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Public higher education institutions (HEIs) infrastructure funding is challenging in many developing countries. Encouraging private investment in HEIs infrastructure via a developed expanded corporate social responsibility (ECSR) may improve physical facilities. ECSR is a form of infrastructure tax relief providing physical facilities for HEIs. Academic literature is scarce concerning how ECSR can improve Nigeria’s public HEIs infrastructure and achieve education infrastructure related to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Therefore, this study aims to proffer measures to improve public HEIs infrastructure and achieve sustainable development connected to Goal 4 focussing on infrastructure via a developed framework.

This is an expansion of an ongoing study, and data were collated via virtual interviews across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. The analysed data were presented in a thematic pattern.

A total of 18 measures (sub-variables) emerged and were re-grouped into six variables. This includes institutionalising ECSR, HEIs infrastructure via ECSR awareness, HEIs infrastructure incentives, national and state action plans on HEIs infrastructure, a legal framework for HEIs infrastructure and key stakeholders’ participation. Also, the study used the generated six main variables to develop the improved public HEIs infrastructure via ECSR in developing countries, using Nigeria as a case study. This can enhance achieving infrastructure associated with SDG 4 (quality education) and targets.

This study intends to develop the philosophy (ECSR) with an implementable framework to encourage the private sector further to expand their CSR in the infrastructure development to the educational sector, especially in developing countries higher institutions, using Nigeria as a case study.

The concept of entrepreneurship is not new. As a concept, it remains elusive, diverse and multi-faceted. Although there is an extensive body of research within the field, there is little consensus on what underpins entrepreneurship, and whether it should remain a distinct domain of study.

This chapter contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship in developing economies. The study seeks to uncover the challenges facing entrepreneurs in a developing economy using the formal retail sector in Nigeria as a case.

Entrepreneurship in the retail sector of a developing economy has not been given significant attention by researchers despite its uniqueness and dynamism. By adopting a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews of 51 respondents, the lived experiences of these entrepreneurs were understood. Given the challenges such entrepreneurs face in a developing economy, this study makes a contribution, as the challenges such retail entrepreneurs face namely, challenges within the industry, government policy inconsistencies and corruption, infrastructural deficit and technology deficit were identified. In practice, the findings of this study serve as a useful reference for practitioners and policy-makers of the challenges that need to be addressed for entrepreneurship to flourish in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of zakat fund on the food expenditure of the households to assess the impact of zakat fund on the agricultural production of the households and to assess the opinion of the zakat recipients on food security status under zakat program.

Samples were selected for this study using the simple random sampling (SRS) technique. A total of 149 households were selected from 196 households. A survey was conducted during January to March 2011 among the project beneficiaries using questionnaire. The ordinary least squares technique was used to assess the impact of zakat on food security status of the zakat recipients. Heteroscedasticity problem was detected in this study which was corrected using White's method. Logit model was used to assess the opinions of the zakat recipients on their food security status under the Hasana project.

This study shows that amount of zakat provided to the poor recipients failed to create any significant influence on their agricultural production, food expenditure and food security status. The study also shows that household income, family members’ involvement in agricultural activities and numbers of income-generating activities pursued by the households were the key determinants of households’ food consumption.

This study helps in assessing the opinion of the zakat recipients about the effectiveness of the zakat program on their living standard in terms of household agricultural production and food security and also assisting in policy planning for alleviating rural poverty in Bangladesh through the zakat system.

Women constitute a significant proportion of the Nigerian public servants. They have varied job related information needs and possess some information seeking behaviour. The study aimed to identify their job‐related information needs and assess the existing office information environment.

The survey method, using questionnaire and observation techniques were used in collecting data from 158 women in the top cadre of the federal and three selected state ministries and parastatals.

The study found that most of the information needs were related to governance, education, religion, family and domestic matters. Only one‐third of the respondents regarded information on women as very relevant to job performance. Newspapers, magazines, newsletters, colleagues, and conversations were the main sources of information. Although electronic sources, especially the internet were not widely available, the respondents were enthusiastic to use them. They also perceived positive relationship between good information environment and job performance.

A limitation of the study is the small sample considering that there are 36 states in Nigeria. Also, a study of all public servants, male and female, would have been better. The paper recommends an improvement to the information environment of the government establishments.

As not many studies have been done on women in public service and their information needs and use, the findings of this study will be useful to government and other decision makers in providing facilities and for infrastructural development to increase productivity of women and all public servants.

The purpose of this study is to describe the success story of a software company, Adobe, in redesigning the workplace environment from cubicles to a connected collaborative workplace, which helped the organization optimize workplace usage. The goals were to design an innovative work environment to optimize the usage of the office portfolio, improve workplace service quality and infrastructure facilities of the portfolio, increase employee productivity, reduce technology costs, engage employees in a better way to enhance employee satisfaction, align workplace design with the brand, mobilize technology and enable a globalized workforce to facilitate higher productivity.

An exploratory research design method was adopted using the purposive sampling technique to collect data through semi-structured interviews with a team of nine property professionals from the operations team responsible for workspace redesign at Adobe in India.

The main observations of the corporate real estate (CRE) manager were on what value parameters drive workplace redesign and how different software companies were creating strategies to manage workplace design or redesign change for optimal use of the organization portfolio. To discuss the CRE strategies of global software leaders, IBM and SAP were pointed out in this case.

The number of interviews were limited. The related parameters for workplace transformation are not necessarily complete. However, the parameters are regarded to include the most important aspects of workplace redesign.

This study provides useful insights into how benchmarking in the workplace transformation function of the CRE industry can be applied to address portfolio-related challenges, divergent employee needs and improve workspace usability following energy-efficient policies. Practitioners can use this study as a guide to develop more effective workspace designs.

This study may guide other firms on successful workspace design initiatives that may overcome many obstacles in the workplace transformation process to have their intended impact on workplace efficiency and employee satisfaction. The case can be used as an inspiration for developing specific user-focused innovative workspace design in practice.

Adopting the theoretical background of the person–environment fit theory, this study adds to the understanding of the operational model of a digitally connected workspace designed as per real estate needs and strategies to manage the CRE portfolio of the company.

This study aims to investigate two primary objectives. First, this study examines the influence of modified service quality dimensions on Islamic bank customer satisfaction using a compliance, reliability, empathy, assurance, tangible, operational efficiency, responsiveness (CREATOR) model. Second, the study explores the relationship between customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and word of mouth (WOM) in Islamic banking of Pakistan.

The proposed model was analyzed using PLS-SEM-based approach. A total of 312 usable responses were used for data analysis.

The results indicate that all CREATOR dimensions have a significant positive impact on Islamic banks’ customer satisfaction. Similarly, this study also found a significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and WOM. Overall, this study modified a well-established service quality framework by successfully implementing the CREATOR model in Islamic banking.

This study will provide helpful policy guidelines for Islamic bank managers improve their service quality and strengthen their relationships with existing and new customers. The authors are also sure that their proposed model will add value to the ongoing service quality literature by indicating the role of operational effectiveness in increasing customer satisfaction and promoting positive WOM.

This paper is based on users’ satisfaction with housing infrastructure as a derivative of their participation in evolving the facilities from inception. The paper aims to examine optimal performance of infrastructural facilities with a view to determine the satisfaction of users in the study area.

This study reports on a cross-sectional doctoral research study on 304 household heads in the transitional and peripheral zones of Akure, Nigeria. The infrastructure studied were water supply, electricity supply, roads, drainage, waste management and security. A structured questionnaire, focus group discussions and physical observations were used. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean satisfaction scoring and categorical regression analysis.

Respondents found the infrastructural facilities in their communities to be unsatisfactory; they also indicated low levels of participation in the provision of infrastructure. Residents were most satisfied with waste management and least satisfied with water supply. The results showed a significant relationship between users’ participation and satisfaction with housing infrastructure.

The findings imply that giving adequate attention to users’ involvement in the provision process of infrastructural projects can enhance their satisfaction with infrastructure.

The study highlights the benefits of involving users in the process of providing housing infrastructure, establishing a positive relation with their satisfaction.

Funding infrastructural facilities of higher institutions, especially in some developing nations such as Nigeria, that is under-funded, is a challenge in the current era. Private organisations participation in infrastructure development via a proposed expanded corporate social responsibility (ECSR) may enhance infrastructural facilities provision. There is a paucity of literature regarding ECSR, a form of infrastructure tax relief providing infrastructural facilities for higher institutions. Therefore, the study investigated the role of private organisations via a proposed ECSR in the provision of infrastructure and proffer ways to enhance higher institutions' infrastructure development delivery in Nigeria.

The study data were collated via face-to-face interviews and observation of existing buildings. From the six geo-political zones, two higher institutions each were selected for a good representation across Nigeria. Saturation was achieved with 26 participants interviewed. The emerged three main themes were analysed via thematic analysis.

Findings show inadequate infrastructure development in Nigerian higher institutions. Lack of policy and institutional framework, lax governance, level of transparency, and corruption, emerged as the key issues that may hinder private organisations from participating in public higher institutions infrastructure development delivery in Nigeria via ECSR. Others are lack of autonomy, inadequate planning, high level of impunity, political affiliation, poor management, and access to funding. The study proffers some recommendations based on these findings.

This research is restricted to the role of private organisations via ECSR in infrastructure development (buildings) in Nigeria's public higher institutions. Future study is needed to validate the proposed ECSR framework in developing countries for the provision of buildings for higher institutions in their host communities.

The paper will advance the philosophy of corporate social responsibility to the provision of building facilities in host communities' higher institutions by private companies through tax relief and supported by a proposed Presidential Executive Order.

The proposed ECSR framework can be used to improve building facilities in Nigeria's higher institutions. This may assist and stir up policymakers to explore the proposed model and back up with an established policy such as infrastructure tax relief (ITR) for implementation.

Federal and State Governments began to explore more subtle alternatives for accessing private sector resources in the delivery and operation of public facilities. The purpose of this paper is to examine the types of infrastructural projects most suitable using public‐private partnership (PPP) for executions and identify the critical success factors in PPP on infrastructural projects with a view to strengthening the partnership between the public (government) and private sector. The overall goal is to enhance infrastructural projects delivery in Nigeria.

The primary data consists of survey questionnaires, drawn based on the identified factors on existing literature on critical success factors (CSFs). The structured questionnaires were administered on participants that were involved in the execution of PPP projects, either during the initial stage, construction stage or maintenance and operating stages in Lagos State.

The results of the mean score ranking indicate that transportation, which include roads, rails and airports construction ranked highest followed by provision of electricity and water. Real estate and educational construction projects ranked lowest in terms of suitability of execution using PPPs. However, the result of the one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates that, there was no significant difference in the suitability of PPP for execution of the types of infrastructural projects delivery. The paper further identified nine CSFs in public‐private partnerships as follows: competitive procurement process, thorough and realistic assessment of the cost and benefits, favorable framework, appropriate risk allocation and risk sharing, government involvement by providing a guarantee, political support, stable macroeconomic condition, sound economic policy and availability of suitable financial market. The study, however, showed that well organized and committed public agency; social support; project technical feasibility and multi‐benefits objectives are the CFSs that are most important to the private investors. On the other hand, factors such as transparency in the procurement process; shared authority between public and private sector; thorough and realistic assessment of the cost and benefits; commitment and responsibility of public and private sector and strong and good private consortium are the CSFs that are most important to the public clients.

The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the suitability of PPP for execution of infrastructural projects delivery. This shows that PPP is suitable for all types of infrastructural projects. What needs to be done is to ensure that all the success factors responsible for successful implementations of PPPs are well structured in a way that its optimum performance can be guaranteed. Also, in identification of the critical factors in PPP it would help to develop a body of PPP knowledge. This knowledge would help in the establishment of relevant laws, regulations and guidelines and in the development of efficient frameworks for best PPP practices.

This research aims to examine the difference in the availability, adequacy and functionality of physical facilities in centralized and decentralized schools districts, with a view to making appropriate recommendations to stakeholders on the reform programmes in the Nigerian education sector.

Principals, teachers, members of the board of education including parents and community leaders were surveyed from centralized and decentralized school districts on availability, adequacy, and functionality of schools facilities.

Emerging data revealed that decentralization enhances the availability, adequacy and functionality of schools physical facilities.

The implication of the findings is that decentralization is a more efficient method of managing schools' infrastructure because it promotes accountability and reduces official corruption in schools administration.

Findings from this research provide practical solutions to the problem of physical facilities inadequacy in the Nigerian school system.