EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON SMALL SCALE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN OTA-METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social media marketing on small scale business performance. In today’s social media driven environment, it is essential that small businesses understand facebook, twitter, and the strategies behind using social media for growing their business. Unfortunately, many small businesses do not have a strategy when they begin using social media. The objectives of this study include the following: to determine how effective employee training about social media of small to medium enterprises has increase brand awareness, to examine how employee participation in SME’s operation has increase sales, to identify how continuous improvement of SME’s strategies has improve customer service, and to examine how managerial commitment of SME’s has increase the implementation of social media campaigns. One hundred and fifty copies of questionnaire were administered to owner-managers and employees of selected SME’s in Ota Metropolis of which one hundred and thirty five of the questionnaires were returned completely filled and fifteen were not returned. Four hypotheses were formulated from the structure of the research questions, ANOVA, Correlation and other statistical tools were used in testing these hypotheses. A descriptive approach is presented, followed by an in-depth structured questionnaire with the small business owners. The study reveals the different strategies the owner uses to build and maintain relationships with consumers and the study concludes with important implications for small businesses. Networking and creating relationships with other businesses, increases brand exposure. By promoting another business or their product, they may promote yours. Engaging others makes your business visible to their audience and has the potential to reach hundreds or thousands of consumers. Focusing more on relationships than sales, increases sales. Social media provides businesses the opportunity to engage their audience on many different levels, including personal. In the beginning, it is important for a business to focus on creating relationships with consumers. An owner can show interest in its audience by commenting on individual’s posts or asking questions. Doing so also exposes the business to friends of fans and followers, increasing the business’s reach

Occupational Stress among Academic Staff in Private University: Empirical Evidence from Covenant University, Nigeria.

The study examined occupational stress among Academic Staff in Private University in Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to ascertain whether work overload has impact on the quality of graduates produced by private University, to examine the relationship between university policy and the loyalty of academic staff of a private University, to justify the extent to which resource inadequacy affects the quality of research and publications produced by the academic staff of a private University and to highlight the effect of job dissatisfaction on the academic excellence of academic staff in a private University. The simple random sampling technique was used in this study to determine occupational stress among academic staff in a private University. A sample of 150 academic staff of Covenant University, Ota, was drawn for this study with response rate of 92%. The data were analyzed using simple frequency tables; regression and Pearson's product moment correlation were used for the four hypotheses proposed for this study. The results of the hypotheses showed that a negative relationship exists between university policy and the loyalty of academic staff, that resource inadequacy to a large extent affects the quality of research and publications produced by academic staff of a private University, that job dissatisfaction affects the academic excellence of academic staff in a private University and that there is a negative relationship between workload and quality of graduate produced by a private university. Research indicates that academics are experiencing higher level of strain compared to other occupational group and that occupational stress affects employees in several ways and is a major source of employee's turnover in many institutions. With this study, the general agreement is that occupational stress will have a negative effect on the academic staff of a private University. Therefore, an institution that emphasizes quality, performance and accountability must work towards reducing and managing occupational stress among its staff

Simplified Methods of fitting the truncated Negative Binomial Distribution: A model that allows for Non users

Retailers monitor customer buying-behaviour as a measure of their stores’ success. However, summary measures such as the total buying-behaviour provides little insight about individual-level shopping behaviour. Additionally, behaviour may evolve over time, especially in a changing environment like the Internet. This research developed a useful stochastic model for analysing period to period fluctuations in sales thereby generalizing the model proposed by Goodhardt and Ehrenberg to allow for nonbuyers of the product category. So as the composition of the customer population changes (e.g., as customers mature or as large numbers of new and inexperienced Internet shoppers enter the market), the overall degree of buyer heterogeneity that each store faces may change. A systematic bias in their simple negative binomial distribution [NBD] model is demonstrated. If the proportion of nonbuyers is large, the simple model will be wrong. As a result, frequent buyers often comprise the preferred target segment. We find evidence supporting the fact that people who visit a store more frequently are more likely to buy. We also gives explicit formula and directions that allow a moderately analyst to perform his own conditional trend analysis. KEYWORDS:  Buying Behaviour, Negative Binomial Distribution,  Heterogeneity, Conditional Trend Analysis

The effect of pre-treatment and storage conditions on the germination potential of Albizia lebbeck (l.) Benth. and A. odoratissima (l.f.) Benth. seeds

The study investigated the influence ofpre-treatment and storage conditions onthe germination potential of Albizialebbeck (l.) Benth. and A. odoratissima(l.f.) Benth. seeds. Mature fruits wereharvested and after extraction, the seedswere divided into two batches, with onebatch dried to a moisture content of 2%while the other batch was left as freshseeds. Each batch was subjected to threestorage conditions- kilner jar (KJ,25+2ºC), paper packet (PP, 25+2ºC) andrefrigeration (4+2ºC) and stored for 30, 60and 90 days. The experiment was a2x3x2x3 factorial in complete randomizeddesign. Germination rate and cumulativegermination percentages (CGP) wererecorded and subjected to descriptivestatistics and analysis of variance(ANOVA) at p<0.05. Storage period andstorage containers had significant effects(p<0.05) on daily seed germination but notmoisture content. Storage period andstorage media had significant effect onCGP of A. lebbeck and A. odoratissima atp<0.05. The highest CGP was 54% andwas significantly lower in A. lebbeck seedsstored for 30 days than 68% in seedsstored for 60 days and 64% in those storedfor 90 days. A. odoratissima seeds storedfor 90 and 60 days had significantly higherCGP of 91% and 90% respectively, thanseeds stored for 30 days with CGP of 74%.A. lebbeck seeds in PP had significantlyhigher CGP (68%), than refrigeration(57%) and KJ (60%). Refrigerated A.odoratissima seeds had significantlyhigher CGP (96%) than KJ and PP, bothwith 80%. A. lebbeck seeds cannot bestored at room temperature for over twomonths and retain viability. RefrigeratedA. odoratissima seeds had highgermination percentage after three months

SOURCE VARIATION IN MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF BUCHHOLZIA CORIACEA ENGLER SEEDLINGS

Investigations were conducted on the effects of source variation on the morphological traits of Buchholzia coriacea Engler seedlings, a medicinal plant in southwestern Nigeria. The sources were Erifun, Olukosi, Ore Forest Reserve, Ogbere, Ago-Owu, Omo forest reserve and Eleiyele. Two hundred (200) seeds were randomly selected from the seven sources and sown in germination boxes. The seedlings from each source were arranged in the greenhouse in three replicates with each having thirty seedlings using the completely randomized design. Seedlings were assessed for shoot height, leaf production, collar diameter, leaf area and biomass production for six months. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and significant means separated using least significant difference. The tallest seedlings were from Olukosi seeds with mean value of 33cm. This was followed by seedlings from Eleiyele seeds, 31.7cm and Erifun, 29.1cm. Erifun seeds had the highest mean value (6.6mm) for collar diameter and (14.4 leaves) for leaf production. Seedlings from Olukosi seeds had 13.2 leaves and those from Ago-Owu seeds, 12.9 leaves. The highest mean leaf biomass, 2.2g was recorded in seedlings from both Olukosi and Ogbere seeds. Mean stem biomass of seedlings from Ogbere source, 3.3g was the highest while the highest mean value for root dry weight, 40.8g was recorded for those from Ore forest reserve. Seedlings from Olukosi and Ogbere sources performed best out of the seven sources. Erifun was the poorest followed by Eleiyele. Seeds from Olukosi or Ogbere could be recommended for the establishment of plantations of B. coriacea.Â

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AND DIVERSITY OF Pycnanthus angolensis IN RAINFOREST SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA

Population distributionof Pycnanthus. angolensis was carried out in two locations of three States (Osun, Ekiti and Oyo) due to abundance and availability using direct enumeration. A total of 58 stands of plant viz Osun state 58.93%, Ekiti State 28.57% and Oyo State 12.50% were assessed. Variation occurred  within each State (Osun State: Ila 32.35% >20.59% Olooyo and Mojapa, Gbongan 17.65%, Ile Ogbo 5.88%  and least in Ajaba (2.94%). In Ekiti State, Osan 43.75% > Otun 31.25%.  > 25% Ayetoro Ekiti. In Oyo State, Adewumi, 28.57% > 14.29 %> Idito, Erumu, Sapara (U.I), Mosque (U.I) and Amina (U.I), 39 juvenile and 19 mature trees (flowering and fruiting) varied in ratios 30:6 Osun State, 9:7 Ekiti State and 0:6 Oyo state respectively.  Osun State had the highest number of juvenile trees (30), 9 in Ekiti State and zero juvenile in Oyo state.  Ekiti State had the highest number of mature tree 7> Oyo and Osun (6). Osun State had greater number of juvenile trees than Ekiti and Oyo States. P. angolensis was found growing in fallow or abandoned land, marshy areas, farmland, river side, new site areas and Quarters. P. angolensis could be found on different habitats among the States and within the States.  Given the high rate of forest destruction in the country, there is need to ensure sustainable conservation of the forest area to avoid further destruction by provision of alternative means of livelihood for the local population so as to reduce their dependence on these forest. &nbsp

EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF BITUMINOUS ASPHALTS WASTE AS AGGREGATES IN CONCRETE

The present trend of indiscriminate dumping of waste bituminous asphalts on the highways in Nigeria calls for urgent attention. The trend all over the world now is the conservation of natural resources and reduction of waste being generated as a result of different human activities. This paper has looked at how the used bituminous asphalts material can be effectively utilized for other construction purposes. Different types of test like: slump, flow table,  fire resistance and compressive strength tests were carried out on the bituminous asphalt waste that was mixed with sand and cement to make concrete, and the result was compared with concrete made from granite of size 20mm, gravel of size 15mm and bush gravel of size less than 8mm. The flow table tests conducted showed that both granite and bituminous concrete mixes have low flow rate, while coarse and bush gravels have medium flow rate. The bituminous concrete has the highest cube strength of 25 N/mm2 after 28 days.  In conclusion, bituminous asphalts could be a very good substitute as aggregate in concrete for some marine structures that are not exposed to fire.Â

Consumer Purchase Behaviour in a Frequently bought product Category: Investigation and measure of Brand loyalty.

Past research has predominantly relied on models without incorporating heterogeneity as part of their methodological tools. This research investigates different ways of modeling brand loyalty using a competing risk model that incorporate brand loyalty and study its time dependence. We introduce previous models by including switch-specific hazard functions, repeat purchases, marketing mix Variables, unobserved heterogeneity and mover- stage type loyalty. An empirical example based on household purchases of disposable products is provided to illustrate the modeling approach. Results indicate that ignoring heterogeneity will lead to biased inferences concerning time dependence of brand loyalty. Keywords: Heterogeneity, Mover-Stayer loyalty, Hazard function, and Marketing mi

Survey Error: It’s Implication on Research and Possible Remedies

This paper identifies and describes the primary sources of survey error in mail surveys and some methods typically used to assess and quantify some of these sources of error. Four sources of survey error- sampling error, non coverage error, non-response error and measurement error were discussed. Descriptions of how each of these sources of error occurs in mail surveys are provided. The paper summarizes ways of reducing these errors, if they cannot be totally avoided. Keyword: survey error, sampling error, non-coverage error, non-response error, measurement error, true score model

Appraisal of jaw swellings in a Nigerian tertiary healthcare facility

Introduction: The mandible and maxilla can be the site of myriads of lesions that may be categorized as neoplastic, cystic, reactive and infective or inflammatory. Literature reviewing jaw swellings in an amalgamated fashion are uncommon, probably because aetiologies for these swellings are varied. However, to appreciate their relative relationship, it is essential to evaluate the clinico-pathologic profile of jaw swellings. The aim of this appraisal is to describe the array of jaw swellings seen at our hospital from 1990 to 2011, to serve as a reference database. Methodology: Biopsy records of all histologically diagnosed cases of jaw swellings seen at the department of Oral Pathology, University College Hospital between January 1990 and December 2011 were retrieved, coded and inputted into SPSS version 20. Data on prevalence, age, sex, site and histological diagnosis were analysed descriptively for each category of jaw swellings. All patients below 16 years were regarded as children. Results: A total of 638 jaw swellings were recorded in the 22-year study period. The Non Odontogenic Tumours (NOT) were the commonest, accounting for 46.2% of all jaw swellings. Odontogenic Tumours (OT) formed 45% of all adult jaw swelling while it formed 25.2% in children and adolescents. Ameloblastoma was the commonest while the most common NOT was ossifying fibroma (OF). Chronic osteomyelitis of the jaws was about 6 times commoner in adult females than males and mostly involved the mandible. The most common malignant jaw swelling was Burkitts' lymphoma (BL) that was about 7 times more in children than adults. Osteogenic sarcoma was the most common malignancy in adults. Conclusion: Jaw swellings are extensively varied in types and pattern of occurrence. This study has categorized jaw swellings in a simple but comprehensive fashion to allow for easy referencing in local and international data acquisition and epidemiological comparison