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Cost and schedule overruns are rife in dam projects. Normative evidence espouses overruns as though they are inimical to development and prosperity aspirations of stakeholders. This study examines the causal relationship between project financing and overruns.

Causative data were extracted from completion reports of 28 major dam projects in Africa. Each of the projects was financed jointly by up to 10 international development lenders. Relationships between causes of overruns and project outcomes were analysed.

Analyses elicit indicators of remarkable correlations between finance procedures and project outcomes. Lenders’ disposition to risk attenuation was the main debacles to project success. Interests had mounted, whilst release of fund was erratic and ill-timed. Finance objectives and mechanisms were grossly inadequate for projects’ intense bifurcations. Projects had slowed or stalled because lenders’ risks attenuation processes were purposed to favour lenders’ objectives, and not projects’ interests. In addition, findings also show project owners’ own funds and the number of lenders to a single project correlate with overruns.

Findings imply commercial complexities around major projects. They also show transactions are shaped by subtle (mis)trust behaviours in project finance procedures. Thus, scholarly solutions to project performance issues should consider behavioural issues of stakeholding parties more broadly, beyond contractors and project owners. Project finance ecosystems are vulnerable to major actors’ self-interests, opportunism and predatory conducts. Borrowers would manage this by developing and improving their capacity to build resilience and trust. Evidence shows intense borrower nations in Africa have limited capacity and acuity for these.

This study contextualises megaprojects in complexity rather than cost. Its additionality is in how finance steers absolute control of project environment away from project owners and how finance administration triggers risks and overrun.

Is access to finance a constraint for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) development or a result of SMEs constraint? Considering the demand-side of the credit market, this paper aims to assess the effect of nonfinancial services (NFS) on financial access through demand for financing (direct effect) and access to finance (indirect effect).

Using data from a five-year comprehensive entrepreneurship program on a package of technical assistance, the author uses two impact assessment methods: before/after and propensity score matching approaches.

The author found significant changes in business practices for treated SMEs and entrepreneurs since both the number and frequency of good business practices increased for most of the SMEs in the program with a positive turnover effect. Evidence of the positive effects of NFS on demand for financing is found in SMEs but this does not involve more access to finance. Despite positive changes in business practices, small-size entrepreneurs continue to self-exclude for financing.

Different pass-throughs are operating within this “recycling” of entrepreneurial resources over time. The author shows the effectiveness of the knowledge on financing mechanism, financial conditions and government financial support, even if these mechanisms do not seem to lead to a significant improvement in access to finance.

The purpose of this study was to leverage agency theory to examine the impact of board attributes on cash flow management in Ghana’s financial institutions.

Data for the study was collected from the annual published financial statements of selected financial institutions, which were obtained from their respective websites. The sampling technique used was purposive, resulting in the selection of 15 financial institutions in Ghana, of which 10 were listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange and 5 were non-listed. The study covered a period of 10 years, ranging from 2011 to 2020. The two-step generalized method of moments estimation was used to determine the relationship between the board attributes and cash flow management.

The study found that board size had a positive and significant influence on net cash flow from operating, investing and financing activities. The study also discovered that the proportion of nonexecutive directors had a positive and significant influence on net cash flow from operating, investing and financing activities. In addition, it was revealed that the proportion of female directors on the board exhibited a positive and significant influence on net cash flow from operating activities but a negative and significant influence on net cash flow from investing and financing activities.

The study recommends increasing female representation on corporate boards to 25%, as women bring valuable skills, knowledge and experience that positively impact the financial institutions’ cash flows.

This study focused on the impact of board attributes on cash flow management within Ghana. It explored how corporate governance affects strategic decisions related to cash flow management, contributing original insights to this field of research.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of quality loss in transit on e-commerce supply chain pricing, production and financing decisions.

The authors consider a Stackelberg game model with a supplier, logistics firm and e-commerce platform. The logistics firm is capital-constrained and obtains funding from the e-commerce platform by debt financing or equity financing. Through backward induction, this paper first solves the equilibrium results under the two financing schemes and then reveals the financing preferences of all parties.

The results demonstrate that equity financing reduces financing costs and promotes production significantly. However, it may also lead to overproduction, particularly in markets with poor profitability and high cost factors. When the percentage of product quality loss is large, equity financing is preferable. With the increasing of transportation level, the benefits of debt finance are steadily growing. In addition, equity financing is the Pareto dominant scheme for all firms under certain circumstances. The extensions consider hybrid financing and another quality loss type.

The paper derives the equilibrium solutions and financing preferences, then specifies the threshold for applying financing schemes. Provide guidance for logistics firms’ finance model innovation and core enterprise involvement in the logistics industry.

The paper investigates how logistics firms’ financing strategies are impacted by product quality loss.

Commercial banks are the catalysts for meeting the financing needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, not all commercial banks are equally attractive to SMEs because of differences in banking services’ key attributes. Moreover, customers’ preferences vary between Islamic and conventional banks. This paper aims to identify factors motivating SMEs to establish business ties with banks in Oman.

The authors collected data from 217 SMEs through a questionnaire survey. The data were analyzed using a t-test and structural equation modeling (SEM). In addition, the research applies the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework.

The t-test results show that SMEs place greater emphasis on electronic banking, convenient locations, religious beliefs and favorable terms and conditions. The results from the SEM analysis show that the SMEs in Oman consider attractive packages, including favorable rates, transaction processing time, fees and the availability of technology-enabled services, when choosing a bank. Moreover, customers who are aware of Islamic banking products are optimistic about the future of Shariah-based banking.

As a Muslim-majority country, Oman lags behind its Gulf Cooperative Council peers in terms of the development of the Islamic banking system. For the success of this mode of financing, it is essential to know which factors SMEs prioritize to establish ties with Islamic banks. Hence, the research is expected to provide new information for bank management to devise financial products attractive to investors.

We expand the recent literature on the dynamics of capital structure decisions by investigating the impact of national culture on firms' optimal debt ratios and their dynamic re-adjustment process. To this end, we aim at estimating firm-specific speeds of leverage adjustment, allowing for heterogeneous dynamics in firms' capital structure.

We use dynamic panel data estimators to analyze the impact of cultural factors on the dynamics of debt ratios.

We show that national culture affects the optimal level of leverage and the dynamic rebalancing of debt ratios, both directly and indirectly, by altering the effect of firm characteristics and macroeconomic factors on firms' financing behavior. Firms converge faster towards the optimal leverage in countries with a stronger attitude to conform with the norm, while they are slower where there is a higher propensity to intellectual autonomy. A higher risk aversion and long-run propensity induce over-levered firms to reduce leverage faster, making the adjustment process strongly asymmetric. Moreover, national culture also produces indirect effects by mitigating the impact of asymmetric information on capital structure decisions. Indeed, firms in more individualistic countries display a lower speed of adjustment and a stronger effect of firm characteristics associated with higher agency costs. On the contrary, firms in countries with a higher tendency to conform to social norms, less individualistic and more long-term oriented have a higher adjustment speed and appear to suffer less from agency issues. Our results therefore highlight how national culture affects agency problems within firms, thus suggesting the adoption of country-specific corporate governance provisions accounting for the effects of local cultural traits on managers' behavior.

We expand the capital structure and governance literature by showing how cultural traits impact on the dynamics of debt ratios. In particular, we show how cultural traits may mitigate or exacerbate the role of agency issues on firms' behavior, hence suggesting that cultural factors may interact with governance rules in shaping firms' decisions. Therefore, our work highlights how policy-makers should include cultural aspects when defining regulation concerning corporate governance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ongoing revival of industrial and innovation policies across developed and developing economies.

The paper compare the scale and scope of recent industrial and innovation policy initiatives across developed and developing economies. Also, it analyzes recent data regarding R&D investments and other innovation indicators.

There are enormous disparities across economies in their capacity to implement industrial policies, particularly those to support science, technology and innovation. Most developed economies, and a few developing economies, are implementing bold, ambitious and medium-term innovation policies towards bolstering R&D investments, supporting advanced manufacturing and green energies and strengthening technological capabilities. Amid lack of fiscal policy space and vulnerable debt sustainability positions, institutional deficiencies and weak innovation ecosystems, developing economies – particularly in Africa and Latin America – face enormous challenges to implement strategic industrial and innovation policies.

Under the current economic, financing and institutional conditions, together with subdued global trade and ongoing geopolitical fragmentation, the technological divide and innovation asymmetries across economies will likely widen even further, paving the ground for a “development divergence” in the coming decade.

The paper analyzes the implications of the current industrial and innovation policy trends across developed and developing countries. Under the current economic, financing and institutional conditions, together with subdued global trade and ongoing geopolitical fragmentation, the technological divide and innovation asymmetries across economies will likely widen even further, paving the ground for a “development divergence” in the coming decade.

We are the first to investigate the relationship between seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and anchoring on historical high prices in China.

We use the ratio of the recent closing price to its historical high in the previous 12–60 months (anchoring-high-price ratio) to study its impact on the market timing of SEOs.

Empirical results show that the anchoring-high-price ratio significantly and positively affects the probability of additional stock issuances. Contrary to the USA market, the Chinese stock market reacts negatively to the SEOs at historical highs. Moreover, the anchoring-high-price ratio exacerbates the negative effect of announcements and leads to long-term underperformance. Finally, we investigate the impact of the anchoring-high-price ratio on a company’s capital structure, showing that the additional issuance anchoring on historical highs reduces the company’s leverage ratio in the long run. Overall, our findings support the anchoring theory and can help understand better the anchoring behavior of managers and the company’s decision on additional stock issuances.

We are the first to use the anchoring-high-price ratio to study the timing of SEOs. We find that the anchoring-high-price ratio positively affects the probability of SEOs. Unlike the USA, the Chinese stock market reacts negatively to SEOs at high prices. SEOs anchoring on historical highs reduce a firm’s leverage ratio in the long run. Finally, our results support the anchoring theory.

This study examines why low-wealth women entrepreneurs forgo mobile enabled money services and government supported micro finance for informal, community-based revolving loans in rural Nigeria.

Thematic analysis of 25 interviews with women in rural, south-west Nigeria. Entrepreneurial ecosystem theory, in the gendered context of micro finance and community-based lending, is employed.

This study explains the paradox of forgoing seemingly accessible mobile enabled credit, and formal credit schemes (e.g. micro-finance programs) for informal, one-on-one borrowing. Convenience and trust-based relationships with respected community members ease the burden of time scarcity and vulnerability associated with formal capital. Flexible terms, autonomy, self-reliance and knowing who one is dealing with make Esusu a preferred source of finance. Findings are discussed in the context of gendered entrepreneurial ecosystems in which participants conduct business.

The sample is not representative of women entrepreneurs in rural Nigeria. Survivorship bias is acknowledged. Further research is needed on the psychological risks of informal capital and the benefits of community-based lending.

Measures to scale mobile enabled credit, without commensurate interventions to address time management and other structural issues that confront women traders, limit their utility and impacts. Power differentials between women traders and lenders must also be considered in the design of lending products. Training of women traders and formal lenders should incorporate curricula about gender gaps in capital markets and systematic gender challenges to support entrepreneurs who seek to grow beyond subsistence enterprises.

This study documents decision criteria that motivate informal rural women traders to employ community-based revolving credit or Esusu. Findings inform measures to increase women entrepreneurs' access to capital in a rural sub-Saharan Africa contexts.

Energy poverty presents substantial challenges for both developed and developing nations, with the latter experiencing more pronounced adverse effects due to issues related to the provision and equitable access of energy resources. This study aims to provide a deep understanding of how financial development, economic complexity and government expenditures can impact energy poverty.

This research employs generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on panel data to investigate the economic determinants of energy poverty in 31 developing countries from 2000 to 2020. For a comprehensive analysis, the proxies for energy poverty include access to electricity, access to clean fuels and energy consumption.

The findings suggest that while financial development cannot facilitate access to clean fuels in developing countries, it contributes to an increase in energy access and consumption. Another finding is that energy poverty can be alleviated by enhancing economic complexity since economic complexity can result in increased access to electricity and increased use of clean energy sources. Furthermore, the results underscore the pivotal role of government expenditures, surpassing the influence of financial development. In other words, government expenditures have the potential to significantly improve energy poverty across all three indices.

This is a pioneering research that seeks to examine some economic dynamics including, financial development and economic complexity on energy poverty and provide valuable guidance for policymakers aiming to promote sustainable energy development with respect to economic dynamics.