Mobile apps usage and dynamic capabilities: A structural equation model of SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Significant knowledge exists regarding the application of dynamic capability (DC) frameworks in large firms, but their impact on smaller organisations is yet to be fully researched. This study surveyed 1162 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Lagos in an effort to understand how SMEs in developing country contexts use mobile apps to enhance their businesses through DCs. Through the use of the covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique, the study explored the fitness of a conceptual formative model for SMEs. The model assembled 7 latent variables namely: mobile app usage, adaptive capability, absorptive capability, innovative capability, opportunity sensing ability, opportunity shaping ability and opportunity seizing ability. Subsequently, 15 hypotheses aimed at testing the relationships between the latent variables were developed and tested. The findings revealed that mobile app usage increases the adaptive, absorptive and innovative capabilities of SMEs. Absorptive capabilities help SMEs to maximise opportunities, while innovative capabilities negatively influence SMEs’ tendency to maximise opportunities. The results failed to establish a direct relationship between mobile app usage and SMEs’ ability to maximise opportunities. The research outcomes indicate that SMEs in Lagos respond to opportunities innovatively but they seldom exhibit innovation in order to create opportunities. The heterogeneous nature of SMEs complicates any clear-cut narrative as to how SMEs in Lagos should employ mobile apps to create and maximise opportunities. However, mobile apps could induce innovation and, as such, impact significantly when developed and applied to the contextual requirements of SMEs. The research revealed the untapped potential of SMEs’ mobile app usage in Lagos

Environmental scanning strategy of manufacturing companies in Southwestern Nigeria

In this paper, we examine the environmental scanning strategy of manufacturing companies in Southwestern Nigeria against the background that manufacturing companies in Nigeria exist in a challenging environment characterised by high import dependency, inappropriate policies, lack of transparent governance and weak industrial capabilities. Empirical data was collected with a questionnaire from a sample of 84 manufacturing firms in Southwestern Nigeria. We found that generally, companies in the industry actively engage in systematic gathering, analyses and assimilation of information about the business environment as strategic input into planning. The main objective of search was to obtain information required to initiate or support strategies for competing in the domestic market. Central among the factors determining the companies' level of intrusiveness into the environment are companies' capacity to interpret changes in the environment, available channels of information and quality of information.business environment; environmental scanning; environmental analysability; environmental uncertainty; manufacturing, strategy; technology; capabilities

Estimation of total dissolved solid in groundwater using multiple linear regression analysis around Igando dumpsites in Lagos, South-West, Nigeria

This study presents a multiple linear regression (MLR) TDS model that relates the TDS data obtained from groundwater samples to the geophysical data obtained from Electromagnetic (EM) data, as an alternative approach to mapping and monitoring the impact of TDS in groundwater. The predictive power of the developed MLR TDS model was appraised to determine the feasibility of using the TDS model to predict groundwater TDS around the study area. Although, the accuracy of the developed TDS model is site specific, the EM data around the area can be applied to the model to determine TDS concentration in groundwater, thus reducing the time and cost of acquiring and monitoring both parameters separately. The utilisation of the proposed MLR TDS model could assist in the implementation of seasonal groundwater quality monitoring programmes around the dumpsites. From the results also, association between TDS and EC and between TDS and N03 are 0.93 and 0.67 respectively, while that between TDS and hardness is 0.81, suggesting common source of contamination around the sites. Generally, there are relatively higher values of the measured physicochemical properties of water around the North-western part of Solous 1, North-western and South-western part of Solous 2, South-western and Southeastern part of Solous 3 dumpsite when compared with other parts investigated. Therefore, groundwater within the study area may have been impacted by the leachates from the decomposed refuse, and boreholes located at positions other than these zones are likely to yield uncontaminated wate

Psychological well-being of the Elderly in Nigeria

In Nigeria, growing old is usually feared because of the multi-faceted problems associated with ageing. Research has shown that conditions such as insufficient savings after retirement, poor access to health care, poor dietary intakes and poverty affect the psychological well-being of the elderly. Yet, there is paucity of research on the psychological condition of the elderly in Nigeria. This study examined the psychological well-being of the elderly in Ijumu local government area (LGA) of Kogi State Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted and 1,217 elderly aged 65+ were randomly selected. Psychological well-being was operationalized as whether the respondent experienced good or poor psychological well-being. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi Square tests and binary logistic regression. The mean age of the elderly was 72.3±8.4 years and a higher proportion (53.3%) experienced good psychological well-being. Age, level of education, current working status and financial assistance from children were the main determinants of good psychological well-being. Specifically, good psychological well-being decreased with increasing age. Also, the odds of having good psychological well-being was lower among those with no education and primary education compared with their counterparts with secondary education or more. Those who were currently working and who received financial assistance from children had better psychological wellbeing. This study showed that effective financial mechanisms need to be put in place by government, NGOs and/or children of the elderly to help improve the financial status of the elderly in order to enhance their psychological well-being

Time dependent electrical resistivity tomography and seasonal variation assessment of groundwater around the Olushosun dumpsite Lagos, South-west, Nigeria

Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and seasonal variation studies of the physicochemical properties of groundwater were carried out on the Olushosun dumpsite in Lagos South-western Nigeria, to monitor, track the depth of leachate contamination, and to investigate the impact of seasonal variation on groundwater quality around the dumpsite. Six 2-D resistivity imaging lines were investigated. The independent inversion of the dipole–dipole and pole-dipole resistivity data indicated that contaminated zones are characterised by resistivity values ranging from 0.63 to 12.5 Ωm, and a maximum depth of 141m was investigated. The pole-dipole models show clear evidence of vertical migration of contaminant with time, as depth of contamination increased from 106m in May 2014 to about 120m in December 2015 around the investigated portion of the dumpsite. Analysis of the seasonal variation of the examined physicochemical properties of the water samples taken from wells and boreholes within and around the site showed that there is increase in concentration of TDS and EC in the dry season study and a corresponding increase in the mean concentration of pH, Ca, Mg, hardness, Cu, Cr, NO3, SO4 and Na from the dry season results. Also, there is reduction in the mean concentration of Fe, Zn, Mn, PO4, Cl, and Ni in the dry season when compared with the wet season analysis. Generally, there is a strong correlation between the ERT results and the physicochemical parameters of ground water quality viz-a-viz the contamination status of the Olushosun dumpsite. This increased trend in the dry season period could be attributed to the increase in concentration of the dissolved metals due to evaporation, and on the other hand, dilution effect of the rainfall during the wet season. South East direction of contaminant flow was established from the water table contour lines produced for the area. The research has clearly shown that the groundwater within the study area has been impacted by the leachate from the decomposed refuse at the dumpsite and may constitute danger to the life of residents living around the dumpsit

Challenges of Small Ruminants Production in Selected Urban Communities of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Livestock production has become a common trend in urban communities whereby a number of people reared farm animals such as sheep and goats for social and economic reasons. Notwithstanding the associated advantages of livestock production, effective urban production of the small ruminants is greatly challenged by a number of factors. Based on this, the study was conducted with a view to identifying factors that challenged effective sheep and goat production in selected urban communities of Abeokuta, Ogun State. From the selected 12 urban communities where sheep and goats were reared, a total of 217 rearers were non-randomly selected using snow balling sampling method. A reliable and validated interview guide was used alongside field observation to obtain information on challenges to sheep and goats production in the urban areas. The results showed that the challenges were feed, health/disease, environmental, marketing and routine management related. All the respondents (100%) experienced challenges such as high cost of feeding, theft of the farm animals, problem of off -season feeding and problem of sourcing feed variety for the animals. The chi-square test showed that a significant relationship exists between the respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics (sex: χ2 = 21.06, df =4; age: χ2 = 43.26, df = 16; education: χ2 = 78.09, df = 12; occupation: χ2 = 62.57, df = 16; income: χ2 = 56.35, df =16) and the encountered challenges (p < 0.05). Based on this, it was concluded that the identified challenges to urban sheep and goat production remained serious issues in the study area. It was thus recommended that conscious efforts should be put up by rearers of the small ruminants to ensure safety of their animals and good feeding routine for increased productivity and beneficial returns

From public services to “services to the public”: the three elements of contemporary welfare

Public services are dying a slow death, but what comes next? Lord Adebowale and Henry Kippin set out a vision for a move towards “services to the public” – a vision that requires us to re-think the needs of citizens, the reality of a mixed economy, as well as the relationship between citizens and the state

Prediction of HLA class II alleles using SNPs in an African population

BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene locus in research and clinical practice, direct HLA typing is laborious and expensive. Furthermore, the analysis requires specialized software and expertise which are unavailable in most developing country settings. Recently, in silico methods have been developed for predicting HLA alleles using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). However, the utility of these methods in African populations has not been systematically evaluated. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, we investigate prediction of HLA class II (HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1) alleles using SNPs in the Wolaita population, southern Ethiopia. The subjects comprised 297 Ethiopians with genome-wide SNP data, of whom 188 had also been HLA typed and were used for training and testing the model. The 109 subjects with SNP data alone were used for empirical prediction using the multi-allelic gene prediction method. We evaluated accuracy of the prediction, agreement between predicted and HLA typed alleles, and discriminative ability of the prediction probability supplied by the model. We found that the model predicted intermediate (two-digit) resolution for HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles at accuracy levels of 96% and 87%, respectively. All measures of performance showed high accuracy and reliability for prediction. The distribution of the majority of HLA alleles in the study was similar to that previously reported for the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups from Ethiopia. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrate that HLA class II alleles can be predicted from SNP genotype data with a high level of accuracy at intermediate (two-digit) resolution in an African population. This finding offers new opportunities for HLA studies of disease epidemiology and population genetics in developing countrie

Functional and pasting properties of a tropical breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) starch from Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to determine the proximate, functional and pasting properties of breadfruit starch. Breadfruit starch was isolated from matured breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) and was analyzed for its functional, proximate and pasting properties. The starch contains 10.83%, 0.53%, 0.39%, 22.52%, 77.48% and 1.77% moisture, crude protein, fat, amylose, amylopectin and ash contents respectively. The average particle size, pH, bulk density and dispersibility of the breadfruit starch were 18 μm, 6.5, 0.673 g/mls, and 40.67% respectively. The swelling power of the breadfruit starch increases with increase in temperature, but there was a rapid increase in the swelling power from 70 to 80°C. The pasting temperature of the starch paste was 84.05°C, setback and breakdown values were 40.08 and 7.92 RVU respectively. The peak viscosity value was 121.25 RVU while final viscosity value was 153.42 RVU. This study concluded that breadfruit starch has an array of functional, pasting and proximate properties that can facilitate its use in so many areas where the properties of other starches are acceptable

From the ground up: Impacts of a pro-poor community-driven development project in Nigeria

"The community-driven development (CDD) approach has become increasingly popular because of its potential to develop projects that are sustainable, are responsive to local priorities, empower local communities, and more effectively target poor and vulnerable groups. The purpose of this study is to assess the impacts of Fadama II, which is a CDD project and the largest agricultural project in Nigeria. This study used propensity score matching (PSM) to select 1728 comparable project beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The study also used double difference methods to compare the impact indicators. Our results show that Fadama II project succeeded in targeting the poor and women farmers in its productive asset acquisition component. Participation in the project also increased the income of beneficiaries by about 60 percent, which is well above the targeted increase of only 20 percent in the six year period of the project. Regarding rural infrastructure investments, we found that the Fadama II project had positive near-term impacts on beneficiaries' access to markets and transportation costs, although the study revealed surprising effects on beneficiaries' commercial behavior and statistically insignificant impacts on nonfarm activities. We also observed that Fadama II increased the demand for postharvest handling technologies but did not have a significant impact on the demand for financial management and market information. Fadama II reduced the demand for soil fertility management technologies. The decline likely reflects the project's focus on providing postproduction advisory services and suggests the need for the project to increase its support for soil fertility management and thus limit the potential for land degradation resulting from increased agricultural productivity. Overall, the Fadama II project has achieved its goal of increasing the incomes of the beneficiaries in the first year of its operation. The project has also succeeded in targeting the poor and vulnerable in its productive-asset component, even though that did not appear to increase significantly short-term household incomes among the poorest asset tercile. The unique feature that could have contributed to the significant impact of the project in a short time is its broad-based approach, which addresses the major constraints limiting the success of CDD projects that address only one or two constraints. This has implications on planning poverty reduction efforts in low-income countries. Given that the poor face numerous constraints, a CDD project that simultaneously addresses many constraints will likely build synergies that will lead to larger impacts than will a project that addresses only one or two constraints. This suggests the need for the government and donors to pool resources and initiate multipronged CDD projects rather than many isolated projects." from Author's AbstractCommunity driven development, Poverty reduction, Propensity score matching, Difference-in-difference, Fadama,