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3D Printers as Sociable Technologies: Taking Appropriation Infrastructures to the Internet of Things
(2017)
Mobile technologies have evolved into the means of gaining access to information for learning. Its application in higher education is still a novel concept, particularly in underdeveloped countries. This study is aimed at exploring the views of doctoral students regarding their learning experiences with mobile technologies. Student focus group interviews of 24 doctoral students from 3 different academic institutions were interviewed. The participants’ responses were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to make conclusions. According to the findings of this study, mobile devices play an important part in the learning experiences of doctoral students. The participating students engaged in collaborative learning using mobile technologies. Given the benefits of adopting mobile technologies for learning activities, academic institutions should focus on teaching faculty members to use this to involve students in their learning process. The implications of this study call for the continued advancement of mobile technologies to facilitate effective learning experience for the multitude of mobile learners in developing countries. Another implication is that academic institutions with collaboration with libraries should see the need to develop user friendly mobile app that is linked to the library management system. Such an application would allow the students to optimally use their smartphones and tablets to search the library’s resources from their mobile devices. Training should be offered to the teaching faculty members to come to terms with the benefits of mobile technologies for learning activities.
For years, the common logic that underpinned entrepreneurship was to find a niche within in a market/sector and then solidify business practice to achieve success in the market segment. The dawn of technologically-based disruptive enterprises, such as Uber and Air B&B, coupled with the nearing Fourth Industrial revolution seriously call into question the conventional business logic. In this article, the projected impact of these forces on African entrepreneurs is explored. We look at the role of government, business and education systems to prepare for the impact of the Fourth Industrial revolution. Specific focus is placed on the need for entrepreneurial skills and training to prepare for the impact of the Fourth Industrial revolution. We also explore the importance of innovation, both in terms of products and processes to mitigate against the impact of these forces.
The aim of the descriptive study is to gain an understanding of the perceived level of fairness in their experience of security screening relation to their satisfaction. The context of the study was a major aviation hub in East Africa. The target population was all departing international passengers. Primary data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The respondents were selected using convenience sampling of passengers who had just completed the final security check at the departure area of the airport. A total of 251 usable responses were collected from a target of 384 respondents giving a response rate of 65 percent.
The findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the relationship between the perceptions of fairness of security procedures and their influence on satisfaction. One way between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test for statistical significance. A Cronbach’s alpha of 88.7 was computed demonstrating a high level of internal consistency of the survey instrument. The adequacy of security procedures, level of communication provided before and during the screening process, consistency and fairness were found to have a significant relationship to the level of satisfaction reported by passengers. The findings suggest that there are significant differences between groups’ perception of different elements security procedures.
The implications of the study are twofold. The study was cross sectional and indeed was impacted by significant changes in security procedures at the airport at the time of the study. A longitudinal survey may further mitigate the impact of the variances of responses and support a robust contribution to the development of a theoretical model of airport passenger satisfaction. Airport managers could use the results of this study as inputs to enhance the design of screening procedures in modern hubs to enhance the passenger experience to drive revenue growth.
Many workers experience their jobs as effortful or even stressful, which can result in strain. Although recovery from work would be an adaptive strategy to prevent the adverse effects of work-related strain, many workers face problems finding enough time to rest and to mentally disconnect from work during nonwork time. What goes on in workers’ minds after a stressful workday? What is it about their jobs that makes them think about their work? This special issue aims to bridge the gap between research on recovery processes mainly examined in Occupational Health Psychology, and research on work stress and working hours, often investigated in the field of Human Resource Management. We first summarize conceptual and theoretical streams from both fields of research. In the following, we discuss the contributions of the five special issue papers and conclude with key messages and directions for further research.
This paper stresses the importance of entrepreneurship education towards enhancing sustainable development in Kenya. The problems facing the country ranging from high rate of poverty, youth and graduate unemployment; overdependence on foreign goods and technology.
This paper therefore argues that entrepreneurship education will equip the students with the skills with which to not only be self-reliant, but to become wealth creators. The intervention level of entrepreneurship education has been at tertiary institutions and universities. This paper argues that attitudes and values are acquired at formative stage in life. Based on literature review of the models that have been used and yielded positive results, this paper proposes an innovative approach to the teaching of entrepreneurship education that is inclusive of pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary and university levels. This paper explores the “Mully Model of Applied Entrepreneurship Teaching” as a case study, using interviews, surveys and reviewing relevant MCF data. The organization’s success factors within the Kenyan context are discussed.
The paper also recommended that educational programs at all levels of education should be made relevant to provide the youth the needed entrepreneurial skills. Further, it recommends that experiential learning methodologies be emphasized in the delivery of entrepreneurship education.
Climate change is having drastic effects on various areas of the planet, including extreme impacts on weather and rainfall, in various Sub-Saharan East African countries (Hendrix, C. S., & Glaser, S. M. (2007). The willingness (and need) of a niche market to actively improve the damaged ecosystems in small ways is rising. Weaver and Lawton (2007, p 1170) maintain that ecotourism should satisfy three core criteria: "(1) attractions should be predominantly nature-based; (2) visitor interactions with those attractions should be focused on learning or education, and (3) experience and product management should follow principles and practices associated with ecological, socio-cultural and economic sustainability." In this study, the niche market of active German "tree-planters" is to be defined and the potential willingness to travel to, learn from and invest in the ecosystem through tree-planting, specifically in Kenya, is explored.
The paper investigates the nature of Kenya's entrepreneurship education ecosystem (EEE) through a comparative analysis of three entrepreneurship education programs and an examination of how the institutions foster a favourable entrepreneurial environment. This study looks at the entrepreneurship education ecosystem through the lens of universities, NGO's and private institutes in Kenya.
A systemic analysis of EEE is provided by utilizing the Actiotope Model as a conceptual framework. The exploratory research adopts a pragmatic mixed-method methodological approach best suited to understand the research problem.
The results reveal that entrepreneurship education at higher education institutions was primarily theoretical and relied on traditional forms of entrepreneurship education. Recurring rigid patterns show minimal personalization of content and learning styles within the University, with more personalization reported in the Mully Model of education and the more specialized entrepreneurship program of the Identity Projects.
The adaptation of the Actiotope Model provided a new and unique approach to analyzing entrepreneurship ecosystems. The person-centred approach of the model provides valuable insights to learners and to entrepreneurship education institutions and researchers.
Enhanced collaboration between the different entrepreneurial education stakeholders could be a more effective short to medium-term solution to addressing the gaps in entrepreneurial education at tertiary institutions.
In the long term, the study recommends adopting practical-based and goal-oriented entrepreneurship teaching models.
The main objective of this chapter is to give insights into how H-BRS as a German University of Applied Sciences supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in exploring African markets. The university achieves this objective by engaging its Bachelor and Master level students in applied market research. Students engage in this research as part of their final thesis writing. This chapter lays out a process for successful marketing research projects for German SMEs in nine steps.
Appropriating Digital Fabrication Technologies — A comparative study of two 3D Printing Communities
(2015)
Digital fabrication technologies have a great potential for empowering consumers to produce their own creations. However, despite the growing availability of digital fabrication technologies in shared machine shops such as FabLabs or University Labs, they are often perceived as difficult to use, especially by users with limited technological aptitude. Hence, it is not yet clear if the potentials of the technology can be made accessible to a broader public, or if they will remain limited to some form of “maker elite”. In this paper, we study the appropriation of digital fabrication on the example of the use of 3D printers in two different communities. In doing so, we analyze how users conceptualize their use of the 3D printers, what kind of contextual understanding is necessary to work with the machines, and how users document and share their knowledge. Based on our empirical findings, we identify the potentials that the machines offer to the communities, and what kind of challenges have to be overcome in their appropriation of the technology.
Beyond HCI and CSCW: Challenges and Useful Practices Towards a Human-Centred Vision of AI and IA
(2019)
The backdated research dedicated to digital entrepreneurship education is immense, which makes it difficult to create an overview. Conversely, forward-thinking bibliometric visualization mapping and clustering can assist in visualizing and structuring difficult research literature. Hence, the goal of this mapping visualization study is to thoroughly discover and create clusters of EE to convey a taxonomic structure that can oblige as a basis for upcoming research. The analyzed data, which is drawn from Google Scholar through Publish or Perish tool, contain 1000 documents published between 2007 and 2022. This taxonomy should generate stronger bonds with digital entrepreneurial education research; on the other, it should stand in international research association to boost both interdisciplinary digital entrepreneurial education and its influence on a universal basis. This work strengthens student’s understanding of current digital entrepreneurial education research by classifying and decontaminating the most powerful knowledgeable relationship among its contributions and contributors. The bibliographic analysis includes ‘citation network’, ‘author’s research area’ and ‘paper content’ regarding the desired topic. In this paper, the above three mentioned terms are integrated which produces a bibliographic model of authors, titles of their papers, keywords and abstract by using Harzing’s Publish or Perish tool for extracting data from Google Scholar and further using VOSViewer to visualize networking map of co-authorship and term co-occurrence to administer the data for an instinctive and appropriate understanding of university students concerning ‘digital entrepreneurial intention’ research. This paper uses bibliometric analysis to analyze the keyword co-occurrence and co-authorship and VOSViewer is used for visualization.
The purpose of the study is to provide empirical evidence about the under-researched area of university–government relations in building a culture of entrepreneurial initiatives inside the triple helix model in a rural region. The study deploys a qualitative case study research method based on the content analysis of project documentation and further internal documents both from universities and municipalities. The propositions in the research question are guided by the previous literature and were then analyzed through an “open coding” process to iteratively analyze, verify, and validate the results from the documents against the previous literature. Results presented in the case study are related both to the project of a municipality–university innovation partnership, as well as the historic development of the university in its three missions, and, related to the important third mission, themes relevant for the project. In addition, a “toolkit” of relevant project activities is presented against the major identified themes, major project stakeholders, as well as relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Universities should look beyond a purely economic contribution and should augment all three missions (teaching, research, engagement) by considering social, environmental, and economic aspects of its activities. Instead of considering a government’s role solely as that of a regulator, a much more creative and purposeful cooperation between university and government is possible for creating a regional culture of entrepreneurial initiatives in a rural region.
Business Management
(2020)
Business Process Management
(2023)
Internships and professional experience are becoming more and more important requisites for students and graduates and are almost taken for granted by many HR officials. In opposition to this, many newly created Bachelor and Master programmes make it difficult for students to integrate internships into their studies without having to add another semester and thereby "losing" valuable time. This becomes all the more relevant with private universities or universities generally that charge considerable tuition fees.
Citizen participation is deemed to be crucial for sustainability and resilience planning. However, generational equity has been missing from recent academic discussions regarding sustainability and resilience. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reintroduce the topic of the existence or absence of an intergenerational consensus on the example of a rural community and its perceived brand image attributes and development priorities. The research is based on primary data collected through an online survey, with a sample size of N = 808 respondents in Neunkirchen-Seelscheid, Germany. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis test for the presence and/or absence of consensus among the five generations regarding brand image attributes and development priorities. The findings point to divergence between what the median values indicate as the most relevant brand image attributes and development priorities among the citizens and the areas where the Kruskal–Wallis test shows that an intergenerational consensus either does or does not exist. The results imply the need for new concepts and applied approaches to citizen participation for sustainability and resilience, where intergenerational dialogue and equity-building take center stage. In addition to the importance of the theory of citizen participation for sustainability and resilience, our results provide ample evidence for how sustainability and resilience planning documents could potentially benefit from deploying the concept of intergenerational equity. The present research provides sustainability and political science with new conceptual and methodological approaches for taking intergenerational equity into account in regional planning processes in rural and other areas.
Software offshoring has been established as an important business strategy over the last decade. While research on such forms of Global Software Development (GSD) has mainly focused on the situation of large enterprises, small enterprises are increasingly engaging in offshoring, too. Representing the biggest share of the German software industry, small companies are known to be important innovators and market pioneers. They often regard their flexibility and customer-orientation as core competitive advantages. Unlike large corporations, their small size allows them to adopt software development approaches that are characterized by a high agility and flat hierarchies. At the same time, their distinct strategies make it unlikely that they can simply adopt management strategies that were developed for larger companies.
Flexible development approaches like the ones preferred by small corporations have proven to be problematic in the context of offshoring, as their strong dependency on constant communication is strongly affected by the various barriers of international cooperation between companies. Cooperating closely over companies’ borders in different time zones and in culturally diverse teams poses complex obstacles for flexible management approaches. It is still a matter of discussion in fields like Software Engineering and Computer Supported Cooperative Work how these obstacles can be tackled and how they affect companies in the long term. Hence, it is agreed that we need a more detailed understanding of distributed software development practices in order to come to feasible technological and organizational solutions.
This dissertation presents results from two ethnographically-informed case studies of software offshoring in small German enterprises. By adopting Anselm Strauss’ concept of articulation work, we want to deepen the understanding of managing distributed software development in flexible, customer-oriented organizations. In doing so, we show how practices of coordinating inter-organizational software development are closely related to aspects of organizational learning in small enterprises. By means of interviews with developers and project managers from both parties of the cooperation, we do not only take into account the multiple perspectives of the cooperation, but also include the socio-cultural background of international software development projects into our analysis.
The differentiation of the higher education sector in Ethiopia has created a new sector of Higher Education Institutions: Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). Its focus is on educating academically trained experts for regional industries. Close cooperation between industries and UAS is set as a key requirement. However, Ethiopian industries in many regions are not developed enough that those could be considered as active partners for UASs and able to accommodate interns or to provide expert teachers to UAS classes. European UAS structures serve as benchmarks for the Ethiopian Ministry of Education (MoE). Therefore, UAS curricula of study programmes in building-construction, electro-engineering and economic/business/tourism from different European countries build a common ground for Ethiopian UASs. But, due to the lack of industries in the regions, Ethiopian UAS are not able to mirror the European counterparts, where study programmes at bachelor level comprise 70 credits out or 210 credits as practical works, internships and bachelor thesis. - The question is, how can Ethiopian UASs in the absence of companies offer practice-oriented education in their study programmes? This paper refers to the ongoing research, on how to integrate UAS (academic and non-academic) departments at UAS campuses to create internship placements for students in the absence of internship placements in the private sector. Kotebe University of Education (KUE) - as one of the newly founded UAS in Ethiopia - has agreed to act as subject of this try-out.
In Africa slowly but steadily a transformation is taking place in the management styles of enterprises. There is a trend towards more precise time management, more precision in dealing with increasingly sophisticated technology, more feedback from the bottom to the top in order to manage the processes properly, more professionalism and independence of the individual worker.
This contribution makes two points: first, neither cultures nor the so-called mental states of individuals are ever static, but always on the move. Second, the force of passion and inspiration by which particular cultural values are endorsed in a particular context makes all the difference in their impact.
The importance of these two propositions comes to the fore, if the concept of an “economic culture” is taken into consideration. The claim of the authors is that the ongoing cultural transformation can be better understood in the dynamic approach of cultural values as proposed here.
Gender disproportions have been part and parcel of most African cultures since time immemorial. Demographically, women are over a half population in most of the African countries but their participation in sectors of socio-economic and political spheres have remained inadequately represented. The enduring and biased beliefs on gender roles that view women much less important as compared to men are what forms the basis of concern to the welfare of women and most importantly the women entrepreneurs. This study reveals the long-standing cultural practices that have contributed to gender inequality and goes further to demystify areas in which women have continually experienced inequality and thus affecting their entrepreneurial spirit. Through the desk research methodology, it can be deduced that the following are key areas that pause a threat to women socio-economic and political development and hence the inequality being experienced even today in the twenty first century: harmful marriage, female genital mutilation, wife inheritance and HIV scourge, access to land including land rights and right to property, over-emphasizing patriarchal system of family, and gender violence. These factors compounded together, have resulted for unfortunate experiences that have been witnessed in the education sector, political participation, participation in policy making, gender division of labour and inaccess to credit facility. These experiences have severely thwarted entrepreneurial growth of women. The study therefore recommends that there is imperative need for a paradigm shift in these areas to ensure women are not only liberated and empowered but also their full participation in the entrepreneurship activities are highly strengthened and promoted.
Destination Development for Entrepreneurial Tourism in Lake Bosomtwe and Kintampo falls (Ghana)
(2019)
The tourism industry is one of the world’s largest industries (direct, indirect and induced Africa has the potential with its cultural and natural resources to outpace other regions in attracting valuable tourism dollars. The main aim of the study is to improve visitor experience on the two tourist sites. To do this it is necessary to explore the elements and success factors of Tourism Destination Development and using these as a checklist to identify the strength and weaknesses of the selected Tourist Destinations in Ghana West Africa. The rationale behind the study is to outline the crucial Destination Management (DM) criteria of all aspect that contribute to boost ultimate visitor experience, articulating the roles of the different stakeholders and identifying clear actions for effective Tourism Development in Ghana. The interview technique was employed to collect data from staff and management of the selected destinations. Data was analyzed for themes related to elements, success factors and challenges of destination development and new ideas for development was also solicited. It was revealed that some of the elements that feature for tourists’ attraction are good hotels, high hygiene and sanitation standards, good food and activities of amusements. Competency gaps identified suggest collaboration with academia to secure a high level of knowledge through research in this present world of dynamism. Some of the critical success factors found are: systematic provision of cultural events, advance knowledge of agents and tour operators and quality leisure and recreation. It is recommended that product and service development should be a joint idea of all stakeholders. The research team therefore, have plans underway to proceed on the second phase of the project: that is to gather resources together to make lake Bosomtwe and Kintampo falls sites attractive to tourists.
Social businesses have a great positive impact on communities and are a sustainable way to do business today and in the future. This impact can be amplified through the means of digitalization. In the past, traditional for-profit business models have been used to understand the structures of business operations. However, the underlying business model of digital social businesses has not yet been explored. This study presents a building block analysis of business models and a subsequent typology. Digital and social business models are identified via a literature review. The building block analysis encompasses an assessment of the individual business activities contained in the business models. The typology is developed from existing literature utilizing a matrix for the evaluation of digital social businesses. Additionally, five semi-structured expert interviews are conducted to inform, extend, or content the findings of this study. To this end, an inductive coding procedure is applied to the transcribed interviews for the detection of themes within the text. This study contributes to social business model research by providing a first insight into the unique building blocks of digital social business models. It also creates a typology tool based on two parameters, which enables the comparison of digital social businesses.
Channels of distribution are important factors in the connection between goods and services produced for the final consumer and, therefore, determine the effectiveness with which they are delivered and ultimately availed to the final consumers. Globally, studies show that channels of distribution and sales play an essential role in building bonds between manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and their consumers. The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of distribution channels and networks on customer choice of fast-moving consumer goods (FCMG) in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The study adopted a quantitative approach and questionnaires were used to collect primary data from 110 customers of Unilever Ghana Limited in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The findings reveal that product-related factors, such as the price of products, perishability of products, size and weight of products, promote the effective distribution of Unilever goods and services, whilst consumer-related factors, such as the number of customers and increased consumer base, promote effective distribution channels. The study also established a positive influence of factors, such as incentives, receiving feedback and sales performance, on customer choice of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Managers and producers in the FMCGs industry should implement reward and incentive programmes and policies to boost the sale and distribution of fast-moving consumer goods and services in the retail industry in Ghana.
The access to electricity and water in rural areas in Côte d’Ivoire as well as in large parts of Africa is limited. According to Ivorian government sources, the national coverage rate of drinkable water and electricity was about 80% in 2020, whereas there are differences between rural and urban regions. The coverages are lower in rural areas that are situated far from the governmental infrastructures. The poor supply of electricity also hinders education, since petroleum lamps are often the only source of light for learning after sunset. Besides, increasing demand for electricity is predicted in Côte d’Ivoire due to economic growth. The economic power is also affected by the poor supply of electricity, so only a limited production of goods is possible. A further big concern in Côte d’Ivoire is the employability of graduate students, as the educational system has a strong theoretic character, not yet taking enough into account practice orientation. Scientific public universities in Côte d'Ivoire often offer only subjects such as mathematics, physics, or chemistry but hardly any engineering.
Dynamic Programming
(2024)
As a developing economy, Rwanda has been exploring transitioning to being a technologically driven and sustainable economy. Moreover, research on economic growth have focused on the need to improve human capacity potential within increasing demands of climate change activists but there remains a theoretic and practical lacuna in including renewable energy resources in economic growth and expansion of electricity access. Therefore, it is necessary to study the impact of competent skill acquisition and graduate employment market on the interaction mix between economic growth and the expansion of energy access in Rwanda, particularly finding out the problems advancing the non-inclusiveness of engineering graduates, which result to high rate of unemployment and diversions, especially for the graduates specializing in energy fields. As a result, the following open questions were raised with variations 1; how did employees penetrate energy-sector labour market opportunity in Rwanda? 2; what influenced employee’s decision in pursuing a career in Rwanda’s labour market, 3; what were the specific employee competent skills that enabled smooth transition in energy-sector employment after graduation and the ones required to maintain their current positions? 4; what specific competent skills are required for inclusivity of today's engineering graduates in energy sector employment market? The study is qualitative and it uses the exploratory research design. It is based on the growth pole theory employing snowball/chain purposeful sampling technique, whereby key informants in Rwanda energy sector were located. Data was specifically collected from these primary sources through semi-structured interviews and documentary method. Interview data and text from documents were inductively analysed. The study generally recommended institution or program for connecting learning institutions, industry and employment market in the distributed and renewable energy resources to promote competent skills acquisition, competition and improve graduates’ inclusiveness in the expansion of electricity access, thereby leading to economic growth in Rwanda.
The link between universities and the industry has been of concern both locally as well as globally for a long time, for the obvious reason that it is perceived to enhance organizational performance. The gap between universities and the industry has been widening in developing countries leading to lost opportunities for joint research, product development and job creation. Marketing and entrepreneurship could play a pivotal role in reversing the weakened linkages by building mutual relationship and strengthening bonds between universities and industry. This study sought to examine the role of marketing and entrepreneurship as important tools for enhancing the university industry linkages. The study sought to determine the aspects of marketing and entrepreneurship that have the highest influence on enhancing the university industry linkages. It considered the nexus of entrepreneurship and marketing exemplified by the attributes of innovativeness, creativity, risk taking; proactive orientation and value creation as crucial for creating, nurturing and developing sustained linkages between universities and industry. The study targeted 150 small and medium sized enterprises in Nairobi City County, out of which 143 responded, giving a response rate of 95 %. Data was collected using structured questionnaire administered to managers of small and medium sized enterprises engaged in manufacturing, retail, banking and hospitals. Survey data collected from small and medium enterprises will be analyzed through descriptive statistics including mean scores and standard deviation. We will test our hypothesis through regression analysis. The study found that marketing practices especially those focused on the product, promotion and distribution were key in enhancing University industry linkage. With regards to entrepreneurial orientation, risk taking, and creativity indicators were found to be more important than innovation in enhancing university-industry linkages.
This paper focuses on entrepreneurship and private sector development in Ghana with regard to the government’s initiative towards supporting private sector development through the Microfinance & Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) and the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) initiatives to support new and existing small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in diverse industries. The study addresses some of the main problems facing the two government-sponsored initiatives and issues with accessing venture capital for business start-ups in Ghana. The objective of the study is to identify possible strategies through which the MASLOC and NBSSI could be improved to serve the needs of their customers more effectively and efficiently. Enhancing the performance of these public organizations could offer many SMEs in Ghana take advantage of the new opportunities in the domestic and global business environments. The questions to be addressed are; to what extent do the activities of the NBSSI and MASLOC meet the needs of SMEs in Ghana? What challenges are associated with their services and how can management of the two organizations address the challenges they face more appropriately? The methodology is based on the qualitative and quantitative approaches, involving interviews and the administration of questionnaires and surveys to achieve the study’s objectives and goals. Based on the identified challenges, the study concludes with findings and recommendations for the management of NBSSI and MASLOC as well as entrepreneurs engaged in different SMEs in diverse industries and policy makers.
Entrepreneurship Development and New Business Challenges and Prospects for Ghanaian Entrepreneurs’
(2017)
This paper presents a framework for formulating strategies for business start-ups within the context of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in diverse industries. Using Ghana as a case study, it addresses how to increase entrepreneurs’ success rate in business ventures in developing countries. The objective of the study is to identify avenues through which entrepreneurs could address the challenges they face, and to take advantage of the emerging opportunities in the domestic and global business environments. The questions addressed are, what challenges face Ghanaian entrepreneurs’ new business start-ups and existing SME’s in developing countries? How could these challenges be addressed appropriately to make the private sector the engine of growth in Ghana’s economy? The methodology is based on the qualitative approach, involving interviews to achieve the study’s objectives. Four main themes emerged as challenges faced by the entrepreneurs business start-ups and operations which include the following: Funding availability & accessibility; Lack of planning, Skilled labour & proper management skills; Lack of competitiveness, technology innovation & customer loyalty; and finally, Legal & regulatory framework & social factors. Recommendations for entrepreneurs, policy makers, and scholars are discussed in the study.
People are getting older because of the demographic changes and the rate of disabled people is also going up. This article shows the challenge for BPMTool developer due to these circumstances. It illustrates how these changes impact the usage of BPM-Tools based on an Evaluation of an exemplary BPMTool (Cooper & Patterson, 2007) in terms of IT-Usability and IT-Accessibility. This evaluation was conducted in a research laboratory at the university.
Examining the Effect of Corruption and Bureaucracy on SMEs Growth in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana
(2017)
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered a seed-bed of entrepreneurship and innovation in most emerging economies; nevertheless, SMEs sometimes lack an enabling business climate, which hinders their potential growth. This paper examines the effect of corruption and bureaucracy on SMEs growth in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. The study was a quantitative research, and convenience sampling method was employed to select 373 owners/managers as respondents for the study. Employing questionnaire as its main data collection instrument, the study used Gretl version 3.0 Statistical Software for the analysis of data collected. The results of the study revealed that 1% increase in corruption in the SMEs sector leads to 36.12% decline in SMEs growth (sales and employment), and 1% increase in bureaucracy leads to 28.76% decrease in the growth of SMEs. An interesting outcome of the study was that the excessive bureaucratic bottlenecks in the SMEs sector are implied by corruption. We, therefore, conclude that there is a significant negative relationship between corruption and bureaucracy and SMEs growth. It is, therefore, recommended that the government takes a giant-step to fight corruption in the SMEs sector by ensuring transparency and accountability of public officials and also streamline its systems and activities in the sector to reduce the excessive administrative barriers. The present study adds substantial value to the body of research on SMEs as it is the first research to have considered the joint effect of corruption and bureaucracy on SMEs growth in an emerging economy like Ghana.
ICT integration by universities teaching professionals is emerging as a major concern, this study demonstrate the need to address the integration problem by encouraging existing metrics use in indexing ICT integration as an ICT governance strategy. Quality of integration depends on quality indexing which also depend on quality of existing metrics and their use. Considering the role that University Information Technology Teaching Professionals’ (UITTPs) continuous improvement indexing can offer, towards autonomic governance of the continuous emerging ICTs in the university teaching, this study examined extent in use of existing ICT integration metrics to index ICT integration by the UITTPs. Six metrics for ICT integration were investigated; time, workshop course content relevance, technical malfunctions, support conditions, support services, and motivation and commitment to student learning and staff professional development metrics. Descriptive survey design was used in which interviews were conducted to UITTPs in three (3) public and three (3) private purposively selected universities in Kenya. The findings were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using Kendall’s correlation of concordance and tested using Chi-square on the extent of concordance and presented with help of frequency tables, figures and percentages. The findings revealed that all the metrics are rarely used for indexing ICT integration (32.8%), and most UITTPs were in discordance on this level of all the six metrics use except for support condition. This implied that the use of metrics for indexing integration has not been formalized across the Kenyan universities. Universities need to be encouraged to identify suitable metrics, formalize them and improve their frequency in use. Secondly, socio based metrics such as content relevance are used more frequently for indexing integration as compared to Technical metrics, socio-technical metrics balance therefore need to be emphasized by the universities management when determining and using metrics for indexing ICT integration.
Experiential Learning through the Transformational Incubation Programme: a Ghanaian case study
(2017)
This paper explores experiential learning theory (ELT) from a case study describing the Transformational Incubation Programme for Coventry University Alumni in Ghana. The incubator represents a collaboration between Coventry University and British Council Ghana. The aim of the programme is to embed a blended, experiential learning approach to practice-based entrepreneurship education via an incubator designed to support scalable business start-up and growth. world venture creation, business development and acceleration. The paper offers a generic framework for Transformational entrepreneurship experiential learning in this context. The incubator offers an opportunity to engage with practice-oriented and experience based learning applied to real.
While Anglo-Saxon HEIs focus on a strong educational background and personal development of students, the German system, in particular Universities of Applied Sciences, emphasize employability through the transfer of job-related professional and soft skills. In this context, learning by practical application of skills has become an important instrument. Concepts for linking theory and application include research-based learning, practical internships or service learning – methods, which also maintain high standards of academic education.
Ghanaian tertiary graduates' perception of entrepreneurship education on employment opportunities
(2017)
This study focuses on whether entrepreneurship education increases entrepreneurial interest in students to set up new businesses. Entrepreneurship is a core course taken in the third year by all students of Ho Technical University. Out of the 1329 population of level 300 students of the 2016/2017 academic year, data were collected by convenience sampling from 325 (217 males and 108 females) with mean age of 24.75 years from 14 departments of four faculties. The students responded to 43-survey items derived from reviewed literature on a 5-Point Likert-Scale. It is concluded that more than 84% of the respondents agreed that entrepreneurship education informed students about entrepreneurship through the acquisition of practical skills, knowledge about acquisition of personal orientation, knowledge about business management principles and the availability of entrepreneurial support agencies. This shows that the students are highly confident of setting up their own businesses through the knowledge acquired. The study therefore has important implications for policy makers, management of tertiary institutions, students and educational evaluators on how to ensure that tertiary graduates set up entrepreneurship ventures in order to partially solve the unemployment problem in Ghana.
This Handbook of Applied Marketing and Personnel Services is part of the project "German-African University Partnership Platform for the Development of Entrepreneurship and SMEs", financed by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and jointly conducted by Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, University of Cape Coast in Ghana and University of Nairobi in Kenya.
Heuristic Methods
(2024)
This study addresses the underrepresentation of women and the so-far neglected process perspective in empirical entrepreneurial research. It aims to identify the personality traits that differentiate successful female entrepreneurs from their less successful peers and to determine which traits are crucial for pre-launch, launch, and post-launch success. Independent t-tests on 305 female entrepreneurs (and 476 male entrepreneurs) from the DACH region highlight the role of self-efficacy, proactivity, locus of control, and need for achievement for female entrepreneurs. Multiple regression analyses further reveal the importance of self-efficacy for every phase of women’s entrepreneurial journey. While the need for autonomy was critical during pre-launch and launch, locus of control significantly predicted female entrepreneurial success in the pre-launch and post-launch phases. Contrary to previous research, risk-taking was not a crucial trait for female entrepreneurs when compared to their male counterparts, while both showed similar levels of need for autonomy, proactivity, need for achievement, perseverance, self-control, and locus of control. The study offers valuable insights into successful entrepreneurship and highlights the need for female- and phase-specific support programs to enhance self-efficacy among female entrepreneurs.
HR Management & Leadership
(2021)
Due to the popularity of the Internet and the networked services that it facilitates, networked devices have become increasingly common in both the workplace and everyday life in recent years—following the trail blazed by smartphones. The data provided by these devices allow for the creation of rich user profiles. As a result, the collection, processing and exchange of such personal data have become drivers of economic growth. History shows that the adoption of new technologies is likely to influence both individual and societal concepts of privacy. Research into privacy has therefore been confronted with continuously changing concepts due to technological progress. From a legal perspective, privacy laws that reflect social values are sought. Privacy enhancing technologies are developed or adapted to take account of technological development. Organizations must also identify protective measures that are effective in terms of scalability and automation. Similarly, research is being conducted from the perspective of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to explore design spaces that empower individuals to manage their protection needs with regard to novel data, which they may perceive as sensitive. Taking such an HCI perspective with regard to understanding privacy management on the Internet of Things (IoT), this research mainly focuses on three interrelated goals across the fields of application: 1. Exploring and analyzing how people make sense of data, especially when managing privacy and data disclosure; 2. Identifying, framing and evaluating potential resources for designing sense-making processes; and 3. Exploring the fitness of the identified concepts for inclusion in legal and technical perspectives on supporting decisions regarding privacy on the IoT. Although this work's point of departure is the HCI perspective, it emphasizes the importance of the interrelationships among seemingly independent perspectives. Their interdependence is therefore also emphasized and taken into account by subscribing to a user-centered design process throughout this study. More specifically, this thesis adopts a design case study approach. This approach makes it possible to conduct full user-centered design lifecycles in a concrete application case with participants in the context of everyday life. Based on this approach, it was possible to investigate several domains of the IoT that are currently relevant, namely smart metering, smartphones, smart homes and connected cars. The results show that the participants were less concerned about (raw) data than about the information that could potentially be derived from it. Against the background of the constant collection of highly technical and abstract data, the content of which only becomes visible through the application of complex algorithms, this study indicates that people should learn to explore and understand these data flexibly, and provides insights in how to design for supporting this aim. From the point of view of design for usable privacy protection measures, the information that is provided to users about data disclosure should be focused on the consequences thereof for users' environments and life. A related concept from law is “informed consent,” which I propose should be further developed in order to implement usable mechanisms for individual privacy protection in the era of the IoT. Finally, this thesis demonstrates how research on HCI can be methodologically embedded in a regulative process that will inform both the development of technology and the drafting of legislation.
This research was conducted to determine the relationship between entrepreneurship educations, venture intention on venture creation among entrepreneurial graduate in Kenya focusing on selected universities in Kenya. The study was grounded on the economic entrepreneurship theory, an attitude-based view on entrepreneurship education and resource-based theory. This research embraced a cross-sectional descriptive survey design. Study population was 2500 student taking entrepreneurship course in various universities of whom a sample of 345 students was chosen using purposive and simple random sampling technique. The study used both primary and secondary data. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 21) was used to analyse quantitative date. The findings of the study revealed that entrepreneurial education had a noteworthy influence on venture creation (r= 0. 512, p = .001<0.05, t= 10.904) increase in entrepreneurial education would lead to significant increase in venture creation. The study revealed that entrepreneurial training has significance influence in venture creation among graduate as indicated by β1=-0.670, p=0.002<0.05, t= 10.304. Study established that increase in entrepreneurial orientation would lead to increase in venture creation among graduates by a factor of 0.519 with P value of 0.002 (r =0.519, P=0.03< 0.05). The research conclusion was that entrepreneurial knowledge acquisition, entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurial orientation combined have important and positive relationship with venture creation among the graduates.
Intercultural Management
(2021)
Introduction
(2018)
This handbook describes the processes and success factors of marketoriented university services to the non-academic world, and the processes to integrate these services into teaching. It aims to highlight benchmark examples from Africa and Germany in order to outline motivational factors, influencing aspects, as well as drivers and barriers to applied university services in developing countries.
IT Controlling
(2023)
IT controlling is established as a tool for controlling information technology. The job description of the IT controller has changed only moderately over a long period of time. It was mainly associated with IT budgeting, IT portfolio management, IT cost planning, accounting and controlling. However, digitalization has brought movement in goals, contents and methods. New topics such as digital strategy management, cloud controlling, data science, etc. are being discussed. The task profile is changing away from pure IT cost analysis to the management of the digitization strategy with a focus on strategic IT portfolio management. Some voices are already talking about "smart controlling" or "digital controlling".
This book presents an IT controlling concept for the digital age and explains the relevant methods in a practical way.
Kenya, like all other developing countries in the world, is faced with the task of working strategically towards the achievement of the Sustained Development Goals (SDGs) 2030. These goals whose due date of accomplishment coincides with those of the national development blueprint, namely, the Kenya Vision 2030, have become a major focus of attention in the country. Conferences, workshops, and seminars are organized throughout the country on regular bases by joint multiplicity of organizations to address modalities of ensuring a timely achievement of SDGs in the country. Universities either individually or jointly are working towards this same target. More specifically, there are great areas of concern or priority areas that the country is focusing on as a strategic focus towards the achievement of the Kenya Vision 2030 and SDGs 2030. These strategic areas of focus have been isolated and declared by the President of the Republic of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, as the country’s “big four priority areas”, namely, affordable housing, affordable health care, food security, and manufacturing as a grandiose effort towards achievement of the SDGs, Kenya Vision 2030 as well as job and wealth creation. Similarly, Mount Kenya University’s top management established the Graduate Enterprise Academy (GEA) in 2013 under the direct Patronage of the university’s Founder with the primary aim of assisting graduates to be job and wealth creators rather than being job seekers. So far, over twenty start-ups are running throughout the country under Graduate Enterprise Academy (GEA). Incidentally, although the Graduate Enterprise Academy’s diverse areas of focus extend beyond the President of Kenya’s “Big Four” to include ICT and creative arts, among others, there are justifiable cases to indicate that GEA’s activities are also in support of the national “Big Four” agenda. This paper gives an exposition of different start-ups under MKU’s Graduate Enterprise Academy and are show-cased as evidence of MKU’s support towards the achievement of the national “Big Four” agenda. The paper covers a part of an ongoing program through desk-top analyses of reports, with an objective of show-casing MKU’s contribution to the national agenda through the Graduate Enterprise Academy for possible scale - up.
The dawn of the 21st Century has witnessed a tremendous increase in trade pacts among nations, resulting in renewed hopes for sustainable enterprise development in emerging economies worldwide. Ghana and other sub- Saharan African (SSA) countries have signed onto several North-South and South-South free trade agreements with the hope of strengthening their presence in the international trade arena, and to promote economic growth in SSA. For over two decades, however, very little has changed, and many have dashed their high hopes as enterprises continue to struggle in SSA. Not even the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) could renew the hopes of sceptics. Several studies opined that enterprises in SSA could improve their domestic and international competitiveness by establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with their counterparts from the Global North and South. This study delved into the issues that affect North-South and South-South business collaborations and recommends key success factors that could help promote mutually beneficial cross-border business partnerships. The research includes both literature and empirical information on the key success factors of business partnerships between African enterprises as well as between African enterprises and firms from the Global North. We approached the study qualitatively using a phenomenological research design. Research participants included important stakeholders in Africa and Europe's international trade and sustainable enterprise development ecosystem. The study identified several challenges with the current business collaborations and recommended new ways of making such partnerships more beneficial.
Rapid and sustained innovation in developed markets triggers the generation of innovative start-ups, some with disruptive innovations. However, when their offering faces a saturated market with satisfactory and widely available established traditional solutions, many innovative start-ups from these markets may fail. The literature on some start-ups that successfully brought their innovation to emerging markets shows how using leapfrogging traditional solutions to innovative solutions can offer survival and growth opportunities to these start-ups. However, a wide exploitation of leapfrogging processes in emerging markets for survival or business growth of innovative start-ups from developed markets is not yet theorized. To contribute to closing this gap, we propose a conceptual framework to assess the readiness of an emerging market to leapfrog to innovative solutions.
The design of the conceptual framework uses a scenario-planning like approach with two key factors, namely Context Readiness and Value Network Integration. To test and refine the proposed framework and show its relevance for coming to an informed expansion decision making, we used PAR (Participatory Action Research). For the illustration of the application of the proposed conceptual framework, the case of telehealth in Morocco is used.
Linear Optimization
(2024)
This study sought to contribute to knowledge by assessing the moderating effect of industry forces on the relationship between linkage strategies and performance of universities in Kenya. Porter’s five forces model and Resource Based View (RBV) are the main theories anchoring the study. Cross-Sectional survey was adopted as the research design. The population of the study consists of sixtyfive (65) public and private universities incorporated in Kenya. Out of this, a sample of forty seven (47) universities which had undergone at least one graduation cycle was taken. Primary and secondary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and review of existing university documents and regulatory bodies websites respectively. The instrument was tested for reliability and found fit. Analysis was undertaken using correlation and regression analyses to test hypotheses. Analysis of variance was also used to determine the differences between group means. Coefficient of variation (C.V) was also used to measure variability and consistency in scores of different universities when standard deviation and arithmetic means are compared. Out of the targeted forty seven (47) respondents from forty seven (47) universities, a total of forty four (44) questionnaires were returned, representing 94% response rate. It was established that there is a moderating effect of industry forces on the relationship between linkage strategies and organizational performance. The results provided rich implications for theory, policy and practice. The significance of industry forces in strategy formulation and implementation requires concentrated attention. The findings offer insights to university authorities and policy makers by answering the question on the influence of industry forces on performance of higher learning institutions. The key recommendation that the study offers to the stakeholders, is the need to consider industry forces as critical determinants during strategy formulation and implementation process in order to enhance university performance. The main limitation of this study is that primary data was collected from only one respondent per university but common methods bias was mitigated through the use of additional secondary data to validate primary data. Thus, the limitation did not affect the credence of the results as presented and discussed. Secondly, although it was not possible to include all the determinants of institutional performance, balanced score card was appropriately used to represent financial and non-financial aspects that constitute performance indicators.
“Building Bridges Across Continents” (BBAC) is an intercultural and student-centered project that seeks to promote international communication and helps students develop competencies in entrepreneurship, international trade and global cultural awareness. The project, which is in its fourth phase of implementation, connects students from the United States, Germany, Ghana and Kenya with the help of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in order to work on a common research assignment for a period of ten calendar weeks. The main ICTs used in the project are Skype, Facebook, wiki, email and WhatsApp. This paper describes and analyzes the background, structure, and results of the project.
Due to regionalization and global competition, many companies have turned their attention to other markets outside the domestic ones in anticipation of securing profitable market(s) for their products. Cormart (Nigeria) Limited is one of such companies, seeking to expand beyond its domestic borders. Cormart is a Nigerian trading company specializing in Industrial Raw Materials and Chemicals. It represents the business interests of top Multinational Companies that wish to do business in Nigeria. In line with its expansion strategy, Cormart seeks to introduce its newly developed spray starch product (RENEW) into the Ghanaian market.
This case study is based on Azuri Health Ltd, a small company in Kenya that specializes mainly in the manufacture of dried fruit and flours. The company was started in 2010 and currently has 15 employees. It buys fruits, especially mangoes from farmers, processes them and markets them in- and outside of Kenya as dried fruits. This value addition enhances the shelf life of the products which would otherwise spoil within a few days after ripening.
The purpose of the study is to provide empirical evidence about the under researched area of university-government relation in building a culture of entrepreneurial initiative inside triple helix model in a rural region. The study deploys a qualitative case study research method based on the content analysis of project documentation and further internal documents both from university and municipality.
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in psychological need satisfaction and its role in promoting optimal functioning. The DRAMMA model integrates existing need and recovery models to explain why leisure is connected to optimal functioning (i.e., high well-being and low ill-being). It encompasses six psychological needs: detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation (DRAMMA). While the individual needs of the DRAMMA model have been previously shown to relate to different aspects of optimal functioning, a longitudinal study examining the entire model has not been conducted before. In this longitudinal field study covering leisure and work episodes, we tested the within-person reliability and (construct and criterion) validity of the operationalization of the DRAMMA model in a sample of 279 German employees. Participants filled out measures of DRAMMA need satisfaction and optimal functioning at five measurement times before, during, and after vacation periods in 2016 and 2017. The six-factor model showed good fit to the data. In the multilevel models, relaxation, detachment, autonomy, and mastery had the most consistent within-person effects on optimal functioning, while the relationships between optimal functioning, meaning, and affiliation were considerably weaker. In conclusion, DRAMMA need satisfaction can aid and nurture employees’ optimal functioning.
Network Analysis Method
(2024)
Purpose: Both Hungary and Germany belong to the old-world wine-producing countries and have long winemaking traditions. This paper aims at exploring and comparing online branding strategies of family SME (small and medium sized enterprises) wineries at Lake Balaton (Hungary) and Lake Constance (Germany), as two wine regions with similar geographic characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper, based on a total sample of 37 family wineries, 15 at Lake Balaton and 22 at Lake Constance, investigates the differences in brand identity on the website, brand image in social media and online communication channels deployed in both wine regions. The study applies a qualitative methodology using MaxQDA software for conducting content analysis of texts in websites and social media. Descriptive statistics and t-test were conducted to compare the usage of different communication channels and determine statistical significance.
Findings: At Lake Balaton, the vineyard, the winery and the family, while at Lake Constance, the lake itself and the grape are highlighted regarding family winery brand identity. The customer-based brand image of Hungarian family wineries emphasizes wine, food and service, with the predominant use of Facebook. In the German family wineries, the focus of brand identity is on wine, friendliness and taste and includes more extensive usage of websites.
Originality/value: The paper deploys a novel methodology, both in terms of tools used as well as geographic focus to uncover online branding patterns of family wineries, thereby providing implications for wine and tourism industries at lake regions. It compares the share of selected most-used words in the overall text in websites and in social media, and presents the key findings from this innovative approach.
Pan-African University (PAU) is an initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC) that started in 2008 with the objective to promote higher education, science and technology on the African continent at a high academic level. The Pan-African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change) (PAUWES) is one of the five hubs of the Pan African University (PAU) and hosted at the University of Tlemcen in Algeria. PAUWES offers graduate students access to leading academic research and the latest theoretical and hands-on training in areas vital to the future of Africa’s development in water, energy and the challenge of climate change.
Innovation has been touted to be the central catalyst of entrepreneurship. This view has dominated research in start-ups as well as small and medium enterprises. Therefore, the relationship between innovation and firm performance has been a subject of interest to many researchers and policy makers. Through a longitudinal approach, this study investigated the influence of product innovation on the performance of Haco Tiger Brands, a medium sized fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company in Kenya’s East Africa market. The study looked at the product innovation activities within the company for a period of 7 years for a total of 35 products across the five major brand categories of the company. Using a secondary data capture form, data on sales revenues for both the company and innovated products for the past 7 years was obtained. Data on the innovated products launch time and type of innovation was also obtained. Using time series and linear regression analysis, the results indicate that the total company sales revenues less innovation grew at a slower rate of 50% as compared to growth when product innovation sales revenues were included in the total company sales revenues accounting for a faster sales growth rate of 76%. The influence of product innovation on performance was statistically significant (p<0.05) accounting for 92.19% variation in performance. These findings provide irrefutable empirical basis that product innovations have significant revenue growth rates, hence the need for managers of medium sized companies to invest in research and development to sustain product innovation and spur growth. The results sit well within theory and other empirical studies with additional contribution to methodology. Based on the study limitations, further areas for research have been suggested.
Project Management
(2023)
Companies are increasingly developing into dynamic and project-oriented organizations. Globalization, innovations and organizational dynamics require more and more projects, and thus a more project-oriented corporate organization and management. As a rule, managers as well as employees already work parallel to their line function in projects or completely from project to project.
At the same time, cross-company and especially international value chains lead to the cooperation of cross-departamental and intercultural teams. For this, the specialists and executives need above all knowledge and experience in project management and the corresponding concepts as well as in the special form of cooperation, team development and communication. Because the most problems in project management are not caused by project goals and methods, but by the many different problem-solving behavior and attitudes, e.g. between engineers and business people, different departments or the different country cultures. The international IT project specialist Tom DeMarco puts it in a nutshell (in Peopleware - Productive Projects and Teams: The major problems of our work are not so much technological as socio-logical in nature. In terms of content here, in contrast to traditional professional textbooks, not only the technologies are priority, but also the social and intercultural aspects of project work.
The book is aimed equally at students of all disciplines with a focus on managerial and project-related work as well as practitioners and entrepreneurs in all private business sectors as well as in NGOs, public projects or PPPs as public-private partnership.
Entrepreneurship is labelled as the panacea for graduate unemployment in Ghana. In the training process, students are mandatorily required to read a course in entrepreneurship, so as to be able to start their own businesses in the face of job adversities caused by the inadequacy of job opportunities created by government and lack of government drive to diversify the economy for more jobs to be created. This study, therefore aimed at investigating the critical precursors of entrepreneurial intentions among higher education students in Ghana. Using the analytical cross-sectional survey design, 250 respondents were recruited from public universities using probability sampling techniques (stratified-disproportionate and simple random) to participate in the survey. Respondents were required to respond to three constructs (entrepreneurial scaffolding, psychological capital, and entrepreneurial intentions). The data analyses were performed using multivariate regression. The study findings showed that entrepreneurial scaffolding and psychological capital were significant predictors of entrepreneurial intentions. The researchers concluded that students' convictions in succeeding or otherwise and planning to engage in entrepreneurial behaviours depended on proper entrepreneurial guidance and a positive mind-set. Therefore, it was recommended that higher education institutions in Ghana strengthened and included practical guides to entrepreneurial training. This will encourage higher education students to consider entrepreneurship, hence, reducing graduate unemployment in Ghana.