Private Sector Players Research Articles

Incubatee Selection Criteria and its Role on Entrepreneurship Growth: A Survey of University Based Business Incubators in Kenya

The importance of entrepreneurship growth around the globe has been well recognized and documented by many scholars. For instance, some scholars have reported that the potential contribution of entrepreneurship growth to employment and income has been generally recognized. Entrepreneurs are widely recognized as the prime movers of economic development; the people who translate ideas into action. The government of Kenya has initiated numerous programs and policies to support entrepreneurship growth in Kenya. For instance, it has undertaken policy reviews that have led to reduction of the required licenses to start and operate a business. It has initiated several monetary funds to assist entrepreneurs, particularly youth and women, obtain financing for their enterprises i.e. the Youth Enterprise Fund, Women Enterprise Fund and Uwezo Fund. Private sector players such as commercial Banks, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and Savings and Credit Co-operatives Societies (SACCOs) among others have also come up with formal financial support schemes for entrepreneurs. However the start- up failure rate is still very high and the desired growth levels are yet to be achieved. Consequently some scholars and policy makers have turned to business incubators and particularly university based business incubators as a possible boost to entrepreneurship growth through nurturing start-ups. A major area in the operation of an incubator is the selection criteria used to admit incubatees. This study aimed to find out the role of selection criteria into university based business incubators on entrepreneurship growth in Kenya.

Business and Economic Reform Policies in Kuwait: The Case of the Capital Market Authority

Despite economic reform policies in Kuwait being mainly based around the empowerment of the private sector, the discourse concerning economic policies rarely addresses the role of the country’s existing business community in promoting or stalling such reforms. The private sector in the Gulf is generally perceived as politically passive, due to its state dependency. The article questions such representation of the political role of businesses. It suggests, first, that Kuwaiti merchants retain their political influence through formal and informal means, and are therefore able to shape economic policy-making according to their interests. Secondly, through analysis of Kuwait’s Capital Market Authority reform, it shows that not all initiatives aimed at improving the business environment and liberalising the economy are welcomed by the dominant private sector players. Thus, it is often the business community itself that uses its methods of political influence to halt and reverse certain economic reform policies.

Solid Waste Management in Urban India: An Overview

Government of India in recent past took a number of proactive initiatives in the form of changes in policies, institutions and management mechanisms to address the problem of municipal solid waste management. Despite these changes, results are believed to be less than expected ones. Increasing economic growth is bound to generate more wastes and managing these wastes needs both budgetary and technical resources. In view of scarcity of resources, there is thus a need for a paradigm shift in the approach to solid waste management in India. Among other things, this requires a thorough and dispassionate understanding of the gravity of the situation and a critical diagnosis of the response measures. Though underlying issues are to a large extent same across continents, countries, cities and municipalities, yet some issues are specific in this context. Thus, both commonalities and specificities have to be discerned and analyzed. It is against this background that the present paper is designed to present an overview of the existing municipal solid waste management practices from the global to national and national to local level perspectives in reference to the Indian cities. Particular emphasis has also been laid on to assess the overall solid waste generation and management services practiced by the Indian municipalities. Besides these, various legal, institutional and policy issues relating to urban solid waste management in the Indian context have also been reviewed to strengthen the argument in favour of the need for efficient solid waste management services for the Indian cities. It can be observed from the literature review that despite a number of positive initiatives taken by India in recent years, the state of the urban solid waste management is still far from a satisfactory level and there is thus an urgent need to address the issue by involving residents, private sector players and non-governmental organizations along with civic authorities.

Synthesis of Agribusiness Success Models Under Co-Operative and Private Sector in India

The present study attempts to address issues relating to supply chain management of Indian dairy sector with focus on both cooperative and private sector. Supply chain management is the most comprehensive approach since it integrates all the stakeholders in the system to make the product or the service available at least cost and with maximum customer satisfaction. In dairy sector, supply chain consists of coordination of production, procurement, processing and distribution system. Amul supply chain model under cooperative sector is a three-tiered structure with the dairy cooperative societies at the village level federated under a milk union at the district level and a federation of member unions at the state level. It eliminates middlemen and directly engages farmer with the processor. The model has linked rural dairy producers to urban consumers through dairy cooperatives, trucking networks, chilling plants and processing plants. The milk grid model is instrumental in establishing the Indian dairy industry as an organized sector with efficient supply chains from production to consumption. However, dairy cooperatives have been facing increasing competition from private sectors, both in procurement and retailing of milk. The turnover of Amul is much lower than a large MNC dairy company like Nestle, which uses the Milk District model for its agro-industrial activity in India. The Company's activities in India have facilitated direct and indirect employment and provides livelihood to about one million people including farmers, suppliers of packaging materials, services and other goods. In the private sector, Reliance Fresh has also been actively involved in supply chain management of milk in India. In order to ensure sustained supply, it not only extends low-interest loans to farmers but also provides advices to them on business development, livestock insurance, and other technical advisory services. These private sector players involved in the supply chain management of milk have capability to handle larger volumes, expand reach, balance costs and address the demographic variations. They have also motivated dairy producers and others involved in the supply chain to invest and increase their earnings from dairying. Since efficient supply chain management involves adequate planning, implementation and control of operations, long term profitability and sustainability of cooperative and private sector players will depend on how their supply chain is realigned into efficient, agile and adaptable network.

Dynamic Performance Benchmarking of Indian General Insurers

In India, competition scenario in the general insurance sector changed since the year 2000–2001 with the entry of several private sector players in the respective market. While a few studies attempted to benchmark the performance of Industry players using early data available from the market regulator, the existing research studies have a number of weaknesses. Against this backdrop, the present paper seeks to evaluate the performance of 15 general insurance companies for the period 2009–2010 to 2013–2014 using a two stage approach. In the first stage, the study uses the dynamic DEA model suggested by Tone and Tsutsui (Omega, 38(3–4):145–156, 2010) to evaluate the in-sample companies in terms of slacks based measure of technical efficiency. In the second stage, the efficiency scores have been explained by solvency performance of the insurers in terms of a panel data censored regression model with robust residuals. The results indicate a very strong association between efficiency and solvency.

Role of governance in creating a commodity hub: A comparative analysis

The body of work on natural gas hubs has been expanding rapidly in recent years, with most of the current work examining the creation of gas hubs focusing on either the European experience or the North American experience. In this paper, we adopt a different perspective and place the focus on experience of hub building from other international commodities. We analyse three commodities - crude oil, iron ore and coal, and draw experience on the role of governance in development of hub based prices. In particular, we propose that the role of governance is different at different stages of the pricing transition to market based pricing. Governance could play an important role at the initial stage, building the relevant soft and physical infrastructure which facilitates the reaping of first mover advantage. As the market develops, private sector players may prefer less involvement of governance, which may distort markets. With market stabilization, governance should be focused on maintaining stable rules and regulation for private sector development, as well as monitoring for further changes in global trends. To facilitate the building of a benchmark price, the public sector should adopt a long-term and overarching view on industry growth.

Exporting corporate social responsibility into Africa? The experiences of South African companies in Swaziland

ABSTRACTThe economic expansion of South African corporates across the continent is an evolving and contested process. This paper seeks to inform knowledge on the experiences of South African companies expanding into Africa by looking at the social investment approach of five large companies within South Africa and in their Swaziland operations. While social responsibility programmes are proving to be useful for the private sector, the experiences of these companies highlight the need for more studies to find evidence on the developmental role of major private sector players like South Africa in the region and the impact of corporate social investment and corporate social responsibility in Africa.

‘Differentiation Strategy’ and the Growth of Private Secondary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya

Public expenditure in education has either remained stagnant or shrunk in real terms in most developing countries over the past years despite the significant fiscal resource allocation to education. Although current education reform policies in Kenya encourage potential contributions of households and private sector players, the issues affecting private sector investment in secondary education have not been assessed adequately. The purpose of this study is to establish the influence of selected marketing strategies on the growth of private secondary schools. Specifically, the study attempted to establish the influence of differentiation strategy on growth of private secondary schools. The study found that differentiation strategy influenced the growth of the private secondary schools Further, on carrying out hypothesis testing, all the null hypothesis were rejected and it was concluded that differentiation has some significant influence on growth of private secondary schools. The study recommends that the strategy should be enhanced with the involvement of all staff if they have to be effective. Further, customer perspectives and perceptions must be continuously assessed in order to develop marketing strategies that are effective in attracting higher enrolment rates in the private schools.

The factors determining knowledge sharing intention among information professionals in Nigeria

Rationale of Study -Several studies have considered the factors determining the knowledge sharing intention among employees. However, studies focusing on information professionals and factors determining their knowledge sharing intention through a path model are either limited or been ignored. Methodology - In this study, the researcher developed and tested a path model that explains the factors that determine the intention of information professionals in Nigeria to share knowledge with their colleagues through a survey design. Findings -The results revealed that a correlation exists between the overall knowledge sharing intention score and the other knowledge sharing intention factors. The results demonstrate that citizenship behaviour had the highest correlation with knowledge sharing intention (r = 0.852). This is followed by creativity and innovation (r=0.704), and interaction frequency (r = 0.558). The results of the regression of knowledge sharing intention on the ten related factors show an adjusted R-square value of 0.661, and an F-ratio of 105.37; the latter of which is significant at 0.05 level (0.000 < 0.05). These indicate that the ten independent variables jointly (as indicated by the R-square value) explained 76.5% of the variations in the knowledge sharing intention by the information professionals. Implications -The research findings have a big bearing on policy formulation and decision making in information and knowledgeorganisations, the public and private information sector players, professional associations and information and knowledge training institutions. Originality -This research has a great value in the sense that it is one of the pioneer studies on information sharing in the context of information research in Nigeria.

Challenges and opportunities for advancing Internet access in developing countries while upholding net neutrality

ABSTRACTAccess to affordable Internet is increasingly a development priority, and even considered a basic right. There are huge economic and social benefits to be reaped from Internet access, as evidenced by gross domestic product contributions, as well as projections. However, a majority of the world’s population, most of who are in developing nations, remain unconnected. A crucial policy debate on how to avail Internet access, while upholding and preserving the openness of the Internet, also known as net neutrality, is emerging as state actors, private sector players and civil society alike operate in this space. The practice of zero-rating is one of the most popular approaches to getting the unconnected online. This follows the fact that the mobile phone is the primary device through which the ‘next billion’ Internet users are expected to get online. The overarching question is whether zero-rating defies the principle of net neutrality, by favouring some content over other content. The challenge for policy makers and regulators in developing countries, as addressed in this paper, is knowing which regulatory frameworks will be needed to expand Internet access to under served communities, without compromising the fundamental principles of a free and open Internet.

An Ordinal Game Theory Approach to the Analysis and Selection of Partners in Public–Private Partnership Projects

Nowadays, public---private partnership projects have become a standard for delivering public services in both developed and developing countries. In this paper, we are concerned with the analysis of private sector proposals and the selection of the private sector partner to whom to award the contract. To the best of our knowledge, this problem has not been addressed within a game theory framework. To fill this gap, we model this decision problem as a static non-cooperative game of complete information and propose a new ordinal game theory algorithm for finding an optimal generalized Nash equilibrium. The proposed algorithm determines a single ranking of proposals or bidders that takes account of multiple performance criteria and reflects both the public sector and the private sector perspectives, and can handle any number of private sector players and any number of contractual terms. An illustrative scenario is provided to guide the reader through the workings of the proposed ordinal game theory algorithm. The proposed ordinal game theory-based analysis framework can be used by the private sector to analyse any set of potential proposals most likely to be submitted by bidders and to assist with the choice of bidding strategies, and by the public sector player to analyse any set of potential proposals most likely to be submitted under any set of contractual terms and to assist with the choice of a realistic set of contractual terms and their performance measures.

Private Sector and Waste Management in Delhi: A Political Economy Perspective

Due to their size and rapid growth, large cities in developing countries are increasingly challenged by burgeoning waste generation. Waste management, however, has traditionally provided employment opportunities to the many urban poor in the informal sector. These traditional models, working largely in parallel with state-led interventions, are under pressure because they fail to address the waste management crisis. This failure, coupled with the lack of capacities of local governments, has paved the way for formal private sector participation. We examine the case of Delhi where a complex interplay of competing approaches have accompanied efforts of urban local bodies, civil society and the private sector (informal and formal) at finding a sustainable working solution. Our analysis of the complex relationship within the private sector players, and between private and public actors, provides novel insights into potential contribution of public–private partnerships for effective waste management in developing countries.

Political Entrepreneurialism: Reflections of a Civil Servant on the Role of Political Institutions in Technology Innovation and Diffusion in Kenya

This paper narrates how an innovative political institution in Kenya gained support from private sector players in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The paper is centered on the reflections of a top civil servant who leveraged Lewin’s theoretical foundations and leadership to propel Kenya from obscurity to global renown in the ICT arena. The paper details the leadership of key players in the political system explaining on how their tolerance for risk encouraged ICT diffusion and innovation in Kenya. The paper delves into the details of executive decision making and how those decisions influence different stakeholders. The analysis reveals why Kenya succeeded where its neighbours did not. It shows that Kenya’s continued success in ICTs depends upon its stability – endemic corruption and previous political decisions could threaten this. The paper will also highlight the emergence of a new crop of innovators developing new applications across all sectors including education, health, agriculture and financial services.

Historical account of the national health insurance formulation in Kenya: experiences from the past decade.

BackgroundMany Low-and-Middle-Income countries are considering reviewing their health financing systems to meet the principles of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). One financing mechanism, which has dominated UHC reforms, is the development of health insurance schemes. We trace the historical development of the National Health Insurance (NHI) policy, illuminate stakeholders’ perceptions on the design to inform future development of health financing policies in Kenya.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective policy analysis of the development of a NHI policy in Kenya using data from document reviews and seven in depth interviews with key stakeholders involved in the NHI design. Analysis was conducted using a thematic framework.ResultsThe design of a NHI scheme was marked by complex interaction of the actor’s understanding of the design, proposed implementation strategies and the covert opposition of the reform due to several reasons. First, actor’s perception of the cost of the NHI design and its implication to the economy generated opposition. This was due to inadequate communication strategies to articulate the policy, leading to a vacuum of factual information flow to various players. Secondly, perceived fear of implications of the changes among private sector players threatened support and success gained. Thirdly, underlying mistrust associated with perceived lack of government’s commitment towards transparency and good governance affected active engagement of all key players dampening the spirit of collective bargain breeding opposition. Finally, some international actors perceived a clash of their role and that of international programs based on vertical approaches that were inherent in the health system.ConclusionThe thrust towards UHC using NHI schemes should not only focus on the design of a viable NHI package but should also involve stakeholder engagements, devise ways of improving the health care system, enhance transparency and develop adequate governance structures to institutions mandated to provide leadership in the reform process to overcome covert opposition.

Job prospects for Mzuzu university library and information science graduates

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a study that was conducted to find out the employment prospects of Mzuzu University (Mzuni) library and information science (LIS) graduates. Design/methodology/approach – The study made use of a survey designehil it was mainly quantitative in nature. A census of all LIS graduates from 2006 to 2013 was taken. The study also purposely sampled some major employers of LIS graduates. Self completion questionnaires were administered to both study groups by the researcher personally, and also through emails. Data were collected between September and October 2013, and SPSS was used to analyse the data. Findings from the two questionnaires were discussed in relation to prevailing literature in the field. Findings – The study established that there are few job opportunities for LIS graduates in the library sector. This came about because libraries have not taken deliberate steps to recruit LIS graduates while opportunities in the private sector were limited. Consequently, some LIS graduates were unemployed, while the majority had taken up alternative jobs. Nevertheless, LIS graduates had the requisite skills and attributes required for the job. Absence of a career structure for LIS professionals in the public sector, failure to recognise role of librarians and LIS qualifications and lack of training opportunities were some of the challenges which LIS graduates faced. Research limitations/implications – The study covers all LIS graduates who graduated from Mzuni between 2006 and 2013. However, lack of updated contact information means that the researcher had challenges to reach out to most of the graduates save for those working in the major libraries. Furthermore, a good number of the graduates did not respond to the questionnaire sent, particularly those who graduated from the generic programme. This led to a lower than anticipated response rate. This implies that some of the study findings may have some bias towards the LIS graduates in the mature group. Practical implications – The research findings have a big bearing on policy formulation and decision making in government, the public and private sector players, professional associations and LIS training institutions. Originality/value – No formal studies have been done to determine the employment prospects for Mzuni LIS graduates ever since the diploma and degree programmes were launched. This research is, therefore, the first of its kind, and could help shape the future of the programmes in terms of curriculum content and methods of delivery. Recommendations made could also help the Malawi Library Association, the Mzuni’s Department of Library and Information Science, and relevant government ministries and departments to come up with appropriate interventions to the challenges being faced.

How to Increase the Supply of Rental Housing through Urban Regeneration Program in Korea

ABSTRACT The authors derived rental housing policy measures that are appropriate for the current conditions of Korean housing supply and demand based on the confirmation of the issues of Korean rental housing system and reviewing implications from review of cases of foreign countries and these measures can be categorized into linkage with the urban regeneration and multi-functional development, acquisition of financial resources, operational management, policy and institutional aspects. For the expansion of supply of rental housing, it is essential to link the rental housing policy with urban regeneration. To pursue regeneration of underdeveloped areas and expansion of supply of rental housing in line with urban regeneration, more development sites should be added. Further, the rental home policy must be integrated into a new paradigm that includes securing commercial viability and providing various residential conveniences through multi-functional development. In addition, diversification of developers of real estates turning away from the existing framework of policy that has been focused only on the state-led housing supply so that local governments and private sector players can take part in. Next, new options for funding the supply of rental housing must be sought. First, raising financial resources sequentially through cyclical development approach could be considered. Or, various funding schemes including utilizing Tax-increment financing (TIF) based on the local tax revenues that will be accrued after the development projects and supply of rental housing. Or there should be various schemes to raise funds including utilization of TIFs that are based on the revenues that will be realized after the development projects and supply of rental housing, or utilizing REITs where funds can be provided through private sector investments. Also, getting out from the planning practice that focused only on physical expansion of supply of rental housing, continual operational management must be performed even after the development. These activities must be supported through establishment of control- tower at the national level and continuous attention must be paid even after the development by developing specialized operational management companies that are led by private sector players. Finally, in addition to the hardware support that is focused on the public rental housing only, software support such as conditional provision of housing voucher or tax exemption for low-income classes should be provided, too. In other words, a shift from policies that are supplier-centric to ones that are customer-centric must take place.Key words: Urban Regeneration, Rental Housing, Happiness HousingLHI Journal (2014) 5(3):137-149 http://dx.doi.org/10.5804/LHIJ.2014.5.3.137http://lhi.lh.or.kr

A Comparative Study of Service Quality of Life Insurance Companies in India

The Indian Life Insurance sector has witnessed a major revamp in 1999 with the establishment of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and subsequent entry of Private sector players. These changes are affecting the way service is being delivered. Technology usage, new innovative product introduction and competition are seen as drivers of quality of service being provided to the customers. In this study using SERVQUAL model, we have examined the importance of service based on the 5 dimensions viz, Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. Using 120 Life Insurance policy holders from 3 Life insurance companies in Agra the study identified that the gaps exist even after 15 years of privatization of this sector. The study indicated that a lot needs to be done for improving customer focus and services activity in the Life Insurance sector. Regular customer surveys with increased sample sizes across the country will enable the Insurance companies to fill the gaps.
 

A Study of Trend in Asset Allocation among Public and Private Sector Sponsored Mutual Funds in India and its Impact on Performance of Open-Ended Equity Funds

Indian Mutual Funds industry has an existence over 5 decades in the Indian markets, with US-64 scheme of Unit Trust of India (UTI) during 1964-87 as an introduction to the Indian investor to the concept of mutual fund. This industry has ever since, seen tremendous changes till date; with the entry of public sector bank sponsored mutual funds during 1987-1993 and private sector joining then after. The MF industry had shown a remarkable growth with the existence of both public sector and private sector players, post-liberalization. Among all others, one of the mutual fund peculiarities is the fund manager’s ability of asset allocation which reflects the fund manager’s inclination for positive returns from the sectoral performance which shall directly affect the returns generated by the funds. This paper attempts to study the impact of asset allocation on the performance of the open-ended equity funds of AMC’s under study.

A Comparative Study of Service Quality of Life Insurance Companies in IndiaA Comparative Study of Service Quality of Life Insurance Companies in India

The Indian Life Insurance sector has witnessed a major revamp in 1999 with the establishment of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and subsequent entry of Private sector players. These changes are affecting the way service is being delivered. Technology usage, new innovative product introduction and competition are seen as drivers of quality of service being provided to the customers.In this study using SERVQUAL model, we have examined the importance of service based on the 5 dimensions viz, Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. Using 120 Life Insurance policy holders from 3 Life insurance companies in Agra the study identified that the gaps exist even after 15 years of privatization of this sector. The study indicated that a lot needs to be done for improving customer focus and services activity in the Life Insurance sector. Regular customer surveys with increased sample sizes across the country will enable the Insurance companies to fill the gaps

Critical Success Factors for Value Management Workshops in Malaysia

AbstractThe application of value management (VM) in Malaysia increased dramatically after it was made a mandatory requirement for public projects exceeding 50 million Renminbi. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) for VM workshops in the Malaysian construction industry. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey of public-and private-sector players in the industry, and analyzed using descriptive analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test, and scale ranking. The results reveal that clear objectives, client participation and support, discipline and attitude, team mix, and decision-making authority are critical components for successful VM workshops. Other factors include the participation of end users during the workshop, background information, input from relevant governmental departments, and the facilitator’s VM-workshop experience. The CSFs determined by this study provide a framework for successful VM workshops in the Malaysian construction...