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Papers by Dr Ernest Kwame Affum

Research paper thumbnail of Investigating the Service Quality of Chatbots on Telecom Service Providers' Websites and Apps

Advances in hospitality, tourism and the services industry (AHTSI) book series, May 31, 2024

Research paper thumbnail of Investigating Zoom Continuance Use by Ghanaian University Students in Blended Learning Arrangements in the Post-Covid Era

Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Conference on Education and E-Learning

Research paper thumbnail of The Food Industry in Ghana: Demystifying the Innovation and Quality Conundrum

Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 2019

Most part of the food industry remains a "black box". Adding to it is the level of confusion that... more Most part of the food industry remains a "black box". Adding to it is the level of confusion that surrounds the industry in Ghana. The food industry in Ghana is just at the take off stage of its development. Meanwhile the country plays a vital role in the international arena, thereby heightening the debate over the need for total quality management (TQM) and innovation in the industry, especially proffering a model that can help to properly judge activities of the industry. That said, this paper using extensive review of literature has established the Dynamic Quality Model (DQM) and the Sustainable Innovation Model (SIM) as measures and analytical frameworks for quality and innovation. The DQM comprises nineteen variables that are grouped into two categories-endogenous and exogenous factors. The SIM however comprises eight variables. The study concludeS that the organizational factors, market factors and government are needed to effectively understand and analyze. Also, quality was considered highly essential if an innovation is to be absorbed by the market and help to achieve long run total factor productivity.

Research paper thumbnail of Determining Industrial Change Effectiveness in Developing Countries: Focus on Ghana

Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 2019

Ghana continues to grapple with the most appropriate approach to change the structure of the econ... more Ghana continues to grapple with the most appropriate approach to change the structure of the economy to ensure sustainable economic growth that will lead to social stability, closing up of the income inequality gap, alleviation of poverty, expansion of the economy and development of the industrial as well as agricultural and services sector. This requires pragmatic policy initiatives that are robust and address fundamental challenges facing industrial Ghana. This kind of policy must be driven by industry to avoid information asymmetry problem which can lead to defeat of such policy tools from the onset. This paper, (conceptual) using literature approach, has established EKs successful industrial change model as a means to influence industrial change activities and to analyze industrial change effectiveness in Ghana. It has proposed that, an effective industrial change, which is fundamentally rooted on policy changes, requires several dimensions to ensure its success. The proposed model asserts that government and industry are the main participants in such a task. However, there are social factors and SMEs development factors that can equally ensure an industrial change succeeds. Similarly, although government should mainly contribute to ensuring the industrial sector is able to drive industrial success which is the result of total factor productivity, socioeconomic development and business expansion, government can equally contribute directly through SOEs and public-private partnerships (PPP). The paper therefore concludes that Government should collaborate with the industrial sector if this could be achieved.

Research paper thumbnail of The Impact of Government Debt on the Economic Growth of Ghana: A Time Series Analysis from 1990-2015

International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, 2015

In this study we investigate the impact of government debt on the economic growth of Ghana adopti... more In this study we investigate the impact of government debt on the economic growth of Ghana adopting the methodology of the simple Ordinary Least Squares with data spanning from 1990 to 2015. Ghana has unfortunately found itself in the tragic situation of high external government debt which has led to high dependency on aid and other loans to support its development. These aids and loans have seen the debt of Ghana rise steadily over the years. As a result of the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) which was presented by the IMF and World Bank in 1999, Ghana was judged to be a HIPC with unsustainable debt enabling the country to benefit from debt relief. We investigate the impact of government debt (both external and domestic) by testing three related models at the domestic and external levels including the general growth of the Ghanaian economy. In constructing our dataset, we build on the study of many scholars including a substantial amount of new materials from both primary an...

Research paper thumbnail of Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana

Science Journal of Business and Management, 2015

Ghana over the past three decades has witnessed the revolution of economic growth through innovat... more Ghana over the past three decades has witnessed the revolution of economic growth through innovations in the telecommunications sector. This study aims at identifying and examining the influence of the individual and organizational knowledge sharing enablers on knowledge sharing behaviour that leads to the development of firm innovation capability. A questionnaire was developed and administered randomly to a sample of four-hundred employees in the managerial and developmental levels of six mobile telecommunications companies. Three hundred and fifty-one were accepted for analysis. In analysing the data, a simple descriptive statistic was adopted. The results of the analysis affirmed the existence of a positive effect of the individual factor "teamwork in helping others" and the organizational innovation factor "top management support" on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. Employee willingness to donate and collect knowledge is significantly related to firm innovation capability and has influence on it. However, there is no influence of the individual factor "knowledge selfefficacy" and the organizational factor "organizational rewards" on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. The researchers therefore concluded that employees in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector are influenced by their managers' support, help and encouragement to share knowledge more than the organizational rewards system. Hence, they do not expect to receive more rewards to increase their knowledge sharing attitude. The paper provides recommendations to help facilitate knowledge sharing and thereby increase the innovation capabilities of these firms.

Research paper thumbnail of Investigating the Service Quality of Chatbots on Telecom Service Providers' Websites and Apps

Advances in hospitality, tourism and the services industry (AHTSI) book series, May 31, 2024

Research paper thumbnail of Investigating Zoom Continuance Use by Ghanaian University Students in Blended Learning Arrangements in the Post-Covid Era

Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Conference on Education and E-Learning

Research paper thumbnail of The Food Industry in Ghana: Demystifying the Innovation and Quality Conundrum

Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 2019

Most part of the food industry remains a "black box". Adding to it is the level of confusion that... more Most part of the food industry remains a "black box". Adding to it is the level of confusion that surrounds the industry in Ghana. The food industry in Ghana is just at the take off stage of its development. Meanwhile the country plays a vital role in the international arena, thereby heightening the debate over the need for total quality management (TQM) and innovation in the industry, especially proffering a model that can help to properly judge activities of the industry. That said, this paper using extensive review of literature has established the Dynamic Quality Model (DQM) and the Sustainable Innovation Model (SIM) as measures and analytical frameworks for quality and innovation. The DQM comprises nineteen variables that are grouped into two categories-endogenous and exogenous factors. The SIM however comprises eight variables. The study concludeS that the organizational factors, market factors and government are needed to effectively understand and analyze. Also, quality was considered highly essential if an innovation is to be absorbed by the market and help to achieve long run total factor productivity.

Research paper thumbnail of Determining Industrial Change Effectiveness in Developing Countries: Focus on Ghana

Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 2019

Ghana continues to grapple with the most appropriate approach to change the structure of the econ... more Ghana continues to grapple with the most appropriate approach to change the structure of the economy to ensure sustainable economic growth that will lead to social stability, closing up of the income inequality gap, alleviation of poverty, expansion of the economy and development of the industrial as well as agricultural and services sector. This requires pragmatic policy initiatives that are robust and address fundamental challenges facing industrial Ghana. This kind of policy must be driven by industry to avoid information asymmetry problem which can lead to defeat of such policy tools from the onset. This paper, (conceptual) using literature approach, has established EKs successful industrial change model as a means to influence industrial change activities and to analyze industrial change effectiveness in Ghana. It has proposed that, an effective industrial change, which is fundamentally rooted on policy changes, requires several dimensions to ensure its success. The proposed model asserts that government and industry are the main participants in such a task. However, there are social factors and SMEs development factors that can equally ensure an industrial change succeeds. Similarly, although government should mainly contribute to ensuring the industrial sector is able to drive industrial success which is the result of total factor productivity, socioeconomic development and business expansion, government can equally contribute directly through SOEs and public-private partnerships (PPP). The paper therefore concludes that Government should collaborate with the industrial sector if this could be achieved.

Research paper thumbnail of The Impact of Government Debt on the Economic Growth of Ghana: A Time Series Analysis from 1990-2015

International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, 2015

In this study we investigate the impact of government debt on the economic growth of Ghana adopti... more In this study we investigate the impact of government debt on the economic growth of Ghana adopting the methodology of the simple Ordinary Least Squares with data spanning from 1990 to 2015. Ghana has unfortunately found itself in the tragic situation of high external government debt which has led to high dependency on aid and other loans to support its development. These aids and loans have seen the debt of Ghana rise steadily over the years. As a result of the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) which was presented by the IMF and World Bank in 1999, Ghana was judged to be a HIPC with unsustainable debt enabling the country to benefit from debt relief. We investigate the impact of government debt (both external and domestic) by testing three related models at the domestic and external levels including the general growth of the Ghanaian economy. In constructing our dataset, we build on the study of many scholars including a substantial amount of new materials from both primary an...

Research paper thumbnail of Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana

Science Journal of Business and Management, 2015

Ghana over the past three decades has witnessed the revolution of economic growth through innovat... more Ghana over the past three decades has witnessed the revolution of economic growth through innovations in the telecommunications sector. This study aims at identifying and examining the influence of the individual and organizational knowledge sharing enablers on knowledge sharing behaviour that leads to the development of firm innovation capability. A questionnaire was developed and administered randomly to a sample of four-hundred employees in the managerial and developmental levels of six mobile telecommunications companies. Three hundred and fifty-one were accepted for analysis. In analysing the data, a simple descriptive statistic was adopted. The results of the analysis affirmed the existence of a positive effect of the individual factor "teamwork in helping others" and the organizational innovation factor "top management support" on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. Employee willingness to donate and collect knowledge is significantly related to firm innovation capability and has influence on it. However, there is no influence of the individual factor "knowledge selfefficacy" and the organizational factor "organizational rewards" on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. The researchers therefore concluded that employees in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector are influenced by their managers' support, help and encouragement to share knowledge more than the organizational rewards system. Hence, they do not expect to receive more rewards to increase their knowledge sharing attitude. The paper provides recommendations to help facilitate knowledge sharing and thereby increase the innovation capabilities of these firms.