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The chapter focused on quality assurance and marketing of library services and products at the Midlands State University (MSU). The chapter's main objective was to identify the quality assurance mechanisms at the MSU Library. The major findings of the research were; the MSU library was practising quality assurance, staff was trained on the latest trends in the profession, the collection was multidisciplinary and in different forms, and that there were Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) used in enhancing service provision. The researcher recommended that the library needed to continuously train librarians on issues to do with quality, improve the infrastructure, introduce Research Data Management to enhance the Research Support Services and improve on the Information Literacy Skills training programmes. The author identified some areas for further research and the major one was that there is need for clarification on the concept of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The paper aims to focus on the current state of open access (OA) initiatives in Zimbabwean universities. The paper specifically reports the initiatives at Zimbabwean universities regarding institutional repositories that promote OA and other digital OA collections.

A qualitative research methodology was adopted. Questionnaires were used as the primary data collection method for this research. The research sought to address the following specific areas: the state of institutional repositories and open access in Zimbabwe, the discoverability of content, open access policies and mandates, the benefits of open access in Zimbabwe, and future plans for institutional OA. A total of eight out of 12 universities responded to the questionnaire. The data provided by the universities involved in the research were summarised to give a general picture of the open access landscape in Zimbabwe.

The current initiatives in the universities involved in this survey indicate that most universities in Zimbabwe are going to have institutional repositories that promote open access to information. Most institutions in Zimbabwe are already working on putting open access policies in place in a bid to promote open access.

The research will shed more light on the status quo of open access initiatives in Zimbabwe, particularly with regards to institutional repositories, open access policies and open access mandates.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the factors that explain the reasons why customers may be willing to use chatbots in Zimbabwe as an e-banking customer service gateway, an area that remains under researched.

The research study applied a cross-sectional survey of 430 customers from five selected commercial banks conducted in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.

The research study showed that a counterintuitive intention to use chatbots is directly affected by chatbots' expected performance, the habit of using them and other factors.

To better appreciate the current research concept, there is a need to replicate the same study in other contexts to enhance generalisability.

Chatbots are a trending new technology and are starting to be increasingly adopted by banks and they have to consider that customers need to get used to them.

This study contributes to bridging the knowledge gap as it investigates the factors that explain why bank customers may be willing to use chatbots in five selected commercial Zimbabwean banks. This is a pioneering study in the context of a developing economy such as Zimbabwe.

This study aims to examine the influence of service quality, satisfaction, trust, value and commitment on hotel customers’ attitudinal and behavioural loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of a growth enhancement support scheme (GESS) on the enabling environment of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The main aim is to investigate the impact of the GESS on access to rural farm credit and the transport cost of smallholder farmers in the agricultural transformation agenda (ATA) in Nigeria.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 1,200 were sampled across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

The results from the use of a double-hurdle model indicate that the GESS has a significant impact on farmers’ access to credit, but does not significantly impact on rural farm transport cost, which subsequently influences the price of food in the country.

This implies that if the Federal Government of Nigeria is to work toward an ideal agricultural transformation agenda, transport networks should be closely aligned with the GESS priorities to provide connectivity to rural areas that provide most of the country’s agricultural output.

This research adds to the literature on the agricultural and rural development debate in developing countries. It concludes that embracing a rural finance and transportation infrastructure should form the foundation of the ATA in Nigeria, which, in turn, would provide a conducive environment for a more widespread rural economy in sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies (MOCs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on reducing incidents of electoral violence in oil-producing communities.

This paper adopts a survey technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 1,200 households were sampled across the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

The results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicate that the GMoU model made a significant impact in deterring occurrences of electoral violence when interventions on cluster development boards are designed to mitigate the intricate of political clashes in the region.

This implies that CSR interventions of MOCs play a vital role in reducing incidents of electoral violence in Nigeria’s oil producing region.

Reducing the increasing electoral violence in the oil host communities, will, in turn, create an enabling environment for more extensive and responsible business of Multinational Corporation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper extends and contributes to the literature on CSR initiatives of multinational enterprises in developing countries and the rationale for demands for social projects by host communities. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of public concern.

This paper aims to focus on the need to ascertain harmony in records and archives management practices between the university archives, sports union and the various sport clubs at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in an endeavor to establish whether these fugitive records are being captured.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to investigate records and archives management practices in sport clubs on the Pietermaritzburg (PMB) campus, UKZN. Data are thus obtained through a questionnaire, interviews, observation and email correspondence. This triangulation of methods of data collection is designed to increase the validity and reliability of the results.

This study has established that there was much dissonance with regard to records and archives management practices and recommendations inter alia included their need for overhaul and the need for pro-activeness on the part of archivists to collect this heritage for future reference.

This study is only confined to the UKZN, PMB campus and not the entire university that constitutes a limitation. The findings may assist university authorities as decision and policymakers to ensure that records and archives management practices in universities are overhauled to prevent further loss of records. The study has focused on one genre of records, namely, leisure records, and there is a need for a comprehensive study on the entire university’s record-keeping system.

This paper highlights the plight of university archives and reiterates the need for an urgent review by university authorities with regard to their management.

This paper has used a number of data collection techniques to ensure reliability and validity of the data gathered. Physically checking the collections in the university repository to establish gaps corroborated with the research findings in an effort to establish the underlying cause of poor archival development.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of a growth enhancement support scheme (GESS) on youth development in informal farm entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the GESS on rural youths’ adoption of new technologies needed to sustainably increase food security in Nigeria.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 800 rural youths were sampled across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

The result from the use of a bivariate probit model indicates that the GESS has a significant impact on rural youths’ innovations in farming.

This suggests that information and communication technology could provide new opportunities for making farming more interesting and enterprising for rural young people.

It implies that while old male and female farmers are less likely to adopt the new farming technologies needed to achieve Nigeria’s agricultural transformation agenda (ATA), a younger generation can help introduce new technologies, while also learning from traditional methods.

This research adds to the literature on informal farm entrepreneurship and rural communities’ debate in developing countries. It concludes that engaging youths in GESS should form the foundation of the ATA in Nigeria, which, in turn, would offer adequate combination of new and traditional solution to address the challenges of food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the student voice in enhancement of the quality of educational provision in universities.

The study used the longitudinal approach, carried out as two separate surveys covering a period of three years. An initial survey to determine the issues affecting teaching and learning quality in eight public and five private universities was made from June 2011 to May 2012. In 2013, a follow-up survey targeting three state and three private universities was done to check whether the issues of concern raised by students had been addressed. The study used triangulation of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected using observation, document analysis, semi-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions with students and academic staff.

The findings showed that the major issues affecting quality of teaching and learning were inadequate assignments, absentee lecturers, poorly qualified lecturers, sexual harassment and the lack of public address systems for mass lectures. During the second survey, results showed that all universities had addressed the students’ concerns but new challenges caused by the ever increasing enrolments had emerged.

The study pointed to the need to continuously engage the student voice as a way of improving the quality of the teaching and learning environment.

The study adds to the body of knowledge on utilising the student voice to improve the quality of educational provision in institutions of higher learning