Title: Consumer acceptance of irradiation for sterilisation: a systemic approach to the case of medical items and food in Ghana

Authors: Kwamina Ewur Banson

Addresses: Department of Technology Transfer Centre (TTC), Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute (BNARI), Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), P.O. Box LG80, Legon-Accra, Ghana; Systems Design and Complexity Management, Business School, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

Abstract: The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) commercialises irradiation sterilisation since 2010. Capacity-building using a 'systems thinking' approach during series of stakeholder workshops and interviews has shown a remarkable impact on factors influencing adoption, and challenges involved in irradiation sterilisation. Results indicated that the adoption of irradiation sterilisation increases as end-users acquired knowledge about its efficiency. However, the benefits of optimising the adoption of irradiation sterilisation are in direct conflict with more demand leading to 'waiting in lines', creating resistance to complete confirmation. To increase the utilisation of the facility, GAEC must adopt a more interactive system to avoid queueing. This paper demonstrates the practical approach of 'systems thinking' using the evolutionary learning laboratory for marketing practices, monitoring and evaluation to replace old business marketing and management models. With regard to the important contribution irradiation can have on the improvement of public health, it may usher a greater potential for investors.

Keywords: irradiation sterilisation; causal loop diagrams; adoption process; Bayesian belief network; BBN; traditional methods; systems thinking; complexity; strategic management; technology transfer; awareness creation; Ghana; consumer acceptance; food irradiation; food sterilisation; queueing; medical items; medical devices; sterility assurance; gamma radiation; evolutionary learning laboratory; ELLab.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMABS.2015.070283

International Journal of Markets and Business Systems, 2015 Vol.1 No.1, pp.70 - 92

Received: 19 Nov 2014
Accepted: 09 Feb 2015
Published online: 01 Jul 2015 *

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