Ernest Yaw Tweneboah-Koduah

Impact of customization and innovation on hospitality firms’ performance

ABSTRACT This study examines how process innovation and customization, both individually and in combination, improve hospitality firms’ financial and non-financial performance. The paper investigates both process innovation and customization as important firm-level capabilities that have the capacity to improve the performance of hospitality firms due to the nature of their operations. This paper uses data from hospitality firms operating in Ghana. The study finds that hospitality firms’ customization capability allows hospitality firms to benefit from using the customer as a key resource and as a production partner to provide the desired value for customer satisfaction. This study further finds that process innovation and customization produce higher levels of firm performance when they are deployed together as they have complementary properties. This study, therefore, offers that customization capability should target at improving innovation capability in order to achieve higher overall firm performance for hospitality firms.

Does past failure inhibit future entrepreneurial intent? Evidence from Ghana

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between past entrepreneurial failure and future entrepreneurial intentions. It also considers the moderating role of past entrepreneurial failure on the relationship between attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) and entrepreneurial intentions.,Data from the Ghana Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Survey (2013) are used to test the hypotheses developed after an extensive literature review. The empirical specification was estimated with a probit of standard form and marginal derivatives estimated for the purposes of interpretation.,The mean future entrepreneurial intent is 63.2 per cent of the sample with 75 per cent having failed in the past and 60 per cent never failed before. Also, only 20.9 per cent of the interviewed entrepreneurs have failed at a past entrepreneurial activity. Past entrepreneurial failure has a positive effect on future entrepreneurial intentions. The interaction between attitude and failure yields a positive effect on future entrepreneurial intentions. The same effects can be reported for the interactions between subjective norms and failure as well as PBC and failure.,In this study, the authors are able to show that the mean moderational effects are important but they can be deceptive. Rather, a decomposition helps the authors to disaggregate these effects to better understand the underlying mechanisms.

Innovation and organizational development: the role of organizational leadership

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess the moderation effect of organizational leadership on the relationship between service firm’s innovation strategy and organizational development. The study argues that in Ghana where power distance is high, organizational leadership provides the needed impetus for strategies such as innovation to achieve enhanced firm performance. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from different service firms across Ghana for this study. A confirmatory factor analysis was used for construct reliability and validity checks. Robust regression estimations were then performed to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings - The results show that both product innovation as strategy and organizational leadership are positively related to organizational development (i.e. financial and non-financial performance). It was also found that organizational leadership does not only serve as a predictor of strategy formulation but provides the necessary strategic fit between a firm’s strategy and business environment to achieve organizational development. Originality/value - This study has shown that in high-power distance cultures, firms that are able to align their leadership orientation with their institutional environment are able to create a better fit between their strategic orientation and business environment in order to enhance organizational development.

Social Marketing: Using Stages of Change Model to Assess HIV/AIDS Testing Intentions Among University Students in Ghana

This research sought to utilize the stages of change model to assess HIV/AIDS testing intentions among university students in Ghana. A quantitative research method using a questionnaire based on a random sampling method was employed to interview 167 students of the University of Ghana Business School in Accra. The analysis of variance and one-sample t-test statistical methods were employed to establish the relationship between variables. The study found that most university students in Ghana (80.9%) are at precontemplation, contemplation, and preparation stages. This suggests that social marketing intervention programs encouraging university students to know their HIV/AIDS status have not been effective, since most university students in Ghana have not yet taken action to test for HIV/AIDS. The study also found some university students at more than one stage at a time.