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This study investigates the drivers of CSR practices among construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria.

This research adopted a questionnaire survey to achieve the aim. A purposefully chosen group of managing directors, directors, other senior construction experts or management personnel working for small, medium and large-sized construction enterprises in Nigeria were given questionnaires to complete. 196 questionnaires were issued, out of which 103 were properly completed and returned, with a return percentage of 61% which served as the basis for this study. Utilizing both descriptive and inferential statistics, the collected data were examined.

The results from the study revealed that “vision of the founder”, “creating public attention”, “competitive advantage” and “business strategy” were the top most four drivers of CSR initiatives among construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria. The results also showed that, there is a statistically significant degree of agreement between various categories of construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria regarding the drivers of CSR initiatives.

The study contributes more effectively to CSR studies by highlighting the drivers of CSR initiatives in construction companies. The finding would facilitate the adoption and implementation of CSR initiatives in construction organizations. The adoption of best CSR practices fosters strong relationship among construction companies, project stakeholders and communities.

The construction industry in Nigeria has a complex environment, comprising several combinations of consulting professions, clients, contractual arrangement and investors, with longer working hours than other industries. Work–life balance (WLB) strategies are used to balance professional life and personal life. This study aims to assess the extent of implementation of WLB strategies among construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria.

This study adopts a survey research technique. Snowball sampling technique was adopted to identify the targeted respondents for the administration of questionnaire. A total of 156 questionnaires were distributed and a response rate of 66% (103 questionnaires were completely filled and returned) was attained. Data elicited were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results from this study provides evidence that the level of implementation of WLB strategies among construction companies in Lagos state, Nigeria is on the average. The results also revealed organisational understanding, paternity/maternity leave and flexible working arrangement as the top most three WLB strategies implemented among the construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria.

This study contributed to more effective WLB studies by identifying new information on the extent of usage of WLB practices in the Nigerian construction sector as well as offers a fresh perspective on the usage of WLB in a developing country. An understanding of these strategies is significant for companies’ stakeholders, such as management personnel, top construction professionals and policymakers, and for facilitating the adoption and implementation of WLB strategies among construction organisations.

The current study seeks to investigate and determine the principal barriers to the adoption of work–life balance (WLB) practices amongst construction companies operating in the developing countries using Lagos, Nigeria as a case study.

This study adopts a survey research technique. Snowball sampling technique was adopted to identify the target respondents for the administration of questionnaire. A total of 156 questionnaires were distributed and a response rate of 66% (103 questionnaires were completely filled and returned) was attained. Data elicited were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results from the exploratory factors analysis show that the principal barriers to the adoption of WLB practices amongst construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria are categorised into four components: nature of construction job and limited evidence on impact of WLB, support, awareness and culture, lack of involvement of management staff and organisational factors.

This study contributed to more effective WLB studies by highlighting the barriers to the adoption of WLB practices in the construction sector. An understanding of these barriers can aid policy makers and management personnel in construction organisations as well as facilitate development of strategies required to reduce the barriers to WLB practices in the construction sector.

While the declining rate of urban security and its potential effects have been globally acknowledged, the ways urban neighborhood security shapes real estate markets in African cities remain largely unexplained. The purpose of this paper therefore is to present the findings from a study of the nexus between urban neighborhood security and home rental prices in Lagos, Nigeria.

This paper is based on the hedonic price theory, an objectively derived urban neighborhood security index (UNSI) and property rental price data in Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria. This is a quantitative cross-sectional study that employs multistage sampling survey procedure. Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, nonparametric correlation and hedonic price function with ordinary least squares (OLS).

Results show that nearly 50% of the study area is prone to insecurity and average rental values in Ojo, Lagos range from N151329.41 ($302.66) to N167333.33 ($334.67) per annum. Correlation analysis shows that home rental prices have high, positive and significant correlations (rs = 0.725 and p < 0) with UNSI. After controlling for neighborhood and structural factors, it is found that urban neighborhood security positively influences home rental values as a unit improvement in security leads to N81000.00 ($162.00) increase in rental value per annum.

Urban neighborhood security risk threatens residential property values, creates unintended residential mobility and destabilizes families. Findings from this study point to the facts that security is a key component of urban housing values and developers, and real estate investors must ensure that this component is well factored into property design, construction and valuation.

This is perhaps the first study that uses an objectively derived UNSI to study home rental price dynamics in Nigeria. The study extends knowledge on urban housing price determinants and contributes to literature on the crucial place of security in property management.

This paper aims to examine the victimisation experiences of farmers, herders and community members within the context of the persistent conflict between farmers and herders across Nigeria, with specific focus on Anambra, Benue and Oyo states in south-east, north-central and south-west geopolitical zones of the country, respectively.

The study used the cross-sectional survey to elicit quantitative data from 725 respondents made up of 256 farmers, 225 herders and 244 community members aged 18 years and above, in six purposively sampled local government areas in the three states, while 16 in-depth interviews, 19 key informant interviews and 18 focus group discussions were conducted to extract qualitative data from purposively sampled farmers, herders, community leaders and members of the study communities.

The results show that farmers, herders and other community members in the study suffered losses in the form of destruction of farmlands and livelihood, internal displacement and human fatalities, for the farmers and community members; and destruction of livelihood, loss of money and human fatalities, for the herders. The paper predicts a worsening of the feud between these groups and the attendant reprisal attacks and victimisation if the current binary narrative of victimhood that privileges the needs and experiences of one group over the other persists, and urges stakeholders to put in place enduring structures that will minimise nomadic herding and ensure proactive security.

The focus on the issue of the “victimisation experiences” of herders and farmers and the invitation to researchers and policymakers to examine the role of the prevailing binary construction of victimhood in the conflict is a refreshing addition to other works on this subject.

The literature propounds that facilities management (FM) differs from other building support services (BSS) because it features a significant strategic content. However, research indicates that this deep seated strategic and value-adding practice is mostly unavailable except in the most matured markets. The purpose of this paper is to compare the strategic content of the functions performed by FM practitioners with that of other BSS providers in Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria. This is to determine if the content of the FM functions is comparatively more strategic and invariably more value-adding than that of other BSS providers as indicated in literature and also to identify required areas of improvement, both for practice and training.

A survey was carried out through self-administered questionnaire directed to a sample of 123 BSS providers that work with office buildings in Lagos, Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, means, χ² test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.

Rather than the strategic tasks, the FM group as with the non-FM group were more regularly involved with the less specialized facilities operations/maintenance and facilities support service tasks such as, security, fire, emergency management, cleaning and waste management. Specialized FM support service tasks such as mail services, reprographics, catering and travel services, were least often performed by both groups. The study found that facilities managers were slightly more involved than the non-facilities managers in performing the strategic group of tasks. This was indicated by the higher cumulative mean values and ranking of the level of involvement. The facilities managers also ranked higher in their involvement in the individual strategic tasks. The study also shows that FM practitioners use the more strategic ways to determine the needs of users. These findings imply that FM presents a slightly more strategic edge, which is, however, insufficient.

Although the FM practitioners may feature a slightly more strategic content of functions than their non-FM counterparts, the edge is insufficient to add significant value to clients’ business as postulated in literature. Lagos FM practitioners must become more involved in strategic functions in order to enhance FM’s value-adding edge and hence distinguish it better from other BSS practices.

The study positions the Nigerian FM practice in the light of expectations in literature and re-affirms the supposition that the practice is relatively strategically immature. It also identifies the contingent needs of local and multinational organizations that may require or intend to provide FM and other BSS in the Nigerian context, invariably allowing for international comparisons.

The label of schizophrenia attracts a high level of stigma; consequently, people with schizophrenia are victims of unfair treatment and have limited access to decent livelihood and basic opportunities. However, most studies on stigma have overlooked the experiences of patients with schizophrenia. The purpose of this paper is to assess the experience of discrimination by patients with schizophrenia in Lagos, Nigeria.

A descriptive cross-sectional study. Out-patients with schizophrenia (n=150) were interviewed with the Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC 12) at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.

The majority of the respondents (86.7 per cent) had been avoided by people who knew they had schizophrenia. Unfair treatment was experienced by 71.3 per cent from family members, 62.7 per cent from friends, 32 per cent in social life and 28.7 per cent in intimate relationships, and 38.7 per cent in personal safety. The most commonly reported unfair treatment was inappropriate physical restraint (e.g. chains and ropes) applied by family members and beating. About eight out of ten (79.3 per cent) respondents concealed their illness.

The findings indicate that people with schizophrenia in Nigeria experience high levels of discrimination, some of which contravenes their basic human rights. The unfair treatment experienced within the family context excludes people with schizophrenia from engaging in basic social relationships, education and the pursuit of life opportunities. Legislations should be reviewed to protect patients from unfair treatment and violation of their human rights. There is also need to equip them with strategies to cope with stigma.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the acceptance of mobile advertising by consumers in public service institutions in Lagos Nigeria from the perspective of non-permission-based nature of advertising practice in Nigeria.

Guided by the theory of reasoned action, data were collected from 389 respondents in a sample survey using a structured questionnaire, and the variables were measured on ordinal scale.

The respondents reported that the mobile advertising is informative; they also strongly agreed that the media is ubiquitous but irritating. Attitude of consumers towards mobile advertising, behavioural control and subjective norm have correlations with acceptance. Irritation and informativeness significantly and positively predicted acceptance of mobile advertising, while credibility and ubiquity predicted acceptance of the technology negatively. Age has a negative relationship with acceptance; both gender (male =1) and tertiary education have a significant relationship with acceptance of mobile advertising just as marital status.

The study focused only on public service mobile consumers in Lagos, Nigeria.

Mobile adverts are ubiquitous in Nigeria, but consumers do not trust or use the adverts, although they consider them informative. The telecomm regulatory body needs to control deployment of mobile technologies for produce and service ads, so that ads will be subject to individual choices and discretion, and thereby reducing the ubiquity and increase the trust consumers have on the strategy.

There is hype that mobile advert has penetrated Nigerian market, but the strategy is not credulous to the people.

There is no study focusing on the acceptance of this ad strategy in the public service sector in Nigeria.

This study assessed the contribution of containerization to the development of Western Ports, Lagos Nigeria. The aim was to assess the influence of containerization on some indices of port development such as port infrastructure development, ship turnaround time, cargo dwell time and congestion. Questionnaire was used to gather information on the contribution of containerization to change in maritime trade in the country, the influence of containerization on terminal expansion, congestion, level of investment in container port infrastructure as well as the influence of such investment on container dwell time and ship turnaround time (TAT) and the competitiveness of container terminal within Nigeria port systems and with other developed container ports of the world. Secondary data used included statistics of reports of operations of Western Ports between 2000 and 2010 as reported by NPA, as well as reports of some selected ports derived from Containerization International Year Book, which were used in this study for the sake of global reference. Summary tables and ANOVA for the analysis of the data. Results revealed a significant contribution of containerization to maritime trade relative to the ports’ annual records but with no significant influence on ship turnaround time, cargo dwell time congestion which are determinants of port productivity and competitiveness. The study concluded that Western Ports have still not reaped gains of containerization and lacking in competitiveness when compared with other developed ports of the world.

This paper seeks to adopt an investigative approach to post‐occupancy evaluation using major technical and functional criteria of performance on the facilities of a postgraduate hostel at the campus of the University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.

Data collection was based on a survey through self‐administered questionnaires in which users of the building were asked to report on their perceptions and experience of the facility. The user satisfaction survey was developed based on the students' feedback on their experience with 29 identified performance criteria obtained from a review of the literature and an interview with a member of the university's hall management committee. Data at the organizational level were collected by personal interviews with the facilities manager and co‐ordinator of hostels of the university.

The user satisfaction survey identified areas of deficiency, particularly in maintenance, and facilitated the assessment of the overall performance of the building.

This study demonstrates how universities in Nigeria can assess the management of hostel facilities by hostel administrators and facilities managers. Apart from the results of the user satisfaction survey being useful as evidence to access funds for the improvement of student hostel facilities, the feedback will be helpful in the design and management of new hostel facilities.