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The purpose of this paper is to use a dynamic model to investigate capital structure determinants for 178 firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the period 1998‐2008. The sample of firms is also used to examine the cost and speed of adjustment towards a target debt ratio.

A target adjustment model is estimated using a generalized method of moments technique to examine the cost and speed of adjustment towards a target debt ratio. The determinants of target capital structure for South African listed firms are also examined.

The results show that South African firms adjust relatively fast towards a target leverage level. It is also found that asset tangibility, growth, size and risk are positively related to leverage, while profitability and tax are negatively related to leverage. The results also suggest that capital structure decisions of South African listed firms follow both the pecking order and trade‐off theories of capital structure.

The sample chosen focused on listed firms, thus the results cannot credibly be generalized to all South African firms (listed and unlisted). Also, whilst a lot can be gleaned from the results, they may not be readily applicable to firms in other African countries.

The issue of dynamic adjustment towards a target or optimal debt ratio has not received sufficient attention in developing economies. Using data from an emerging economy, this paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature. A target adjustment model is estimated using a generalized method of moments technique.

The study aims to investigate the role of institutions, macroeconomic conditions, industry and firm characteristics on firm's capital structure decision within the context of nine African countries.

A sample of 986 firms over the period 1999-2008 were analysed using a series of models that link institutional, macroeconomic, industry and firm-specific characteristics, on the one hand, and measures of capital structure, on the other. The paper used system generalized method of moments and seemingly unrelated regression which are robust to data heterogeneity and endogeneity problems to estimate the relationships between variables. Furthermore, the paper checked the robustness of findings using various estimation procedures.

The paper found evidence that the legal and financial institutions, income level of the country in which a firm operates, growth rate of the economy and inflation matter in capital structure choices of firms in the sample countries. Furthermore, capital structure choice of firms in the sample countries was affected by industry and firm-specific characteristics. These findings signify the role that probability of bankruptcy, agency costs, transaction costs, tax issues, information asymmetry problems, access to finance and market timing play in capital structure decisions of firms in Africa.

As in most empirical studies, this study focused on listed firms. Nonetheless, future studies that focus on non-listed firms could add additional insights to the extant literature.

The findings have practical implications for corporate managers, governments, legislators and policymakers in the African continent.

The study focuses on firms in African countries for which cross-country studies such as this are rare. It also explicitly models industry variable as one of the determinants of capital structure, a marked departure from previous studies on capital structure decision of firms.

This study investigates the effect of corporate governance mechanisms and country-level factors on the extent of Internet Financial Reporting (IFR). We used a sample of 106 listed firms from five African countries. A financial reporting disclosure index was used to compute the aggregate IFR scores, which are made up of two components: content and presentation. Our results indicate that IFR relates to board size, firm size, country-level governance, economic development and index return. These results evidence the predominance of country-level factors over firm-specific factors in explaining the extent of IFR in Africa. It also shows that corporate governance mechanisms via board practices are insufficient to explain IFR in Africa. By further extending our analysis into the two components of IFR, we find that factors affecting the content and presentation dimensions are different. This study is among the first to investigate the extent of IFR in several African countries and adds to the existing evidence that has mainly focussed on firm-specific factors.

Although the impact of human capital on productivity has long been discussed in prior studies, empirical evidence for African firms remains limited. The existing few studies have focussed on one type of human capital in isolation and failed to explore the distinct role of different types of human capital on productivity. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which various typologies of human capital – schooling, on-the-job training (OJT) and slack time –, both in isolation and as a combination, contribute to the productivity of African firms.

To this end, a cross-sectional firm-level data set from 13 African countries was used. To unravel the casual relationship, propensity score matching (PSM) and multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression (MESTR) techniques were employed.

Results indicate that all typologies of human capital – schooling, slack time and OJT – have a significant and positive impact on firms' productivity. The findings of the study further point out that the highest payoff, in terms of increased productivity, is achieved when various typologies of human capital are used in combination, rather than in isolation, in the production process.

The policy implications are that productivity of African firms can be improved by increasing the general level of schooling; encouraging firm-sponsored OJT; and giving employees time to develop new ideas.

The present study provides important insights into the distinct role of different types of human capital on productivity. In addition, it provides empirical evidence for a region where empirical evidence is scant.

The study aims to seeks to ascertain the impact of corporate disclosure on foreign equity ownership. Corporate disclosures are important to for stock markets because it is an activity that mitigates information differences between company insiders and outsiders.

Corporate disclosures assume an even greater important when company outsiders are not domiciled in the same country as the company and the company insiders. In this study, the relation between foreign share ownership and corporate disclosures using data on Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria is examined.

The consistent results in this study are that foreign share ownership is positively related to firm size. A negative relation, however, between foreign share ownership and corporate disclosure is found, but this turns out to be related to disclosures about ownership, while disclosures on financial reporting and board management have a positive and insignificant statistical relation taking into account unobserved country, time and firm effects. Further analysis shows that corporate disclosures are very persistent and negatively related to lag foreign share ownership. No consistent statistical relation is found between disclosure and market-to-book values as a proxy for investment opportunities. It is recommended to African-listed firms to pursue adoption of high-quality financial reporting standards and to increase their reporting on board management. The study also recommends that the African Government weighs the benefits of detailed ownership disclosures.

The study utilises frontier market data to complement existing literature on how corporate disclosure and transparency influences foreign investors decision to invest in Africa.

This study aims to evaluate how audit committee (AC) characteristics affect the performance of banks in Africa.

The authors manually generated unbalanced panel data from 78 commercial banks operating in twelve (12) countries whose annual reports were published on the website of African Financials between 2010 and 2020.

The results indicate that AC size has an insignificant positive association with bank performance (return on equity and Tobin’s Q). AC independence has a significant positive association with bank performance. However, AC gender diversity has a significant negative association with bank performance. Besides, AC financial expertise has a significant positive and negative association with return on equity and Tobin’s Q, respectively.

The study considered only 78 banks that operate in twelve (12) African countries. Besides, the authors consider only four (4) AC attributes.

The findings suggest the need to maintain a smaller AC, appoint more independent members to AC, reduce the number of women appointed to AC and ensure most AC members have financial expertise. These measures could improve bank performance in Africa.

Unlike previous African studies that are mostly restricted to a country level, the study examined how AC attributes influence the performance of banks that operate in Africa.

This study aims to examine the impact of corporate attributes on integrated reporting quality of top 100 listed firms in South Africa.

With a sample of the top 100 listed firms in South Africa, this paper drew insights from the legitimacy and stakeholder theory to examine the impact of corporate attributes on integrated reporting quality. This paper measured integrated reporting quality based on the International Integrated Reporting Council framework of 2013. Corporate attributes were determined taking into consideration three broad perspectives (board committee attributes, firm attributes and audit committee attributes). This paper analyzed the data using content analysis, ordered probit regression and logistic regression method.

Results indicate that board committee attributes, firm attributes and audit committee attributes have a positive and significant relationship with integrated reporting quality. Additional analysis reveals that external assurance contributes to the quality of integrated reporting. The findings empirically revealed that most South African firms have intensified efforts toward the quality and full disclosure of integrated reporting framework.

The study was limited to a sample size of 100 firms, which is country-specific, however, it sets the tone for future empirical research on the subject matter. This study provides an avenue for future research in the area of corporate attributes and integrated reporting quality in other emerging countries, especially other African countries.

The result of this study provides practical implications in the areas of good corporate governance, corporate reporting and integrated reporting. The empirical approach used in this study emphasizes the need for corporate organizations to introduce integrated reporting practices into their reporting cycle. The finding implies that non-compliance with integrated reporting by corporate organizations may have an adverse effect on corporate growth, corporate sustainability and corporate reputation in the long run.

The work extends prior research on the subject of integrated reporting in South Africa. Also, this study broadens the application of legitimacy and stakeholder theory in influencing corporate organizations to disclose relevant information that could aids stakeholders’ interest.

Based on an institutional approach to explaining firms’ internationalisation, this paper aims to empirically investigate the role of Export Promotion Programmes (EPPs) in moderating the influence of export barriers perceptions on small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) propensity to export.

The study uses evidence from Algeria, the largest North-African country. The data were collected using an online questionnaire, targeting SMEs operating in the manufacturing sector. The study considers the influence of procedural, informational, environmental and functional barriers on export propensity, to uncover the moderating role of trade missions, trade shows and export seminars and workshops on such relationships. To examine these links, five main hypotheses are proposed and tested through a non-linear partial least squares structural equation modelling on a sample of 128 Algerian SMEs.

The results show that while internal barriers decrease firms’ export propensity, EPPs including trade fairs and shows may independently pose either a positive or negative influence on such relationships.

The study confirms the applicability of the institutional perspective to explaining firms’ internationalisation. More importantly, the present study highlights the role of EPPs in moderating the influence of export barriers perceptions on SMEs’ international market entry, a role neglected by the extant empirical literature.

The current findings hold important implications to export promotion organisations operating in African countries. Notably, the results reveal that some programmes could have a negative influence if they are not delivered appropriately.

This study offers a rare focus on the moderating role of EPPs in the relationship between export barriers and export propensity, within the setting of a North-African country.

While many studies have discussed the regulatory constraints that hinder industrial development in sub-Saharan Africa, little attention has been paid to the behavior of those firms that succeed despite a challenging business environment. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by focusing on specific strategies of a subset of successful industrial firms in Kenya.

The paper draws on two data sets. First, a quantitative data set based on a survey of food processing firms provides an overall profile of the sub-sector and the strategies employed by successful Kenyan firms. Second, qualitative in-depth case studies unpack the concept of strategy from the perspective of the firm, with the aim of showing the links between vision and strategy and the adaptive nature of firm strategy.

The quantitative data set reveals that the most important strategies used by agri-processing firms are differentiation strategies (selling at a premium), cost reduction strategies and niche strategies. A second major finding, based on the case study interviews, is that Kenyan firms adopt a combination of strategies to cope with the volatile business environment and grow their market. Furthermore, the qualitative interviews reveal that the vision of the leader is linked to firm strategy and firms follow an adaptive approach to strategy development.

The paper’s original contribution is the conclusion that while the existing typologies of strategy were acknowledged by respondents, their actual strategies were composites resulting from adaptive strategy development. This conclusion was made possible by the paper’s mixed methods approach.

In recent times, stakeholders have called on corporate organizations especially those charged with governance to embrace full disclosure on non-financial issues, especially sustainability reporting. Based on this premise, this study aims to examine the influence of corporate board and assurance on sustainability reporting practices (SRP) of selected 80 firms from 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

To measure the corporate board, the authors use both board variables and audit committee variables. Also, the authors adapted the sustainability score model as used by previous authors in the field of sustainability disclosure to measure SRPs. The analysis was done using both ordered logistic regression and probit regression models.

The results show that the combination of board corporate and assurance has a positive and significant impact on the sustainability reporting practice of selected firms in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study places emphasis on the need for strong collaboration between the corporate board and external assurance in evaluating and enhancing the quality of sustainability disclosure.

The study bridged the gap in the literature in the area of corporate board, assurance and SRP of corporate firms which has received little attention within sub-Saharan Africa.