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The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of socio-economic factors of land redistribution for agricultural development project beneficiaries on savings in the North West Province, South Africa.

A binary logistic regression model was employed to determine the effects of socio-economic factors of project beneficiaries on their savings.

The results show that the average number of trainings attended by the beneficiaries, the proportion of youth per project and the average net farm income of the project positively and significantly influence the level of savings by the beneficiaries. About 62 percent of the beneficiaries did not have savings; thus, only 38 percent of beneficiaries had savings. Of the 38 percent who had savings, the majority (77 percent) had an annual net farm income of less than R1,000. Only 2 percent of the projects had an annual net farm income of more than R10,000.

The findings of this study are valuable to policymakers dealing with the issue of land reform and could shed some light on how land redistribution can achieve its intended purposes. These findings should be granted serious consideration when formulating policies aimed at improving savings within collective groups.

The findings of this study have revealed the importance of training and participation of youth in influencing savings. As well, the findings imply that an organization or household with a health income have a higher propensity of saving.

The research findings point out to the importance of saving. With savings, a household is in a better position to deal with situations that arises in case of emergency.

This paper is among the few studies to analyze the determinants of savings at a group or project level. Most studies are done at household or individual level.

This study investigates the mediating role of personal initiative taking in the link between employees' exposure to transformational leadership and their engagement in creative behavior, as well as a potential catalytic role of perceived work overload in this process.

The research hypotheses were tested with survey data collected among employees of a large organization that operates in the telecommunications sector.

Transformational leadership translates into enhanced creative work efforts among employees, because these employees adopt an action-based approach toward work. This mediating role of personal initiative taking is particularly prominent among employees who encounter excessive workloads in their daily jobs, because their initiative and creativity promise solutions to this resource-draining work situation.

For human resource managers, this study reveals that employees who go out of their way to address problem situations offer an important means by which a leadership style that inspires and challenges followers can be leveraged to produce enhanced creative outcomes. It also pinpoints how this process can be triggered by employees' beliefs that work demands are excessive.

This study adds to prior research by detailing a hitherto overlooked factor (personal initiative) and catalyst (perceived work overload), related to the translation of transformational leadership into increased creative behavior.

Given the growing concern about employees' well-being, numerous researchers have investigated the causes and effects of occupational stress. However, a review study on identifying existing research topics and gaps is still deficient in the extant literature. To fill this gap, this review study aims to present a bibliometric and science mapping approach to review the state-of-the-art journal articles published on occupational stress in the construction industry.

A three-fold comprehensive review approach consisting of bibliometric review, scientometric analysis and in-depth qualitative discussion was employed to review 80 journal articles in Scopus.

Through qualitative discussions, mainstream research topics were summarized, research gaps were identified and future research directions were proposed as follows: versatile stressors and stress model; an extended subgroup of factors in safety behavior; adaptation of multiple biosensors and bio-feedbacks; evaluation and comparison of organizational stress interventions; and incorporation of artificial intelligence and smart technologies into occupational stress management in construction.

The findings of this review study present a well-rounded framework to identify the research gaps in this field to advance research in the academic community and enhance employees' well-being in construction.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelationship between macroeconomic factors, firm characteristics and financial performance of quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigates the effect of interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate and the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, while the firm characteristics were size, leverage and liquidity. The dependent variable financial performance is measured as return on assets (ROA).

The study used the ex post facto research design. The population comprised all quoted manufacturing firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The sample was restricted to companies in the consumer goods sector, selected using non-probability sampling method. The study used multiple linear regression as the method of validating the hypotheses.

The study finds no significant effect for interest rate and exchange rate, but a significant effect for inflation rate and GDP growth rate on ROA. Second, the firm characteristics showed that firm size, leverage and liquidity were significant.

The study has implications for regulators and policy makers in formulating policy decisions. In addition, managers may better understand the interplay between macroeconomic factors, firm characteristics and profitability of firms.

Few studies have addressed the interplay of macroeconomic factors and firm characteristics in determining the profitability of manufacturing firms in the country and developing countries in general.

Building information modelling (BIM) is a novel technological advancement in the built environment. Despite the potentials of BIM, its adoption and implementation are undermined in facility management (FM) operations. This might be because of limited information on the critical success factors (CSFs) that can enhance its adoption. The study aims to integrate building information modelling to improve facility management operation by adopting fuzzy synthetic approach for evaluating the critical success factors.

Data for the study were sourced from practising and registered facility managers within Lagos metropolis, Nigeria. The data collected were analysed using a combination of methods which include mean item score, factor analysis and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE).

The factor analysis results showed that six underlying groups of CSFs would enhance the effective adoption of BIM in facility operations. The FSE results showed that out of the six groups, the three topmost important CSF grouping (CSFG) in the decision rule would enhance the effectiveness of BIM adoption for FM operations.

The result of this study provides a credible road map for facility managers, policymakers and other stakeholders in FM operations on the CSFs and CSFG required for the adoption of BIM.

Previous studies that aimed at integrating BIM into FM are limited. Hence, this study provides a broad perspective on the CSF required for BIM adoption and implementation in FM operations using the FSE approach.

This study was designed to assess the predictors of citizens' trust in public leaders in Ghana. Specifically, it assesses the effect of eight trust variables—competence/ability, integrity, communication, benevolence, political/quality of governance, rational/economic, risk-taking and socio-demographic characteristics—on citizens' trust in public leaders—the president, members of parliament (MPs) and metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs)—in Ghana from 2016 to 2018.

Summary statistics, bivariate correlation and binary logistic regression were employed to analyze 2,400 responses of Ghanaians obtained from the Afro-Barometer round seven surveys on Ghana (2016–2018).

The results reveal that competence/ability, that is to say, the performance of the president, MPs and MMDCEs, influence citizens' trust in these leaders. Furthermore, communication, benevolence, rationality, risk-taking and socio-demographic variables were significant predictors of citizens' trust in the president. Likewise, competence/ability, communication, politics, benevolence and socio-demographic variables were predictors of citizens' trust in MPs. Additionally, competence/ability, communication, integrity, politics, benevolence and socio-demographic variables influence citizens' trust in MMDCEs. In short, the rationality and risk-taking variables only influence trust in the president, while the political variables influence trust in MPs and MMDCEs. However, integrity influences trust in MMDCEs. Future studies can investigate the factors that account for these differences to augment the current literature.

This article is unique because it examines and compares citizens' trust in three categories of public leaders—the president, MPs and MMDCEs—in Ghana using nationally representative data.

This study aims to analyze the perceptions of smallholder farmers on climate change and events and further explores climate change adaptation strategies and associated challenges. The findings provide useful information for enhancing the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to adjust to climate-related hazards and improve their resilience and disaster preparedness in northern Ghana.

This study uses a multistage sampling procedure and sample size of 150 farmers, the Binary Probit Model (BPM), to identify and examine the determinants of climate change adaptation strategies adopted by smallholder farmers. Also, the constraints of adaptation were analyzed using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance.

The results from the BPM and statistics of Kendall’s coefficient revealed that the farm risk level, ability to adapt, farmer’s income, age, farming experience, climate change awareness and extension visits were factors that significantly influenced the adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers (in order of importance). The majority (60%) of the farmers ranked farm risk level as the major constraint to adopting climate change strategies.

The findings of this study enhance understanding on access to relevant and timely climate change adaptation information such as an early warning to farmers during the start of the farming/rainy season to support their adaptive responses to climate change.

This study aims to examine the socio-economic and environmental impacts of mining activities as perceived by communities in Ghana, with data being drawn from primary and secondary sources.

A total of 90 community residents were interviewed, with 15 from each of the six selected different communities.

The findings revealed a positive perception that corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of mining companies contribute to the development of mining communities in Ghana by creating jobs and generating income. However, it became clear that mining activities, particularly small-scale mining, create many social and environmental challenges as well. This includes land degradation, which reduces the fertility of community-owned land suitable for agricultural use. In addition, pollution of waterways and streams intensifies the plight of community residents living in mining areas.

Since 2011, the mining industry has invested between US$12m (in 2013) and US$44m (in 2011) in Ghana’s communities. The amount spent in 2019 was US$24m. The funds were spent by the industry in areas such as roads, education, health and electricity, among others. Still, it seems more effort is needed by the mining companies to harmonise the CSR practice and gain better impression by local people. In spite of the mining industry’s investment levels, more than half of the community respondents said it was insufficient. One-third of the respondents went as far as suggesting the mining companies had a negative impact on infrastructure improvement and community development.

The purpose of this paper is to critique the last decade of research on the effects of high-skill emigration from developing countries, and proposes six new directions for fruitful research.

The study singles out a core assumption underlying much of the recent literature, calling it the “Lump of Learning model” of human capital and development, and describes five ways that research has come to challenge that assumption. It assesses the usefulness of that model in the face of accumulating evidence.

The axioms of the Lump of Learning model have shaped research priorities in this literature, but many of those axioms do not have a clear empirical basis. Future research proceeding from established facts would set different priorities, and would devote more attention to measuring the effects of migration on skilled migrant households, rigorously estimating human capital externalities, gathering microdata beyond censuses, and carefully considering optimal policy – among others.

The recent literature has pursued a series of extensions to the Lump of Learning model. This study urges instead discarding that model, pointing toward a new paradigm for research on skilled migration and development.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the impact of performance appraisal on the productivity levels of professional and para-professional librarians in selected academic and research libraries in Ghana, namely, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Building and Road Research Institute, Crop Research Institute and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Kumasi Polytechnic.

Both primary and secondary sources of data were used for the study. The primary data involved the use of a structured questionnaire to 60 respondents, but 50 of them, representing 83.3 per cent, responded. This was supplemented by secondary sources such as records on file, journals, books and Internet sources.

The survey revealed that these institutions practice performance appraisal on an annual basis as a way of promoting team work, reducing grievances, identifying employees’ strengths and weaknesses and their training needs. It was observed that these institutions do not have a common appraisal format for appraising their staff. Furthermore, only the Head Librarians carry out the appraisals instead of the Line Mangers who are always in touch with these employees on a daily basis.

The paper will be of significant value to policymakers and administrators in academic and research institutions in the planning and implementation of performance appraisal systems. Challenges facing these institutions in implementing effective performance appraisal have been highlighted and appropriate recommendations have been made to ensure quality service delivery.