presented in this paper are relevant and original because it is the only study, based on potential customers in an emergent economy context, to advocate the need for an emotional connection with potential consumers at the pre-banking stage to enhance the possibility of automatic purchasing.

This study aims to fill the gap on proenvironmental behavior studies among consumers in bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market by examining the relationship between values, beliefs and norms among Ghanaian consumers.

A sample of 324 Ghanaian consumers (responses rate of 64%) was used to estimate the model. The data was analyzed using maximum likelihood robust approach of Lavaan package for structural equation modeling in R.

The findings show that there is no significant relationship between values and the new ecological worldview, which also does not affect awareness of environmental consequences. However, awareness of consequences, likely based on personal experiences, significantly impacts perceived ability to reduce threats to the environment. Ghanaian consumers are mainly influenced by personal experiences with local environmental consequences that affect their perceived ability to reduce threats to their environment and their willingness to engage in proenvironmental behavior. The study supports the argument that proenvironmental behavior is the result of complex decision-making that might be influenced by a country’s economic situation, infrastructure, culture and institutions.

This study focuses on a single country in Africa. More studies are needed among other base of the pyramid countries, and in comparison to developed countries’ consumers.

The study adds to the limited knowledge regarding sustainable consumption in the neglected context of the bottom of the pyramid market.

To explore how inclusive banking services are marketed to financially vulnerable consumers (FVCs) in Ghana from the perspective of managers. This study aims to explore this under-researched area and contribute towards a transformative service research in the country.

This study adopted a multiple case study research approach to analyse six banks, including commercial, development, investment and rural and community banks. Specifically, semi-structured interviews and archival documents were used to collect data from the perspectives of bank managers.

The empirical research based on practical and theoretical models shows that Ghanaian banks design an array of financial products and services (FPS), adopt innovative traditional marketing strategies and apply inclusive technologies to reach out to the FVCs.

The authors conducted this study on six banks in Ghana; thus, service researchers are cautioned when generalising the findings and conclusions in other contexts beyond the country of focus.

This study offers practical ideas to guide marketers to better understand how banks market their inclusive banking services to FVCs.

This paper provides implications for addressing financial inclusion amongst the “unbanked”, “underserved” and “unserved” collectively known as the FVCs and how Ghanaian banks design FPS to improve service research and well-being outcomes.

This study provides vital information to policymakers in designing FPS aimed at achieving an inclusive financial system to improve the well-being of FVCs in Ghana.

Owing to increased competition resulting from a decade of deregulation in the Ghanaian banking industry, the banks find themselves faced with the task of differentiating their products as a method of attracting new customers. Aims to ascertain the characteristics looked for when Ghanaian bank customers open a bank account. The results are based on 225 multiple choice questionnaires filled in during customer interviews inside 50 bank branches. The results show that 73 per cent of account holders in Ghana are male. Ghanaian bank customers choose a bank based on understanding and high rates of interest. The banks are perceived to be conveniently located but offer slow services. Ghanaian bank customers are resistant to long‐term investment and the most effective media that best inform customers of bank services are word‐of‐mouth, radio and television.

This study analyzes the dynamic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumption among Ghanaian households, by identifying the existing consumption inequalities in the households according to the different age categories of the household head and changes in consumption patterns among the household constituents. In particular, the study examines the effects of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on household consumption and the differing impact on the different age categories of the household.

The research methodology of the study is based on the input–output analysis of the Ghanaian economy during the years 2015 and 2021 by using data on household consumption disaggregated by age. Economic impact is estimated through multi-sector modeling, specifically a demand model expressed based on a money metric measure valued in Ghanaian cedis. This model allows us to obtain the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the manufacturing sector, professional, scientific and technical activities, Water supply, sewerage, and waste management within Ghanaian households. The model also observed a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public sector works and defense, and SSNIT sectors of the Ghanaian economy.

The findings of the study revealed that for the category of age group between the ages of 15–29 years, the consumption of manufacturing products experienced an increase of 6.20% whiles that of electricity consumption, air conditioning and heating reduced by 2.26% for the period under consideration. However, public sector works and defense, and SSNIT experienced a decline by 8.24%. For the age group between 30 and 45 years, the highest and most positive percentage change in household consumption was noted to be professional, scientific and technical activities (6.20%), Water supply, sewerage, waste management (5.98%), as well as manufacturing (5.65%). However, there was a decline in the consumption level of education by Ghanaian households during the lockdown especially among people within the age group of 46–65 years. There was a decline of 6.11% for the administrative and support services and there was also a decline the services of defense and SSNIT service consumption by 2.10%. For the final age group of 66 years and above, there was an increase of 6.94% in the consumption of such essential utilities in Ghana between 2015 and 2021. The demand for education however showed a drastic reduction of 8.1% over the study period due to this category of age group with majority of them retiring from work.

The findings from this study will help in understanding the effects caused by the pandemic on household consumption and the differing impact on different age category of the household, especially on young households. This can potentially shape future policy by especially helping policymakers to device a more targeted social safety-net policies not only to speed-up recovery, but also to mitigate the negative impact of any future outbreak of a pandemic on household consumption and limit the age gaps in consumptions. However, the study does not consider the income levels of the different age groups. This becomes a limitation of the study and can be further explored in future studies.

This study measures the impact of a global health pandemic on the consumption of all households, with its accompanying impact of this variation. It can be noted that analyzing household consumption and quantifying the positive and negative impact on different age category of the household and the different sectors of the Ghanaian economy add to the limited knowledge of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the household level.

This study aims to examine consumer perception of introduction of Islamic banking (IB) in Ghana, which is a new and emerging form of banking in many non-Islamic countries.

Empirical field data were collected from a sample of 975 respondents using self-administered structured questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was conducted using SPSS version 16.

Muslim respondents have significantly positive perceptions of IB compared to non-Muslims and have stronger intentions to adopt IB in Ghana than non-Muslims. Non-Muslims have high perceived benefit of IB. Non-Muslim respondents do not perceive potential threat of violence associated with the introduction of IB in Ghana. Although non-Muslims perceive IB that would make Islam popular, they do not perceive it as a means of Islamizing bank customers. Relatively, non-Muslims appear to have low knowledge of IB, unfavourable attitude towards IB, are reluctant to comply with Sharia law and consequently have weaker intentions to adopt IB.

This study was limited to descriptive analysis and to only Ghana. Future research should quantitatively model IB adoption and switching factors using samples from other developing countries.

IB institutions could focus on attracting a niche of Muslim consumers at its initial stages. Moreover, to facilitate the introduction of IB, the Bank of Ghana and other relevant stakeholders, in addition to establishing effective governance structures, must promote consumer education to enhance consumer knowledge of IB and correct misconceptions about IB among consumers, particularly non-Muslim customers.

One unique contribution of this study is that it provides an initial empirical exploration of consumers’ attitude and perceptions of IB in Ghana, which is an under-researched area.

Some of the major concerns since the implementation of smart meters (prepaid meters) in some parts of Ghana is how electricity consumers have benefited from data obtained from these meters by providing important statistics on electricity-saving advice; this is one of the key demand-side management methods for achieving load reduction in residential homes. Appliance shifting techniques have proved to be an effective demand response strategy in load reduction. The purpose of this paper is therefore to help consumers of electricity understand when and how they can shift some appliances from peak to off-peak and vice versa.

The research uses an analysis technique of Richardson et al. (2010). In their survey on time-of-use surveys to determine the usage of electricity in households as far as appliance shifting was concerned, this study allowed for the assessment of how the occupants’ daily activities in households affect residential electricity consumption. Fell et al. (2014) modeled an aggregate of electricity demand using different appliances (n) in the household. The data for the peak time used in this study were identified from 05:00 to 08:00 and 17:00 to 21:00 for testing the load shifting algorithms, and the off-peak times were pecked from 10:00 to 16:00 and 23:00. This study technique used load management considering real-time scheduling for peak levels in the selected homes. The household devices are modeled in terms of controlled parameters. Using this study’s time-triggered loads on refrigerators and air conditioning systems, the findings suggested that peak loads can be reduced to 45% as a means of maintaining the simultaneous quality of service. To minimize peak loads to around 35% or more, Chaiwongsa and Wongwises (2020) have indicated that room air conditioning and refrigerator loads are simpler to move compared to other household appliances such as cooking appliances. Yet in conclusion, this study made a strong case that a decrease in household peak demand for electricity is primarily contingent on improvements in human behavior.

This study has shown that appliance load shifting is a very good way of reducing electrical consumption in residential homes. The comparative performance shows a moderate reduction of 1% in load as was found in the work done by Laicaine (2014). The results, however, indicate that load shifting to a large extent can be achieved by consumer behavioral change. The main response to this study is to advise policymakers in Ghana to develop the appropriate demand response and consumer education towards the general reduction in electrical load in domestic households. The difficulty, however, is how to get the attention of consumer’s on how to start using appliances with less load at peak and also shift some appliances from off-peak times. By increasing consumer knowledge and participation in demand response, it is possible to achieve more efficiency and flexibility in load reduction. The findings were benchmarked with existing comparison studies but may benefit from the potential production of structured references. However, the findings show that load shifting can only be done by modifying consumer actions.

It should be remembered that this study showed that the use of appliances shifting in residential homes results in load reduction benefits for customers, expressed as savings in electricity prices. The next step will be to build on this cost/benefit study to explain and measure how these reductions transform into net consumer gains for all Ghanaian households.

Load shifting will include load controllers in the future, which would automatically handle electricity consumption from various appliances in the home. Based on the device and user needs, the controllers can prioritize loads and appliance usage. The algorithms that underpin automatic load controllers will include knowledge about the behaviors of groups of end users. The results on the time dependency of activities may theoretically inform the algorithms of automatic demand controllers.

This paper addresses an important need for the country in the midst of finding solutions to an unending energy crisis. This paper presents demand response to the Ghanaian electricity consumer as a means to help in the reduction of load in residential homes. This is a novel research as no one has at yet carried out any research in this direction in Ghana. This paper has some new information to offer in the field of demand in household electricity consumption.