Employment Potentials, Innovation, and R & D Expenditure in Nigeria: Evidence from Indigenous Microenterprises
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 2, March 2023
Pages:
35-49
Received:
30 January 2023
Accepted:
21 February 2023
Published:
31 March 2023
Abstract: This study examined employment potentials of indigenous micro-enterprises in Nigeria as an alternative approach to tackling the menace of unemployment in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country with a relatively young population, with a median age of 18 years, which is lower than the African and global averages of 20 and 31 years respectively. A youthful population suggests a strong labor force; with the labor force population of around 70 million in 2020. Providing enough productive jobs for this young demographic (aged 15-29 years) and rising labor force is a challenge; more than 30 million young Nigerians were reported to be unemployed in 2021. As a result of this rapidly growing labor force, job creation is frequently on the top burners of policymakers and governments' development agendas. The dataset employed in the study is a secondary survey data exclusively from the TETFUND Report (2020). In order to achieve our objectives, we employed ordered logit and ordered probit as well as descriptive statistics. We thus found that improved innovation capabilities of these firms were found to result in increase in their employment potentials. Also, increased investment in R&D leads to rise in employment generating potentials of these entities, and adoption of superior foreign technologies in their operations equally improves the chances of the firm to generate employment. As a result, we recommended that there is need for government to offer technical assistance to these enterprises through trainings and workshops to horn their skillsets and build innovation capabilities that result in improved employment potentials. They need to be motivated to commit a sizeable part of their lean resources into activities such as training and re-training of employees that enhance innovation capabilities and employment potentials of these entities.
Abstract: This study examined employment potentials of indigenous micro-enterprises in Nigeria as an alternative approach to tackling the menace of unemployment in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country with a relatively young population, with a median age of 18 years, which is lower than the African and global averages of 20 and 31 years respectively. A youthful pop...
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Machine Learning-Based House Rent Prediction Using Stacking Integration Method
Kainuo Wang,
Huiyi Zhao,
Jingzhong Li
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 2, March 2023
Pages:
50-55
Received:
7 March 2023
Accepted:
10 April 2023
Published:
18 April 2023
Abstract: With the advancement of urbanization and the gradual increase of the rental population, the housing rental market is growing rapidly. It is important to achieve accurate housing rent prediction in order to stabilize the rental housing market. The influence of spatial and temporal factors has led to the complexity of house rent prediction, so it has always been difficult to find an appropriate method. In recent years, machine learning models have been widely studied and applied in various fields, which may provide a promising solution to it. In this paper, a stacking-based ensemble learning model is proposed to solve the problem of house rent prediction. First, the raw data are preprocessed, including decomposing hybrid features, removing rent outliers using scatterplot, removing uncorrelated features, and applying one-hot encoding to transform categorical features into numerical features. Second, the pre-processed data is normalized to unify the magnitudes. Then, the competent base predictive models are selected from all the trained base predictive models and integrated into a comprehensive ensemble model using the stacking integration method to make the final prediction. Finally, the various models are evaluated by some metrics. The experimental results show that the proposed stacking integration-based machine learning method outperforms the individual machine learning methods in solving the house rent prediction problem.
Abstract: With the advancement of urbanization and the gradual increase of the rental population, the housing rental market is growing rapidly. It is important to achieve accurate housing rent prediction in order to stabilize the rental housing market. The influence of spatial and temporal factors has led to the complexity of house rent prediction, so it has...
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Assessing the Effects of Price Escalation on Building Construction Projects in Adama, Ethiopia
Yehulum Belay,
Deekshith Jain
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 2, March 2023
Pages:
56-62
Received:
3 February 2023
Accepted:
12 April 2023
Published:
23 April 2023
Abstract: In the Ethiopian construction sector, one key issue is that contemporary building projects demonstrate price escalation. The Management of Cost escalation requires more understanding of its driving forces. Hence, this research aimed to assess the price escalation factors and their effects on building construction projects in Adama, Ethiopia. Through an in-depth literature review and project archives, thirteen (13) possible price escalation-causing attributes and five (5) its effects were identified for this research. Forty-eight (48) self-administered questionnaire survey has been sent to clients, consultants, and contractors that actively participated in Adama city construction projects and forty-three (43) responded. The relative importance index (RII) had computed to rank the price escalation-causing factors and their effects on building projects. The five most significant factors these causing price escalation on building projects were fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates, an increase in material cost and unstable market conditions, unbalanced demand and supply of construction materials, limitation of construction material producer's capacity, and project schedule changes. While in this study, delayed project progress, cash flow (financing) problems, higher construction projects cost, and increasing disputes between contracting parties were among the utmost significant impact of rising prices happening on building construction in Adama, Ethiopia. To evaluate the respondents' observed level of agreement on the ranking of price escalation factors and their effects, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient with the aid of SPSS version 26 was used. The outcomes were 0.914 among client and consultant, 0.815 with the client and contractor, as well as 0.856 for consultant and contractor on ranking price increase factors, whereas, 0.921 among client and consultant 0.821 with the client and contractor, and 0.975 for consultant and contractor on ranking price increase effects. Therefore, the result implies a positive relationship among respondents towards factors causing price escalation and their effects on building construction projects in Adama city.
Abstract: In the Ethiopian construction sector, one key issue is that contemporary building projects demonstrate price escalation. The Management of Cost escalation requires more understanding of its driving forces. Hence, this research aimed to assess the price escalation factors and their effects on building construction projects in Adama, Ethiopia. Throug...
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