An examination of debt financing of growth oriented SMEs in Nigeria

This thesis examines the relationship between Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SMEs) financing and business growth in Nigeria. Specifically, the research examines the external debt financing needs and debt financing gaps experienced by growth oriented SMEs, the role of finance in SMEs growth and the factors that affect SME financing. In so doing, the study focuses on the supply and demand side perspectives of SME financing including public policy support for growth oriented SMEs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data on the main financing needs of SMEs and to determine whether they were experiencing debt financing gaps and the nature of such gaps. The research provided empirical evidence which shows that growth oriented SMEs are experiencing debt financing gaps in Nigeria, with the demand side gap being more prominent than the supply side gap. It also established the existence of an association between access to bank finance and SME growth, which determines the important role that external finance plays in SMEs growth in a developing country context. This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge. Theoretically, it has contributed by developing an analytical model which improves our understanding of SME debt financing and its impact on the growth oriented SMEs in Nigeria and the African context. In terms of contribution to practice, the research yields useful knowledge which could be used to inform the work of policy-makers and business practitioners in developing and advancing SME financing initiatives in Nigeria and improving the overall relationship between SME owner-managers and providers of debt finance

Conversational thinking as an alternative theory of development

Conversational theory of development (CTD) is presented in this work as a new and alternative theory of development and as a mechanism for moderating and reconciling the differences and weaknesses in the modernization theory of development and in the main concern of post-development theory. By its basic canons and principles, conversational thinking offers a more robust global developmental framework. The rift between development and post-development theorists as to the main goal and direction of the world development agenda seems to heighten over the years. The heart of this rift is the question of the place of the third world countries in the much-acclaimed development drive by the United Nations and other International Organizations. I expose the strength and weaknesses of selected development and post-development theories and contend that poor implementation strategies, as well as imperial and exploitative interests, are the bane of these development theories. I demonstrate how conversational thinking overcomes these limitations and presents a more viable development alternative through a rigorous application of its canons of transformative indigenization, constructive modernization and moderate decolonization, as well as the ‘M’ and ‘T’ principles

An Empirical Exploration of U.S Healthcare Discrimination and Obesity Prevalence

This paper offers an empirical exploration of the discriminatory nature of the US healthcare system using obesity prevalence as a primary lens. The study involves an analysis of time series data sets to examine the impact of an array of both economic and lifestyle factors on obesity rates across a statewide level. In addition to discussing the current realm of literature surrounding obesity, this paper expounds upon existing empirical models. Results show that inequality and race are significant influencers of anti-black discrimination that is ever present within society

Customer relationship management (CRM) of hotels in the context of variety-seeking behaviour (VSB)

This study combined two significant areas in marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) and variety-seeking behaviour (VSB), which are paradoxical constructs due to their contradictory intentions. While organisations implement various customer relationship management practices with an intention of retaining customers and generating loyalty, a preference for variety-seeking behaviour can make customers switch. This study investigated the impact of variety-seeking behaviour on generating outcomes of customer relationship management practices in the hotel context, by focusing exclusively on leisure travellers. Even though customer relationship management is widely adopted in the hotel domain, much of its discussions are on implementation related aspects, rather than on the practices that manifest due to CRM implementations. Thus, only a few studies have investigated the effectiveness of CRM from a customer point of view. Numerous factors affecting customer switching behaviour have also been discussed in the hotel literature. Variety-seeking behaviour is identified as a key factor influencing customer loyalty and switching in numerous other services in the tourism domain. However, variety-seeking behaviour in the hotel domain has not received scholarly attention. This study investigated the customer relationship management practices experienced by leisure travellers in their hotel visits. Based on the observations from the literature, and also from studies on variety-seeking behaviour in other contexts, this study explored whether leisure travellers seek variety in the hotel context. Combining the two domains, it then investigated the impact of variety-seeking behaviour on the effectiveness of customer relationship management to generate its outcomes. In turn, it also determined the impact of customer relationship management on influencing the variety-seeking behaviour of leisure travellers. This study adopted a sequential mixed method design. The initial qualitative stage explored the concepts in-depth, and addressed four exploratory research questions. It also generated items to initiate the subsequent quantitative phase, and to generate hypotheses. The quantitative phase involved pilot testing, validating a new measurement scale, testing the hypotheses and making generalisations to a larger population. The qualitative phase involved five focus groups which consisted of 22 participants in total. The quantitative stage involved a survey which consisted of 400 responses. Prior to the survey a pilot test was conducted with a sample of 100 respondents. The samples for both qualitative and quantitative stages were selected based on the criterion ‘leisure travellers who have been to the same international destination two or more times’ This criterion was important in identifying hotel selection patterns which in turn provides grounds to understand variety-seeking behaviour of leisure travellers. The qualitative findings identified numerous customer relationship management practices experienced by leisure travellers. They were categorised as: pre-encounter, encounter and post-encounter practices. It was also found that while some seek familiarity many leisure travellers do seek variety in the hotel context. The data revealed that leisure travellers can be categorised into three groups based on their degree of variety-seeking behaviour, those who visit: 1) the same location and the same hotel 2) the same location and different hotels, and 3) different locations and different hotels. They were named the familiarity/familiarity seeking group (FF), the familiarity/variety seeking group (FV), and the variety/variety seeking group (VV) respectively. The quantitative stage commenced with validating a new measurement scale. The findings indicated that even though customer relationship management leads to word-of-mouth recommendation, it does not lead to repeat visitation. Through multi-group moderation analysis it was further identified that the outcomes of customer relationship management do not vary based on the degree of variety-seeking behaviour of travellers. The relationship between CRM and VSB was found to be two fold—while on the one hand customer relationship management leading to repeat visitation is fully mediated by the intrinsic factors affecting variety-seeking behaviour, on the other hand customer-relationship management does have a significant influence on variety-seeking behaviour. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on customer relationship management and variety-seeking behaviour. The theoretical contribution includes the identification of the impact of customer relationship practices on generating repeat visitation and word-of-mouth and the extension of the theory of VSB to the hotel context. This study pointed to some effective segmentation dimensions and methods to improve targeted communication that can be used by hotel practitioners. The mixed method approach enhanced the methodological rigor used in realising the above contributions

The Impact of Particular Provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on the United States Economy Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the most significant overhaul of the U.S. federal tax system in the last two decades. This paper seeks to discuss some of its most significant provisions and examine their overall impact on the U.S. economy, especially throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This paper begins by undertaking an overview of the legislative history of the Act and then proceeds to discuss three provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts which have had a tremendous impact on the U.S. economy by altering some major provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986. I conclude my review and discussion of each provision by providing a critique of the provision and proposing recommendations and amendments which should be made to the Act, if these provisions are to remain viable, in light of recent developments

Applying the Diversity Map, a Visualization Technique, to the Protein Data Bank

In this research, the Diversity Map, a visualization technique created in the Metoyer research lab in Oregon State, is used to visualize the diversity of all the molecules deposited in the Protein Data Bank. Data was split into a period of three years from 1990 to 2010 and analyzed individually by Dr. Laura Hunsicker-Wang in the department of chemistry with a research focus in protein, and ten student participants with varying level of knowledge in chemistry. Results show that the Diversity Map is a powerful tool in understanding data from the Protein Data Bank and furthermore, has strong potential in being useful to the scientific community