This study examines how circular value is created under conditions of structural fragility, disruption, and resource scarcity, where prevailing circular supply chain theories offer limited explanatory power. While prior research emphasizes efficiency and optimization, it provides limited insight into how circular supply chains function when stable infrastructure, predictable flows, and formal coordination mechanisms are absent. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory and insights from humanitarian logistics, this study proposes a conceptual framework that reconceptualizes circular value creation as an adaptive and capability-mediated process. The framework posits that digital circular capabilities, sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring, enable organizations to develop adaptive reverse logistics systems, which serve as the primary mechanism through which circular value is realized under constrained conditions. Structural fragility and disruption intensity are introduced as boundary conditions shaping the effectiveness of these relationships. The study contributes by reframing circular supply chain theory beyond efficiency-based assumptions, extending dynamic capabilities to disrupted and resource-constrained environments, and positioning reverse logistics as a central adaptive mechanism for circular value recovery. By integrating insights from humanitarian logistics and circular supply chain research, the study advances a more context-sensitive understanding of supply chain functioning under disruption.

Most small and medium scale enterprises in Ghana neglect very critical performance indicators in their bossiness. As a result most SMEs do not survive till their fifth anniversary. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between prevention focus, promotion focus, resilience, and SME performance in Ghana. Furthermore, we investigated the moderation effect of entrepreneurial learning and Entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience and SME performance in Ghana. Our results show that both promotion- and prevention-focused increase entrepreneurial resilience and SME performance significantly. This is an indication that there is a strong positive correlation between entrepreneurial resilience and success in both the individual and firm levels. This inference can therefore assist policy makers, politicians and various industry players in designing training programs on how to improve the resilience of SME owners in Ghana. Statistically our analysis shows that prevention focus (PreV) has a positive effect on entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) (β = 0.250; p<0.001), and promotion focus (PreM) has a positive effect on entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) (β = 0.268; p<0.001). Additionally, entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) has a positive effect on innovative performance (IP) (β = 0.547; p<0.001). Furthermore, the mediation results has shown that entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) mediates the relationship between prevention focus (PreV) and innovative performance (IP) (β = 0.136; p<0.001); as well as that of promotion focus (PreM) and firm performance (IP) (β = 0.146; p<0.001). Finally, the results with regards to moderation effects has shown that entrepreneurial orientation (EntO) partially moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) and innovative performance (IP) (β = 0.109; p<0.05), however, the result established that entrepreneurial learning (EntL) does not moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) and firm performance (IP) (β = -0.031; p<0.05). Using the Resource Based View theory, we concluded that, SME’s needs to adopted prevention (vigilant/avoidant strategies) by minimizing losses, and taking calculated risks with motivation from mentors to avoid loss as this would achieve resilience as well as promotion of strategies (eager/approach strategies) to achieve gains for their SMEs during economic disruption and economic downturn such as COVID-19. We concluded that SME’s could also achieve resilience when managers or owners of SMEs inspire the employees to work harder, and think outside the box to identify latent ideas and opportunities within their SME business environment.

This study investigated the impact of corporate financial strategies-(CFSs) on the performance of companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange-(SSE) from 2010-2023, analyzing data from 2,269 firms, yielding 31,766 balanced firm-year observations. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach with a quasi-experimental design grounded in pragmatism, the inquiry employed two-step System-GMM technique to address endogeneity, simultaneity, heteroscedasticity, reverse causality and Nickell bias. Fixed effects-(FE) and random effects-(RE) models were applied to handle unobserved heterogeneity, omitted variable bias and guarantee robustness. The results revealed that, total-debt-to-assets-ratio-(TDTAR) and dividend yield-(DY) significantly and negatively impacted firm performance-(FP), measured by return on assets-(ROA) and Tobin’s Q-(TQ). Contrary, cash conversion cycle-(CCC), current ratio-(CR), total-assets-turnover-(TAT), tangibility-(TANG), total-equity-to-total-assets ratio-(TETAR), dividend payout ratio-(DPR), firm size-(SIZE), and firm age-(AGE) had a significantly positive effect on FP-(ROA and TQ). The study emphasizes the importance of effective CFSs in improving FP and offers insights for policymakers, investors, and managers, highlighting the need for corporate deleveraging, capital structure optimization and efficient asset and working capital management. Although focused on China, the study’s framework is applicable to other emerging markets, providing valuable theoretical, conceptual, and methodological insights as it integrates CFS metrics into the resource-based view theory-(RBVT), extending the theory’s scope making it more robust and generalizable.

With the increase of construction activities in Ghana, there is an increasing demand in building materials leading to the shortage of the conventional materials. The informal sector is gradually seeing the introduction of quarry dust as a substitute of sand in block production. This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of the quality of sandcrete blocks and quarry dust cement blocks. Block samples were gathered from various suppliers around the Prampram and Dawhenya areas and through various laboratory tests were tested for their dimension tolerance, water absorption and compressive strengths. Aggregate samples were also taken from suppliers for sieve analyses. The study revealed that the quarry dust cement blocks contained relatively higher percentages of coarse grade particles compared to the sandcrete blocks. The total average water absorption of sandcrete blocks was found to be 3.90% while quarry dust showed an improved value of 3.28%. Sandcrete blocks were averagely found to be of a higher compressive strength of 4.31N/mm2, with quarry dust at 3.0N/mm2. The study suggested the likelihood of a lesser use of cement in the production of quarry dust cement blocks due to the similarities in colour between the quarry dust and cement, hence, negatively affecting its compressive strength.

The study investigated the factors that attract consumers to adopt online air ticketing within the Ghanaian context. The study followed the positivist paradigm approach hence, quantitative method-ology was adopted. The total population for the study covered passengers of Africa World airline, Antrak air, Fly 540 and Starbow airline. The target population for this study consisted of all the cus-tomers in these institutions that have in one way or the other purchased or booked their flight ticket on the website. Stratified random sampling was used in the first stage to ensure that all subgroups were fairly represented. The study employed purposive sampling and afterwards the study used the Krejcie and Morgan sampling table to determine the sample size for the 250 population size. Based on the table, the sample size for the study employed was 152. Since the study was guided on the principles of quantitative methodology, this study used questionnaires on a 5 point Likert scale for the study. The study distributed 152 questionnaires to passengers of the selected airline companies within the Kumasi metropolis in the Ashanti region. From the questionnaires distributed, a total of 89 completed questionnaires were returned to the researchers. Of these, 79 were usable for analysis, giving an effective response rate of 55.6%. Data was subsequently analysed using descriptive statis-tics such as mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistics included Pearson correlation, multiple regression (enter method) were used for the relationship analysis. Findings from the study showed that the variables that had the significant impact on respondents’ decision to adopt online air ticketing were; trust, attitude, perceived risk and internet knowledge. The study recommended that the managers of these airlines companies should work on their reputation in order to position them-selves as trustworthy airlines companies since consumer’s decision to use their online platforms to purchase their ticket was informed by how the consumer perceived the entities offering to be dependable and secured.

During the past few years, there have been various studies on the relationship between academic behavior, teaching and student retention but not much has been on administration staff and students. This study examined improving employees’ behavioural factors towards increasing students' loyalty. The paper explores the direct mediation and indirect mediation of employee behavioural factors leading to build student loyalty. More specifically the focus is on the constructs of service quality (SQLTY), need understanding (NEEDUND), intimacy (INTIMACY), and student loyalty (STLOY). This study depended on a positivist research paradigm. In this study, over 800 structured questionnaires were administered for research subjects. However, 743 were captured for the final analysis. The analytical tool used in this study is the ADANCO 2.0.1 software and in terms of statistical processing, the PLS-SEM technique was utilized. The two main takeaways from the direct relationships are that INTIMACY is a strong predictor of STLOY, and NEEDUND is also a strong predictor of SQLTY. The indirect mediations of INTIMACY on SQLTY and STLOY, INTIMACY on NEEDUND and STLOY, and SQLTY on NEEDUND and INTIMACY were all not supported. The study, like any academic work, has limitations. Despite these limitations, this study offers theoretical as well as practical values for the research community and administrators of universities and higher education administrators as a whole. For administrators of the universities and the higher education, the study points out the critical needs for administrators to better understand students’ loyalty and behaviours of employees during the service encounter, which could lead to intimacy and eventually student loyalty. The present study is innovated by quantitatively examining how the above mentioned behavioural factors of employees could lead to INTIMACY and STLOY.

The aim of the study was to examine how consumers integrate into brand communities on social media network sites (SNSs) and how it affects overall satisfaction of social media sites users among students. The study depends on the service-dominant logic (SDL) to develop the constructs for hypotheses testing. The study used a cross-sectional survey research design. The data were col-lected using a web-based survey of university of Nairobi Students. In all, a total of 608 students participated in the survey. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling with AMOS software. The results revealed that frequency of usage of SNSs and duration of usage positively affect the self –perceived relevance of SNSs. Also, the self-perceived relevance leads to building brand community which finally leads to customer satisfaction. The research was limited to only students of Nairobi and selecting students in itself, which is a limitation as well as limiting it to uni-versity of Nairobi. The younger or the millennial are not the only users of SNSs. We have older generations as well, who also use SNSs for various activities such as professional development among others. Understanding why consumers of social media network site would integrate brand community is seminal for both local and foreign firms doing business in a developing country. This would enable marketing practitioners to craft marketing strategies best for community brand building.

Small-Scale and Individual Entrepreneurs (SIEs) play a key role in economic growth of develop-ing countries. The principal objective of this study is to investigate M-money and M-commerce contribution to business growth in Ghana. A cross-sectional survey is used to collect the neces-sary data and a total of 480 SIEs respondents participated in the study. The data is collected from three different locations in the capital city Accra where the activities of SIEs are predominate (Lapaz=230, Kaneshie=150, and Kasoa= 170). The researchers used Stata in analyzing the quan-titative data. The findings reveal that M-money and M-commerce facilitate the growth of business among SIEs. However, few people reported of savings (3.5%) and make merchandise payments (4.8%), due to perceived risk issues. The study used cross-sectional survey design and conven-ience sampling which makes it difficult to generalize the findings.

This paper presents an investigation into the flexural behaviour of basalt FRP reinforced concrete beams through experimental and analytical methods. To achieve the research objectives, four concrete beams reinforced with steel and four identical concrete beams reinforced with BFRP bars were tested under four-point bending. The main parameters examined under the tests are the type of concrete (lightweight foam glass concrete and normal concrete) and the type of longitudinal reinforcement bars (BFRP and steel). Test results are presented in terms of failure modes; deformation crack pattern and the ultimate moment of resistance are presented. The experimental results are analysed and compared to predictive models proposed by ACI 440.1R, 2006 and BS EN 1992, Eurocode 2, for deformations and ultimate flexural capacities of the steel and BFRP reinforced concrete beams. The experimental results indicated that the flexural capacity decreased for the beams reinforced with BFRP bars compared to that of a corresponding beam reinforced with steel bars. Both types of beams failed in the modes predicted. The prediction models underestimated the flexural capacity of BFRP reinforced concrete beams. The increase in foam glass aggregate content was observed to reduce the cracking load by almost 10 - 40% and 25 - 50% for steel and BFRP reinforced concrete beams, respectively. The flexural capacities of BFRP reinforced beams were underestimated by using equations stipulated in ACI 440.1R and Eurocode 2 codes of practice.

This study assessed the critical success factors (CSFs) of public-sector road construction projects execution from the perspective of definitive stakeholders associated with such projects by drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews (16) and surveys (372) in Ghana, thirty-four (34) CSFs were identified. Using Relative Importance Index (RII), Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficients, and Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance and the Chi-square test of significance statistics, the top ten most important factors in descending order are: the absence of political interference, project continuity by successive governments, adequate project funding, support from financial institutions and donor agencies and countries, government commitment to the project, absence of clientelism, absence of nepotism, no political corruption, payments of contractors on time and absence of court injunction or legal suit and land litigations. This study contributes to road construction CSFs in the context of public sector road construction in developing economies.