PERFORMANCE EXPECTANCY AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MARKETING BY STAFF OF SELECTED PUBLISHING FIRMS IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Social media are platforms through which people of the different networks create, share and exchange information, ideas and also market products such as books in a virtual community. They are instruments for communication that do not just pass information but interact with customers. Since many benefits are derivable from the use of social media for marketing, it becomes imperative to investigate how book marketers use social media to achieve the objectives of their organisations. This study adopted a descriptive research design of correlational type. The population of the study was 212 marketing and sales staff of selected publishing firms. The total enumeration sampling technique was used to collect data from the respondents. A questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection and data collected were analysed through the use of descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The hypothesis was tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The results showed the performance expectancy of staff of publishing firms in the use of social media for marketing to be high. There was also a significant relationship between performance expectancy and use of social media by the staff of publishing firms (Perceived usefulness r=0.150,

Analysing the informal economy: data challenges, research design, and research transparency

Analyses of the informal economy are vital to understanding economic activity in developing countries, but challenges abound when analysing something that is so difficult to measure. In this article we explore these challenges and what they mean for research and research design in studies of the informal economy. We review key economic theories developed to study the informal economy, before critically discussing the range of methods of data collection available for researchers. All approaches to data collection have limitations, yet many studies fail to reflect adequately on these in their design and presentation. In reviewing data sources for economic analyses of informality, we give particular attention to surveys designed and led by academic researchers, the consideration of which is omitted from leading official organisations’ own reports on data collection in the informal economy. In the absence of a unifying theory and data sources that deliver the ‘comprehensive and accurate’ data called for by some authors we argue, first, that no one source of data is intrinsically superior; and second, that research on the informal economy must embrace transparency – around the data used, their alignment with the underlying theory adopted, and the detailed arrangements for data collection and analysis

Institutional incongruence, the everyday, and the persistence of street vending in Lagos: a demand-side perspective

Informal street vending is the most widespread activity in the global informal economy and a central part of citizens’ everyday lives, both sellers and patrons, in the urban centres of the Global South. Recently, however, authorities have started to ban street vending and even buying from vendors, as they impose policies that seek to control access to and use of urban spaces in pursuit of urban modernisation. Despite this, street vending continues. We seek understanding of this policy failure, from the perspective of the patrons of street vendors, a largely-neglected focus. Adopting a neoinstitutionalist framework, we utilise the concept of institutional incongruence to frame our empirical research. We apply multinomial analysis to an in-depth survey of 529 individuals in Lagos, Nigeria, complemented by ten interviews. We find patrons are motivated by multiple economic, social and spatial factors. Our results, as well as codifying and confirming existing understandings of patrons’ motivations, introduce a distinct factor – necessity – into the literature. These results allow us to offer important policy insights. Gaps between citizens’ behaviour impacted by the formal institutions of neoliberal urban policies, and the longstanding informal institutions shaping custom, and community, provide new insights into Lagosians’ everyday lives as patrons of street vendors. Moreover, these urban policies are shown to drive people towards street vending, as sellers and patrons – the opposite of their intended outcome. For policies to be developed that can reduce institutional incongruence and improve, rather than worsen, Lagosians’ lives, our results offer an important starting point

The future of the workforce in Leicestershire

In this report, we make projections on the likely shape of Leicester and Leicestershire’s workforce for the next 10-20 years. We do so based on an analysis of a range of existing data, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS) population projections, Annual Population Survey, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and the 2011 Census

Street level bureaucrats, policy entrepreneurship, and discretion in enforcing bans on motorcycle taxis in Lagos, Nigeria

Recently, the authorities in Lagos have implemented policies progressively restricting the operation of okadas (motorcycle taxis). We analyse the enforcement of these measures through the lens of Street Level Bureaucrats (SLBs) and Street Level Policy Entrepreneurs (SLPEs). Doing so, we introduce two novel features into the literature. First, the extant literature focuses primarily on policies that deliver public services, whereas policies can also control proscribed behaviour. We refer to these as service delivery and regulation, respectively. Second, the exercise of discretion by SLBs and SLPEs can result in both ‘under-enforcement’ and ‘over-enforcement’ of regulatory policies, the latter potentially involving breaking the law. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Lagos between 2021 and 2023, we find strong evidence of both under- and over-enforcement of okada bans over time, but with more over-enforcement. This offers important insights conceptually for the SLPE literature, and empirically to the challenges of policing urban Lagos

Knowledge, Perception and Attitude of Science and Social Science Undergraduates to Plagiarism in University of Ibadan, Nigeria

It is a common knowledge that undergraduates in the discipline of science and social science consult a wide variety of information materials to carry out researches, assignments, prepare for examinations and accomplish their terminal projects. As such, they are prone to unethical use, which may constitute plagiarism; hence this study investigated knowledge, perception and attitude of science and social science undergraduates to plagiarism in University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of 3,459 undergraduates during 2016/2017 academic session. A two stage sampling technique was adopted. A stratified sampling was first employed to group students to levels of study from 100 to 400 Level. Simple random sampling technique was applied to select 10% of the population, making a total sample size of 348. Data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The following findings were made: undergraduates are aware of what constitute the act of plagiarism, however, they believe it is difficult to avoid it completely; the knowledge of plagiarism does not stop the indulgence in it; factors promoting plagiarism include: short deadlines, lack of referencing knowledge, lack of penalty for involvement in plagiarism, among others. It was therefore, recommended that higher institutions in Nigeria should include topics on plagiarism, referencing and copyright issues in their curricula. All tertiary institutions should develop and implement an in-house policy on plagiarism and copyright infringement, among others

Sanitation Practices among Undergraduate Students at the University of Benin, Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to identify the sanitation practices among undergraduate students in halls of residents in University of Benin. The study followed a descriptive research design. The students residing in the halls of residents in Ugbowo campus at University of Benin constituted the study population. The sample size for was 400 students. These were selected through multi stage sampling. A structured questionnaire designed by the researchers titled “personal attributes influencing sanitation practices among undergraduate students” was used. The instrument was validated by three experts and when subjected to reliability testing, a reliability coefficient of 0.72 was obtained. Data collected was analysed using frequency counts and percentages. The findings were that sanitation practices among the students are poor and that age and gender influenced these practices. It was also found that inadequate water supply, poor toilet facilities, insufficient toilets, bathroom and waste disposal facilities and poor drainage system are major causes of poor sanitation in the halls of residents. It was recommended that there is need to educate the students on cleanliness during their orientation exercise and that keeping the environment clean on campus should be a joint responsibility of the school authority and students