Changes in the business environment in general and in emerging countries, in particular, challenges business organizations to rethink new ways of managing performance in order to survive. This research applied an HPO framework to find out the extent to which it explains performance in the insurance industry in Ghana. The study adopted a quantitative deductive approach and analyzed the link between the HPO framework and firm performance using multiple regression. The findings revealed that three out of the five HPO factors, namely continuous improvement and renewal, and workforce quality and long-term orientation have positive influences on firm performance. The findings have useful implications for managers of companies in emerging countries.

This study investigates the relationship between Management Innovation and Organisational Performance with the High Performance Organisation (HPO) factors of Continuous Improvement and Renewal, Workforce Quality and Long-term Orientation as mediators. From a survey among 186 managers of the insurance industry in Ghana and with the use of PLS-SEM, the results show that Management Innovation appears to have a direct influence on Organisational Performance but when Management Innovation is combined with the HPO factors, it generates a synergy to increase Organisations to become HPOs in an emerging market context.

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A means of measuring the effect of final demand variations and structural changes on the output of the distributive trades is developed. A review of the marketing literature finds conceptual shortcomings that limit the results ofprevious work. General systems theory serves as the basis for trade-flow table analysis, which addresses some of these shortcomings. This type of analysis can be applied in cross-sectional and longitudinal comparative studies.

An extended SERVQUAL instrument is developed, validated and used to measure perceived service quality delivered to students by business schools in an emerging market economy. A longitudinal survey is conducted with selected students in their final year of study from two business schools in an emerging market economy. The use of the extended SERVQUAL model is suggested to monitor student/employee expectations and perceptions during and after the education service delivery process. Students attach different weights to the service quality dimensions. A new Process Outcome dimension is found to substantially add to the SERVQUAL model and is more important than the other dimensions. The validity of the extended SERVQUAL model for practical use is α >0.95. Prediction of the level of service quality delivered, using four dimensions, indicates that the level of service quality is explained mostly by Process Outcome and Tangibles dimensions. It is suggested that using the extended SERVQUAL model as a tool can enable managers of business schools to identify the factors on which students/employees base their quality assessment of the education services they receive. Knowledge of these factors will enable managers in emerging economies to periodically assess, sustain and improve quality of the whole service delivery process. Priorities can be set to allocate scarce resources properly to make effective investment decisions to improve quality per school and in higher education, in general. The paper further suggests that regulatory bodies make use of this model when comparing performance of business schools, focusing on student experiences as a supplement to the traditional performance measures.