Entrepreneurial Orientation, Economic Factors and Performance of Selected Quoted Consumer Goods Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria: A Combined Effect

Performance does take central position in terms of business considering its role in assisting organisations to accomplishing goals and achieving successes. Consumer goods manufacturing industry in Nigeria are experiencing decline in performance these days due to poor entrepreneurial orientation and poor management of economic policies. This study examined entrepreneurial orientation, economic factors and performance of selected quoted consumer goods companies in Nigeria. Cross sectional survey design was employed and the population of the study was 1,551 of twelve (12) quoted consumer goods manufacturing companies in Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The Cronbach’s alpha ranges between 0.721 and 0.892. The response rate was 90.5%. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that entrepreneurial orientation (β = 0.420, t = 7.288, p = 0.000) and economic factors (β = 0.671, t = 11.098, p = 0.000) have positive and significant effects on performance of the selected quoted consumer goods companies in Nigeria. This implies that entrepreneurial orientation and economic factor are significant predictors of performance of selected quoted consumer goods companies in the study area. The study concluded that entrepreneurial orientation and economic factors had significant effects on performance of selected consumer goods companies in Nigeria and recommended that managers of selected consumer goods companies should be strategic and proactive enough to improve on performance of consumer goods manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Keywords: Entrepreneurial orientation, Economic factors, Consumer goods companies, Nigeria. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-22-03 Publication date: November 30th 202

Entrepreneurial Orientation Components and Sales Volume of Selected Quoted Consumer Goods Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

Organisational performance is of high importance and occupies a central position among other goals and remains a compensation for sustainable and competitive sales volume. Consumer goods manufacturing industry in Nigeria are experiencing decline in sales volume due to poor entrepreneurial orientation. This study examined the interaction between entrepreneurial orientation components and sales volume of selected quoted consumer goods manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study adopted cross sectional survey design. The population of the study was 1,551. Total enumeration was used to sample the entire population. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The Cronbach’s alpha ranges between 0.721 and 0.892. The response rate was 90.5%. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that innovativeness (β = 0.334, t = 4.970, p = 0.000), competitive aggressiveness (β = 0.221, t = 3.715, p = 0.000) and risk taking (β = 0.136, t = 2.044, p = 0.042) have positive and significant effects on sales volume of the selected quoted consumer goods companies in Nigeria. However, proactiveness (β = 0.129, t = 1.733, p = 0.000) and planning flexibility (β = 0.075, t = 1.378, p = 0.169) have a positive but insignificant effect on sales volume of selected quoted consumer goods companies in Nigeria. The study concluded that entrepreneurial orientation (innovativeness, competitive aggressiveness, proactiveness, risk-taking and planning flexibility) had significant effect on sales volume of selected quoted consumer goods companies in Nigeria and recommended that managers should be more aggressive in exploiting opportunities to increase sales volume. Keywords: Entrepreneurial orientation, Sales volume, Consumer goods companies, Nigeria. DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/80-03 Publication date: November 30th 202

THE POSTULATION OFLEADERSHIP SKILLS AMONG HEADS OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN OGUN STATEOWNEDUNIVERSITIES

The paper looks at how leadership skills can be improved among the heads of Business Education in the Ogun-state owned Universities.It was noted that Business Education in the study area is a sub-component unit ofdepartments therebydiscouraging intimate and direct relationship between the leader andsubordinates in the Institutions. The paper identifies fivepossible leadership styles of Business Education heads and discusses how leaders can improveon their skills in the universities. It is recommended that the leader should make the subordinates feel important and gain their willingness to work.The paper concludes that a quality leader makes both the task and the experience better. Not only does everyone start somewhere, but no one ever stops learning and expanding in experience and knowledge. The paper also concludes that a good leader must be proactive

THE POSTULATION OFLEADERSHIP SKILLS AMONG HEADS OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN OGUN STATEOWNEDUNIVERSITIES

The paper looks at how leadership skills can be improved among the heads of Business Education in the Ogun-state owned Universities.It was noted that Business Education in the study area is a sub-component unit ofdepartments therebydiscouraging intimate and direct relationship between the leader andsubordinates in the Institutions. The paper identifies fivepossible leadership styles of Business Education heads and discusses how leaders can improveon their skills in the universities. It is recommended that the leader should make the subordinates feel important and gain their willingness to work.The paper concludes that a quality leader makes both the task and the experience better. Not only does everyone start somewhere, but no one ever stops learning and expanding in experience and knowledge. The paper also concludes that a good leader must be proactive

Solar Electricity System Design for Administrative Buildings

Regular availability of electricity is fundamentally important for everyday running and productivity of any organisation. In any modern society, stable and reliable electric power is a basic need, without which living condition becomes substandard and smooth business operations become difficult. Unreliability of power services in Nigeria is taking its toll on administrative, academic and research activities at Federal Polytechnic, Ede, just like other institutions in the country. Diesel generator on which the institution depends for alternative power source during outage is not sustainable as outage is too frequent and the duration is usually long, at times for days. This results in a very high running cost if normal activities in the institution are to go unimpeded. This work is on the design of 172.84kWP Solar Photovoltaic (PV) System aimed at permanently addressing the electric power challenges at the Administrative Blocks of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede. The proposed project’ design was simulated and the results show that its real life performance is highly promising. The least energy yield of the PV system occurs in June with 549.93kWh/day as against the maximum demand of 457.30kWh/day. The system performance is much higher in the months of September to March as solar irradiance is higher in these months. The PV plant has active service life of over 25years without significant change in its efficiency. The benefits of the proposed project are manifold. The project if implemented will solve the electric power problem of the institution at the Administrative’ Building by providing stable, adequate and reliable 24-hour a day electricity. The estimated cost of the proposed project is N45, 000,000  which is much cheaper than diesel generator and interestingly, is appreciably less than the cost of unreliable power supply from the grid. Keywords: Energy yield, off-grid, photovoltaic system, solar electricity, solar photovoltai

Storm-time variation of the horizontal and vertical components of the geomagnetic fields and rate of induction at different latitudes

The paper presents the hourly mean variation of horizontal (H) and vertical (Z) components of the geomagnetic field and the rate of induction DH/DZ at different latitudes during magnetic storm of 20 March 2001 and 1 October 2001. The results of the analysis revealed that at high latitude stations greater than 60�, the reduction in DH component was noticed after the noon time while other stations less than 60� experienced reduction of H in the morning time during the geomagnetic storm. Large amplitude of DH and DZ were exhibited during the daytime over the equatorial zone, the amplitude decreases from mid latitudes to the dip equator during the nighttime. The daytime enhancement of DH at AAE, BAN and MBO suggest the presence of a strong eastward directed current which comes under the influence of electrojet. There were strong positive and negative correlations between ring current (DR) and horizontal component of the magnetic field DH. The effect of rate of induction is more significant at high latitudes than lower latitudes, during the geomagnetic storm. More enhancement in rate of induction occurred at nighttime than daytime. This result may be from other sources other than the ionosphere that is magnetospheric process significantly contributes toward the variation of induction

VARIATION IN FLOWERING PHENOLOGY OF CASSIA FISTULA LINN. POPULATION IN OTA, OGUN STATE. NIGERIA

Flowering phenology in the population of Cassia fistula Linn. at Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria was investigated for three years to determine if there was variation in the phenology and the patterns were compared with some environmental factors to determine if there was any correlation. The number of plants flowering each month was monitored for three years. Data for mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures, mean monthly rainfall and number of days with rain per month were obtained from Meteorological Institute, Oshodi, Lagos- Nigeria. In each year, there was synchronous flowering showing early and late flowering plants but the start and end of flowering vary between years. The peak months of flowering vary from year to year so also the period of flowering. Statistical analysis showed significant difference in flowering pattern between two of the years and from month to month. All these show clear variation in the flowering phenology of the species. Commencement of flowering was correlated with the rainfall and temperature in July and August while the end was correlated with the amount of rainfall and number of rainy days. With the overlap of flowering between the years, flowering is continuous in contrast to annual flowering in its country of origin; a phenomenon that has not been reported for the species before. The ecological implication was discusse

Training and Development Practices and Employees’ Performance in Selected Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

Managing workforce diversity in manufacturing organisations has been a problem all over the world including Nigeria. Manufacturing organisations in Nigeria continue to experience occasional drop in performance due to employees’ apathy and non-challant attitudes as a result of high level of dissatisfaction caused by inadequate attention to training and development practices. This study assessed the relationships between training and development practices and employees’ performance in selected manufacturing companies in Nigeria. A cross sectional survey research design was employed, and out of the 1,568 copies of questionnaire that were administered proportionally in the selected manufacturing companies, 1,153 copies were retrieved and found useful. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results of the findings show f-statistics of 223.717 and so, there is a significant relationship between training and development practices and employees’ performance among Nigerians working in the selected manufacturing companies. Also, f-statistics of 244.391 shows a significant relationship between training and development practices and employees’ performance among other nationals in the selected MNCs. The study concluded that there are significant relationships between training and development practices and employees’ performance in selected manufacturing MNCs in Nigeria

What Are the Contextual Enablers and Impacts of Using Digital Technology to Extend Maternal and Child Health Services to Rural Areas? Findings of a Qualitative Study From Nigeria

Background: Strengthening health systems to improve access to maternity services remains challenging for Nigeria due partly to weak and irregular in-service training and deficient data management. This paper reports the implementation of digital health tools for video training (VTR) of health workers and digitization of health data at scale, supported by satellite communications (SatCom) technology and existing 3G mobile networks. Objective: To understand whether, and under what circumstances using digital interventions to extend maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services to remote areas of Nigeria improved standards of healthcare delivery. Methods: From March 2017 to March 2019, VTR and data digitization interventions were delivered in 126 facilities across three states of Nigeria. Data collection combined documents review with 294 semi-structured interviews of stakeholders across four phases (baseline, midline, endline, and 12-months post-project closedown) to assess acceptability and impacts of digital interventions. Data was analyzed using a framework approach, drawing on a modified Technology Acceptance Model to identify factors that shaped technology adoption and use. Results: Analysis of documents and interview transcripts revealed that a supportive policy environment, and track record of private-public partnerships facilitated adoption of technology. The determinants of technology acceptance among health workers included ease of use, perceived usefulness, and prior familiarity with technology. Perceptions of impact suggested that at the micro (individual) level, repeated engagement with clinical videos increased staff knowledge, motivation and confidence to perform healthcare roles. At meso (organizational) level, better-trained staff felt supported and empowered to provide respectful healthcare and improved management of obstetric complications, triggering increased use of MNCH services. The macro level saw greater use of reliable and accurate data for policymaking. Conclusions: Simultaneous and sustained implementation of VTR and data digitization at scale enabled through SatCom and 3G mobile networks are feasible approaches for supporting improvements in staff confidence and motivation and reported MNCH practices. By identifying mechanisms of impact of digital interventions on micro, meso, and macro levels of the health system, the study extends the evidence base for effectiveness of digital health and theoretical underpinnings to guide further technology use for improving MNCH services in low resource settings. Trial Registration: ISRCTN32105372

Impact of using eHealth tools to extend health services to rural areas of Nigeria: protocol for a mixed-method, non-randomised cluster trial

Introduction: eHealth solutions that use internet and related technologies to deliver and enhance health services and information are emerging as novel approaches to support healthcare delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. Using digital technology in this way can support cost-effectiveness of care delivery and extend the reach of services to remote locations. Despite the burgeoning literature on eHealth approaches, little is known about the effectiveness of eHealth tools for improving the quality and efficiency of health systems functions or client outcomes in resource-limited countries. eHealth tools including satellite communications are currently being implemented at scale, to extend health services to rural areas of Nigeria, in Ondo and Kano States and the Federal Capital Territory. This paper shares the protocol for a 2-year project (‘EXTEND’) that aims to evaluate the impact of eHealth tools on health system functions and health outcomes. Methodology and analysis: This multisite, mixed-method evaluation includes a non-randomised, cluster trial design. The study comprises three phases—baseline, midline and endline evaluations—that involve: (1) process evaluation of video training and digitisation of health data interventions; (2) evaluation of contextual influences on the implementation of interventions; and (3) impact evaluation of results of the project. A convergent mixed-method model will be adopted to allow integration of quantitative and qualitative findings to achieve study objectives. Multiple quantitative and qualitative datasets will be repeatedly analysed and triangulated to facilitate better understanding of impact of eHealth tools on health worker knowledge, quality and efficiency of health systems and client outcomes. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approvals were obtained from the University of Leeds and three States’ Ministries of Health in Nigeria. All data collected for this study will be anonymised and reports will not contain information that could identify respondents. Study findings will be presented to Ministries of Health at scientific conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number: ISRCTN32105372; Pre-results