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There is severe clinical vitamin A deficiency (VAD) prevalence among Ghanaians and many African countries. Foodbased diets has been suggested as a more sustainable approach to solving the VAD situation in Africa. In this study, A participatory action research between orange flesh sweet potato farmers, gari processors within central region and academia was adopted to develop gari containing provitamin A beta-carotene. Gari is a major staple for Ghanaians and people in the West African subregion due to its affordability and swelling capacity. It is mainly eaten raw with water, sugar, groundnut and milk as gari-soakings or with hot water to prepare gelatinized food called gari-kai in Ghana or “eba” among Nigerians. However, gari is limited in provitamin A carotenoids. Orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is known to contain large amount of vitamin A precursor. Therefore, addition of OFSP to gari would have the potential to fight the high prevalence rate of vitamin A deficiency amongst less developed regions of Africa. To develop this, different proportions of orange fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) was used to substitute cassava mash and fermented spontaneously to produce composite gari - a gritty-crispy ready-to-eat food product. Both the amount of OFSP and the fermentation duration caused significant increases in the β-carotene content of the composite gari. OFSP addition reduced the luminance while roasting made the composite gari yellower when compared with the cake used. Addition of OFSP negatively affected the swelling capacity of the gari although not significant. The taste, texture, flavour and the overall preferences for the composite gari decreased due to the addition of the OFSP but fermentation duration (FD) improved them. The sample with 10% OFSP and FD of 1.81 days was found to produce the optimal gari. One-portion of the optimal gari would contribute to 34.75, 23.2, 23.2, 27, 17 and 16% of vitamin A requirements amongst children, adolescent, adult males, adult females, pregnant women and lactating mothers respectively. The study demonstrated that partial substitution of cassava with OFSP for gari production would have the potential to fight the high prevalence rate of vitamin A deficiency amongst less developed regions of Africa while involvement of farmers and processors prior to the design of research phase enhanced the adoption of intervention strategies.
The role of tourism entrepreneurship in rural development continues to be a subject of interest and debate among academia and practitioners. Theoretically, it is anticipated that tourism entrepreneurship will lead to livelihood diversification, enhancement and ultimately a revitalization of the rural economy. While tourism is posited as an accessible entrepreneurship pathway, there is a dearth of information regarding rural dwellers’ actual experiences with it, especially within the Ghanaian context. Using a case study approach and qualitative data from Wli; a rural tourism destination in Ghana, this paper delves into the opportunities and concerns associated with tourism entrepreneurship in rural areas. Data was obtained between November and December 2016 from 27 persons who were either tourism enterprise owners or employees. Findings from the study showed that entrepreneurial activities centred on the provision of accommodation, food and beverage, souvenir and guiding services. The nature of the activities enabled easy transfer of existing skills and knowledge. Further, entry into tourism entrepreneurship was perceived to be easy by the majority of study participants. These findings confirm the potential for tourism to be employed in boosting entrepreneurial activities in rural areas. Nevertheless, there were concerns regarding access to credit, institutional support, unhealthy competitions, low incomes, unguaranteed pensions, and seasonality and skewness of demand. These concerns threatened the growth and sustainability of tourism entrepreneurship within the community. From a policy perspective, there is a need for institutional recognition and support for tourism entrepreneurial intentions and activities in rural areas. Practice-wise, credit facilities need to be designed specifically for tourism-related rural enterprises. Further, periodic skills and knowledge augmentation programmes must be initiated to help expand the skill sets for the rural entrepreneurs. Finally, there is a need for the formation of traderelated networks to provide a platform for knowledge and experience sharing among the entrepreneurs.
Although most individuals who gamble do so without any adverse consequences, some individuals develop a recurrent, maladaptive pattern of gambling behaviour, often called pathological gambling or gambling disorder, that is associated with financial losses, disruption of family and interpersonal relationships, and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Identifying whether different types of gambling modalities vary in their ability to lead to maladaptive patterns of gambling behaviour is essential to develop public policies that seek to balance access to gambling opportunities with minimizing risk for the potential adverse consequences of gambling behaviour. Until recently, assessing the risk potential of different types of gambling products was nearly impossible. ASTERIG, initially developed in Germany in 2006-2010, is an assessment tool to measure and to evaluate the risk potential of any gambling product based on scores on ten dimensions. In doing so, it also allows a comparison to be drawn between the addictive potential of different gambling products. Furthermore, the tool highlights where the specific risk potential of each specific gambling product lies. This makes it a valuable tool at the legislative, case law, and administrative levels as it allows the risk potential of individual gambling products to be identified and to be compared globally and across 10 different dimensions of risk potential. We note that specific gambling products should always be evaluated rather than product groups (lotteries, slot machines) or providers, as there may be variations among those product groups that impact their risk potential. For example, slot machines may vary on the amount of jackpot, which may influence their risk potential.
A central objective of the German gambling law is to ensure the protection of minors and players (§ 1 Sentence 1 No. 3 GlüStV 2012). Since the year 2014 gambling facilities for commercial games of chance in gambling halls and restaurants have been certified by the German Safety Standards Authority [Technischer Überwachungsverein – TÜV]. Certification by government-accredited testing organizations based on internationally validated, interdisciplinary scientific expertise "Safeguarding the Protection of Minors and Players with Respect to Commercial Gambling in Germany – 2.0" is a quality assurance instrument from a regulatory perspective. It is in the interests of, in particular, excellent quality providers to ensure that they are also perceived as providing this level of quality. Certification leads to market separation. In so doing, the advantages of end-to-end certification should be greater than any disadvantages. Analysing the international environment shows that certifi cation initiatives are necessary and have been put in place in other sectors of the gambling industry.
The primary aim is quality assurance for a responsible handling of commercial games of chance offerings (responsible gambling). The presented testing catalogue for commercial gambling can also provide an impetus in the international context and, as appropriate, a set standard.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the start-up scene in sub-Saharan Africa. "Silicon Savannah" is today widely used to describe the thriving IT industry in and around Nairobi. Kenya's geographical advantage, its favorable economic reforms, and mature start-up ecosystem makes it stands out positively. Since a lot of hype exists around the start-up scene many investors are drawn to it, but in reality very few start-ups are investment-ready. The increasing start-up requirements and needs force incubators to diversify their offer. In contrast, to traditional incubators, an Innovation Hub (Hub) is characterized based on the concept of open innovation and collaboration. A Hub nurtures an enabling environment where a community of entrepreneurs can grow. At the same time, it serves as a nexus point for the local start-up community, investors, academia, technology companies and the wider private sector. It aims to create a structure where people serendipitously interact with others that they would not typically meet. Considering the great interest for and the large amounts of money invested in Hubs by governments, universities, private companies and other interested parties, not only researchers have been raising the question of the actual benefit of Hubs. This research study aims to investigate to what extent the support offered by the Hubs is tackling the challenges faced by start-ups in Nairobi, Kenya. The analysis can serve as a basis for identifying strength and weaknesses in the Hub models.
Studies in entrepreneurship education in hospitality and tourism has indicated that further attention could be given toward helping students to develop creativity and critical thinking skills, engage in deeper self-discovery experiences, and understand tourism more fully to help prepare them for entrepreneurial roles. This study aims at evaluating Hospitality entrepreneurial modules offered in Tourism programs in Ghanaian institutions. The curriculum of Tourism in two tertiary institutions in Ghana offering Tourism is studied. The research highlights on the need to integrate hospitality technical skills into Tourism education to create a culture that will enhance the growth of entrepreneurial hospitality into Tourism as culinary Tourism is becoming common. Some of the challenges faced by tourism students and entrepreneurship educators are highlighted. Structured interview technique was used to collect data from 20 purposive sampled students of the selected institutions. The results revealed that the level of importance and attention given to hospitality skills in tourism and the perception of students on acquisition of the required competencies is minimal. It is therefore recommended that more skills and competences in hospitality operation, food and beverage production and service be introduced in tourism education in a more holistic manner with emphasis on skill acquisition in order to make the tourism graduate more creative and critical thinker in today’s global competitive environment.
The article improves understanding on leveraging new technology for DT (digital transformation) of grape harvest in SME wineries. It provides evidence on technologies used and workplace types deployed in grape harvesting, as well as strategic paths in deploying new technology, thereby contributing to the literature on networked sensing and seizing capabilities in the wine industry 4.0. The research approach is explorative and qualitative drawing on 31 interviews with wine industry 4.0 experts and managers, mostly owners of SMEs: wineries, wine software and wine machinery enterprises. Resulting findings serve as a roadmap for digital transformation of grape harvest process in SME wineries explaining technologies and work roles necessary for DWT (digital workplace transformation), as well as strategic paths of deployment of novel grape harvest technology. Previous research on the wine industry 4.0 has focused on BMI, while this research expands the focus to include a wider concept of technology adoption strategy as well as DWT. The research identifies two types of factors impacting the strategic deployment of grape harvest technology: pull factors, also termed servitization factors, as well as push factors, termed also digital transformation factors.
This study set out to uncover brand positioning configurations by presenting state-of-the-art brand management literature and applying a novel, mixed-methods approach to examine the under-researched wine industry transformation towards open innovation in branding. German winery brands were analyzed using a multimethod approach leaning on a novel netnographic methodology and multiple sources. The sample included 572 wineries from all 13 German wine regions with website text data and online review text data from each winery. The study identified nine prime words used to describe both brand identity as well as wine brand image. It revealed word–price clusters of brand identity and image. The results offer insights into communication and pricing opportunities for wine brand identity as well as image, thereby contributing to open brand innovation.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that various types of business model extensions (hospitality and tourism, online sales platforms, and sustainability) have on the winery business. The research is based on company data and online observations of N = 886 German wineries and deploys a content analysis, netnography, and structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to test the hypothesis on business model extensions of wineries, which have been set forth in the previous literature. The findings indicate that business model extensions related to online sales platforms have a positive impact on winery business size. These results mean that developing online sales platforms enlarges the winery BM (business model) size and type (manager-run, state-owned, or cooperatives). The paper presents in detail the impact of winery BM extensions on winery BM model type and size, thereby contributing to the literature on business model innovation.
The article explores SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) brand strategies as a means to position and successfully engage in competitive markets. A derived typology of brand strategy types deals with social profiling and sheds light on brand strategy internalization of two current managerial paradigms—sustainability and co-creation. N = 895 German SME wineries were examined, leaning on a netnographic analysis of predominantly websites and social media interactions. A two-step clustering method thereby identified eight winery SME brand strategy types. The importance of sustainability across the identified eight brand strategy types is significant. Co-creation turned out to be a key profiling trait characterizing one brand strategy type. The typology illustrates strategic richness, with brand strategies leaning predominantly on traditional values, on sustainability, on external reputation, or on more innovative customer centric concepts such as co-creation. Hereby, the typology and the identified brand levers invite to strategically design brand management, governance, and sustainability. Wineries which focus on traditional positioning and legitimacy were found to be cautious in deploying co-creation through social media. Winery brands that are characterized by engagement in digital co-creation apparently either tend to expand their scope or partially combine it with traditional values, making them the most diverse type identified. Sustainability obviously needs to be addressed by all brand strategies. Despite industry and country focus, the analyses illustrate the relevance of socially-oriented profiling and highlights that sustainability has reached a status of a fundamental business approach still allowing to differentiate thereon. Furthermore, the business models of the SMEs need to deliver communicated values.
The reported research examines the impact of product portfolio labeling strategies on brand reputation and equity. A netnographic approach allowed to observe winery portfolio labeling approaches and create a typology of winery labeling strategies. Expert evaluation served to assess the dependent variable brand equity by deploying a regression analysis. For the observed wine industry, being part of the food industry, creating consistent and recognizable brands has a direct relevance for reducing (sustainability-related) food information overload and thereby building sustainable brand equity. The results uncover the relative importance of each of the six identified labeling strategies as well as their impact on reputation and brand equity creation. The results point to the need to establish a consistent, strategically founded product communication. Such an approach, with a positive effect on reputation building can serve to build sustainable brand equity. “Stuck in the middle”-type strategies apparently diminish winery brand equity exploitation. The findings contribute to the knowledge on food labels in product communication strategies and their impact on organizational brand equity, thereby having high relevance for the implementation of environmental certification initiatives in an organizational context. The article deploys a novel research approach in an under-researched area to provide new insights for further research as well as implications for practice.
Towards a conceptual framework for sustainable business models in the food and beverage industry
(2020)
This article provides insights into the modalities of business-model change and innovation. On the basis of an analysis of empirical data of small and medium enterprises, a transition from wine production centrism to its expanded use in hospitality and tourism is explored. Previous research on wine tourism and hospitality predominantly focuses on a destination perspective, neglecting the organizational winery perspective. The article deploys a mixed methods approach, combining netnography and a content analysis for data collection with grounded research and clustering for theory building. The sample size included 885 German wineries. Data stemmed from two distinct sources (websites and a secondary publication in form of a wine guide) and has been analyzed through a two-step clustering algorithm as well as a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The two-step clustering algorithm resulted in nine different business models while the PCA analysis grouped the variables into the following two categories: basic winery business model (BM) and BM extension into hospitality and tourism, thereby validating the difference between the two constructs. The results point to the diverse nature of business model extensions of wineries in tourism and hospitality, depending on their organizational type and size. This study offers a classification of small and medium sized enterprise’s strategic business model expansion, and explores the expansion of the wine industry through wine hospitality and tourism services, starting with the winery organizational perspective, which has not been done before.
Green IT is one of the most recent buzzwords in the IT business. Often it is considered as the key to all future IT problems by one half of IT experts and as an overestimated hype by the other half. Green IT aims to integrate information and communication technologies into a business wide sustainability strategy without any productivity drawbacks. It includes measures and tactics to reduce the IT's environmental impact e.g. by reducing the power consumption and using energy from renewable sources, and by using technologies such as virtualisation.
Reducing energy consumption is one of the most pursued economic and ecologic challenges concerning societies as a whole, individuals and organizations alike. While politics start taking measures for energy turnaround and smart home energy monitors are becoming popular, few studies have touched on sustainability in office environments so far, though they account for almost every second workplace in modern economics. In this paper, we present findings of two parallel studies in an organizational context using behavioral change oriented strategies to raise energy awareness. Next to demonstrating potentials, it shows that energy feedback needs must fit to the local organizational context to succeed and should consider typical work patterns to foster accountability of consumption.
Reducing energy consumption is one of the most pursued economic and ecologic challenges concerning societies as a whole, individuals and organizations alike. While politics start taking measures for energy turnaround and smart home energy monitors are becoming popular, few studies have touched on sustainability in office environments so far, though they account for almost every second workplace in modern economics. In this paper, we present findings of two parallel studies in an organizational context using behavioral change oriented strategies to raise energy awareness. Next to demonstrating potentials, it shows that energy feedback needs must fit to the local organizational context to succeed and should consider typical work patterns to foster accountability of consumption.
Until recently, studies regarding e-banking transactions have focused more on motivational factors that trigger the intention to accept and use the e-banking transaction, rather than the de-motivational factors that propel the action. However, in the developing countries like Sub-Sahara economies, the factors associated with the former have not been explored and are still rudimentary in the literature. Drawing from the Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT), the study seeks to examine the impact of online identity theft on customers’ willingness to engage in e-banking transactions in Ghana. A quantitative survey of 393 valid responses from retail bank customers amongst two leading commercial banks in Ghana for the analyses. Results from the PLS-SEM showed that the research constructs; perceived online identity theft’ positively and significantly predict “fear of financial loss”, “fear of reputational damage”, and “security and privacy concern” whilst the former has a negative mediated-relationship between perceived online identity theft and the intention to engage in e-banking transaction. This study is the first of its kind that has extended the application of the TTAT framework into the study of e-banking transactions. The study serves as a practical tool that will enable the banks in their quest to assess customers’ restriction/aversion towards the use of Fintech while ensuring sustainable growth of e-banking transactions in an emerging economy context. The study is limited to only banking institutions in Ghana without considering other players in the financial sub-sector. Future research direction has been suggested in the concluding part of the paper.
Do socio-economic factors impede the engagement in online banking transactions? Evidence from Ghana
(2020)
Researchers have long pondered on the online banking transaction adoption. Some of these studies focus primarily on the motivating factors that affect customers’ intention to adopt/accept these services (technologies). However, research into the constraining factors, in particular socio-economic factors, barely exist in the literature, especially in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Against this background, the paper seeks to fill in this gap by: (1) assessing the socio-economic factors impeding the engagement of e-banking transactions among retail bank customers in Ghana, and (2) examining the moderating effect of ‘customer experience of Internet’ on the identified factors that inhibit the engagement in online banking in Ghana. The paper used a quantitative research approach to obtain data from two leading Ghanaian banks. Out of the 450 questionnaires distributed, 393 were valid for analysis. Data were analyzed with the aid of PLS-SEM (partial least squares and structural equation modeling). Findings revealed that perceived knowledge gap and the price of digital devices were directly important to the intention to disembark on e-banking transactions among Ghanaian bank customers. Whilst customer experience (frequent use of the Internet), as a moderator variable, has a significant effect on the interaction between perceived knowledge gap and the intent to disembark on e-banking transactions; and finance charges and the intent to disembark on e-banking transactions. Study implications and directions for future research are discussed in the paper.
Developing the Circular Economy in Uganda: Prospects for Academia-Public-Private-Partnerships
(2021)
Issues: Circular economy is a production system that optimizes the reusability of by-products/waste as raw materials. As the global population threatens to reach 9 billion by 2050, consumption levels grow proportionally, raising food, material, and energy demands. In Uganda, soil nutrient depletion and energy poverty are key challenges faced by urban and rural communities. Rampart depletion of natural resources calls for transit from the linear economic models towards sustainable production/consumption technologies. This study investigated prospects for APPP to optimize the reusability of by-products/waste as raw materials. Approach: Quantitative and qualitative tools were used to collect data via document analysis, interviews, and participant observations. The tools were administered to municipal authorities, private waste-collecting agencies in cities and municipalities; officials in Ministries of energy and Agriculture; officials in universities research units and entrepreneurs that deal in agricultural and energy products; officials from civil society organizations. Findings: there are a number of sustainability projects being undertaken by Universities and High schools, Government agencies, companies, and civil society organization isolation. Singlehandedly, individual agencies lack the requisite capacity to develop closed-loop production/consumption models. Analysis of a few successful RRR projects suggests that APPP is positioned to promote CE. Transiting towards a circular economy requires joint ventures to optimize human, technological, and financial resources and develop policy and institutional frameworks. In Uganda, recycling biotic by-products can promote environmental sustainability; reduce stress on natural resources; enable cost savings; promote green entrepreneurship, and create jobs/livelihoods. Conclusion: working jointly, CE could be enhanced via technical and business models by the academia, private capital investment by companies, community engagement by CSOs, and development of supportive policy and institutional frameworks to facilitate decision-making processes. The APPPs are positioned to use interactive platforms for creating awareness and promote sensitization about green values through education and multimedia communication platforms.