Ashesi Institutional Repository
Not a member yet
910 research outputs found
Sort by
The influence of COVID-19 on consumer behaviors in Ghana: A study on social media buying behaviorsIAL MEDIA BUYING BEHAVIORS. Dissertation
No full textUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems, May 2022This thesis paper seeks to verify or refute the hypothesis that the Coronavirus caused
Ghanaian consumers to increase their adoption of social media when making a purchase
decision. Existing literature on pandemics and consumer behavior focuses on preventive health
behaviors adopted by individuals. Few studies on epidemics, pandemics, and consumer behavior
focus on consumer buying behavior. Furthermore, out of this subset, few studies are conducted
on the social media buying behaviors of consumers. To address this research gap, the consumer
buying behavior model was used to explore changes in social media buying behaviors of
consumers as they journeyed through the five major consumer decision-making processes. The
Coronavirus pandemic has been marked unique due to its persistence and magnitude. It draws
the attention of various researchers because it provides an avenue for insights to be learned about
consumers in a situation of uncertainty. The study adopted a quantitative research method, and
data was collected primarily through the administration of online questionnaires. The population
of the study included consumers between the ages of 18 and 65. The participants of the study
were selected through convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Google Forms were used
to collect the data, and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for data analysis. The results
showed that during the height of the pandemic, Ghanaian consumers, especially the youth, increased their use of social media while acquiring a product. In detail, the use of social media to
discover product needs, obtain product information, evaluate alternatives, buy products, and
communicate post-purchase satisfaction or dissatisfaction increased.Ashesi Universit
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Psychological Health of University Students and Their Grades
No full textUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2022The COVID-19 pandemic came with a lot of changes that had adverse effects across the globe. Upon causing millions of deaths, lockdown and restricted movements in most countries including Ghana and the fear of losing loved ones, the likelihood that it caused behavioural changes and increased mental distress was high in people especially young adults. Due to their cognitive development, the trauma from the pandemic and the stress from their academics could have triggered an increase in psychological issues within the students. Several studies have shown an association between the pandemic, the development of psychological issues in university students and their academic performance. The objective of this thesis was to assess the impact COVID-19 had on the psychological health of students of Ashesi University, the prevalence of psychological issues in the students during the pandemic and how it affected their grades. A sample of 320 students from Ashesi university was chosen to represent the population of the undergraduates excluding the first year and second year students. The survey consisted of measures used for the assessment of anxiety, depression, stress, questions on the students' grades, their demographic information and whether the individual and the family and friends contracted Covid-19 or not and the extent of alarm they felt. It also inquired on the extent of support the individual felt they needed during the pandemic. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests with Excel. The results of this study showed that the pandemic had a negative impact on the academic performance of the students. The participants also showed higher levels of mild anxiety and depression but lower stress levels during the pandemic.Ashesi Universit
Impact of Mobile Commerce on Patronage in Ghanaian Indigenous Startups
Full text linkUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2022In this present age, m-Commerce is an important technology that many countries adopt because of its vast advantages such as improved profitability, increased number of customers, and increased patronage. Therefore, seeing that the technology is a game changer in different parts of the world, Ghanaian businesses must not be left out in partaking in a resource that is likely to move them to the next level.
This paper examines the research questions: What is the impact of m-commerce on sales revenue among Ghanaian indigenous startups? and What are the decision processes that founders can consider before investing in m-Commerce?
In answering these questions, the businesses that are likely to adopt the m-Commerce technology are informed on the extent to which m-Commerce positively impacts the sales process to decide whether it is better to replace, maintain, or adopt a hybrid channel. The study employed the use of a mixed research methodology. The quantitative research method measured and quantified the impact of m-Commerce on the startups. In contrast, the qualitative helped derive a naturalistic interpretation of the impact of m-Commerce on startups. This study also used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the thematic analysis for the qualitative, which assesses how users come to accept and use technology. The study and its analysis show that m-Commerce positively impacts patronage. The study also recommends that policymakers adopt m-Commerce technologies in conjunction with their existing business models because it is advantageous to patronage.Ashesi Universit
Resaurant Management System for Kas Valley Restaurant
Full text linkApplied project submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, April 2022In response to the recent advancement in technology and its tremendous impact, many businesses have integrated technological tools into their business operations. The food industry is no exception. In the global food industry, technology has made it possible to improve food services, increase customer satisfaction and maximize business returns. There have been changes such as the shift from conventional paper ordering at restaurants to online pre-ordering of meals through the internet. Developments in restaurant software and POS technologies have also aided restaurants in providing better services to their customers. However, the Ghanaian food industry has not taken full advantage of the emerging technologies to optimize its operations. The few restaurants that have adopted restaurant software have their applications limited to POS transactions or strictly online food ordering systems. The applications do not include some core aspects of restaurant operations, such as table reservation management, customer data management, and e-commerce integration. The lack of a centralized system to handle all these related aspects of the restaurant’s operations leads to data inconsistency and redundancy issues. It also makes it difficult for management to analyze their business data because it is not stored in one location but scattered across different units. All these affect the restaurant’s efficiency and profitability levels in the long run.
In an attempt to enhance the efficiency of restaurant businesses in Ghana, this paper proposes a web-based restaurant management system for Kas Valley Restaurant, located in the Oyibi township of Accra, Ghana. The system will enable the restaurant to receive orders and payments online, process in-person orders, manage table reservations and customer data, and view analytics on their sales. All these functionalities on a single application would ensure data integrity, minimize data redundancy, foster industry innovation, and significantly improve the restaurant’s overall efficiency. Additionally, using such software in a restaurant contributes to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”. In this regard, the restaurant management system will enhance technological innovation in the restaurant industry, hence increasing productivity levels.Ashesi Universit
Job satisfaction and employee motivation among hospitality workers during the era of COVID: Does employee engagement mediate the relationship?
Full text linkUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2022One of the consequences of the pandemic in Ghana is that the hospitality and tourism industries
have been severely impacted. These industries were hit harder than others, resulting in a significant
drop in employee numbers and a significant increase in the number of people on temporary leave.
As a result, the impact of the pandemic on the motivation, job satisfaction, and employee
engagement of Ghanaian hospitality and tourism workers was investigated in this study. The
study's goal was to answer the following research questions: i) Does employee motivation predict
job satisfaction? (ii) Does employee engagement predict job satisfaction? (iii) Does employee
engagement predict job satisfaction? (iv) Does motivation act as a mediating variable in the direct
relations between employee engagement and job satisfaction? Participants ranged in age from 18
to 60 years old and came from various backgrounds. With the help of a third variable, employee
engagement, the collected data was analyzed using mediation analysis in the statistical software
Jeffery's Amazing Statistical Program (JASP) to determine the relationship between employee
motivation and job satisfaction. Employee motivation and job satisfaction were found to have a
significant positive relationship, implying that higher employee motivation is associated with
higher job satisfaction. When controlling for the effects of job motivation on job satisfaction and
employee engagement on job satisfaction, there was also a significant positive relationship between employee motivation and employee engagement. Again, there was a significant positive
relationship between employee engagement and job satisfaction. The study's findings supported
the hypothesis and answered the research question established in the thesis paper. These findings
have significant implications for interventions to boost employee motivation, job satisfaction and
employee engagement, especially in the hospitality industry.Ashesi Universit
A drone-facilitated disaster response system with first aid delivery: Intelligent healthcare
Full text linkCapstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering, May 2022The use of drones has become prevalent, especially for big tech companies like Google,
Amazon, DHL and so on. It is now becoming the future form of delivery services. In sub-
Saharan countries that are developing, UAVs can be used to deliver certain products to parts
of the country that vehicles cannot operate or for faster, uninterrupted delivery. Building a
system that will be used for natural disaster response (especially fire disasters) and first aid
delivery is the focus of this project. In an article discussing fire accident trends in Ghana
[1], the researchers discovered that the rate of fire incidences increased each year. A major
factor to this increase was negligence and amongst the several causes of fire accidents, 41%
of them were due to domestic fires. About 379 deaths and 5489 fire incidents were recorded
in the year 2013. This year, about 5 fire accidents have already been recorded in regions like
Kumasi, Accra, Apiate and Tema [2].
This project integrates the use of a website application called "Drone Aid" to order drone
delivery services and circuitry to build an efficient disaster response and delivery drone. It
is also important that the fire response system implements long range communication
technology that is also low power and energy efficient. The drone prototype in this project
is built from a drone frame kit and further customized for first aid delivery and circuit
carriage. While developing this system, other constraints such as cost of materials, drone
capacity/payload and drone flight range are considered.Ashesi Universit
Ghana Beyond Aid: Reimagining the Role of Higher Educational Institutions in Ghana.
Full text linkUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2022This thesis aimed to identify the roles that higher education (HE) could play towards Ghana's efforts to go beyond the reliance on aid; popularly known as the Ghana Beyond Aid (GBA). An investigation was made into the role that HE played in the development of the Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea) from the 1960s till date.
Using a mixed method, a correlational analysis was done to identify the relationship between HE and economic growth. The GDP of the countries was used as the measure of economic growth while the Gross enrollment ratio for tertiary education and human capital index were used as measures of HE. A narrative analysis was used to compare how HE was aligned with national objectives, used to champion important social values.
A strong positive relationship was found between HE and economic growth for the selected countries. Secondly, it was found that the Tigers invested more in HE and did better in linking HE to their development objectives than Ghana. Additionally, HE in the tiger states focused on the sciences which made them better importers of technology while that of Ghana paid more attention to the humanities. Finally, the HE system of the Tigers did better in championing attitudes supportive of development than Ghana's.
The study recommends that: i) Ghana comes up with a long term development strategy which would determine the focus of HE ii) Supportive attitudes like savings, hard work, and responsibility be championed through the HE in Ghana iii) That a research be made into the most important skills that should be considered when Ghana comes up with the development strategy.Ashesi Universit
Leveraging Communication to Improve Communication Across Pharma George Chemist Limited
Full text linkApplied project submitted to the Department of Business Administration & Computer Science and Information Systems, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Management Information Systems, May 2022The PharmaGeorge pharmacy chain started operations in June 2009 with one (1) retail pharmacy situated at Kwabenya in Accra, Ghana. The wholesale pharmacy was established in 2014 to procure stocks and supplies for the Pharma George retail outlets and other retail
facilities in Accra. The business has grown in numbers over the decade since its inception. The retail outlets have increased from one to seven, with the new retail outlets in hotspots like Dome, Osu and Achimota. Though the business has experienced a healthy growth
period in operations, recent events like covid 19 have made traditional areas like inventory management, conducting of meetings and information transmission (calls and WhatsApp) of the business quite ineffective because of the safety protocols for travelling to and from
places and the failure to represent the issues accurately. A thorough needs assessment revealed that the problem the company faced was not with the lack of technology in communicating but with the attitude of the employees and the lapses of information flow in the organization. This project aims to design a comprehensive I.T and communication policy guideline that will provide guidelines to improve and manage the flow of communication and eradicate the lapses of information flow within Pharma George.Ashesi Universit
LAMBER: An emergency response system for ambulance requests and first aid guide
No full textApplied project submitted to the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, May 2022Emergency Medical Services operations in Ghana are posing a challenge to the health sector in Ghana. Many people do not have access to emergency response services, let along good amenities to secure their good health. Unfortunately, there is no digital application in Ghana that will allow people to request emergency response services to make life easier.
LAMBER is an emergency medical service software application that has three main applications for patients, clinics, and paramedics. The system offers two major services namely ambulance requests and First-Aid guides for potential patients. The system will allow patients to create requests and link them to the nearest ambulances based on their location. The patients are given the luxury to choose their ambulances and can send a general message to all available ambulances in case of any unforeseen emergencies.
Future work includes developing an AI-powered first aid guide.Ashesi Universit
Leveraging Technology to Improve Stock and Inventory Management at PharmaGeorge Chemist
Full text linkApplied project submitted to the Department of Business Administration & Computer Science and Information Systems, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration & Management Information Systems, May 2022PharmaGeorge Chemist is a registered limited liability pharmaceutical company in Ghana, with most of its operations centered in the Greater Accra region. The company began operating a wholesale pharmacy in 2014 to procure stock and supply to PharmaGeorge Chemist
retail outlets and other retail outlets in Accra. Though poised as one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in Ghana with seven retail outlets dotted across Accra, the firm regularly has challenges maintaining adequate stock levels, threatening several retail outlets with
a shortage of drugs. After an extensive needs assessment and situational analysis by conducting interviews with PharmaGeorge Chemist employees, it was deduced that the company was facing was due to the lack of a coordinated procurement process which often results in
miscommunication between different departments. This project aims to present a procurement process guideline and a change management strategy for Pharma George’s inventory management system to improve the procurement and ordering system at PharmaGeorge Chemist and a training strategy for its employees on its inventory management system (Trademaster) to eliminate the uncoordinated procurement and poor dissemination of information at PharmaGeorge Chemist.Ashesi Universit