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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 capacity development for small-scale women entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta region of 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 768 women respondents were sampled across the rural areas of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria.

The results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicate that though, a meagre part of the CSR intervention is targeted specifically for capacity empowerment of women, the CSR of the MOCs using the GMoU model has recorded little but significant success in building capacity of women in the areas of enhancing educational status, reduction in socio-economic barriers, access to credit, starting personal business enterprises, undertaking paid employment and generally enhancing means of livelihoods.

This suggests that if CSR interventions are not tailored to enhanced opportunities for women, they may contribute towards reducing the participation of women in economic, political and social development and, by extension, damping efforts of reducing poverty and achieving the sustainable development goals in the Niger Delta.

This implies that the private sector, generally, can play an important role in addressing some of the logistical and cultural challenges that face rural women, and promote gender diversity and more equal access to economic opportunity through the CSR programmes in host communities.

This research contributes to the inequality debate in small-scale entrepreneurship and inclusive growth literature from the CSR perspective. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of public concern.

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 improving gender responsiveness of the cassava value chain (CVC) in the Niger Delta region of 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 780 rural women respondents were sampled across the Niger Delta region.

The results from the use of a combined logit model and propensity score matching indicate that CSR of the MOCs using the GMoU model has recorded little but significant success in enhancing rural women’s participation in the CVC in the Niger Delta.

This implies that if CSR interventions are not tailored to enhance opportunities for women, they may contribute towards reducing the participation of women in economic, political and social development and, by extension, damping efforts of reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the Niger Delta.

This suggests that MOCs’ CSR interventions in the CVC should consider gender relations to benefit men and women and alleviate household poverty.

This research contributes to the inequality debate in the agrifood value chain and inclusive growth literature from the CSR perspective in developing countries and the rationale for demand for social projects by host communities. It concludes that businesses has an obligation to help in solving problems of public concern.

This paper aims to examine the impact of ownership structure on the accounting-based performance of listed Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs) on Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) from 2011 to 2020.

The study adopts ex post facto research design, using initially “the panel fixed and random effects regression analysis and Hausman specification test and thereafter, the IV Generalised method of moments (GMM) to check for endogeneity issues and strengthen the robustness of the results.

The one lagged value result reveals that ownership structure of DMBs in Nigeria has cumulative significant impact to influence corporate financial performance of the banks in the future. Overall, CEO, board/managerial, family, government and foreign ownership structures in DMBs in Nigeria do not have significant influence on accounting-based corporate financial performance of the banks. However, the study reveals that board/managerial ownership could significantly improve market value/growth of DMBs in Nigeria.

Policy makers, investors (both local and foreign), academics, corporate governance administrators, and the government could apply the study's findings to the management of banking operations in Nigeria.

The paper highlights the impact of five ownership structures on the accounting-based performance of DMBs in Nigeria from 2011 to 2020, providing valuable insights into the influence of stockholding categories on corporate financial performance, which is a shift from extant literatures with limited insights.

This paper aims to demonstrate how activity‐based pricing can be applied in a restaurant setting by combining the use of price sensitivity measurement with activity‐based costing.

Data are collected at a Hong Kong buffet restaurant, based on guests' price perceptions and the establishment's detailed cost structure. These data are analyzed by using price sensitivity measurement techniques and activity‐based costing methods, separately, and then combined to create an activity‐based pricing analysis of the restaurant's menu.

The use of activity‐based pricing techniques reveals that, although the guests are relatively price‐insensitive, drastic measures were needed to reduce costs for the restaurant to become profitable. Without the benefit of this study, the restaurant's management would not have been able to see clearly the nature of the challenges that they faced, since a single pricing study, or cost study, would have missed the combined cost and pricing effects that were captured by activity‐based pricing.

Activity‐based pricing is shown to be a powerful technique that can be applied effectively in a restaurant. Utilizing this method allows a restaurant truly to understand both its operating cost structure and the price perceptions of it guests. Since this study involved only a single buffet restaurant, further research should be conducted to confirm that activity‐based pricing can also be applied in other restaurant and hospitality industry settings.

The findings from this study suggest that activity‐based pricing may be a viable way for restaurant managers to gain a better understanding of both their guests' price perceptions and the true cost structure of their restaurants. Use of activity‐based pricing allows restaurant managers to set price levels that cover all operating costs and profits, while still meeting guests' expectations of value.

This study is the first of its kind in the hospitality literature, since no prior research has applied activity‐based pricing in a hospitality research setting. This study represents an important new addition to the existing body of hospitality cost and pricing literature.

Tea contains high content of phenolics which are well-known to act as antioxidants. As such, there are claims that the consumption of infusion of tea could help ameliorate free radical-induced diseases; this therapeutic activity would depend on the amount of phenolics that is soluble and the amount that is absorbed and available for metabolic activity when consumed. The purpose of this study is to analyze the content of phenolics and antioxidant activity of some health tea and also to study the effect of addition of sugar and milk on in-vitro availability of phenolics in tea, cocoa and coffee drinks.

Seven brands of health tea, two brands of cocoa drink, one brand each of coffee, powdered milk and sugar were selected. The tea samples were analyzed for pH, titratable acidity, total phenol and antioxidant activity using Folin–Ciocalteau and 202-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazil 28DPPH-29-20 reagents. In-vitro simulated digestion modeling stomach and small intestine were carried out on tea infusion, coffee and cocoa drinks with or without sugar, and phenolic availability was analyzed.

The result indicated that pH, titratable acidity and total phenolics ranged from 4.5 to 5.6, 0.167 to 0.837 (as maleic acid) and 1.15 to 1.17 mg/g gallic acid equivalent, respectively. Black tea recorded the highest phenolic content, in-vitro phenolic availability and antioxidant activity. Addition of sugar to black tea and chocolate drink caused a significant decrease in the in-vitro available phenolics, while the addition of milk leads to a significant enhancement.

The data obtained in this study can be used nutritionally and commercially to show the impact of adding sugar or milk on the content of phenolics and their bioavailability in-vitro. The study justifies the claim that tea could help ameliorate free radical-induced health defects.

Assessment of antioxidant activity of food should not be based only on the content of total phenolics but on the amount that is bioavailable in the body system when the food is consumed.

Consumption of tea, cocoa and coffee drinks with milk and sugar have been found to enhance or inhibit phenolics. Therefore, the optimum level of these additives should be determined if the drinks were meant for therapeutic purposes.

Results obtained may provide some useful information for considering the bioavailability of phenolics present in tea and beverages in view of consumption/digestion in our body as well as interference of sugar and milk as the additives.

This article explores the processes and practices of doing participatory research with children. It explores how this process can be represented in writing. The article comes out of a project funded by Creative Partnerships UK, in which a creative agent, three artists and a researcher all worked within an elementary school in South Yorkshire, UK, for two years, to focus on the children’s Reasons to Write. It considers whether it is truly possible for children to enter the academic domain. Using a number of different voices, the article interrogates this. It particularly focuses on children’s role in analysing and selecting important bits of data. It engages with the lived realities of children as researchers. It considers ways in which children’s voices can be represented, and also acknowledges the limitations of this approach for adults who want to write academic peer reviewed articles. Ideas the adults thought were clever were found to be redundant in relation to children’s epistemologies. The article considers the process that is involved in taking children’s epistemologies seriously.

This paper seeks to address an underdeveloped aspect of entrepreneurship education (EE), which is still criticised for not explicitly linking educational practice with established educational theory. As such, the purpose of this paper is to propose a novel educational framework – Authentic Alignment – that the authors evolved based on their own EE practice, as well as two major educational theories.

A review of a range of conceptual educational frameworks in EE revealed a gap in the current literature, referring to the fact that practice is not sufficiently linked to sound educational theory. The paper combines a range of educational theories – predominantly Constructive Alignment (CA) and Authenticity – to develop a novel conceptual framework, termed “Authentic Alignment”. The discussion of Authentic Alignment draws upon EE literature, as well as student feedback and the reflections and experiences of the practitioners and academics involved in delivering a higher education unit underpinned by Authentic Alignment.

It is argued that Authentic Alignment coherently and explicitly links educational practice to major established educational theories and as such presents a valuable approach to education through entrepreneurship as it aligns authentic approaches to instruction, learning and assessment that strike a balance between resembling and being relevant for real entrepreneurial activity.

The paper invites educators to draw upon Authentic Alignment for their own entrepreneurship units/programmes by customising the specific approaches to their own requirements, while retaining the underlying principle of constructively aligned authentic education.

By explicitly linking EE to CA and Authenticity, this paper introduces a novel educational framework that provides a valuable structure for education through entrepreneurship. The customisability of Authentic Alignment, however, suggests a wider applicability and is thus valuable also for education about and for entrepreneurship.

Vocational assessment is an important resource for people with long term mental health problems when they are considering employment options. However there are often long waiting lists to see a qualified occupational therapist providing this service. Steve Wood and Sylvia Norrish say every community mental health team should have one member who is trained in vocational assessment, and describe a pilot project in which a healthcare assistant was successfully trained to perform this role.