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Minister for Business Development, Awal Ibrahim has stated that government is collaborating with academia to improve the business environment in the country.

He said government was committed to developing businesses and making the business environment competitive by making sure there is evidence and information on the various businesses.

The Minister made this known at the opening of the 2017 executive doctoral research conference held in Accra yesterday.

He said: “Government cannot take decisions on whims but any decision must be based on evidence; therefore we think academia collaborating with industry and businesses would give them the facts and figures.”

He said SMEs face lots of problems, and some of these problems are lack of credible information that would help them grow, and as a ministry, they are working towards assisting them.

The conference was aimed at bringing together leading academic scientists, researchers and doctoral students to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of business and management. 

It also provided a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns, as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the field.

The theme for this year’s event was ‘Applying Evidence-based Research to effective management’.

According to Prof Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, from Nobel International Business School (NiBS), said one key factor hampering gains being made by today’s managers is the lack of evidence for proper decision making. 

He said: “The starting point for evidence-based management is that management decisions should be based on a combination of critical thinking and the best available evidence. 

“And by ‘evidence’, we mean information, facts or data supporting (or contradicting) a claim, assumption or hypothesis. Evidence may come from scientific research, but internal business information and even professional experience can count as ‘evidence’.”

The event also saw persons who are heads of public or private institutions of higher learning in research positions, current doctoral candidates (PhD/DBA) from accredited universities in the area of business, management, economics, finance and/or related fields, doctoral students from NiBS, scholars who are actively involved in business & management research, executives in leadership positions interested in using theory to solve practical issues, research fellows and assistants, and accredited not-for-profit organisations that require research for their work attending.