Muazu Muazu | Bayero University, Kano (original) (raw)
Papers by Muazu Muazu
Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to fu... more Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to further promote and increase the number of small enterprises owners, improve the sustenance of small businesses, and reduce unemployment in the society. The institutes have graduated many students some of whom have ventured into businesses and others did not start any. Even those that have started hardly sustaining them beyond six months. It is against this backdrop, the study therefore aimed at understanding the effect of entrepreneurship training on the capacity building program with concerns to training quality, trainers competence, and availability and functionality of training facilities in the institutes. A survey research design was used, hence primary data were collected through questionnaire. A sample of 370 respondents were selected using convenient sampling technique. With the use of multiple regression analysis, the results of the study showed that training quality, trainers competence and training facilities have significant effect on capacity building effectiveness. The study thus recommended that the training institutes should standardise the admission process, curricula and improve on post training support activities. They should also determine trainers training needs and should send them for further training. The institutes should provide up-to-date training facilities with effective maintenance mechanism. Also, the study make some recommendations for future studies to incorporate other effective variables like government political will and funding that could explain the remaining variance in capacity building effectiveness.
Traektoriâ nauki, Sep 22, 2017
The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry... more The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry affiliation. That condition necessitated companies to adopt operational excellence as a strategy for optimising output with little resources, reducing lead time with the efficient use of assets and employees and avoiding safety and health issues to people and the environment. As a result of the need for operational excellence, many kinds of literature defined the concept based on the context of industry or sector. Industries such as manufacturing, services, oil and gas, mining and so many industries to mention a few, have their unique construct in the definition and therefore causing dilemma on which dimension to hold on to. It is against this backdrop that this paper synthesizes and integrate all the varying dimensions and fuses out similarities, differences and the antecedence of research directions taken on the few mentioned sectors. The paper thus concludes that the unique construct among all the definitions is continuous improvement, cost reduction, quality, time utilization, operational efficiency, staff involvement and output optimisation. However, they varied on risk management, staff health, safety and the concern for the environment, which is unique to oil and gas industry and that can affect the choice of research variables.
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Dec 15, 2021
The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to busine... more The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to business growth and competitiveness. Strategies have been used to differentiate the undertakings of various enterprises irrespective of industrial affiliation, specifically marketing strategies are used to reach the customers and tackle competition. The adoption and implementation of unsuitable marketing strategy exposes the weaknesses of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the challenges to capture sizable market share. This paper is aimed at examining the types of marketing strategies suitable for SMEs and how they affect their growth and competitiveness in developing countries. A review survey approach was employed in this work and related literature from journal articles, professional reports, term papers and dissertations were reviewed. It has been discovered that marketing strategies like relationship management, branding, product and pricing differentiation, market segmentation and channel cultivation are crucial for the sustainable growth and competitiveness of SMEs in developing countries. Some propositions were made on some unpopular marketing strategies that could be explored by SMEs for competitiveness and international markets.
Journal of Technology Management and Business, Dec 26, 2022
Even in the post-pandemic period, the Covid-19 pandemic still has a multiplier effect on the perf... more Even in the post-pandemic period, the Covid-19 pandemic still has a multiplier effect on the performance of SMEs. As sales revenues dropped, branches were closed, and employees' jobs and overall performance were impacted negatively around the world. This paper aims to review literature to determine research antecedents on the relationship between firms' entrepreneurial orientation and manufacturing SMEs' performance in the post-Covid-19 era in Africa and the rest of the developing economies. This is to note the area needed to cover some of the major causes of the variation in this sub-sector of the economy for future research. A literature survey methodology was employed for the current article. Articles were reviewed from sources including journals (Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Academia, and ResearchGate platform), and ordinary articles that spanned from 2002-2022 to understand the antecedents of research contexts and variables explored. The findings revealed that most studies focused on large-scale manufacturing firms and SMEs and considered external environmental factors like regulation, competition, interest and a few others to explain variation in enterprise performance. Furthermore, the result shows that non-multidimensional measures of enterprise performance were used. Consequently, a new conceptual framework was developed to look at firms' inward entrepreneurial orientation as the driving factor for organisational performance improvement. The implication of the proposed framework developed is to harness strategies for performance improvement, growth, and survival in a complex and dynamic business environment. Thus, the paper concludes that the way to this development is for SMEs to build capacities that entrench their corporate entrepreneurial orientation to suit every business situation.
Advances in Accounting, Management, Business and Economics Journal, Aug 18, 2021
Operational excellence as a strategy had helped improve the performance of firms across industrie... more Operational excellence as a strategy had helped improve the performance of firms across industries. This paper is aimed at determining the role of some enterprise risk management determinants in the implementation of operational excellence in the oil and gas sector. The study provides an improved framework that could help oil firms increase productivity, reduce health and safety issues, and enhance environmental performance. A survey research design was adopted and a structural equation modelling, specifically PLS-SEM was employed in the analysis of data collected from seven subsidiary firms of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, purposively selected. The findings suggest that regulatory framework, staff capacity, information technology and firm characteristics could have a significant effect on operational excellence implementation in the oil and gas sector. The findings prepare the firms on how to improve health and safety, operational efficiency by reducing cost and wastage, ...
Future Business Journal, 2020
Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operatio... more Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operations that is full of risks. Issues like volatile market prices, health and safety, environmental performance and high cost of production are affecting the operational performance of the sector. These problems if left unchecked could change the level of production and revenue generation to the Malaysian government and would as well influence the country’s regional position in oil and gas production. As a result, many oil and gas firms including PETRONAS adopted operational excellence strategy, but some of the challenges kept re-occurring. It is against this circumstance that this research is aimed at determining the effect of enterprise risk management determinants on operational excellence in the Malaysian oil and gas industry. It is also aimed at exploring the mediating effect of enterprise risk management implementation on such a relationship. The article used a conceptual approach where...
Journal of Technology Management and Business, Jun 29, 2021
Commercial banks in the emerging markets have witnessed transformations in recent times, which ha... more Commercial banks in the emerging markets have witnessed transformations in recent times, which has affected their operational performance. These transformations include consolidations, recapitalisation, technological advancement, compliance and the rise in retail banking patronage. The increasing number of customers has become one of the sources of challenges to the banks. Other issues are challenges of effective service delivery, rise in the cost of operations, and branch network. Operational excellence is viewed as a strategy and a competitive advantage opportunity for overcoming some of these challenges as practised in other sectors of the economy in Nigeria and beyond. This paper adopted a case study approach to point out some of the opportunities and benefits derivable from operational excellence to the commercial banking operations in developing countries as experienced by banks in some developed nations. Also highlighted are some of the levers and approaches to implementing operational excellence in the banking sector. The article thus concludes that operational excellence improves banks' service delivery, customer satisfaction, cost-effectiveness and efficiency, a substantial increase in revenue and profit, and offers a competitive advantage to banks. Hence, Nigerian banks must leverage their workforce, processes, innovation, and governance to attain excellence in their operations for them to remain competitive in both regional and international markets.
International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2020
Journal of Social Transformation and Regional Development, 2021
The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to busine... more The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to business growth and competitiveness. Strategies have been used to differentiate the undertakings of various enterprises irrespective of industrial affiliation, specifically marketing strategies are used to reach the customers and tackle competition. The adoption and implementation of unsuitable marketing strategy exposes the weaknesses of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the challenges to capture sizable market share. This paper is aimed at examining the types of marketing strategies suitable for SMEs and how they affect their growth and competitiveness in developing countries. A review survey approach was employed in this work and related literature from journal articles, professional reports, term papers and dissertations were reviewed. It has been discovered that marketing strategies like relationship management, branding, product and pricing differentiation, market segmentation and ...
Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to fu... more Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to further promote and increase the number of small enterprises owners, improve the sustenance of small businesses, and reduce unemployment in the society.The institutes have graduated many students some of whom have ventured into businesses and others did not start any.Even those that have started hardly sustaining them beyond six months.It is against this backdrop, the study therefore aimed at understanding the effect of entrepreneurship training on the capacity building program with concerns to training quality, trainers competence, and availability and functionality of training facilities in the institutes.A survey research design was used, hence primary data were collected through questionnaire. A sample of 370 respondents were selected using convenient sampling technique. With the use of multiple regression analysis, the results of the study showed that training quality, trainers compet...
In today’s business world, small and micro enterprises have greater role to play in economic deve... more In today’s business world, small and micro enterprises have greater role to play in economic development of countries. They are the very sector closer to the people and therefore their informal nature makes it easier for employment creation among the poor. Some of them grow and some don’t, however, they cannot explain the reasons behind their scenarios, to some only organisational and environmental forces determine the rate at which they grow which is not always the case. This paper being literature based tries to elaborate on the various individual determinants of small enterprise growth and how they influence or affect decision and effort to grow the enterprise. Mostly, they are internal and within the control of the entrepreneur, so to say, the determinants includes entrepreneur’s personality traits, growth motivation, individual competencies and personal background of the entrepreneur. These determinants influence growth of not only smaller businesses but to a large extent even...
Assessment of technology factor in companies' business strategy with the use of sense and respond... more Assessment of technology factor in companies' business strategy with the use of sense and respond method. Management and Production Engineering Review 10(3),
Future Business Journal, 2020
Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operatio... more Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operations that is full of risks. Issues like volatile market prices, health and safety, environmental performance and high cost of production are affecting the operational performance of the sector. These problems if left unchecked could change the level of production and revenue generation to the Malaysian government and would as well influence the country’s regional position in oil and gas production. As a result, many oil and gas firms including PETRONAS adopted operational excellence strategy, but some of the challenges kept re-occurring. It is against this circumstance that this research is aimed at determining the effect of enterprise risk management determinants on operational excellence in the Malaysian oil and gas industry. It is also aimed at exploring the mediating effect of enterprise risk management implementation on such a relationship. The article used a conceptual approach where...
Business and Economic Horizons
Participation in training has been claimed to have various effects on individuals, teams and orga... more Participation in training has been claimed to have various effects on individuals, teams and organizations. In the context of higher education, continuous professional development (CPD) training programs is of utmost importance to improve academicians' competencies, teaching effectiveness and eventually students' performance. However, majority of studies on CPD training programs in Malaysia have been exploratory and descriptive in nature and none has investigated the relationship between participation in CPD training programs and perceived teaching performance. Thus, thus study aimed to bridge the empirical gap using quantitative secondary data from year 2015 to 2017. University's CPD training program participation records and the teaching assessment ratings by students on eighty academicians were included in this study based on the data accessibility from both sources. Descriptive analyses showed that majority of respondents who were rated excellent by students attended CPD training programs. Linear regression analysis showed that 11% of variance in teaching performance was explained by participation in CPD training programs. This finding substantiates the importance of CPD training programs. More importantly, this result shows that compulsory CPD training programs during the initial teaching years is not sufficient to maintain teaching performance. Consequently, academicians need to participate in CPD trainings to upgrade their teaching know-hows.
Journal of Technology Management and Business
Stiffer regulations, the rise in the cost of production, health, safety and environmental issues ... more Stiffer regulations, the rise in the cost of production, health, safety and environmental issues are some of the daring challenges faced by the oil and gas sector in recent time. Other complexities include pricing framework, advancement in technology, ageing of assets, continued depletion of oil reserves (Mustapha, Umeh & Adepoju, 2015). Also, the increasing stakeholders demand oil firms perform at all cost is the current situation in the oil and gas industry. These pressures compelled the firms in the sector to develop and adopted a strategy that helped them reduce and control some of the challenges. Thus the top strategic priority for oil and gas firms remains operational excellence for cost reduction, and health and safety programs (PwC, 2017). With operational excellence in place, primary containment loss drops by 40%-50%, export deferrals declines by 98.5% and emergency and reactive activities reduces by 80%-90%
International Journal of Services and Operations Management
Path of Science
The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry... more The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry affiliation. That condition necessitated companies to adopt operational excellence as a strategy for optimising output with little resources, reducing lead time with the efficient use of assets and employees and avoiding safety and health issues to people and the environment. As a result of the need for operational excellence, many kinds of literature defined the concept based on the context of industry or sector. Industries such as manufacturing, services, oil and gas, mining and so many industries to mention a few, have their unique construct in the definition and therefore causing dilemma on which dimension to hold on to. It is against this backdrop that this paper synthesizes and integrate all the varying dimensions and fuses out similarities, differences and the antecedence of research directions taken on the few mentioned sectors. The paper thus concludes that the unique construct among all the definitions is continuous improvement, cost reduction, quality, time utilization, operational efficiency, staff involvement and output optimisation. However, they varied on risk management, staff health, safety and the concern for the environment, which is unique to oil and gas industry and that can affect the choice of research variables.
Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to fu... more Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to further promote and increase the number of small enterprises owners, improve the sustenance of small businesses, and reduce unemployment in the society. The institutes have graduated many students some of whom have ventured into businesses and others did not start any. Even those that have started hardly sustaining them beyond six months. It is against this backdrop, the study therefore aimed at understanding the effect of entrepreneurship training on the capacity building program with concerns to training quality, trainers competence, and availability and functionality of training facilities in the institutes. A survey research design was used, hence primary data were collected through questionnaire. A sample of 370 respondents were selected using convenient sampling technique. With the use of multiple regression analysis, the results of the study showed that training quality, trainers competence and training facilities have significant effect on capacity building effectiveness. The study thus recommended that the training institutes should standardise the admission process, curricula and improve on post training support activities. They should also determine trainers training needs and should send them for further training. The institutes should provide up-to-date training facilities with effective maintenance mechanism. Also, the study make some recommendations for future studies to incorporate other effective variables like government political will and funding that could explain the remaining variance in capacity building effectiveness.
Traektoriâ nauki, Sep 22, 2017
The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry... more The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry affiliation. That condition necessitated companies to adopt operational excellence as a strategy for optimising output with little resources, reducing lead time with the efficient use of assets and employees and avoiding safety and health issues to people and the environment. As a result of the need for operational excellence, many kinds of literature defined the concept based on the context of industry or sector. Industries such as manufacturing, services, oil and gas, mining and so many industries to mention a few, have their unique construct in the definition and therefore causing dilemma on which dimension to hold on to. It is against this backdrop that this paper synthesizes and integrate all the varying dimensions and fuses out similarities, differences and the antecedence of research directions taken on the few mentioned sectors. The paper thus concludes that the unique construct among all the definitions is continuous improvement, cost reduction, quality, time utilization, operational efficiency, staff involvement and output optimisation. However, they varied on risk management, staff health, safety and the concern for the environment, which is unique to oil and gas industry and that can affect the choice of research variables.
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Dec 15, 2021
The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to busine... more The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to business growth and competitiveness. Strategies have been used to differentiate the undertakings of various enterprises irrespective of industrial affiliation, specifically marketing strategies are used to reach the customers and tackle competition. The adoption and implementation of unsuitable marketing strategy exposes the weaknesses of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the challenges to capture sizable market share. This paper is aimed at examining the types of marketing strategies suitable for SMEs and how they affect their growth and competitiveness in developing countries. A review survey approach was employed in this work and related literature from journal articles, professional reports, term papers and dissertations were reviewed. It has been discovered that marketing strategies like relationship management, branding, product and pricing differentiation, market segmentation and channel cultivation are crucial for the sustainable growth and competitiveness of SMEs in developing countries. Some propositions were made on some unpopular marketing strategies that could be explored by SMEs for competitiveness and international markets.
Journal of Technology Management and Business, Dec 26, 2022
Even in the post-pandemic period, the Covid-19 pandemic still has a multiplier effect on the perf... more Even in the post-pandemic period, the Covid-19 pandemic still has a multiplier effect on the performance of SMEs. As sales revenues dropped, branches were closed, and employees' jobs and overall performance were impacted negatively around the world. This paper aims to review literature to determine research antecedents on the relationship between firms' entrepreneurial orientation and manufacturing SMEs' performance in the post-Covid-19 era in Africa and the rest of the developing economies. This is to note the area needed to cover some of the major causes of the variation in this sub-sector of the economy for future research. A literature survey methodology was employed for the current article. Articles were reviewed from sources including journals (Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Academia, and ResearchGate platform), and ordinary articles that spanned from 2002-2022 to understand the antecedents of research contexts and variables explored. The findings revealed that most studies focused on large-scale manufacturing firms and SMEs and considered external environmental factors like regulation, competition, interest and a few others to explain variation in enterprise performance. Furthermore, the result shows that non-multidimensional measures of enterprise performance were used. Consequently, a new conceptual framework was developed to look at firms' inward entrepreneurial orientation as the driving factor for organisational performance improvement. The implication of the proposed framework developed is to harness strategies for performance improvement, growth, and survival in a complex and dynamic business environment. Thus, the paper concludes that the way to this development is for SMEs to build capacities that entrench their corporate entrepreneurial orientation to suit every business situation.
Advances in Accounting, Management, Business and Economics Journal, Aug 18, 2021
Operational excellence as a strategy had helped improve the performance of firms across industrie... more Operational excellence as a strategy had helped improve the performance of firms across industries. This paper is aimed at determining the role of some enterprise risk management determinants in the implementation of operational excellence in the oil and gas sector. The study provides an improved framework that could help oil firms increase productivity, reduce health and safety issues, and enhance environmental performance. A survey research design was adopted and a structural equation modelling, specifically PLS-SEM was employed in the analysis of data collected from seven subsidiary firms of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, purposively selected. The findings suggest that regulatory framework, staff capacity, information technology and firm characteristics could have a significant effect on operational excellence implementation in the oil and gas sector. The findings prepare the firms on how to improve health and safety, operational efficiency by reducing cost and wastage, ...
Future Business Journal, 2020
Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operatio... more Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operations that is full of risks. Issues like volatile market prices, health and safety, environmental performance and high cost of production are affecting the operational performance of the sector. These problems if left unchecked could change the level of production and revenue generation to the Malaysian government and would as well influence the country’s regional position in oil and gas production. As a result, many oil and gas firms including PETRONAS adopted operational excellence strategy, but some of the challenges kept re-occurring. It is against this circumstance that this research is aimed at determining the effect of enterprise risk management determinants on operational excellence in the Malaysian oil and gas industry. It is also aimed at exploring the mediating effect of enterprise risk management implementation on such a relationship. The article used a conceptual approach where...
Journal of Technology Management and Business, Jun 29, 2021
Commercial banks in the emerging markets have witnessed transformations in recent times, which ha... more Commercial banks in the emerging markets have witnessed transformations in recent times, which has affected their operational performance. These transformations include consolidations, recapitalisation, technological advancement, compliance and the rise in retail banking patronage. The increasing number of customers has become one of the sources of challenges to the banks. Other issues are challenges of effective service delivery, rise in the cost of operations, and branch network. Operational excellence is viewed as a strategy and a competitive advantage opportunity for overcoming some of these challenges as practised in other sectors of the economy in Nigeria and beyond. This paper adopted a case study approach to point out some of the opportunities and benefits derivable from operational excellence to the commercial banking operations in developing countries as experienced by banks in some developed nations. Also highlighted are some of the levers and approaches to implementing operational excellence in the banking sector. The article thus concludes that operational excellence improves banks' service delivery, customer satisfaction, cost-effectiveness and efficiency, a substantial increase in revenue and profit, and offers a competitive advantage to banks. Hence, Nigerian banks must leverage their workforce, processes, innovation, and governance to attain excellence in their operations for them to remain competitive in both regional and international markets.
International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2020
Journal of Social Transformation and Regional Development, 2021
The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to busine... more The growing competition among businesses of small medium or large is an area of concern to business growth and competitiveness. Strategies have been used to differentiate the undertakings of various enterprises irrespective of industrial affiliation, specifically marketing strategies are used to reach the customers and tackle competition. The adoption and implementation of unsuitable marketing strategy exposes the weaknesses of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the challenges to capture sizable market share. This paper is aimed at examining the types of marketing strategies suitable for SMEs and how they affect their growth and competitiveness in developing countries. A review survey approach was employed in this work and related literature from journal articles, professional reports, term papers and dissertations were reviewed. It has been discovered that marketing strategies like relationship management, branding, product and pricing differentiation, market segmentation and ...
Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to fu... more Kano state enterprise development training institutes were established with the expectation to further promote and increase the number of small enterprises owners, improve the sustenance of small businesses, and reduce unemployment in the society.The institutes have graduated many students some of whom have ventured into businesses and others did not start any.Even those that have started hardly sustaining them beyond six months.It is against this backdrop, the study therefore aimed at understanding the effect of entrepreneurship training on the capacity building program with concerns to training quality, trainers competence, and availability and functionality of training facilities in the institutes.A survey research design was used, hence primary data were collected through questionnaire. A sample of 370 respondents were selected using convenient sampling technique. With the use of multiple regression analysis, the results of the study showed that training quality, trainers compet...
In today’s business world, small and micro enterprises have greater role to play in economic deve... more In today’s business world, small and micro enterprises have greater role to play in economic development of countries. They are the very sector closer to the people and therefore their informal nature makes it easier for employment creation among the poor. Some of them grow and some don’t, however, they cannot explain the reasons behind their scenarios, to some only organisational and environmental forces determine the rate at which they grow which is not always the case. This paper being literature based tries to elaborate on the various individual determinants of small enterprise growth and how they influence or affect decision and effort to grow the enterprise. Mostly, they are internal and within the control of the entrepreneur, so to say, the determinants includes entrepreneur’s personality traits, growth motivation, individual competencies and personal background of the entrepreneur. These determinants influence growth of not only smaller businesses but to a large extent even...
Assessment of technology factor in companies' business strategy with the use of sense and respond... more Assessment of technology factor in companies' business strategy with the use of sense and respond method. Management and Production Engineering Review 10(3),
Future Business Journal, 2020
Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operatio... more Globally, the challenges of the oil and gas industry are unique due to the nature of its operations that is full of risks. Issues like volatile market prices, health and safety, environmental performance and high cost of production are affecting the operational performance of the sector. These problems if left unchecked could change the level of production and revenue generation to the Malaysian government and would as well influence the country’s regional position in oil and gas production. As a result, many oil and gas firms including PETRONAS adopted operational excellence strategy, but some of the challenges kept re-occurring. It is against this circumstance that this research is aimed at determining the effect of enterprise risk management determinants on operational excellence in the Malaysian oil and gas industry. It is also aimed at exploring the mediating effect of enterprise risk management implementation on such a relationship. The article used a conceptual approach where...
Business and Economic Horizons
Participation in training has been claimed to have various effects on individuals, teams and orga... more Participation in training has been claimed to have various effects on individuals, teams and organizations. In the context of higher education, continuous professional development (CPD) training programs is of utmost importance to improve academicians' competencies, teaching effectiveness and eventually students' performance. However, majority of studies on CPD training programs in Malaysia have been exploratory and descriptive in nature and none has investigated the relationship between participation in CPD training programs and perceived teaching performance. Thus, thus study aimed to bridge the empirical gap using quantitative secondary data from year 2015 to 2017. University's CPD training program participation records and the teaching assessment ratings by students on eighty academicians were included in this study based on the data accessibility from both sources. Descriptive analyses showed that majority of respondents who were rated excellent by students attended CPD training programs. Linear regression analysis showed that 11% of variance in teaching performance was explained by participation in CPD training programs. This finding substantiates the importance of CPD training programs. More importantly, this result shows that compulsory CPD training programs during the initial teaching years is not sufficient to maintain teaching performance. Consequently, academicians need to participate in CPD trainings to upgrade their teaching know-hows.
Journal of Technology Management and Business
Stiffer regulations, the rise in the cost of production, health, safety and environmental issues ... more Stiffer regulations, the rise in the cost of production, health, safety and environmental issues are some of the daring challenges faced by the oil and gas sector in recent time. Other complexities include pricing framework, advancement in technology, ageing of assets, continued depletion of oil reserves (Mustapha, Umeh & Adepoju, 2015). Also, the increasing stakeholders demand oil firms perform at all cost is the current situation in the oil and gas industry. These pressures compelled the firms in the sector to develop and adopted a strategy that helped them reduce and control some of the challenges. Thus the top strategic priority for oil and gas firms remains operational excellence for cost reduction, and health and safety programs (PwC, 2017). With operational excellence in place, primary containment loss drops by 40%-50%, export deferrals declines by 98.5% and emergency and reactive activities reduces by 80%-90%
International Journal of Services and Operations Management
Path of Science
The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry... more The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry affiliation. That condition necessitated companies to adopt operational excellence as a strategy for optimising output with little resources, reducing lead time with the efficient use of assets and employees and avoiding safety and health issues to people and the environment. As a result of the need for operational excellence, many kinds of literature defined the concept based on the context of industry or sector. Industries such as manufacturing, services, oil and gas, mining and so many industries to mention a few, have their unique construct in the definition and therefore causing dilemma on which dimension to hold on to. It is against this backdrop that this paper synthesizes and integrate all the varying dimensions and fuses out similarities, differences and the antecedence of research directions taken on the few mentioned sectors. The paper thus concludes that the unique construct among all the definitions is continuous improvement, cost reduction, quality, time utilization, operational efficiency, staff involvement and output optimisation. However, they varied on risk management, staff health, safety and the concern for the environment, which is unique to oil and gas industry and that can affect the choice of research variables.