Business, Management and Economics Research

Online ISSN: 2412-1770
Print ISSN: 2413-855X

Quarterly Published (4 Issues Per Year)





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Volume 3 Number 10 October 2017

The Effects of the Ghana School Feeding Programme on Local Rice Production: A Case Study of Selected Districts in Northern Ghana


Authors: Chiaraah Anthony ; Mahama Inusah
Pages: 201-211
Abstract
The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) is the local version of the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSP) that has a mandate to give one hot meal a day to school children in public schools from kindergarten through to primary six. Launched in 2005 the programme has the goal of contributing to poverty reduction and increased food security in Ghana.  One of the key objectives of the programme is to boost domestic food production by purchasing locally produce foodstuffs and providing a sustainable market for local food producers in the community. To analyse the effect of the programme on rice production in four districts in the Northern Region of Ghana, a formal cross section survey of 80 small holder rice farmers and 40 GSFP caterers, across the four districts was conducted. The translog production function was applied to analyse the programme’s effect on rice output while the probit model was used to analyse the factors influencing rice farmers to supply to the programme on one hand and the factors affecting caterer’s decision to purchase rice from the rice farmers on the other. The results from the analysis of the production function shows that the coefficients of farm labour, farm size, and fertilizer application were highly significant in increasing farmers’ output. While access to the GSFP had a positive influence on output it was statistically insignificant. The results also show that majority of GSFP caterers buy rice from local millers and the market. The factors which had significant influence on the caterers to buy from the rice farmer include availability of storage facility, farmer’s willingness to process the paddy rice and sell on credit, price of milled rice, and proximity of rice farmers. The major conclusion of the study is that the effect of the programme on rice farmers output was not significant. This was attributed to poor linkage between the farmers and the programme even though about 100 percent of rice consumed by the GSFP is produced locally.

Impact of Monetary Policy on Capital Inflows in Nigeria


Authors: Ebele S. Nwokoye ; Jonathan O. Oniore
Pages: 192-200
Abstract
Foreign capital flows depends on the prevailing monetary forces as supported by capital flows theory and the mechanism linking these two variables is that contraction of net domestic assets through an open market sale of bonds will place upward pressure on domestic interest rates. Higher interest rates attract foreign funds, generating a capital inflow which relieves the pressure on domestic interest rates. Has this actually happened? It is against this backdrop that the present study investigated the impact of monetary policy on international capital inflows in Nigeria for a period of 22 years (1994-2015) using time series data. The autoregressive distributed lag technique revealed that the short-run and long-run significant determinants of foreign capital inflows are largely from broad money supply, nominal exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rates spread except inflation rate that is insignificant in the long-run. This outcome upholds theoretical prediction. Long-run equilibrium relationship was found between the dependent variable and the regressors. Further examination of the short run dynamics of the model showed that the speed of adjustment coefficients ECM (-1) to restore equilibrium have a negative sign and statistically significant at 1% level, ensuring that long-run equilibrium can be attained and about 89% of the short-run deviation from the equilibrium (long-run) position is corrected annually to maintain the equilibrium. Since the empirical evidence revealed that monetary aggregates such as broad money supply, nominal exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rates spread influence foreign capital inflows, it is therefore recommended that government should continue to pursue expansionary monetary policy and foreign exchange policies that would ensure competitiveness of the economy in order to attract the much needed foreign capital inflows that would engender economic growth.

Identifying Factors of Purchase Intention for Private Label Brands


Authors: Andrian Haro
Pages: 188-191
Abstract
This research was conducted among consumers of famous retail stores (e.g. Carrefour, Giant, Hypermart, Lotte, etc.) which offering private label brands in Jakarta. This study aimed to analyze the influence of attitude and brand awareness toward private label brands purchase intention. The assumed sample size was 150 respondents by using convenience sampling technique. The multiple regression model was used in this research data. The result shows there was relationship found among all the given variables, which means that all research hypotheses were found to be supported. These findings are expected to provide useful managerial implications for retailers in terms of effective solutions marketing for private label brands.

Probabilistic Selling Strategy with Customer Return Policy


Authors: Sen-Chi Wu ; Shih-Ming Ou
Pages: 185-187
Abstract
Probabilistic selling is a marketing strategy that multi-item vendors provide to consumers, presenting discounted options through acceptance of uncertain risks with random selections from sets of multiple distinct items. However, past studies of this strategy assume a no return policy since returned items shift part of the mentioned uncertain risk to the retailer. Because returns are a common business practice and an important coordination tool in supply chains, this research identifies the impacts of a return policy on the efficacy of probabilistic selling models.