Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies

1-22

Authors: Kafigi Jeje

SMEs are the major drivers of socioeconomic development of many economies. In order to influence economic growth, SMEs must be capable of enhancing their competiveness, growth, and sustainability. These capabilities are acquired by SMEs that understand and adopt entrepreneurial strategies that work. There is abundant literature confirming that one of these entrepreneurial strategies include risk-taking practices. SMEs are still facing challenges to understand and apply the right risk-taking strategies that influence their performance. We therefore characterize risk-taking as risk planning, risk controlling, and strategic risk initiatives, and seek to establish their contribution on SME performance. This study draws lessons from the risk management practices of small and medium-sized bakeries in Tanzania where agriculture, a sector that directly relates with bakery business, is one of the leading sectors in driving economic growth. We adopt a multi-stage sampling technique and receive responses from 161 questionnaires, and 20 in depth interviews from bakery owners/managers throughout Tanzania. The principal component analysis, qualitative content analysis (manifest analysis), and the moderator analysis are used in analyzing these data. We ascertain that both the firm age, and the gender of the owner/manager moderate the relationship between risk-taking strategies and SME performance. We argue that SMEs have the responsibilities of improving their risk-taking practices and capabilities in order to drive their competitiveness. Additionally, SMEs need to employ their efforts and resources in supporting their risk management initiatives, and integrate them in their business operations, and policy development practices, and ultimately advance their sustainability.

32-52

Authors: Pabai Fofanah

The objective of this paper has been to investigate the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade in the context of exports, imports, and the trade balance in West Africa. Applying the pooled Ordinary Least Square, the fixed effects, and the random effect models, and obtaining robust estimates for export and trade balance models by employing xtgls, panels (correlated) Corr (ar1), and adopting xtscc, fe regression with Driscoll-Kraay standard error to estimate the import model. The empirical results show that the impact of exchange rate volatility on exports and imports is insignificant. However, the result of the trade balance model shows a positive and significant link between exchange rate volatility and the trade balance. Thus, suggesting that traders tend to engage more in export activities with an increase in exchange rate volatility. Also, the analysis suggests that depreciation of the real exchange rate will lead to a decrease in exports. Thereby, confirming the limited production capability and heavy reliance on imported goods and services. Hence, this study recommends diversification of production activities and adopting strategies aiming at reducing dependence on imported goods and services. The empirical result shows a positive association between an increase in domestic economic activities of trading partners and exports of the West African countries. This implies that West African countries must engage in trade with countries that have a high economic growth rate. The result also shows a positive link between inflation rate and imports. This suggests the implementation of effective monetary policies geared towards controlling inflation.

65-69

Authors: Oktavia Nurlianto, Khoirul Aswar

This research begins with the problem of the Indonesian Minister of Finance recognizing cities and districts in Indonesia have a low level of compliance regarding financial reports and the Supreme Audit Board (BPK) has published a report that highlights compliance issues in the local government of Indonesia based on the Summary of First Semester Examination Results in 2019 there is a problem of the level of compliance of local government related to the disclosure of financial statements in Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors influencing the degree of mandatory disclosure to local governments in Java and Sumatra Islands. This study has three objectives namely to find out the number of local parliamentarians, local government budget spending, existence of an assistance and training program for disclosure financial statement. Therefore, this research contributes to provide an illustration for local governments in measuring financial statement disclosures.

1-8

Authors: Brian Tavonga Mazorodze

This paper quantifies the threshold effect of external debt on economic growth in Zimbabwe between 1980 and 2016. Results from the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) technique confirm that external debt (up to 57% of GDP) raises economic growth. Beyond the 57% of GDP threshold, external debt lowers growth. A separate analysis of variance shows that the mean GDP per capita is lower by 11% when external debt exceeds 57%. From the sample average, the 57% of GDP threshold suggests that debt stock above 4.7 billion USD can be detrimental to the country’s long-run growth prospects. Currently, Zimbabwe’s external debt is standing at over 11 billion USD which is way above the estimated threshold level. Therefore, the policy implication arising from this paper is that the country’s Finance Minister needs to pursue debt-reduction strategies given that the country’s stock of external debt is already sitting in the growth-reducing territory.

17-26

Authors: Egwakhe, A. J., Falana, R. B., Asikhia, O. O., Magaji, N.

The authors argued from business strategies perspective to understand competitive advantage among homogenous producers. The population consisted of top and functional managers of flour mill companies in Lagos State, Nigeria. Cross sectional survey research design was adopted and primary data were collated and used. The research instrument was an adapted questionnaire. Its validity and reliability were statistically determined. Six hundred and twenty copies of the questionnaire were administered and 605 retrieved. Econometric equation was formulated and multiple regression analysis was employed for data analysis. Business strategies were found to have significantly affected competitive advantage. The study recommended product differentiation and portfolio diversification in order to achieve competitive advantage.

34-56

Authors: Pabai Fofanah

The regression and the vector autoregressive VAR models are employed in this analysis. I use the auto-distributed lag regression model to estimate both the short and long-run impacts. In the VAR model, orthogonalized impulse response functions are employed to estimate the short-run. The regression result shows that while the depreciation of the real exchange rate RER increases aggregate cocoa and coffee exports AGX in the current year, this variable is not significant in determining AGX in Sierra Leone. This is because AGX has a long gestation period and until this period is over; suppliers cannot raise their output and hence exports. The negative effect of the one-period lag of the RER variable on AGX can be attributed to the fact that in the long run, depreciation in the nominal exchange rate leads to real exchange rate depreciation. This will lead to an increase in the cost of imported farming inputs in domestic currency terms. The reduction in imports that follows decreases the output and hence cocoa and coffee exports. However, this variable is not significant in determining AGX in Sierra Leone. An increase in the orthogonalized shock to the first difference of the RER causes a short series of increases in the first differences of AGX followed by a decrease, followed by an increase that dies out after four periods. The null hypothesis that the lag of the first difference of RER does not Granger-cause the lag of the first difference of AGX cannot be rejected. The paper concludes that in the short and long term, the government should not use the depreciation of the real exchange rate as a policy tool to promote the total export of cocoa and coffee products.

1-6

Authors: KOLAPO T. Funso, Naheem Abiola Lawal

This article looked at the connection between exchange rate risk and financial sector performance in Nigeria using time series data from 2008Q1 to 20017Q4. The study employed Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH), and Granger Causality tests as estimation techniques. Financial intermediation index was used as the dependent variable while risk from exchange rate, risk from consumer price index and risk from interest rate were used as the independent variables. The findings from the study showed that exchange rate risk (EXR) coefficient value was -0.276230 with p-value of 0.0000, implying that EXR was negative and significant to influence FII. The risk from financial intermediation index reveals a coefficient value of -5.213590 and the p-value of 0.000 implying that when financial intermediation index increases, volatility or risk reduces which means that financial intermediation index was not a risky variable which was significant during the study period. However, the study concluded that the shock from exchange rate moves at a negative and significant direction to financial intermediation index of the economy. It is also concluded that exchange rate and financial intermediation index does not have uni or bi-directional relationships between each other. It is recommended that the Government and the Apex Bank of Nigeria are encouraged to increase the stabilization measurement for exchange rate to cushion its risk and by so doing; this could improve financial sector performance.

22-37

Authors: Alex Madzikova, Gwendoline Vusumuzi Nani

This study sought to find out the role of intrapreneurship on the growth of iron and steel manufacturing companies in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. A post-positivist paradigm, a mixed method approach and a cross sectional design were adopted for the investigation. Three hundred and fifteen (315) middle management and supervisory staff drawn from twenty-two (22) iron and steel manufacturing companies in Bulawayo participated. Multiple stratified random sampling and heterogeneous purposive sampling were used to choose two hundred (200) respondents for the quantitative study and eight participants for the qualitative study respectively. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews were the data collecting instruments for quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and qualitative data was thematically analysed. Findings revealed that innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking were the key dimensions of intrapreneurship. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses showed the prominent measures of company growth in the iron and steel manufacturing companies as financial, employee numbers, productivity, and product range. Statistically intrapreneurship was found to be correlated to the growth of the iron and steel manufacturing companies. The study drew the following conclusions. Firstly, intrapreneurship is not a preferred strategy for driving growth in the iron and steel manufacturing companies in Bulawayo. Secondly, financial and product range were identified as the key measures of company growth. Thirdly, company support for intrapreneurship and individual’s intrapreneurial disposition were statistically linked to company growth. The study recommended that companies should motivate and support employees’ innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking through ideas, actions and work. Measurement of company growth should be expanded to include qualitative measures.

46-54

Authors: Misheck Mutize, Ejigayhu Tefera, McBride Nkhalamba

This paper explores trends and challenges in the development of African financial markets over the past two decades. Access to capital is essential for government to finance its budget and the performance of government policies is in part evaluated through how financial asset prices respond to the policy choices. Erratic security issuance, thin trading, low turnover ratios and lack of market depth has characterised African financial markets as inefficient. Applying a descriptive research model on key data from international think tanks to observe the behaviour of financial markets data in African countries, the study finds that African financial markets still face the traditional challenge of lack of market depth relative to other regions in other continents due to their limit size and very low market capitalisation. This is a key factor holding back the ability of investors to exploit expansion opportunities. This paper recommends that, part of the solution to challenges faced by African financial markets is for governments to assist in set-up electronic trading platforms, improve trading and settlement infrastructure.