Examining the Success Factors of ICT Projects in Developing Nations: A Case Study of AB Networks

We examine the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) projects with the context of commonly identified project success factors and present additional factors that are important and worthy of consideration in developing country environments. We also present a framework that ties these factors together and can serve as a guideline in ICT implementations in developing country environments. The proposed framework classifies ICT project success factors into: economic, cultural, and institutional variables

The Incidence of Dysfunctional Internet Usage in Ghana: An Exploratory Study

Despite the potential and tremendous opportunities the internet offers for employees to improve their work and productivity, the internet has become a source of unproductiveness given the potential for its misuse. Most of the literature on the dysfunctional use of the internet amongst employees tends to focus solely on advanced economies. Given the fact that the phenomenon of employers placing internet on employees’ desktops is relatively new in Ghana and the possible cultural influences on the type and extent of internet use, this paper investigated the non-work-related use of the internet amongst employees of Ghanaian organizations in both the private and public sector. We found that the use of the internet for non-work-related activities amongst Ghanaian employees is widespread and there exists an association between this case of dysfunctional internet usage and man-hour losses. Amongst other things, we recommend that managers employ internet use policies and prohibitions in dealing with the problem since the study found that these interventions are not in place. Keywords: Internet, internet use, Ghana, employee productivity, man-hour losses, employee

Impact of cyberattacks on stock performance: a comparative study

The study uses cyberattacks announcements on 96 firms that are listed on S&P 500 over the period January 03, 2013 and December 29, 2017.The empirical analysis was performed in two ways: cross-section and industry level. We employ statistical tests that account for the effects of cross-section correlation in returns, returns series correlation, volatility changes, and skewness in the returns and the results show the following.These imply that (1) studying the cumulative effects of cyberattacks on prices of listed firms without grouping them into the various sectors may be non-informative, (1) the financial sector firms tend to react cumulatively to cyberattacks over a 3-day period than other sectors, (3) technology firms tend to be less reactive to the announcement of a data breach, possibly such firms may have the necessary tools and techniques to address large-scale cyberattacks.For cross-section analysis, the outcome shows that the market does not significantly react to cyberattacks for all the event windows except [-30, 30], while for the sector-level analysis, the analysis offers two main results.First, while there is a firm reaction to cyber-attacks for long event window for retail sector, there is no evidence of a cumulative firm reaction to cyberattacks for both short and long event windows for the industrial, information technology and health sectors. Second, the firms in the financial sector, there is a strong evidence of cumulative reaction to cyberattacks for [-1, 1] for the financial industry, and the reactions disappear for relatively longer event windows.These imply that (1) studying the cumulative effects of cyberattacks on prices of listed firms without grouping them into the various sectors may be non-informative, (1) the financial sector firms tend to react cumulatively to cyberattacks over a 3-day period than other sectors, (3) technology firms tend to be less reactive to the announcement of a data breach, possibly such firms may have the necessary tools and techniques to address large-scale cyberattacks.The work provides new insights into the effect of cyber security on stock prices

Interférence morphosyntaxique de l’anglais sur le français langue étrangère dans la production orale chez les futurs Enseignants en 2ème année de Bagabaga College of Education : problème linguistique ou psychologique ?

Cet article porte sur les causes de l’interférence morphosyntaxique de l’anglais sur le français langue étrangère lors de la production orale. Les études antérieures qui ont abordées des causes de ce type d’interférence ne les percevaient qu’au terme des différences au niveau des structures entre l’anglais et le français. Seize étudiants qui sont en deuxième année de Bagabaga College of Education ont été sélectionnés à partir d’une technique d'échantillonnage de choix raisonné. Le test et l’entrevue sont les instruments de collecte des données. Les données ont montré que les causes de l’interférence étaient la translittération de la langue anglaise vers le français langue étrangère. Les apprenants ont eu du mal à utiliser les formes appropriées des prépositions, des articles et des pronoms relatifs car certains éléments grammaticaux qu'ils choisissent dans la langue anglaise ne correspondent pas à la structure française. Les futurs enseignants manquaient de confiance nécessaire pour produire des phrases correctes en français car ils ont peur. Les données qualitatives ont aussi montré que les interférences sont plus évidentes si les individus sont amenés à parler dans une langue sur des sujets dont ils ne parlent pas habituellement. À la fin de l’étude, des suggestions ont été formulées, entre autres comme : chercher un partenaire de communication, pratiquer de la langue cible, comme meilleures stratégies en vue de résoudre les problèmes d’interférence morphosyntaxique auprès des futurs- enseignants

Essays on failure risk of firms using multivariate frailty models

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe post-2007 global financial crisis, characterised by huge firm losses, especially in the USA and Europe, initiated a new strand of literature, where default models are adjusted for unobserved risk factors, including measurement errors, missing firm specific and macroeconomic variables. These new models assume that default correlations are not only driven by observable firm-specific and macroeconomic factors, but also by unobserved risk factors. This thesis present three empirical essays. The first essay estimates and predicts the within-sector failure rate and dependence of firms on the London Stock Exchange. The study offers an additive lognormal frailty model that accounts for both unobserved factors and regime changes. The analysis reveals that during distressed market periods the sector-based failure rates and dependencies tend to be high. The second essay proposes a novel approach based on a bias-corrected estimator to investigate the impact of informative firm censoring and unobserved factors on hazard rates of US firms. The approach uses inverse probability of censoring weighted scheme that explicitly accounts for firm specific factors, economic cycles, industry-level dependence and market activities induced by unobservable factors. The analysis shows that during distressed market periods the effect of informative censoring averagely increases the hazards rates, and varies across industries. The third essay employs a mixed effects Cox model to estimate the failure dependence caused by firms’ exposure to country-based and group-level unobserved factors within the Eurozone. The empirical results show that a higher failure dependence among firms in groups of countries with similar economic and financial conditions than countries with different conditions. Overall, the thesis contributes to the empirical literature on firm default in the broad area of corporate finance by offering a different approach of capturing default dependence and its variations during unfavourable market conditions and adjusting for the effects of non-default firm exit on active firms.Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC), U

Difficulties in pricing of real options

I would like to express my appreciation to Professor Maciej Klimek, my supervisor, not only for his exceptional help on this project, but also for the course (Financial Derivatives) that he taught which granted me the understanding of Real Options and the necessary mathematical background to come out with this piece of writing. I would also like to thank Professor Johan Tysk, who introduced me to financial mathematics at the initial stage of my studies and Professor Abrahamsson Leif as a personal course selection adviser. To the rest of the professors in the Financial Mathematics and Financial Economics programme who provided instruction, encouragement and guidance, I would like to say a big thank you to you all. They did not only teach me how to learn, they also taught me how to teach, and their excellence has always inspired me. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, Mary Nambo, for her financial support and encouragement, Zsuzsanna Kristofi of Mathematics Department, for the help she rendered to me when I first contacted the Department and the entire members of th

Do innovation, financial development and institutional quality matter in managing carbon risk?

Using territorial- and consumption-based carbon emissions as proxies for carbon risk, the study examined the impact of innovation on carbon risk while controlling for institutional quality and financial development effects in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) from 1986 to 2021. To address cross-sectional dependence and ensure robustness, we employed the augmented mean group (AMG) and cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) estimation techniques. Our findings show that innovation plays a key role in mitigating carbon risks, with a more pronounced effect on territorial carbon risk compared to consumption-based carbon risk. Furthermore, financial development exerts a positive influence on carbon risk, especially in the context of consumption-based emissions. Notably, institutional quality mitigates both forms of carbon risk. These outcomes suggest that BRICS countries should consider the types of carbon risk when formulating carbon emissions mitigation strategies

Financial development and innovation: Do institutions and human capital matter?

This paper explores the dynamic link between financial development and innovation, while accounting for human capital and institutional quality for 29 OECD countries spanning 40 years (1980–2019). The findings based on Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) estimators show that trade, institutional quality, human capital and financial development promote innovation activities, while foreign direct investment has the opposite effect. Further, the findings show a non-linear relationship between finance and innovation

The Role of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in Facilitating Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) Exploitation and Economic Growth in Cross River State, Nigeria

Exploitation of forest resources is one of the main stay of economic livelihood in Nigeria in general and Cross River State (CRS) in particular. However, due to the increasing rate of deforestation and the campaign against logging and other forms of depletion of timber resources, what is left in the forests are largely the non-timber forest products (NTFPs). This study has, thus, focused on the exploitation of non-timber forest-products as a form of income by micro and small enterprises in CRS. Multistage sampling techniques and structured questionnaires were used to obtain a cross sectional data on the socioeconomic characteristics, the different types of NTFPs, their uses and the returns from NTFPs trade to households in 5 (Five) LGAs of the State. In all, 500 (Five Hundred) questionnaires were administered and 482 (Four Hundred and Eighty-Two) were returned. Out of these, 22 (Twenty-Two) were mutilated beyond use, while 460 (Four Hundred and Sixty) were found okay and used for analysis. The study revealed that 290 out of 460, representing 63.04% are engaged in exploitation and trading in NTFPs on full time basis. Almost 95% the respondents reside in the study area and more than 78% of them had at least primary education. Of the different types of NTFPs in the study area, thatch/bamboo has the highest prevalence usage due to its high demand for building construction and sundry purposes. These products also have highest average gross margin of N390,000 per year to an average household in the study area. This is followed closely by fruits with N370,000 per year of average gross margin to a household. This study has brought to light some facts on NTFP contribution to the enhancement of livelihoods in the study area. The results show that while initially a support to other livelihood activities, NTFP extraction is rapidly becoming a mainstream income source. If reproduction enhancement and conservation of use are not factored into the extraction of these products now, a situation could well arise in the future where these resources could become less available. &nbsp

Currency reform, currency biases and Ghana's forex market fluctuations: Beyond the macroeconomic fundamentals

Redenomination of currency has become a common phenomenon in recent past among emerging and transitional economies. In 2007, Ghana became one of the economies to redenominate in recent past. This currency policy adaptation has the potential of triggering certain individual behavioral biases on the forex market. This study provides evidence that currency biases that accompanied Ghana's currency reform adaptation in 2007 contribute to its forex market price (exchange rate) fluctuations. Using data from 1980 to 2018 with some estimated biases and some selected macroeconomic fundamentals as covariates in an ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) model, the study revealed that estimated biases which were induced as a result of currency reform adaptation impact positively and significantly on Ghana's forex market prices. It is therefore recommended that policy makers, political leaders and stakeholders begin to look at human factors that may exist in the forex market and incorporate this information into future plans in addressing issues relating to forex market fluctuations