Local Government Research Articles

Impact of Corporate Entrepreneurship and Market Orientation on the Performance of Small Medium-Sized Enterprises in Ibadan Nigeria

The performance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) is pivotal to economic development, particularly in emerging economies like Nigeria. This paper explores the intersection of Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) and Market Orientation (MO) and their collective impact on the performance of SMEs in Ibadan, Nigeria. Two research questions were raised, and two hypotheses were tested. The study employed the survey research design with five hundred and forty-six (546) respondents as subjects. Representative SMEs were purposively selected from each of the 11 local government areas in Ibadan Metropolis. Primary data was employed using the questionnaire to elicit information from the respondents. Data collected were analysed using Canonical Correlation and Multiple Regression. Findings indicated a combined impact of CE and MO on the performance of SMEs with a Canonical Correlation of 0.510 at p < 0.0. The results also showed that corporate innovation, corporate pro-activeness, risk taking, entrepreneurial culture, intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness using Multiple Regression jointly predicted SMEs performance at F = 19.501; R= .450, R2 = 202, Adj. R2 = .192; P < 000. Based on these results, it is recommended that SMEs should emphasise the practices of CE and put more effort into market research specifically to make confident, progressive business decisions based on market development and market entry opportunities that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage and superior organisational performance.

Challenges And Strategies For Implementing Performance-Based Capitation In Indonesian Community Health Center : A Scoping Review

This study examines the implementation and challenges of performance-based capitation (KBK) at Community Health Centers (Puskesmas) in Indonesia, as a part of the National Health Insurance Program, aiming to improve the efficiency and quality of primary health services. Despite its potential, the implementation of KBK faces various challenges including inadequate human resources, limited infrastructure, and insufficient monitoring systems. The study uses a scoping review framework based on the Public Health Care Monitoring Conceptual Framework by WHO, analyzing 11 selected studies from 2021 to 2024. Findings indicate that internal factors such as management capacity, health worker competence, and organizational culture significantly impact the effectiveness of KBK. External factors like local government support, funding policies, and infrastructure availability also play crucial roles. Technological barriers, particularly in remote areas, hinder optimal policy implementation. The study emphasizes the need for clear regulations, consistent policy dissemination, and effective monitoring to ensure successful KBK implementation. Recommendations include strengthening leadership, training health workers, improving infrastructure, and enhancing digital health technology utilization. These strategies aim to optimize resource allocation, enhance service access, and improve patient satisfaction in Indonesia’s primary health care system.

Making a difference? Attracting new generations into local government

ABSTRACT The nature of local government work has radically changed over the past fifty years. Local government officers could once be characterised as processing transactional work (e.g. rent collection). However, the changing nature of public services and increasing expectations of citizens have required more transformational and relational work, alongside new roles and skills. This context may now be shifting again. Fiscal pressures may prompt a return to narrow definitions of statutory responsibilities and transactional relationships. We focus here on the implications of these changes for newer generations of public servants, particularly so-called Millennials. Younger workers express a desire to ‘make a difference’ and don’t necessarily see local government as the sector in which to do this. To recruit and retain the best public servants, local government needs to provide a vision of hope for the future and to articulate how it can be the sector where people can make a difference.

Assessing the Factors for the Effectiveness of the Task Force Staff in Revenue Collection in Tanzania Local Governments Authorities

Recurring challenges in revenue collection and the insufficient revenue collection is pervasive, affecting the financial viability within Tanzania Local Government Authorities (LGAs) prompted this study with a focus on Mpanda Municipal Council. The aim is to assess key factors such as staff training, resource allocation, and community engagement that impact efficiency of task force staff operations. Mpanda Municipal Council was chosen due to its recurring challenges in meeting revenue collection targets and its strategic importance as a rapidly growing municipality with increasing fiscal demands. The study is grounded in both Agency Theory (AT), TAPACO and Resource-Based Theory (RBT). Agency Theory emphasizes the relationship between principals (local governments) and agents (task force staff) in ensuring that revenue collection objectives are aligned, while Resource-Based Theory highlights the importance of internal resources both tangible and intangible in achieving organizational effectiveness. Adopting a pragmatist research philosophy, the study used a convergent mixed-method research design, combining both qualitative and quantitative data to provide a holistic understanding of the research problem. Pragmatism guided the choice of methods, focusing on practical solutions and actionable outcomes. The quantitative data were analyzed using Ordinal Logistic Regression (OLR), which revealed that all independent variables significantly impact revenue collection effectiveness. A population of 75 people with a sample of 63 participants, comprising 46 respondents completed questionnaires while 17 business owners participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used in case of qualitative data. The findings reveal that targeted training programs, adequate resources, and active community engagement significantly enhance the effectiveness of task force staff in revenue collection. The study concludes that improving these areas will result in better revenue generation and financial stability for local governments. It is recommended that local governments increase investment in training, adopt modern technologies, and foster stronger community engagement to reduce reliance on central government funding.

Risk Assessment of Urban Water and Energy Supply Using Copula Function: A Water–Energy Nexus Approach in an Arid City

Planning for the future of water and energy supply systems in urban areas requires a thorough assessment of associated risks. In this study, monthly water and energy demand data from 2011 to 2022 in an arid city was used to predict the corresponding demands from 2023 to 2032 using the seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) method. The aim is to estimate future water and energy supply risks both individually and jointly, using cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) derived from historical data. The main focus is to calculate the combined risk of water and energy, referred to as the water–energy nexus (WEN) risk. Based on the interdependent relationship between water and energy, the Copula function was utilized to model the bivariate distribution between these two variables. Pearson correlation analysis indicated a strong correlation between water and energy supplies. Among the distributions fitted to the data, the log-normal and gamma distributions were the best fit for water supply and energy supply systems, respectively, with the lowest Akaike information criterion (AIC) values. The Gumbel Copula, with a parameter of 1.66, was identified as the most suitable for modeling the joint distribution, yielding the lowest AIC value. The results indicate that the risks associated with energy supply, water supply, and their joint dependency could exceed 0.8% in the future, highlighting a potentially critical situation for the city. The trend analysis revealed that forecasted water and energy demands and their corresponding risks and the WEN risk are expected to have a significant upward trend in the future. Finally, local authorities need to explore alternative sources to supply water and energy in the future to address the ever-growing water and energy demands.

The Role of Trade Officers in Enhancing Local Revenue Collection in Mpanda Municipal Council

The persistent under-collection of local revenues in Mpanda Municipal Council undermines the council's financial autonomy and leads to continued reliance on central government funding. This study aimed to evaluate the role of Local Government Authority (LGA) trade officers in revenue collection as a strategic initiative to diminish this dependency. To address this issue, the study employed a convergent mixed-method design rooted in pragmatism, allowing for the integration of qualitative and quantitative data to provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing revenue collection. The research involved a population of 75 individuals, including personnel from the trade and industry unit, collectors, revenue officials, and business owners within the district council. A sample of 63 respondents participated in the study, with 46 responding to questionnaires and 17 business owners interviewed. Data were gathered through a combination of these methods, analyzed to capture both numerical trends and in-depth perspectives. The findings underscore the critical importance of strategic revenue management practices, well-informed trade officers, and effective revenue supervision in reducing reliance on central government funding. These insights bear significant implications for policymakers and local government officials aspiring to bolster financial self-sufficiency and ensure sustainable fiscal governance in Mpanda Municipal Council. To address these challenges, the study recommends a focus on comprehensive training and capacity-building programs for trade officers to enable them to autonomously manage revenue collection processes.

Criteria in Building Material Selection and The Role of Sustainability

Buildings have become the focal point of sustainability because they consume large amounts of natural resources, especially materials and energy, and produce waste throughout their life cycle. Efforts to make buildings sustainable begin with the sustainability of the materials that govern most of the construction management process. In this study, an attempt was made to determine the importance levels of the criteria to be considered in the sustainability of building materials. For this purpose, a survey study was conducted to evaluate the importance of 25 criteria, grouped under the headings of environmental, social, and economic criteria, in terms of sustainability. The survey was conducted with the participation of 50 people from different professions and with different demographic characteristics, and whether participant opinions differed according to demographic characteristics was examined through inferential analyses. The inferential analyses revealed that the views differed for the work experience and only on economic criteria, and that there was no differentiation according to gender, age, education level and profession. For this reason, it was decided that the results could be generalized, and the relative importance values of the criteria were determined. While water conservation ranks first among all criteria, including environmental, accessibility among social criteria and long-term savings among economic criteria have been determined to be the most important criteria. The results revealed which criteria should be taken into consideration in the sustainability of building materials in order to make the construction industry more sustainable. In this respect, it is evaluated that the study will be a guide for governments, local governments, building material manufacturers, designers, contractors and ultimately users.

Evaluation of the Impact of Economic Empowerment Initiatives on Poverty Alleviation among Youth and Women's Groups: A Case Study of the Arusha Region, Tanzania

Globally, the Women and Youth Development Fund, channeled through women's groups, has played a crucial role in fostering economic empowerment for women and youth. In Tanzania, population growth has introduced both opportunities and challenges, with a significant issue being the rise in unemployment and poverty, particularly among women and youth. To address these challenges, the Women, Youth, and People with Disabilities Revolving Fund (WYDF) was established within Local Government Authorities (LGAs) to provide accessible loans to the poor, who are often excluded from conventional financial institutions. This study investigates the effectiveness of economic empowerment initiatives in alleviating poverty among youth and women's groups in the Arusha Region, Tanzania. Specifically, it examines the impact of start-up capital provision, financial literacy training, and business capacity-building on poverty reduction. The study employed a survey research design with a quantitative approach, collecting data from 95 respondents through questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to select the sample. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS software, with regression analysis employed to explore the relationships between variables influencing poverty reduction among the targeted groups. The findings reveal that start-up capital provision, financial literacy training, and business capacity-building significantly contribute to poverty reduction among youth and women's groups. The study recommends enhanced financial literacy programs to enable entrepreneurs to save and accumulate sufficient capital for business investments. Additionally, the government, through youth and women empowerment programs, should continue providing training, particularly to those without technical skills, focusing on new production techniques, efficient fund allocation, and marketing strategies to ensure sustainable impacts.

Determining the Root Causes of Project Delay: A Case Study

The study aims to identify and analyze the reason for the project delay in ABC Company located in the heart of Malaysia specializing in oil and gas and oil and gas-related products. The study utilized observation techniques and data from an official report. The observation was done on an ongoing project and the assessment of record was done on previously completed projects. The outcome of such observation was analysed and simplified using a tool namely the Cause and Effect Diagram or Fishbone Diagram. The study found that shortage of manpower, local authority approval, improper planning, and the COVID-19 pandemic as the root causes that led to project delay.

Problematizing street vending: The uncanniness of a disembodied urban policy

ABSTRACT Street vending is an important source of livelihood for many urban dwellers in Africa but remains a challenge for urban policy and planning. This paper uses Ghana as a case study to examine how street vending is treated in urban policy frameworks. We use qualitative content analysis to critically review four major urban policies that shape the planning, development, and management of Ghanaian cities. Our findings reveal a misalignment of local urban policies with national policy on the regulation of street vending. The regulation of street vending is unclear, contradictory, and ineffective, failing to provide a clear policy direction and adequate planning tools for integrating street vending into urban spaces. We argue that these policy inconsistencies persist due to power imbalances and governance challenges, with local authorities maintaining ambiguous policies that benefit powerful stakeholders while keeping street vendors in a state of insecurity. We call for more coherent and inclusive policies that recognize the socioeconomic value of street vending and foster more inclusive urban spaces. We also highlight the need for reformed urban governance that empowers marginalized voices and builds cross-scale alliances to address the complexities of urban informality and support the informal economy.

The experiences of unpaid carers of people living with dementia during the cost-of-living crisis: A reflexive thematic analysis.

Some carers have reported struggling to manage the additional costs of caring for someone with dementia, which has negatively impacted upon their financial resilience. Since 2021, this has been compounded by the cost-of-living crisis experienced in the United Kingdom. This crisis has been driven by sharp increases in energy prices and the prices of everyday basics such as food. This study aimed to better understand how unpaid carers, supporting and co-habiting with people living with dementia, experience the cost-of-living crisis, and the impact this has on their ability to provide care for the person living with dementia. Eleven carers supporting and co-habiting with people living with dementia in England, took part in two semi-structured interviews approximately 3 months apart between November 2022 and February 2023. All transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Carers reported having to make difficult and sometimes drastic decisions in reaction to the cost-of-living crisis and the uncertainty of future cost-of-living increases, such as using blankets and extra lays of clothing for them and the person living with dementia in place of using the heating system in their home, going without food so their loved one can eat, or even missing social opportunities. Some carers described aspects which they felt mitigated some of the negative impact of the cost-of-living crisis, such as being able to draw upon financial resources or their local authority providing social events which included a heated space with food. The cost-of-living crisis has led to carers having to make difficult decisions which created worry and anxiety. Findings indicate that many carers need financial support, and it would be beneficial for free social events to be organised which provide a heated space and food, where carers and people living with dementia can socialise with others.

‘Change? Decay? Promise?: fifty years of local government cultural services in the UK

ABSTRACT This paper offers an assessment of how local government cultural services in the UK have transformed in the last fifty years. We frame our discussion around three questions: How should cultural services be funded? How should cultural services be delivered? And what are cultural services for? Drawing on published research and ongoing empirical work by the authors, we discuss how the ideological preferences of different political administrations have offered alternative responses to these three questions, creating a highly uncertain and challenging operating environment for these services. We close by reflecting on the future of cultural provision and by identifying questions for further research in this area.

Assessing the Future of Oil and Gas Production and Local Government Revenue in Five Western US Basins

Oil and gas production is a major source of public revenue in many US regions, but uncertainty exists over the future of demand for hydrocarbons. We model how oil and gas production and related government revenue change in five western US basins depending on future oil and natural gas prices under three scenarios of climate policy ambition. We find that the Green River and San Juan basins experience production declines across all scenarios, while production in the Bakken, Permian, and Powder River basins are more dependent on prices. Government revenue generally follows the direction of production, but these relationships are not directly proportional. Under the lower price scenarios, revenue declines more steeply than production because it reflects both production and prices, which both decline. Long-term permanent funds, which are in place across all the states we examine, provide an important fiscal cushion for school districts, their primary beneficiary. JEL Classification: H71, H72, H73, O13, Q41, Q48

Spatial participatory planning for urban logistics: A GIS-enhanced Real-Time Spatial Delphi approach

Effective urban logistics planning plays a crucial role in effectively managing infrastructure and transportation networks, contributing to the mitigation of negative externalities associated with last-mile deliveries and fostering city sustainability. Among the various facets of supply chain management, selecting appropriate locations in urban areas for logistics facilities, such as automated parcel lockers and smart loading bays, stands out. However, the complexity of decision-making in this context, involving diverse stakeholders with potential conflicting objectives, poses a significant challenge in reaching a common consensus. This paper proposes an innovative approach to address this issue by adopting a spatial participatory process that combines GIS models and Real-Time Spatial Delphi to identify suitable locations for two logistic facilities. The case study is the city of Dublin (Ireland), where an Urban Living Lab of the H2020 project SENATOR is based. A modified Delphi is used, first gathering expert opinions on preferences and objectives. These insights are then used to develop a spatial analysis using GIS, ranking areas according to the expert preferences. These outcomes form the basis for the Real-Time Spatial Delphi, where stakeholders and experts working on the project collaboratively engage to achieve a spatial consensus on the territory. The findings of this study provide valuable information for stakeholders, policymakers, local authorities, and governmental bodies to implement specific actions. Through the active involvement of key actors in the decision-making process, this approach ensures that the selected locations for logistics facilities align with the needs of all parties involved.

Optimizing provincial tax compliance: Implementing good corporate governance pillars

Tax revenue in the province is still low, even though the central government has handed over the tax base to the regions for more than 20 years. The concept of GCG can improve performance and tax revenue in the regions. This study examines the relationship of each pillar of Good Corporate Governance (GCG) to tax compliance and determines the types of GCG pillars that can be prioritized for implementation in a local government agency. This study uses the regional financial management transparency index (ITPAD) as an indicator of the transparency pillar, the fiscal independence index (IKF) as an indicator of the independence pillar, and financial statement audit opinion for the accountability and responsibility pillars. Finally, the Gini ratio is an indicator of fairness. The research sample was taken from all 34 provinces in Indonesia. Secondary data is sourced from publications, books, web pages, and previous research from 2016 to 2020. This period was chosen to exclude data from the COVID-19 pandemic era in Indonesia. The analysis method is panel data multiple linear regression with a random effect model. The results showed that fiscal independence and transparency of a region's budget management positively influence public tax compliance in a provincial area in Indonesia, while the opinion of financial statements and the Gini ratio have no influence. This study implies that to improve public tax compliance in a provincial area in Indonesia, and local governments can prioritize the implementation of the transparency and independence pillars achieved by increasing the ITPAD and IKF scores in their regions. The Ministry of Home Affairs can also encourage regions to enhance transparency and independence by improving ITPAD and IKF so that tax revenue in the regions can increase.

Community-led management of the (urban) commons: lessons from the Narroways Nature Reserve, Bristol

ABSTRACT At a local level, the role of urban green spaces for tackling sustainability issues has received renewed attention, in line with a wider shift in thinking which places cities at the heart of sustainable development action. In parallel, funding for green space provision has reduced, prompting Local Authorities to reimagine how green spaces are governed, including transferring authority to communities. Preference for community-led green spaces is frequently justified with reference to normative arguments derived from “commons” theory, which advocate for self-governing institutions as effective means of managing local resources. What is lacking in this literature is a contemporary focus on urban settings, operational prescription, and an awareness of the real challenges facing self-governance. To fill this gap, the different interactions with, and claims over, a self-governed nature reserve in Bristol, UK, are investigated; alongside the operational and legal mechanisms deployed in its governance and management. Findings reveal that governing commonly held green space in an urban context is highly complex and requires reconciling a multiplicity of claims, interests, and values. This manifests in tensions and challenges for governance, including trade-offs between autonomy and wider support, problematic decisions around prioritisation; and difficulty in establishing and legitimising norms whilst advocating for shared use. This deep empirical case provides valuable insights for policymakers and theorists as they continue to make decisions concerning the future of urban green spaces, in different localities and across scales.

LOST and Found in Walmart: Walmart's Effect on Local Option Sales Tax (LOSTs) Adoption and Sales Tax Revenue

Throughout the period of adoption of Local Option Sales Taxes (LOSTs) by local governments research has found many causes and associations for adoption and utilization of LOSTs. This research explores the impact that the rise of Large Supply Chain retailers, which expanded along much the same timeline as LOSTs, had on the adoption of LOSTs and collection of sales tax revenue. Leveraging LOST adoption along different timelines in three states and hundreds of Walmart openings, a Cox Proportional Hazard Model is used to estimate the impact a Walmart opening has on time to adoption of LOST at the county level. A Difference in Difference with multiple validity and robustness checks is used to estimate the impact on sales tax collection. Results indicate that a Walmart opening has a large impact on the hazard ratio—indicating it speeds time to adoption. Unsurprisingly, this leads to larger sales tax revenue collections by host jurisdictions.

Household Solid Waste Management and Environmental Impacts in the Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria

Given the current rate of urbanization, municipalities in most Nigerian cities have struggled with the collection, transportation, and disposal of solid waste. This is due to waste generation, both residential and commercial, occurring in a dispersed manner across homes, buildings, streets, parks, and even vacant spaces within communities. This manuscript aims to evaluate the state of municipal solid waste management in Ibadan, household solid waste storage practices, and the locations of solid waste storage containers (skip points) in relation to accessibility and health risks to the community, in accordance with Nigerian National Solid Waste Management Standards and other pertinent international standards. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 21 micro and small firms and 250 homes in each of the three local government areas of the metropolis, with descriptive statistics used to interpret the data. According to the study results, inadequate Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) service delivery in the Ibadan metropolitan area can be attributed to several issues, including a lack of institutional coordination among urban planners. The study’s conclusions indicate that the state of MSWM in the sampled areas is either inadequate or has poor spatial coverage and container utilization. Lastly, the study primarily suggests that these measures can reduce problems associated with MSWM by encouraging public-private partnerships, fostering effective institutional coordination with urban planner consultants in MSWM and skip-point location, and motivating the community to adopt integrated sustainable Solid Waste Management (SWM) strategies.

Exploring Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Future Extreme Precipitation, Runoff, and Flood Risk in the Hanjiang River Basin, China

The hydrological cycle is altered by climate change and human activities, amplifying extreme precipitation and heightening the flood risk regionally and globally. It is imperative to explore the future possible alterations in flood risk at the regional scale. Focusing on the Hanjiang river basin (HRB), this study develops a framework for establishing a scientific assessment of spatio-temporal dynamics of future flood risks under multiple future scenarios. In this framework, a GCMs statistical downscaling method based on machine learning is used to project future precipitation, the PLUS model is used to project future land use, the digitwining watershed model (DWM) is used to project future runoff, and the entropy weight method is used to calculate risk. Six extreme precipitation indices are calculated to project the spatio-temporal patterns of future precipitation extremes in the HRB. The results of this study show that the intensity (Rx1day, Rx5day, PRCPTOT, SDII), frequency (R20m), and duration (CWD) of future precipitation extremes will be consistently increasing over the HRB during the 21st century. The high values of extreme precipitation indices in the HRB are primarily located in the southeast and southwest. The future annual average runoff in the upper HRB during the near-term (2023–2042) and mid-term (2043–2062) is projected to decrease in comparison to the baseline period (1995–2014), with the exception of that during the mid-term under the SSP5-8.5 scenario. The high flood risk center in the future will be distributed in the southwestern region of the upper HRB. The proportions of areas with high and medium–high flood risk in the upper HRB will increase significantly. Under the SSP5-8.5 scenario, the area percentage with high flood risk during the future mid-term will reach 24.02%. The findings of this study will facilitate local governments in formulating effective strategic plans for future flood control management.

Deconstruction of green product innovation drivers for regional export-oriented industrial enterprises in China: the product space perspective

Achieving green economic growth requires enterprises to develop and promote green products that balance environmental protection, intensive resource utilization, and sustainable development. However, under the externality assumption, the green market is often faced with the challenge of insufficient supply. Based on 2004–2018 panel data covering regional industrial enterprises in 30 provinces in China, this study empirically tests the composite driving mechanism of the effect of an increase in the regional green production capacity, organizational factors, and environmental policies on the green product innovation (GPI) of regional export-oriented industrial enterprises (REIEs). This study finds that the increase in regional green production capacity directly drives an improvement in REIEs’ GPI level, that the regional green technology level and degree of human capital accumulation are indirect driving channels between capacity increases and product innovation, and that environmental regulations and green credit have a positive moderating effect on the influence of increasing green production capacity on GPI. Further threshold regression analysis reveals that increasing green production capacity, foreign direct investment, digitization, and trade openness have an inverted U-shaped promoting effect on GPI and that the proportion of local government expenditure shows a diminishing marginal utility effect on GPI.