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To provide human judgment input for computer algorithm development, this study examines the relative importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting the truthfulness ratings of two common types of online health information: news stories and institutional news releases.

This study employed a multi-method approach using (1) a manual content analysis of 400 randomly selected online health news stories and news releases from HealthNewsReview.org and (2) an online experiment comparing truthfulness ratings between news stories and news releases.

Using content analysis, the authors found significant differences in the importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting truthfulness ratings of news stories and news releases: source and style cues predicted truthfulness ratings better than content cues. In the experiment, source credibility was the most important predictor of truthfulness ratings, controlling for individual differences. Experts have higher ratings for news media stories than news releases and lay people have no differences in rating the two news formats.

It is important for health educators to curb consumer trust in misinformation and increase health information literacy. Rather than solely reporting scientific evidence, educators should focus on addressing cues people use to judge the truthfulness of health information.

This is the first study that directly compares human judgments of health news stories and news releases. Using both the breadth of content analysis and experimental causality testing, the authors evaluate the relative importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting truthfulness ratings.

The factors that determine foreign direct investment (FDI) are important to policy-makers, investors, the banking industry and the public at large. FDI in Ghana has received increased attention in recent times because its relevance in the Ghanaian economy is too critical to gloss over. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of FDI in Ghana between the period of 1990 and 2015.

The study employed a causal research design. The study used the Johansen’s approach to cointegration within the framework of vector autoregressive for the data analysis.

The study found a cointegrating relationship between FDI and its determinants. The study found that both the long-run and short-run results found statistically significant negative effects of inflation rate, exchange rate and interest rate on FDI in Ghana while gross domestic product, electricity production and telephone usage (TU) had a positive effect on FDI.

The study found a cointegrating relationship between FDI and its determinants. The study found that both the long-run and short-run results found statistically significant negative effects of inflation rate, exchange rate and interest rate on FDI in Ghana whiles gross domestic product, electricity production and TU had a positive effect on FDI.

This study has potential implication for boosting the economies of developing countries through its policy recommendations which if implemented can guarantee more capital inflows for the economies.

This study has given more effective ways of attracting more FDI into countries which in effect achieve higher GDP and also higher standard of living through mechanisms and in the end creating more social protection programs for the people.

Although studies have been conducted to explore the determinants of FDI, some of the core macroeconomic variables such as inflation, interest rate, telephone subscriptions, electricity production, etc., which are unstable and have longstanding effects on FDI have not been much explored to a give a clear picture of the relationships. Therefore, a study that will explore these and other macroeconomic variables to give clear picture of their relationships and suggest some of the possible ways of dealing with these variables in order to attract more FDI for the country to achieve its goal is what this paper seeks to do.

The demand for energy infrastructure projects has increased steadily over the last few decades and has come at a high cost. Disruptive technologies (DTs) have the inherent capability to affect the performance of energy infrastructure projects. Therefore, this research aims to explore the implications of DTs on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.

This research adopts a positivist philosophical position. A quantitative strategy and deductive approach (based on a survey design) guided this study. Sixty-six respondents participated in the study. The study’s population comprised of experts in energy infrastructure projects who possessed a high level of industrial experience including top- and middle-level management of power generation companies. Cochran’s formula was used to select a sufficient sample for the study. Linear regression, one sample test and Cronbach’s alpha were the analytical tools adopted.

This study established that there is an 18.4% increase in the performance of energy infrastructure projects in Ghana when DTs are applied. In order of importance, DTs improve speed of operations in energy projects; reduce operating cost and enhance efficiency of energy projects; drive sustainable economic development; enhance security in energy projects; and improve environmental sustainability of projects. The study also revealed that e-commerce technologies, renewable energy technologies, three-dimensional printing, bar code technology, photogrammetry, global positioning systems, geographic information systems and nanotechnologies were the topmost ranked DTs with the most impact on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.

This is a novel investigation on the implications of DTs on the performance of Ghanaian energy infrastructure projects. This study’s practical implication is evident in both policy and practice. Energy sector policymakers should endeavour to adopt DTs in their operations to enhance sustainability and performance.

This study aims to seek to fill a gap in regulatory impact assessment in developing countries by presenting an analysis of how formal regulation impact on the efficiency and productivity of financial non-governmental organisations (FNGOs) in Ghana. Much has been written about the formal financial sector, but very little is known about the lower end of microfinance and the impact of formal prudential regulation on FNGOs providing microfinance services. The Bank of Ghana (BOG), nevertheless, in the year 2011, extended formal prudential regulation to FNGOs without any empirical basis. This study uses regulatory theories and empirical evidence to aid in the evaluation of whether formal prudential regulation is appropriate for FNGOs operating within the microfinance sector.

Empirical evidence derived from FNGOs, regulatory agents, consumers and financial lawyers within the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions of Ghana served as the basis of the analysis in this study. Descriptive statistics, frequency counts and percentage scores, were used to analyse the data collected.

The existing structures of FNGOs in Ghana are unsuitable for formal prudential regulation. The BOG does not have adequate staffing and funding to supervise and monitor the microfinance activities of FNGOs. Formal prudential regulation could impede growth and efficient delivery of microfinance services.

The BOG is the only regulatory agency responsible for regulating the financial market in Ghana, thus access to officers with knowledge in the regulatory regime was very limited.

The study revealed in depth information about FNGOs, microfinance and the impact of formal prudential regulation on FNGOs.

The study is the first to use empirical studies and theories of regulation to assess the impact of extending formal prudential regulation to FNGOs in Ghana. Data from the regulator, the regulated and consumers, the key players in any regulatory process, served as the basis of the analysis in the study resulting in the unravelling of in-depth information on the regulation of FNGOs.

The demand for retirement villages globally has been increasing due to the rapid growth in the ageing population in recent years. To address the rising challenges in the retirement market, the public–private partnership (PPP) has become a feasible method to develop retirement villages. This paper aims to survey and examine the key success criteria (SC) for using the PPP approach in the retirement village sector.

An empirical questionnaire survey was conducted with experts experienced in international PPP and retirement village. The analysis was conducted using one-way analysis of variance, mean score analysis, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and factor analysis.

Results indicate that out of the 16 recognized SC, the most significant ones are SC1: “Affordability”, SC11: “Reduced social isolation of residents” and SC14: “Improvement of emotional wellbeing of residents”. Furthermore, results from the factor analysis technique indicate that the 16 SC can be classified into five major factor groupings, and these include SCG1 – “Financial performance of project”; SCG2 – “Adherence to design and technical specifications”; SCG3 – “Adherence to local council/authority’s environmental health and socio-economic requirements”; SCG4 – “Social inclusion and risk management”; and SCG5 – “Advancement in emotional wellbeing and physical health of residents”.

The study will sufficiently assist retirement village stakeholders, retirement village project participants and related government authorities of the best measures to put in place to maintain the sustainable development of the global retirement village market.

This study proposes and validates an integrated theoretical model involving the theory of planned behavior (TPB), health belief model (HBM), personal norms and information privacy to understand determinants of acceptance and resistance to the use of mobile contact tracing app (MCTA) in a pandemic situation.

This study draws on online surveys of 194 research respondents and uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PL-SEM) to test the proposed theoretical model.

The study establishes that a positive attitude towards MCTA is the most important predictor of individuals' willingness to use MCTA and resistance to use MCTA. Furthermore, barriers to taking action positively influence resistance to the use of MCTA. Personal norms negatively influence resistance to the use of MCTA. Information privacy showed a negative and positive influence on willingness to use MCTA and use the resistance of MCTA, respectively, but neither was statistically significant. The authors found no significant influence of perceived vulnerability, severity, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on either acceptance or use resistance of MCTA.

The study has been one of the first in the literature to propose an integrated theoretical model in the investigation of the determinants of acceptance and resistance to the use of MCTA in a single study, thereby increasing the scientific understanding of the factors that can facilitate or inhibit individuals from engaging in the use of a protection technology during a pandemic situation.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-10-2021-0533

In this paper we discuss the impact of e‐commerce on the design and construction industry, with specific reference to how information technology will affect competition and competitive advantage in the industry. This paper continues the exploration of a concept that we have been working on for several years, namely ‘…that information technology is evolving from a tool that incrementally improves “back‐office” productivity to an essential component of strategic positioning that may alter the basic economics, organizational structure and operational practices of facility management organizations and their interactions with service providers (architects, engineers and constructors)’ (Johnson & Clayton, Automation in Construction, 8, 1998, 3). We first review industry trends and then develop a generalized model for thinking about strategy and e‐commerce based on our previous research as well as the well‐known framework developed by Michael Porter. Next we apply this framework to the discussion of several case studies and draw preliminary conclusions about the viability of the model for future research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges of pricing quantity surveying (QS) professional services to enhance the understanding of practitioners in developing strategies for the determination of fees for their services.

The paper adopts the quantitative approach by administering 150 survey questionnaires QS professionals out of which 79 questionnaires were retrieved for analysis using the mean, standard deviation, standard error and the Chi-Square test.

The study identified the challenges that continue to hamper the successful pricing of QS services as the inability to respond to changing contractual arrangements; lack of appropriate response to emerging services; slow response to changes in information and communication technology.

This paper focused on QS professionals. Hence, a future study to encompass other professionals in the built environment will be novel.

The findings of this paper have the potential to motivate QS firms to develop solutions that address the challenges identified to improve the efficiency of their service delivery to clients. The paper also has the practical importance of opening up new frontiers of research that focus on pricing of professional services in the built environment in general.

The paper contributes to the awareness and understanding of QS professionals about the challenges that continue to hamper effective pricing of their services.

Over the last few decades, corporate environmental reporting (CER) has received substantial attention due to complex societal and ecological challenges experienced at a global scale. While there has been growth in CER research across the world, we know very little of the state of CER research in Africa. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive literature review of CER in sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate its current state, uncover gaps in extant studies and identify areas for further research in the region. We perform a metasearch on the Financial Times Top 50 journals in addition to wider analyses using African Journals Online (AJOL) and Google Scholar between 2008 and 2020. Though there is some progress in interrogating CER in the region, there is much leeway for further research into how public and private corporations provide an account for their interaction with nature. Extant studies have examined how CER is often subsumed within corporate social responsibility initiatives while other studies explore ways in which CER can provide accountability mechanisms in the mining sector of select countries. Important areas of future research include the influences of legal, cultural and political systems on the level of CER, the tensions between economic development driven by multinational corporations and the necessity for ecological protection. Finally, further research could investigate the role CER can play in encouraging specific corporate disclosures around GHG emissions, especially given global efforts being undertaken to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Today, construction sector of most emerging economies, including India, is witnessing sharp growth prospects on the one hand and pressure to effectively and efficiently contribute to the national development on the other. The Indian construction industry is one of the major stimulants of the economic and social growth of the nation. However, the sector is confronted by numerous issues, thereby reducing its efficacy and unhindered growth prospects. The purpose of this paper is to extract various industry impediments and suggest a prioritized listing of challenges faced by the industry using the Grand Challenges Approach (GCA).

Motivated by the GCA this study uses the Delphi process for consensus building in the expert panel, comprising of 39 professionals from across various industry stakeholders. A qualitative round was first used to acquire views on the challenges. Consequently two quantitative Delphi rounds were conducted to extract Top-10 Challenges for the industry based on two aspects – priority and impact. A wider industry survey was also carried out, which served as an unscientific validation of the Delphi Study.

Grand Challenges facing the Indian construction sector were identified. Addressing these challenges at the national level has the potential of transforming the industry to highly efficient, quality cantered and bullish industry capable of delivering successfully.

The GCA, used extensively by the health sector internationally, is used for the Indian construction industry in a novel way to set an agenda for enhancing its operational efficiency.