College of Humanities & Social Sciences

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    The effect of corporate social responsibility on the financial performance of banks: a case study of Ecobank Ghana Limited
    (KNUST, 2017) Boafo, Stephanie Maame Fowaa
    ABSTRACT The protracted debate on Corporate Social Responsibility has left in its wake a number of divergent views. Besides an organization's generic orientation of being profitable, it is obliged to be socially responsible to all its stakeholders. In spite of CSR being highly publicized, there is little consensus about its essence to an organization and if an organization stands to benefit from being a socially responsible organization. Similarly, the literature on the link between CSR and Financial Performance is equally fraught with conflicting results which makes it all the more difficult to have some sort of consistency on the subject. It is against this background that the study was undertaken to further delve into the subject and ascertain whether a relationship exists between the two by focusing on the banking industry and for that matter Ecobank Ghana Limited. The study used a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods and made use of extensive data over a period of ten years to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance. The financial performance of the bank was analyzed by considering three different measures of financial performance namely profit after tax, return on equity and return on assets in order to thoroughly assess its financial performance. The dataset was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 to assess the effect as well as test the hypotheses of the study to determine the existence of a relationship and the extent of the relationship between the dependent variable (financial performance) and the independent variable (corporate social responsibility expenditure) with size and financial leverage as control variables. The results of the analysis indicate that CSR has a positive effect on financial performance with regards to profit after tax, supporting the view that social responsibility can be associated with a series of benefits like enhanced organizational image, customer loyalty and ultimately financial performance. The study concludes on the basis that there is a significant relationship between CSR and profit after tax as a measure of financial performance.
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    The effect of the students loan scheme on access to higher education in Ghana: a case of Kwame Nkrumah University of science and technology, Kumasi. A Case Study of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
    (KNUST, 2015-11) Alhassan, Sadiq
    ABSTRACT Many factors have been accounted for the rising cost of tertiary education financing in Ghana. These factors have affected the accessibility of tertiary education. A solution to the financial austerity in tertiary education is cost sharing which is seen to improve accessibility mostly to the minority who cannot pay for the high fees charged for tertiary education. The major cost sharing policy in Ghana is carried out by the Students' Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) which replaced the previous one operated by SSNIT. The study sought to ascertain whether the SLTF has helped improve access to tertiary education in Ghana using Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as a case study. Using a systematic random sampling method, 285 students already on the SLTF were sampled and questionnaires were administered to them. Using descriptive statistics to analyze the data, the study revealed that the SLTF has improved access to tertiary education in Ghana. The study further revealed the SLTF is managed well to meet its purpose of enhancing accessibility. The study also found that the amount paid as loan per academic year to students is not enough to meet all the needs of the students. Despite methodological and generality limitations, the findings of the study provided important findings relevant to improving the SLTF in Ghana. As such the study recommended that the loan amount be increased and loans paid on time to help students on the scheme.
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    An evaluation of relationship marketing strategies for customer retention in the hospitality industry in Ghana- a case study of Rexmar hotel, Kumasi.
    (KNUST, 2015-08) Alhassan, Oteng
    ABSTRACT Customer Relationship Management (CRM) practices are a business strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer loyalty. It brings together all data about a client in hotels via software to give a holistic view of a customer. With intense competition among hotels in Ghana, this study sought to find out if CRM was practised in the selected hotels. It was to solve the problem of inadequate service delivery quality in hotels which were not helping customers’ expectations to be met. The study was conducted to identify critical factors necessary for customer retention in relationship marketing in the hotel businesses in Ghana and to develop effective relationship marketing strategies to manage customer retention for sustainability within hotel business with Rexmar Hotel as the case. Questionnaire was the method adopted for the investigation of the study. With a sample of 40 respondents was considered, these were made of customers to enable the researcher examine the hotel by the examination of the relationship marketing variables of the hospitality industry. Completed questionnaires were grouped into frequency tables and expressed in percentages, while interpretation is dependent on the samples of the variables with the use of SPSS. It is recommended that even though the hotels have heard of CRM, there should be some intense awareness program on the benefits of CRM. its understand from the study that most hotels in Kumasi, Ghana do not practice customer retention in relationship marketing with their customers. This lack of awareness of customer retention in relationship building, enhancement and maintenance has affected relationship marketing strategies of hotels. Critical factors necessary for customer retention such as service quality, customer satisfaction measurement and analysis, customer complaints handling and loyalty programme initiative were identified.
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    The effects of sales promotions on customer growth in the Ghanaian mobile Telecommunication industry; the case of Millicom Ghana_ Tigo
    (KNUST, 2015) Addai, Frimpong Junior
    ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to find out the effects of promotions on customer growth in the Ghanaian mobile telecommunication industry. The method adopted by this study was the sample survey method of study instead of a census. The semi-structured questionnaire is made up of both close and open-ended questions. The researcher sampled 50 staff members and 200 customers of Milicom Ghana (Tigo). It was revealed by the study that Millicom Ghana (Tigo) undertakes a number of promotions, which tend to have great influence on their customer growth. However, promotions appear to be but just one of the various factors that affect the customers’ growth of the organization. The study implications are that, promotions have a great influence on the customer base of mobile telecommunication networks and therefore there is the need to put much effort into ensuring its success. The study recommended that, there is the need for Tigo and all the other mobile telecommunication networks in the country to pay a closer attention to factors including network coverage and quality of service. Also, efforts must be put in by the various staff member of the telecommunication networks in Ghana to enhance the quality of the services offered. Moreover, the government can offer help through the provision of funds and formulation of policies to support the operations of the telecommunication industry in Ghana.
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    “Determinants of exchange rate in Ghana”
    (KNUST, 2016-05) Taaju , Abdu Rahim
    ABSTRACT The purpose of this work was to find out the determinants of the Ghana cedi performance against international currencies by using data covering the period 1985- 2014. The Ghana Cedi in recent times has suffered substantial loss of value against the major trading foreign currencies especially the US dollar which the researcher uses as the proxy in this work. The Cedi depreciation is believed to be partly responsible for a rising inflation and interest rate in Ghana and imposes economic challenges to the country. The researcher investigates the macroeconomic variables that influence the cedi exchange rate. Secondary data was employed for analysis and presentation of the issues. The use of Eviews and the Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR) model have been employed in this work. Also used are the Akaike Information Criterion and Final Prediction Error to estimate the VAR due to the sample size of less than 60, the Augmented Dickey- Fuller(ADF) unit root test, Johansen cointegration test, Granger causality as well as variance decomposition. Government borrowing, consumer price index, and domestic interest rate were found as statistically significant, influencing the performance of the Cedi against the US Dollar in the long run. Exports and imports were revealed to have no such effect on exchange rate movements. Policy measures recommended to arrest the situation includes proper and effective coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities to reduce revenue leakages. Creation of good investment climate and development of domestic bond market are also recommended to reduce pressure on the local currency and put it in a stable position.