Emmanuel Agbaeze

The use of value management tools in non-management and non-business domains appears to be high, as exemplified by numerous studies conducted on the subject matter in the construction based disciplines, but understanding how such essential tool works in the consumer based domains seems lacking, this study becomes relevant in this regard. The aim of the study therefore is to understand how consumer based and construction based firms differ with regard to the use, focus and control of value management on a firm-by-firm basis, locational basis and on the basis of industrial typology. The researchers adopted a survey research design using a 16-item questionnaire instrument administered to 509 respondents across 10 firms: 5 being consumer and the other 5 being construction based firms. The formulated hypotheses were tested using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney’s U-test for non-parametric comparisons. The results obtained showed that consumer based firms ranked higher than construction based firms, both on a firm-by-firm (CSB = 256.9, CTB = 247.4, ; CSB=264.6, CTB = 234.3, ) for focus and control, respectively, and on an industrial type (CSB = 267.65, CTB = 235.93, ; CSB = 268.71, CTB = 234.33, ; CSB = 269.21, CTB = 233.58, ; CSB = 268.38, CTB = 234.83, ) comparison basis on actual usage, perceived usage, focus and control of value management, respectively. For the locational difference, there were no statistical significance. The study concludes that there is a case for a multidisciplinary study of value management as it appears more present in consumer than construction based firms.

The clear decreasing survival rate of nascent firms and their inability to compete favorably owing to increasing competition in their internal and external environment was the motivation for this study. Hence, the paper addressed fundamental issues on nascent firms’ competitiveness through examining the direct and indirect influence of social media usage and technological infrastructure capability, respectively. Sample data of 265 nascent firm managers in the agro-allied sector were collected and analyzed with the aid of Hayes Regression Process Macro. The results showed that social media positively affects the competitive advantage of nascent firms. Further, the study found that technological infrastructure capability significantly affects the competitive advantage of nascent firms. The study found that technological infrastructure capability positively mediates the relationship between social media usage and nascent agro-allied firms’ competitive advantage. The study advances the need for a change in the way nascent firms adopt social media and advocate that the use of social media can be supported through developing a gradual knowledge of technological innovation that is within the confines of the firms’ resources.