Articles

Eating at home remains very much ingrained in Ghanaian culture but rapid urbanization coupled with busy lifestyle and advancement in technology has greatly changed the way of life of many Ghanaians. These changes have altered the tradition of cooking and eating at home. The study focused on the determinants of consumer patronage of street foods in the Koforidua Metropolis. The target population comprised customers that patronize the street foods in Koforidua Metropolis. From the target population, 197 consumers were selected using convenience. A structured self-administered questionnaire was utilized to gather the required data. The data collected were coded and analyzed with the help of SPSS-23. The findings revealed that food characteristics and social status determines consumers patronage of street food. It became evident that age (r=0.261, p<0.01), age (r=-0.318, P<0.01), educational level (r=0.144, P<0.05) and occupation (r=-0.477, P<0.01) of consumers has a significant influence on the decision and patronage of street food. The study concluded that food characteristics and social factors are major determinants of consumers patronage of street foods. It is recommended that Food and Drug Authority (FDA), other stakeholders, and street food vendors work cooperatively to establish laws that capture the distinctive and diverse foods sold on the street and their various preparation, storage, and sale methods in order to ensure that food preparation and sales are safe and hygienic.

This study aimed to assess the proximate composition, microbial quality, and sensory acceptability of canned Bambara beans in Ghana to determine their nutritional value and consumer perceptions. The research was conducted in Tamale in the northern region of Ghana, focusing on sensory evaluation, nutritional analysis, and consumer preferences for canned Bambara beans. The study utilized canned Bambara bean varieties sourced from local markets in Ghana. It involved sensory panels, proximate analysis, and microbial testing to evaluate the quality and safety of the canned products. Data analysis included sensory scoring, proximate composition determination, and microbial count assessments. The findings indicated positive consumer attitudes towards canned Bambara beans, emphasising their convenience, nutritional richness, and sensory appeal. Nutritional analysis revealed the nutrient content of the canned beans, highlighting their potential as a nutritious food source. Conclusions emphasised the importance of sensory attributes in consumer acceptance and women's role in producing and promoting Bambara beans. It is recommended that Increase awareness among consumers, especially women and homemakers, about the nutritional benefits and culinary versatility of canned Bambara beans. Educational campaigns highlighting canned Bambara beans' health advantages and convenience can encourage their inclusion in household diets. It is also recommended that women involved in the production and processing of Bambara beans should be supported and empowered through training, capacity building, and access to resources. Recognising the pivotal role of women in the Bambara bean value chain is essential for sustainable production practices and economic empowerment.

Consumer behavior is evolving, demanding a wide range of products with fast shipping and reliable service. The automotive aftermarket industry, worth billions, requires efficient distribution systems to stay competitive. Manufacturers strive to balance growth with product and service excellence. Distributors and retailers face the challenge of maintaining competitive pricing while keeping inventory levels low. An adequate supply chain and accurate product data are crucial for product availability and reducing stock issues. This ultimately increases profits and customer satisfaction.

This study was conducted with beans to determine a protocol that will help reduce the cooking time of beans. It was carried out in the Foods laboratory at the University for Development Studies, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. A quasi-experimental design was the design tool employed for this study to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between an independent and dependent variable where the independent variable is cooking time and dependent variable is softness of the beans. An experiment was carried out to text the effect of 2 different treatments given to beans during cooking to ascertain which treatment is best for reducing the cooking time for bean. The treatments meted out were addition of blended onion, crushed cassava and no additives. Addition of blended onion had a very significant effect in reducing cooking time with cooking time of 43minutes. Cooking beans with crushed cassava also saw some reduction in the cooking time for beans with 46 minutes. Cooking dry beans with no additive having the highest cooking time (47minutes). With quantity of water, the dry beans sample with crushed cassava used more quantity of water (3.4 liters). Cooking with blended onion and with no treatment both used 2.9 litres per 100grams beans each. The study therefore recommends that crushed onions are added to help reduce the cooking time of dry beans.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate students’ awareness, understanding and use of the information on care labels. Quantitatively, the study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. The population of the study comprised all the Family and Consumer Science students at the University for Development Studies, Nyankpala campus, Tamale. Morgan and Krejcie chart, was used to select 159 out 270 students. Data collected were analysed using IBM SPSS with descriptive statistics which included mean, standard deviation, frequencies and percentages. Findings of this study proved that students do not always use the information on care labels when purchasing and caring for clothes and cannot identify the symbols on care labels that do not directly link with their meaning. This study has practical implications for students by using the information on care labels when purchasing and caring for clothes. Students should likewise find ways of identifying the symbols even without their meanings. The Social Implication implications of this study also postulates that local clothes manufacturers should be encouraged to create their labelling schemes for care labels that will be peculiar to how Ghanaians care for their clothes as they exist in other countries. Organizations and bodies that formulate the symbols should make sure the shape of the symbols has a direct link with their meaning to aid in their understanding and usage.

The study examined consumers’ Awareness in food hygiene and food borne diseases in Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The research design for the study was a descriptive survey. The population of the study consists of one hundred (100) consumers. Convenience sampling technique was used to select seventy (70) consumers from the licensed food vendors and thirty (30) consumers from the unlicensed food vendors. Questionnaire was the main instrument for the study. The questionnaire had both open ended and close ended questions was on the consumers’ knowledge and perceptions on food borne diseases and the safety of foods. Data gathered checked, edited, coded, processed and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. The study concluded that the consumers of vended foods have some knowledge of food hygiene and food borne diseases; however, they ignore the health hazards associated with poor food handling by food vendors and go ahead to patronize the food the vendors provide. The study also indicated consumers patronized street foods because prices were moderate as compared to the formal establishments and ignore the unhygienic conditions at the vending sites. The correlation analysis shows further that consumers patronage (r=-0.095) had negative and non-significant relationship with food handling practices. It is recommended that Consumers of vended foods should be educated to help improve upon their knowledge in food hygiene and food borne diseases to enable them make informed choices and also prompt regulatory bodies such as the environmental health officers on unacceptable food handling practices of food vendors. It is also recommended The Metropolitan/Municipal/District environmental health officers should ensure that inspection of street food vendors are carried out effectively, efficiently and regularly so as to monitor the food handling practices of the food vendors’ right from the time of preparation to the point of sale.

The Nigerian Government both previous and present has introduced several policies and programmes to reduce or proffer remedial measures to militate against the negative impact of high inflationary levels on the Nigerian economy. All these measures have not led to a productive result as the inflation rate has continued to sour higher over the years. This paper aimed at examining the economic influence of the determinant factors that influence inflationary trends that are multi-dimensional and dynamic which continue to defy solutions. The data used for this work was sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics and Central Bank of Nigeria, from 1983 to 2020. The ordinary least square approach was used to analyze the data and the result shows that consumer’s price index, interest rate and total export has a positive effect on Nigeria inflation, but only the Consumer’s Price Index (CPI) have a statistically significant effect on the Nigeria inflation at 99% confidence interval. Result also shows that the exchange rate, foreign reserve, money supply, real GDP, real income and total imports has a negative effect though not statistically significant on the Nigeria inflation rate. The result of the granger causality test shows exchange rate and total imports to granger cause Nigeria inflation. It is recommended that Government should improve locally manufacture products to meet international demands to reduce total imports.

Through a digitally connected ecosystem, the innovative realm of fintech significantly enhances human capabilities across various dimensions. AI-based fintech solutions are increasingly proving to be invaluable by providing effective enforcement of regulations that ensure compliance and protect stakeholders involved. Numerous expert investigations conducted in the arena of high-technology litigation have reinforced both the pressing need and the immense value of enforced compliance in today's fast-paced digital landscape. Open banking APIs have boldly pioneered this critical regulatory enforcement role, allowing broader access and improved services for consumers. Predictive AI certainty, facilitated through sophisticated validation systems, represented a fundamental evolution in their rule-based legal formulations that govern many aspects of financial transactions. These advanced products were deployed within global legislative codes, allowing for standardized practices, and consequently, all market sectors quickly adopted them to ensure they remain competitive and compliant. During the latest of these professionals' encouraging comments, it became clear that awareness of the inception of these groundbreaking innovations must be convened into a steadfast commitment to continue launching natural language processing products that can refine consumer interaction. Since this pivotal point, the increasing dependency of the financial expert community on these incisive factors underscores the paramount importance they now hold for their clients and end users alike, shaping the future of finance in profound ways [1].

Online shopping is a growing phenomenon and social media namely Facebook has radically changed consumers online purchase behaviour; especially the interactive information system of consumers, peers, and vendors. Similar to other online purchasing products or services, e-cigarette marketing in Facebook has potential. This study aims to determine the association between individual’s online interaction and e-cigarette purchase intention from Facebook vape groups. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 214 respondents using the Facebook platform from September to December 2019. Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire. The Chi-square test was used for data analyses using SPSS (version 25.0). Most of the participants were male; the mean age of the respondents was 27.41 ± 2.1. Total 93.9% (201 of 214) and 56.1% (120 of 214) respondents were vaper and smoker respectively. Among the non-smokers, most of the respondents were vaper (84 of 94, 89.4%). Consumers smoking and vaping status were associated with each other (χ2 = 6.11, P=0.01). There was an association between vaping status and purchase intention of e-cigarettes from the Facebook vape group (χ2 = 5.06, P=0.02). Online interactions, namely like (χ2 = 5.88, P <0.01), post (χ2 = 7.16, P <0.01) and sharing (χ2 = 10.14, P <0.01) of the e-cigarette related information or advertisements in social media were associated with purchase intention of e-cigarettes from Facebook vape group. This study revealed individuals vaping and online interactions were associated with an online purchase the intention of e-cigarette in Facebook. Public health researchers and policymakers might contemplate the regulatory environment of online marketing of e-cigarettes to curtail the uptake of e-cigarettes among non-smokers.

The supply chain ecosystem plays a very important role in the success or failure of organizations, markets, and economies. Supply chain ecosystems are broadly defined as supply chain organizations and their collaborators. Today's combined challenges of pandemic shutdowns, rising internet usage, and skyrocketing climate change concerns demand that the supply chain ecosystem better connect with customers, when and how they want, to provide products and services with high levels of availability and zero defects, yet collaboratively do this to reduce transportation and production risks, often at the same time reducing operational costs and carbon footprints. Addressing these challenges, this work explores the cloud delivery capabilities of cloud-native architectures to enable the big data integrations and analytics that are needed to grow smarter supply chain ecosystems. This work describes what smart supply chain ecosystems are and how they are planning to grow their technology and integration capabilities. Discussing the industry-leading advanced and manufacturing technology producer ecosystems, it is explained how their technology collaboration and investment plans are driven by climate change and job creation goals. With these background models, the work examines the new digital reality of customer-driven experiences and economies that are demanding cloud-native and intelligent technology partnerships to deliver climate objectives, operational responsiveness, and compatibility to avoid trading economies of scale for economies of integration. The final objectives of this paper are to share key ideas about the need to balance the growing customer service direct-to-consumer business models with those for collaborative investment by market and industry. In doing this, it hopes to promote an intelligent supply chain ecosystem foundation for helping its different participating countries survive and thrive in the digital economy.

Innovations in computing and communication technologies are reshaping finance. The seismic changes are casting uncertainty about the future of financial services. On one hand, fintech evangelists project a rosy future, asserting that the fast-moving algorithms can deliver low-cost financial services intuitively, customized to meet robust consumer expectations. On the other hand, many finance veterans fret that the traditional banking model could disintermediate, bleeding banks via a ‘death by a thousand cuts’, reducing them to passive portfolio holders with no direct customer relationship, eclipsed by digital giants which use their enormous treasure troves of customer data to offer banking as an added service with nearly free cost. Amidst the upbeat technological promises and apocalyptic forebodings, there are two constant, mostly agreed-upon, truths. The first is the vital importance of data. Advances in the internet, cloud computing, and record-keeping technologies are producing an ‘exponential growth in the volume and detail of data’. Some of this big data are personal information. Smartphones are deployed in almost all developed and emerging economies, serving as little spies; tracking, recording location histories, social networks, and app usage of their unsuspecting owners; often with a great degree of precision. ‘People are walking data-factories’ in this ‘mobile digital society’. Data are the fermentation of these global exchanges, electronic commerce and communication, and financial transactions. To just take Facebook as an example, it shares 30 million people a day through updates and posts, hosting personal information on 2.23 billion users. To the alarm of the uninformed public, much of this information is available for commercial harvest. The second constant is the rise of intelligent solutions. Consumers today—be it disclosed or not—are fed tailored clothes, music, film, holiday packages—almost anything you like, notably dynamic pricing, varying in accordance with individual profiles, or personalized search results. The availability of powerful computers has enabled comparable applications that are intended to make the system more responsive to their customer profiles and desires, or to capitalize competitive business possibilities. Such changes will transform the financial industry and occupy a prominent position among the mechanisms of policy competition, reshaping the way in which financial services are bestowed and led on the demand side.

This study aims to achieve a new understanding of how, why, and when consumer behavior is shaped, enacted, and experienced inside and across integrated digital ecosystems related to large-scale trackable goods, all in service of helping marketers optimize their business performance in the new economy. The pioneering understanding begins by exploring what motivates the choices of a homogeneous group of consumers to organize their consumption of national and store brand varieties of consumer package goods in a certain manner. Thereafter, the essay explores how, if at all, the other digital activities of consumers across various product-related digital spaces and on various platforms build expertise and interest in these products such that they exert an effect on the purchase choices for these products. The essay then advances to asking how online information seeking, in various product-related digital spaces, on various platforms, and from various sources, and taking place at various points in the purchase journey affects online-offline dynamics in purchasing these products. Thereafter, the research examines how paid digital communication in various product-related digital spheres and forms, enabled by consumer advertising engagement on various platforms, boosts the offline sales of these products. Finally, by employing a new methodology that combines consumer scanning data, self-reported online activity data, and transaction data collected from an ad-tech partner, the research presents a fresh set of marketing action levers and performance outcomes on chosen products. Along the way, progress is made on four under-investigated topics in the advertising literature – the role of consumer actors and their expertise in the online-offline purchasing dynamics for ads, advertising engagement, consumer digital spaces, and consumer digital activity investment.