scholarly journals Assessment of political risk factors influencing the corporate performance of multinationals construction companies in northeastern Nigeria

Author(s):  
John O. Adebiyi ◽  
Gabriel A. Sanni ◽  
Abiodun Kolawole Oyetunji

The transborder extension of the services offered by multinationals construction companies that have settled in Africa exposes them to the political risk factors pertinent to the host country. This paper seeks to identify and assess the prevalence of political risk factors influencing the corporate performance of multinational companies in the North-eastern zones of Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were administered to 78 expatriates project managers from six multinationals construction companies within six states of Nigeria’s North-east area. Data collected were analysed using the relative importance index and factor analysis. Findings showed terrorism, corruption, insurgencies, sabotages and kidnapping were the five major political risk factors with the highest level of occurrence, while terrorism, kidnappings, sabotage, corruption and change in government are those with the highest impact on operations in the region. The recommendation includes the need for the Federal, State and Local Governments to provide adequate security for lives, properties and investments. Keywords: Construction companies, corporate performance, multinationals, political risk, terrorism.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
O. J. Adebiyi ◽  
A. G. Sanni

Multinational construction companies settled in African countries, especially Nigeria, to compete for infrastructural projects, in a bid to extend their services across their borders. The trans-border extension of the services offered by these multinationals exposes them to the political risk factors pertinent within the host-country. In order to survive the harsh realities of the political risk indicators operational in Nigeria, especially the North-eastern part of the country that has been plagued with civil unrest associated with the terrorist operations of Boko haram, it has become necessary to identify and manage these risk factors, to ensure the continuous survival of international construction companies in Nigeria. This paper seeks to identify and assess the prevalence of political risk factors influencing the corporate performance of international companies operating in the North-east of Nigeria. Data for the study was collected through structured questionnaires administered to 78 expatriate project managers from 6 international construction companies in 6 states in the North East of Nigeria. Collected data was analyzed using relative importance index and factor analysis. Findings revealed that terrorism, corruption, insurrections, sabotages and kidnapping were the top five risk factors with the highest frequency of occurrence. It was also revealed that terrorism, kidnappings, sabotages, corruption and change in government are the risk factors with the highest impact on operations in the region. It is therefore recommended that the federal, state and local governments should provide security for the lives, properties and investments in the region, companies should do more corporate social responsibilities and purchase political risk insurance cover to minimize their losses. Adebiyi, O. J. | Department of Quantity Surveying, University of Benin (UNIBEN), Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110343
Author(s):  
Eunju Kang

Instead of asking whether money matters, this paper questions whose money matters in public education. Previous literature on education funding uses an aggregate expenditure per pupil to measure the relationship between education funding and academic performance. Federalism creates mainly three levels of funding sources: federal, state, and local governments. Examining New York State school districts, most equitably funded across school districts among the 50 states, this paper shows that neither federal nor state funds are positively correlated with graduation rates. Only local revenues for school districts indicate a strong positive impact. Parents’ money matters. This finding contributes to a contentious discourse on education funding policy in the governments, courts, and academia with respect to education funding and inequality in American public schools.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Skillman ◽  
Caitlin Cross-Barnet ◽  
Rachel Friedman Singer ◽  
Christina Rotondo ◽  
Sarah Ruiz ◽  
...  

As federal, state, and local governments continue to test innovative approaches to health care delivery, the ability to produce timely and reliable evidence of what works and why it works is crucial. There is limited literature on methodological approaches to rapid-cycle qualitative research. The purpose of this article is to describe the advantages and limitations of a broadly applicable framework for in-depth qualitative analysis placed within a larger rapid-cycle, multisite, mixed-method evaluation. This evaluation included multiple cycles of primary qualitative data collection and quarterly and annual reporting. Several strategies allowed us to be adaptable while remaining rigorous; these included planning for multiple waves of qualitative coding, a hybrid inductive/deductive approach informed by a cross-program evaluation framework, and use of a large team with specific program expertise. Lessons from this evaluation can inform researchers and evaluators functioning in rapid assessment or rapid-cycle evaluation contexts.


Government increasingly relies on nonprofit organizations to deliver public services, especially for human services. As such, human service nonprofits receive a substantial amount of revenue from government agencies via grants and contracts. Yet, times of crises result in greater demand for services, but often with fewer financial resources. As governments and nonprofits are tasked to do more with less, how does diversification within the government funding stream influence government-nonprofit funding relationships? More specifically, we ask: How do the number of different government partners and the type of government funder—federal, state, or local—influence whether nonprofits face alterations to government funding agreements? Drawing upon data from over 2,000 human service nonprofits in the United States, following the Great Recession, we find nonprofit organizations that only received funds from the federal government were less likely to experience funding alterations. This helps to illustrate the economic impact of the recession on state and local governments as well as the nonprofit organizations that partner with them.


2019 ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
David M. Struthers

This chapter examines the World War One period in which the federal, state, and local governments in the United States, in addition to non-state actors, created one of the most severe eras of political repression in United States history. The Espionage Act, the Sedition Act, changes to immigration law at the federal level, and state criminal syndicalism laws served as the legal basis for repression. The Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and other anarchists took different paths in this era. Some faced lengthy prison sentences, some went underground, while others crossed international borders to flee repression and continue organizing. This chapter examines the repression of radical movements and organizing continuities that sustained the movement into the 1920s.


Author(s):  
Benjamin Ginsberg

Many Academics Who are troubled by the growing power of administrators on their campuses believe that their jobs are protected by tenure and their campus activities by academic freedom. Hence, they believe that they, personally, have little to fear from the advent of the all-administrative university. Yet, these unworried professors might do well to fret just a bit. Tenure does not provide absolute protection, and at any rate only about 30 percent of the current professorate is tenured or even on the tenure track. The remaining 70 percent are hired on a contingent basis and can be dismissed at any time. The question of academic freedom is more complex and more dispiriting. In recent years, the federal courts have decided that deanlets, not professors, are entitled to academic freedom. This proposition may be surprising to academics, who, usually without giving the matter much thought, believe they possess a special freedom derived from the German concept of Lehrfreiheit, which they think protects their freedom to teach, to express opinions, and to engage in scholarly inquiry without interference from university administrators or government officials. It certainly seems reasonable to think that professors should possess Lehrfreiheit. Academics play an important part in the production, dissemination, and evaluation of ideas, and a free and dynamic society depends on a steady flow of new ideas in the sciences, politics, and the arts. The late Chief Justice Earl Warren once opined that American society would “stagnate and die” if scholars were not free to inquire, study, and evaluate. Accordingly, he said, academic freedom “is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned.” Despite Chief Justice Warren’s endorsement, professors’ ideas and utterances do not have any special constitutional status. Like other Americans, professors have free speech rights under the First Amendment. In a number of cases decided during the 1950s and 1960s, the Supreme Court made it clear that the First Amendment offered professors considerable protection from the efforts of federal, state, and local governments to intrude on their freedom of speech and association.


2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Tennant ◽  
J. Sheed

Historically within most catchments, resource management programs have been planned and implemented in isolation of one another. This was once the case in the Goulburn Broken Catchment, a major catchment of the Murray Darling Basin, Australia. Although only 2% of the Murray Darling Basin's land area, the catchment generates 11% of the basin's water resources. Learning from the past, a cooperative and collaborative approach to natural resource programs has developed. This approach is the envy of many other catchment communities and agencies. Through a combination of “Partnership Programs”, “Operational Initiatives” and community involvement, significant programs have been implemented within the catchment, which will benefit not only the local community but communities further afield. The outcomes of the waterway health program highlight the benefits provided through the establishment of cooperative and partnership resource improvement programs. These programs were founded on the ability of the community to recognise the need for integration, base management decisions on best available science and an ability to work together. Their effective delivery has been provided through the resources provided, to the local community, by the Natural Heritage Trust with matching and State and local allocations. While programs have shown success, challenges still face the community. These challenges include verification and implementation of environmental flows, storage of the catchment's vital water resources, and maintaining community involvement and participation in on-going works programs. The Goulburn Broken Catchment community, with the support of Federal, State and Local Governments, is looking at opportunities for continued improvements in waterway health.


Author(s):  
R. Kelso

Australia is a nation of 20 million citizens occupying approximately the same land mass as the continental U.S. More than 80% of the population lives in the state capitals where the majority of state and federal government offices and employees are based. The heavily populated areas on the Eastern seaboard, including all of the six state capitals have advanced ICT capability and infrastructure and Australians readily adopt new technologies. However, there is recognition of a digital divide which corresponds with the “great dividing” mountain range separating the sparsely populated arid interior from the populated coastal regions (Trebeck, 2000). A common theme in political commentary is that Australians are “over-governed” with three levels of government, federal, state, and local. Many of the citizens living in isolated regions would say “over-governed” and “underserviced.” Most of the state and local governments, “… have experienced difficulties in managing the relative dis-economies of scale associated with their small and often scattered populations.” Rural and isolated regions are the first to suffer cutbacks in government services in periods of economic stringency. (O’Faircheallaigh, Wanna, & Weller, 1999, p. 98). Australia has, in addition to the Commonwealth government in Canberra, two territory governments, six state governments, and about 700 local governments. All three levels of government, federal, state, and local, have employed ICTs to address the “tyranny of distance” (Blainey, 1967), a term modified and used for nearly 40 years to describe the isolation and disadvantage experienced by residents in remote and regional Australia. While the three levels of Australian governments have been working co-operatively since federation in 1901 with the federal government progressively increasing its power over that time, their agencies and departments generally maintain high levels of separation; the Queensland Government Agent Program is the exception.


Author(s):  
Christopher G. Reddick

This chapter examines homeland security information systems (HSIS) with a focus on local governments. Local governments are typically the first at the scene when responding to an emergency or a terrorist attack. The most notable incidents are Hurricane Katrina and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In both of these incidents the first responders were the local governments, which faced dual issues of communication and information sharing. It is important to understand the current level of preparedness and use of HSIS in local governments. This chapter tries to discern the relative priority of HSIS compared to other priorities of local governments in the realm of homeland security. This chapter first outlines some background information on local governments with respect to their organizational structure and level of homeland security preparedness. The second section outlines the stages of e-government adoption, which is commonly discussed in the local e-government literature. Third, there is a discussion of homeland security information sharing between the federal, state, and local governments. There is some evidence presented from existing surveys of the impact of HSIS on local governments. Finally, there is survey results presented from a study conducted by the International City/ County Management Association (ICMA) on homeland security preparedness. This survey information is used to determine where HSIS fits into local priorities on homeland security.


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