Search results

The needs assessment is the heart of any capacity-building strategy since it determines the design of any intervention, and also helps to prioritise the allocation of resources. Whereas there is a considerable amount of literature on the challenges faced by small- and medium-scale building contractors (SMBCs), very little is known about the needs (support) required by SMBCs. But given the critical role played by SMBCs in the construction industry demands, an understanding of how this sector can be assisted is required. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature relative to capacity building of SMBCs by exploring and examining the needs with the objective to extend the understanding on how to promote and sustain SMBCs to continue their infrastructural delivery at the local and rural areas in Ghana.

A questionnaire with five-point Likert scale is administered to 416 respondents, including local government authorities, consultants, first-class contractors and SMBCs using simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Data generated from the survey are analysed using mean score ranking and principal component analysis, thus enabling the findings of the study to be examined under six thematic areas.

The SMCs needs identified include anti-corruption measures, job accessibility, technical and technological assistance, favourable fiscal policy, business development support and financial assistance. The findings of the study bring to the attention of policy makers the critical areas that required support by the assistance of SMBCs. In the interim, the study recommends the extension of business advisory services to the SMBCs by National Board of Small-Scale Industries, whilst in the long term, the government must create the necessary business operating environment to promote SMBCs pertaining to the industrial sector of the economy. The SMBCs must also factor the needs into their business operations that can be addressed from within.

The study suggests the need of SMBCs in building a robust construction industry in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to introduce new tools to develop a more precise and focused bibliometric analysis on the field of digitalization in healthcare management. Furthermore, this study aims to provide an overview of the existing resources in healthcare management and education and other developing interdisciplinary fields.

This work uses bibliometric analysis to conduct a comprehensive review to map the use of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) research models in healthcare academic studies. Bibliometric studies are considered an important tool to evaluate research studies and to gain a comprehensive view of the state of the art.

Although UTAUT dates to 2003, our bibliometric analysis reveals that only since 2016 has the model, together with UTAUT2 (2012), had relevant application in the literature. Nonetheless, studies have shown that UTAUT and UTAUT2 are particularly suitable for understanding the reasons that underlie the adoption and non-adoption choices of eHealth services. Further, this study highlights the lack of a multidisciplinary approach in the implementation of eHealth services. Equally significant is the fact that many studies have focused on the acceptance and the adoption of eHealth services by end users, whereas very few have focused on the level of acceptance of healthcare professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to conduct a bibliometric analysis of technology acceptance and adoption by using advanced tools that were conceived specifically for this purpose. In addition, the examination was not limited to a certain era and aimed to give a worldwide overview of eHealth service acceptance and adoption.

The study investigated the perceived causes of structural failure of public buildings, frequency of stability checks, stability checking procedures, measures to enhance public building stability checks and the roles of facility managers in the Accra Metropolis of Ghana.

Following a comprehensive literature review, the study employed a structured questionnaire survey and gathered the opinions of sixty-seven facility managers on the facility management practices. Following statistical pretesting of the dataset for reliability, distribution and agreement among the responses, the study analysed the dataset using mean scoring and weighted analysis.

The analysis showed that external building inspectors rarely inspect stability checks of the studied public buildings in Accra. It is also found that both reactive and proactive stability checking protocols are implemented in public buildings in Accra, but inadequate knowledge of facility managers limits technical stability checks. The study further revealed that stability checks of public buildings can be enhanced through incorporating site and location conditions into the design early upfront, active engagement of facility managers in the design and construction of public buildings, adequate budgetary provisioning for planned maintenance of public buildings, and encouraging appropriate use of public buildings.

This paper, to the best of the authors' knowledge, represents the first attempt to comprehensively examine the causes of structural failure of public buildings, frequency of stability checks, stability checking procedures, measures to enhance public building stability checks and the roles of facility managers in Ghana, from the perspective facility management.

Transnational corporation (TNC)-led oil investments have been widely encouraged as a mechanism for the development of the Global South. Even though the sector is characterized by major accidents, oil-based developmentalist narratives claim that such accidents are merely isolated incidents that can be administratively addressed, redressed behaviorally through education of certain individuals, or corrected through individually targeted post-event legislation. Adapting Harvey Molotch’s (1970) political economy methodology of “accident research”, this paper argues that such “accidents” are, in fact, routine in the entire value chain of the oil system dominated by, among others, military-backed TNCs which increasingly collaborate with national and local oil companies similarly wedded to the ideology of growth. Based on this analysis, existing policy focus on improving technology, instituting and enforcing more environmental regulations, and the pursuit of economic nationalism in the form of withdrawing from globalization are ineffective. In such a red-hot system, built on rapidly spinning wheels of accumulation, the pursuit of slow growth characterized by breaking the chains of monopoly and oligopoly, putting commonly generated rent to common uses, and freeing labor from regulations that rob it of its produce has more potency to address the enigma of petroleum accidents in the global south.

Circular construction offers sustainable solutions and opportunities to disentangle a project’s life cycle, including demolition, deconstruction and repurposing of architectural, civil engineering and infrastructure projects from the extraction of natural resources and their wasteful usage. However, it introduces additional layers of novel risks and uncertainties in the delivery of projects. The purpose of this study is to review the relevant literature to discover, classify and theorize the critical risk factors for circular construction projects.

The paper conducted a systematic literature review to investigate the risks of circular construction projects. It deployed a multistage approach, including literature search and assessment, metadata extraction, citation frequency analysis, Pareto analysis and total interpretive structural modeling.

Sixty-eight critical risk factors were identified and categorized into nine broad taxonomies: material risks, organizational risks, supply chain risks, technological risks, financial risks, design risks, health and safety risks, regulatory risks and stakeholder risks. Using the Pareto analysis, a conceptual map of 47 key critical risk factors was generated for circular construction projects. A hierarchical model was further developed to hypothesize the multiple possible connections and interdependencies of the taxonomies, leading to chain reactions and push effects of the key risks impacting circular construction projects.

This study constitutes the first systematic review of the literature, consolidating and theorizing the chain reactions of the critical risk factors for circular construction projects. Thus, it provides a better understanding of risks in circular construction projects.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and the loyalty of car owners. The aim is to understand the relative importance of the various service quality dimensions to Ghanaian car owners as to what drive satisfaction and whether this satisfaction has implication on their loyalty.

The study used a survey of car owners and relied on partial least squares-structural equation modeling to study the relationship between service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Further moderation analysis based on the number of years of dealing with the mechanic was conducted.

The result indicates empathy, assurance, responsiveness and tangibles have a significant positive relationship with customer satisfactions. However, the reliability of the mechanic has no significant positive relationship with the satisfaction of customers. The results also indicate that customer satisfaction has a direct positive relationship with customer loyalty. The results further indicate that empathy and reliability of the mechanic have a significant positive relationship with customer loyalty; however, the assurance, responsiveness and tangibles have no significant relationship with customer loyalty. The moderation analysis indicated no significant differences in the hypothesis tested and the length of years of customers dealing with the mechanic.

There is the need for mechanics to provide caring and individual attention to car owners, it is also important for mechanics to understand that customers want their cars to be serviced by mechanics who exhibit knowledge and courtesy and also deliver service in a very responsive manner. The appearance of the workshop, equipment and directions are also very important to customers. It is, therefore, important for mechanics do their best to satisfy these customers for them to remain loyal.

The findings indicate the importance of empathy, assurance, responsive and tangibles in mechanic service delivery. It is, therefore, important for mechanics to consistently provide personal attention, attend to customers in a friendly manner, deliver cars after services, provide information to customers when extra repairs are required and should take the time to explain issues to customers. In addition, it is important for mechanics to screen and employ very courteous employees who can tell customers exactly the kind of services needed as well as communicate effectively on the risks of repairs. Prompt services also seem to be the key to the satisfaction of customers.

The work illustrates and provides some insights and builds on the literature in the area of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty from a developing country’s environment. This is one of the few research works investigating the issue of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in automobile services using data from the sub-Saharan African environment.

New circus explores a wide range of contemporary global and existential questions. From the dystopian performances of pioneering French new circus Archaos, and the ongoing social justice agenda of Circus Oz, to the themes of social decay and environmental degradation in Oozing Future’s 2019 production Autocannibal, new circus has sought innovative ways to challenge and confront audiences mediated by the human body. With a focus on emotive narrative representations of risk and death, this qualitative research examines the interaction of embodied movement and music in Zebastian Hunter’s Lacanian-inspired Empty Bodies and the author’s development of a circus opera, The Blood Vote. The immediate and embodied artforms of music and circus combine to engender a non-literal, yet powerful, form of speech surrogacy that communicates meaning and emotion, so we are reminded that anything is possible, not least of which is the illusion of the victory of life over death that circus performance itself embodies. Death is ever present in life, a fact we try to repress; circus confronts the audience with the undoing of this repression: we are going to die. This is what captivates us. In this way, contemporary new circus functions as an important signifier of meaning in contemporary performing arts.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of carbonization on the surface and its influence on heavy metal removal by water hyacinth based carbon.

Dried water hyacinth stem was used as precursor to prepare carbon based adsorbent by pyrolysis method. The adsorbent proximate (ash, volatile matter and fixed carbon) and elemental (carbon hydrogen nitrogen sulfur) composition, surface area, pore size distribution, surface chemistry was examined and compared.

The results demonstrated that through carbonization in comparison to dried water hyacinth stem, it increased the surface area (from 58.46 to 328.9 m²/g), pore volume (from 0.01 to 0.07 cc/g), pore size (from 1.44 to 7.557 Å) thus enhancing heavy metal adsorption. The metal adsorption capacity of Cd, Pb and Zn was measured and analyzed through induced coupled plasma-mass spectrometer. At metal concentration of 0.1 mg/l adsorption rate for Cd, Pb and Zn was 99% due to increased large surface area, coupled with large pore size and volume. Furthermore, the adsorbent surface hydroxyl group (OH⁻) enhanced adsorption of positively charged metal ions through electrostatic forces.

It is presumed that not only adsorption with synthetic wastewater but real wastewater samples should be examined to ascertain the viability of adsorbent for commercial application.

There are little or scanty data on the effects of carbonization on water hyacinth stem based carbon and subsequent effects on heavy metal removal in effluents.