The impact of COVID-19 on businesses has manifested in different degrees across the globe. Yet, literature has not classified firms regarding their resilience to the pandemic. This paper applied the latent class analysis approach to the 2020 World Bank Enterprise Survey of the Gauteng province in South Africa to categorise the businesses’ resilience to COVID-19 impacts regarding their operations and short-term finances. The study found evidence to suggest that 79% and 13% of businesses suffered operational and short-term financial constraints, respectively. The study concluded that many South Africa’s businesses did not show high resilience to the pandemic, corroborated by the latest bankruptcy filing surge. The study has implications for targeted intervention application. The study recommended ongoing collection of similar data to gauge businesses’ health at regular intervals.

Education and moral values influence human behaviour, including intention to engage in actions that are beneficial to the society. Increasing research effort has recently focused on sustainable human behaviour, but research that explores the role of sustainability-oriented marketing education (SME) and morality in stimulating sustainable actions, such as sustainable consumption, seems to be missing in the literature. The purpose of this research is to examine how SME and morality influence sustainable consumption intentions among university students, basing on an extended theory of planned behaviour. An online quantitative survey of Management Science students in Nigerian Universities was conducted. Data analysis was based on the SmartPLS structural equation modeling. Findings suggest that SME relates positively with all the constructs, while morality influences sustainable consumption intention and fully mediates the relationship between SME and sustainable consumption intention. However, attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control emerged as non-significant determinants of sustainable consumption intention.

The quantitative study reported in this article applied the diffusion of innovation theory (DOI) to predict the purchase intention for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Data were collected through an online survey involving 504 individuals in Gauteng, South Africa. The multiple regression technique was applied to the DOI model to test the proposed hypotheses of the study. Results indicate that relative advantage, compatibility and observability relate positively to PHEV purchase intention, while complexity is regarded as negative in that regard. On the other hand, trialability has no positive relation to PHEV purchase intention. The findings of this study can assist producers and marketers in crafting marketing strategies that can appeal to consumers and also increase their intention to purchase of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Seaports are fundamentally connectivity points in the global economic system, especially container ports, which are supportive and well-connected to major global trade routes. Regular and dependable services from shipping are critical to lowering the costs of trade, particularly transportation expenses, integrating supply chains, and enabling global trade. For Nigeria, trade costs seem to be an impediment to international trade development, and improving trade logistics performance is crucial to enhancing nations' trade acceptability. Field surveys were conducted in some selected seaports and outward environments, and hypotheses were examined in order to assess the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the ports' facilities and activities. The result revealed that logistics costs, customs effectiveness, quality of infrastructure, government policies, and logistics service deliveries have significant effects on the development of seaborne trade in Nigeria. Therefore, institutional improvements will lower logistics costs, providing opportunities to expand seaborne trade, and benefit consumers worldwide through competitive freight costs.

In South Africa (SA), business rescue was introduced in 2011 to assist financially distressed companies. However, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered an avalanche of economic uncertainties, and in 2020, SA became the fifth highest country affected by COVID-19 infections, resulting in a total shutdown of all businesses, except for essential services. The combined effect of lockdown levels and collapses in supply chains resulted in a 42% increase in companies filing for business rescue between April and October 2020. This study diagnosed the shortcomings of the current business rescue legislation, in the context of a pandemic, which could have affected the financial rehabilitation of those companies applying for business rescue. The discussion is grounded on existing business rescue literature. This study comprised of a critical review of existing literature, as a methodology to conduct the study. The study identified several shortcomings such as inadequate time frames for the business rescue process, insufficient definition of reasonable prospect and a lack of procedures for a company filing for business rescue in a pandemic that could have impacted distressed companies and compromised prospects of resuscitation. The study recommends that amendments be made to current legislation as a panacea for distressed companies due to COVID-19.

This paper investigated the role of international trade and agricultural production on economic growth in Somalia by utilising annual time series data stretching from 1989 to 2019. Gross domestic product (GDP) was the dependent variable, while exports, imports and agricultural production were the explanatory variables of this study. Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) test were used to examine the unit root of the data, and all the variables were stationary both at the first difference I(1). Moreover, the study used the Johansen co-integration method and the Granger-Causality test to analyse the long-run cointegration and direction causality of the interested variables respectively. According to the result of the analysis, Johansson and Julius method revealed that there is long-run cointegration between international trade, agricultural production and economic growth in Somalia. The results also showed that there is more than one co-integrating vector as provided by both trace and max statistics which is less than the critical value at the 5% significance level. All explanatory variables such as exports, imports and agricultural production are positively related to GDP with coefficients of 0.332%, 0.2601% and 1.0685% respectively. Interpretively, a one percent change in exports, imports and agricultural production will increase GDP by about 0.332%, 0.2601 and 1.0685% respectively. Furthermore, the consistency of this result has been confirmed by an autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) robustly. In contrast, we found that there is strong evidence of unidirectional causality from agricultural production to economic growth and also from agricultural production to exports. Based on the empirical findings, the study recommended to policymakers to enact policies that enhance agricultural production and trade openness, since they are essential to economic growth.

Mobile telecommunications service providers outsource a range of activities like logistics, assembly operations, manufacturing and design. However, little research has been conducted to empirically evaluate the impact of business process outsourcing (BPO) on the company's operational performance. This research tried to redress the existing knowledge gap and the limited body of literature by proposing a framework to evaluate the impact of BPO in the mobile telecommunications industry using cost and profitability as the underpinning quantitative performance measurements. A structured closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect raw data from 210 employees. Descriptive and chi-square tests were conducted to establish the statistically significant relationship between business process outsourcing and the operational performance of mobile telecommunications. The results reflected a statistically significant relationship between implementation of BPO and cost and profitability. The results will help the corporate management to make decisions of outsourcing based on quantifiable metrics instead of managerial estimates. While the study confined itself to the mobile telecommunications companies, more research can be conducted in other South African industries most notably banks, hospitals, car assembling and learning institutions that are also important BPO hubs worthy of further examination.

This study examines the relationship between government expenditure and government revenue in Nigeria, covering the period 1981 to 2019. The Johansen technique and the VECX model were employed as econometric techniques of data analysis. This study confirms the existence of a positive long-run relationship between government expenditure and government revenue and that the expenditure elasticity of revenue is greater than unity thus confirming fiscal sustainability in Nigeria. The long-run relationship between government expenditure and government revenue is further shown in this study, how it determines the nature of the impact of deficit financing (debt) on the economy, and that expenditure elasticity below unity is not desirable. Further, the result of the VECX-based granger causality revealed that the spend-revenue hypothesis of Peacock & Wiseman (1961) holds for Nigeria's economy both in the short and long runs. The federal government of Nigeria is thus advised to set targets for revenue mobilization and utilization as well as devise a way of expenditure spreading over the entire economy.

The economy of Ghana relies heavily on the retail industry and the establishment of shopping malls in the past decade has added a boost to the industry. However, little empirical research exists regarding shoppers’ experience value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions within shopping malls in Ghana. This study sought to close this gap by investigating the influence of shoppers’ experience value on satisfaction and behavioural intentions within selected shopping malls in Ghana; evaluate the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on shoppers’ experience value and behavioural intentions; and propose a model of customer experience value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in the context of shopping malls in Ghana. The survey was conducted in the four largest shopping malls in Ghana. Through a quantitative methodology and purposive sampling, 500 usable copies of the questionnaire were included in the data analysis, and IBM SPSS (version 26) and AMOS computer software were used to perform the statistical analysis. The findings showed that shoppers’ experience value influences customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Customer satisfaction was found to influence behavioural intentions but does not act as a mediating variable between shoppers’ experience value and behavioural intentions within shopping malls in Ghana. It is recommended that shopping mall managers consider customer experience value as a multidimensional construct to stage a rewarding experience for customers. The latter will contribute positively to customers’ satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Recent theoretical arguments regarding financial institutions and capital market relationships signpost a paradigm shift from a superiority to interdependence. This study investigated the interplay between potential capital market development and bank performance in an emerging market context. To achieve its objective, the study used primary data collected through interviews with subject matter experts, consultants and seasoned leaders. The AHP and DEMATEL multi-criteria models were employed to establish a level of importance and interdependence relationships. AHP results in descending order indicate liquidity, capital adequacy, asset quality, profitability and efficiency as key performance indicators of banks in Ethiopia. The bank-market interdependence analysis projects market capitalisation, efficiency and asset quality as causes for the group and liquidity, trade volume and profitability as effects for the group. The study predicted competitive interdependence in future bank-market interplay in Ethiopia. Following the competition from the capital market, Ethiopian banks will have lower liquidity, improved service, and a higher interest rate structure. To mitigate a potential liquidity crunch, the study proposed lowering asset maturity periods and raising capital adequacy as plausible central bank policy measures.

The absence of high-frequency time series data is a real constraint for many researchers worldwide. Generating high-frequency economic data, especially at the sub-national level, generates significant advantages and opportunities. Research otherwise impossible now becomes possible and indeed desirable. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the usefulness of several temporal disaggregation methods and the reliability of the derived results. Temporal disaggregation is one such method that can be used to generate high-frequency time series data from low-frequency time series data. The methods employed will specifically refer to methods that use related series as the high-frequency time series data related to the South African economy. To this effect, monthly night-time lights sensed by satellite were assessed. The results derived through the study seem to generate robust estimates suggesting that it is indeed possible to use night-time lights as a related indicator and the various temporal disaggregation methods contained within the Ecotrim computer software program and ‘tempdisagg’ R package to disaggregate annual national and provincial gross domestic product (GDP). The derived quarterly and monthly national and provincial GDP time series/data will subsequently assist in addressing the constraints researchers face, especially at a sub-national level. From a policy perspective, policymakers should note that remote sensing technologies offer unique opportunities to conduct sub-national economic policy and research.

A proper understanding of the high demands and sophisticated changes in customers’ needs in developing economies has made the study of service quality imperative in this 21st century banking operations. This study focused on the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction of banking services in developing economies, such as Nigeria. The research designs for this study were cross-sectional survey and phenomenological research. Topman formula was used to derive the sample size of 947 customers of commercial banks that participated in the study. Data were obtained from the questionnaire. Standard multiple regression analysis was employed for data analysis. Findings from the study revealed that there is a significant joint effect of service quality factors (service attractiveness, customer friendliness, bank automation effectiveness and safe transactions) on customer satisfaction. The study concluded that attractive services, customer friendliness, effective bank automation services, and safe transactions to customers are potentials for business re-engineering in organisations, especially in the banking sector.

One of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic was on shopping behaviour patterns due to lockdown restrictions and social distancing requirements. In this study, South African and German millennials (those born between 1980 and 2002) are analyzed to determine their buying behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020. We demonstrate the choices of purchases amongst millennials between the two countries, that is, South Africa as an emerging and Germany as an advanced economy. This study shows how consumers' choice was influenced by the pandemic before, during, and after the first lockdown. Making use of an online survey (meaning accessing millennials with internet access in both countries), it was found from a data set of 949 millennials in Germany and 676 millennials in South Africa that millennial’s shopping behaviour varied for specific product categories before, during and after the lockdown. As a result, this study concluded by providing recommendations for retailers, policymakers and researchers taking into account a pandemic scenario.

Unauthorised extra-budgetary expenditures continue to pose threats to achieving and sustaining fiscal stability. It has resulted in budget overruns which have contributed to the rapid growth in government spending and borrowing pushing countries down toward an unsustainable economic path. It is against these that this paper sought to critically review unauthorised extra-budgetary expenditure, antecedents, and consequences. The paper applied fraud triangle theory (FTT) to conceptualise antecedents of unauthorised extra-budgetary expenditure. Three factors have been identified as antecedents of extra-budgetary expenditures through a critical analysis of the fraud triangle theory. These are budgetary system failure, political economy, and community of economy. The paper sought papers from Google scholar, Google, and Scopus databases. Scopus database was used to conduct bibliometric analysis using the “Biblioshiny” function in the “bibliometrix” package subsequent to the development of the theoretical framework and manual search from Google and Google scholar to determine the depth of empirical studies on the subject. The paper proposed three propositions and a theoretical framework to guide future research. It was also revealed that unauthorised extra-budgetary expenditure limits the success of fiscal consolidation. It is also deleterious to budgetary gains and savings and will adversely affect the health of economies. It also pushes an economy toward a distressing economic path through high public debts to finance such expenditures.