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The purpose of this paper is to determine how board leadership affects the board strategic involvement in private firms in Kenya and how CEO power moderates this relationship.

The authors used a Kenyan data set to investigate what makes boards in private firms get involved in strategy. Survey data derived from a sample of 186 CEOs of private firms were used, and the hypotheses were tested using moderated regression analysis.

The results indicate that board members’ knowledge, board chairman’s leadership efficacy, board members’ personal motivation and board members’ background all have a positive and significant effect on board strategy involvement. The authors also found that CEO power moderates the relationship between board leadership and strategy involvement. The study concludes that when the CEO wields immense power, the board tends to become passive and to submit to the direction of the CEO.

The study adds value to the understanding of the effect of the board leadership on strategic involvement in private firms and how CEO power influences this relationship, particularly in a developing country like Kenya.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of board composition on capital structure of a firm.

The paper uses data from firms listed in Nairobi Securities Exchange covering the period 2004-2012. Fixed effect regression model was estimated to test the effect of board composition on capital structure and how chief executive officer (CEO) tenure moderates the relationship.

The paper finds that board composition has important implications on capital structure decisions. Specifically, director independence is positively related to leverage, whereas CEO duality and tenure have negative and significant effect on leverage. In addition, the interaction effect of CEO tenure indicates that when CEOs have long tenure, the power of independent directors to influence capital structure decisions diminishes. Further, the study found that under long CEO tenure, long-tenure boards use less leverage in their capital structure. As expected, dual CEO with long tenure uses less leverage.

The study uses data from an emerging market, contrary to previous studies using data from developed markets, to test the relationship between board composition and leverage. Second, the paper tests the moderating effect of CEO tenure on board composition – leverage relationship based on the idea that entrenched CEO may influence the decision-making ability of directors, particularly capital structure decisions.

Using the resource dependence and legitimacy theories, this research aims to examine the relationship between board attributes and human rights reporting, as well as the interaction effect of board chairperson experience on the relationship among listed firms at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

This study collected data from annual reports of firms listed on the NSE from 2009 to 2019 using content analysis to examine how boards influence human rights reporting. A total of 547 firm-year observations were used to test the hypotheses. This study used a hierarchical regression model to examine the relationship.

This study found that board attributes are important predictors of human rights reporting. This study shows that both board diversity and board independence have a positive impact on human rights reporting. Furthermore, the interaction results revealed that having a highly experienced chairperson strengthens the effect of board independence on human rights reporting; however, this study found that experienced chairperson reduces the influence of board diversity on human rights reporting.

The findings suggest that board diversity and independence are essential attributes to which listed companies should pay attention when appointing board members. Moreover, the chairperson's leadership on the board is critical in ensuring that publicly trading companies adopt policies that disclose human rights information.

This paper provides insights into Kenya's human rights disclosure practices. It also analyzes how boards influence human rights disclosures, an empirical test that has received little attention in the previous literature. This study emphasizes the importance of board members and the chairperson in advocating for human rights reporting to improve corporate sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of bank interest rate spread in Sub-Saharan African countries, which were categorized into macro-specific, bank-specific and institutional variables.

The authors used fixed effects estimations to analyze the data. The data were drawn from a pool of 20 Sub-Saharan African countries for a period of ten years spanning 2003–2012. The countries were categorized into low-income, lower middle-income and upper middle-income countries based on World Bank income classifications.

The results show that inflation has a negative and significant effect on interest rate spread, while operating costs and bank concentration have a positive and significant effect on interest rate spread. Similarly, government effectiveness, rule of law and political stability are negatively related to the interest rate spread.

The paper provides evidence that interest rate spread is determined by both bank-specific, macro-economic and institutional variables. The paper also indicates that the income status of a country is important in explaining the variations in the interest rate spread across the region. Therefore, the policy makers should design policies that take into account the variables in order to help in planning by all economic agents, including banks.

The paper uses data from Sub-Saharan Africa and introduces institutional variables in the model, which have been found to be critical in the context.

This paper examines how board structure influences real earnings management and the interaction effect of CEO narcissism on board structure-real earnings management relationship.

The authors used panel data derived from secondary sources from publicly listed firms in Kenya during 2002–2017. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that board independence, board tenure and size have significant negative effect on real earnings management, while CEO duality positively affects real earnings management. Further, the interaction results show that CEO narcissism moderates the relationship between CEO duality and real earnings management.

The results suggest that real earnings management reduces when boards are independent, large and comprising of long-tenured members. However, when the CEO plays dual role of a chairman, real earnings management increases. The authors also find that when CEOs are narcissists, the monitoring role of the board is compromised.

The study adds value to the understanding of how board structure and CEO narcissism influence the monitoring role of the board among firms listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of diaspora remittances on the banking sector development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This study makes use of panel regression analysis and simultaneously uses pooled regression, fixed effects and random effects on a sample of 23 Sub-Saharan African countries during the period 1994-2009.

The empirical results confirm that diaspora remittances affect banking sector development in Sub-Saharan Africa. All the empirical models support this prediction. Similarly, it was also found that high inflation has a negative effect on banking sector development. Other notable findings are that well-developed human capital and political stability enhance the development of the banking sector.

The study provides insights into the role of diaspora remittances in banking sector development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides evidence that attracting diaspora remittances for emerging economies could as well help in mobilizing the much-needed loanable funds for private investment.

The paper fills an important gap in academic literature by providing insights into the role of diaspora remittances in developing the banking sector particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study complements other studies focusing in Latin America and given the increasing migration of the Sub-Saharan African population in search of education and employment, this paper provides policy makers with evidence on the implications of remittances in developing the banking sector. It was also found that well-developed human capital and political stability promote the development of the banking sector.

The purpose of this paper is to test market structure-performance hypothesis in banking industry in Kenya. Specifically, the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) and market efficiency hypotheses were examined to determine how market concentration and efficiency affect bank performance in Kenya.

The study used secondary data of 44 commercial banks operating from 2000 to 2009. Three proxies to measure bank performance were used while market concentration and market share were used as proxies for market structure. Market concentration was measured using two concentration measures; the concentration ratio of the four largest banks (CR₄) and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, while market share was used as a proxy for efficiency. The study made use of generalized least square regression method.

The empirical results confirm that market efficiency hypothesis is a predictor of firm performance in the banking sector in Kenya and rejects the traditional SCP hypothesis. Thus, the results support the view that efficient banks maximize profitability.

The study provides insights into the role of efficiency in enhancing profitability in commercial banks in Kenya. It has managerial implication that profitable banks ought to be efficient and dispels the notion of collusive behavior as a precursor for profitability.

The paper fills an important gap in the extant literature by proving insights into what determines bank profitability in banking sector in Kenya. Although this area is rich in research, little work has been conducted in the developing economies and in particular no study in the knowledge has addressed this critical issue in Kenya.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of boards’ demographic diversity on firms’ strategic change and the interaction effect of firm performance.

This paper used secondary data derived from publicly listed firms in Kenya during 2002-2010 and analyzed the data using fixed effects regression model to test the effect of board demographic and strategic change, while moderated regression analysis was used to test the moderating effect of firm performance.

The results partially supported board demographic diversity–strategic change hypothesis. In particular, results indicate that age diversity produces less strategic change, while functional diversity is associated with greater levels of strategic change. The moderated regression results do not support our general logic that high firm performance enhances board demographic diversity–strategic change relationship. In effect, the results reveal that at high level of firm performance, board demographic diversity produces less strategic change.

Despite few studies that have examined board demographic diversity and firm performance, this paper introduces strategic change as an outcome variable. This paper also explores the moderating role of firm performance in board demographic diversity–strategic change relationship, and finally, the study uses Kenyan dataset which in itself is unique because most governance and strategy research uses data from developed countries.

Although previous studies have attempted to explain why some customers remain loyal to a product or service provider and/or why others switch, few studies have interrogated the role of social pressure as well as the moderating role of corporate image.

The paper uses a composite measure of customer loyalty which provides both behavioral aspects and attitudinal loyalty. Survey data derived from a sample of 140 users of mobile services in Kenya was used and the hypotheses was tested using moderated regression analysis.

The results indicate that perceived service value, service quality and social pressure were significant predictors of customer loyalty, while customer satisfaction was not significant. Corporate image was found to moderate the relationship between service value, service quality, social pressure and customer loyalty.

Even though the study utilized a sample similar to other existing studies, future research should use larger samples, different measures of variables and different contexts.

To improve on customer loyalty, mobile telecommunication firms in Kenya should place more emphasis on the value offered to customers as well as the needs of the social units like family, friends and colleagues. Moreover, telecommunication firms should invest in good corporate image in order to realize the benefits of customer loyalty.

The study adds value to the understanding of the determinants of customer loyalty. More importantly, social pressure is an important determinant of customer loyalty. Second, corporate image plays a moderating role in customer behavior. Thus firms eager to engender customer loyalty should invest in corporate image.

This study aims to investigate the joint effect of foreign directors (FDs) and firm performance on the corporate strategic change.

A theoretical framework linking foreign directors, firm performance and strategic change is proposed and tested. This study uses a sample of longitudinal data from 958 US listed firms over the period 2010–2018. The basic model of study first tests whether there is a direct relationship between FDs and level of strategic change. It then incorporates firm performance as a moderating variable, testing its effect on the relationship between foreign director and strategic change.

Consistent with the study’s expectations, the empirical findings indicate that FDs rich in appropriate experience are associated with superior strategic change, measured both in terms of variation in firm strategy over time and deviation from industry norms. The findings confirm that FDs are a salient driver of strategic change. The strength of the effect, however, depends on the firm performance.

This paper has implications for effective global leadership development based on international appointments. First, directors can benefit from being assigned to work in foreign countries so that they are exposed to a wide range of experiences and can learn to overcome culture shock. Second, posting directors to foreign countries can improve their international knowledge and enhance various competencies related to creativity, leadership and problem-solving. By demonstrating that the board’s characteristics can play a role in corporate strategy development, the current study thus has implications for both study and practice with regard to board composition. The number of seats on any given board is finite, and each individual director is thus expected to not only monitor top management but also to apply their knowledge and relevant experience in service to the company’s ambitions. Except in cases where high firm performance leads to strategic persistence, the results suggest that greater levels of FDs correlate positively with strategic change.

The practical implications of this paper pertain to director recruitment and selection. First, the findings echo support for the inclusion of members with greater levels of international experience on boards and top management teams. It seems that, despite the importance of this characteristic, directors at US companies often lack substantial experience abroad (Carpenter and Westphal, 2001). A possible reason for this could be that internationally experienced employees otherwise lack the social capital necessary for promotion to directorships because of time spent stationed away from the firm’s headquarters. It is thus essential for companies to create networking opportunities for directors assigned to foreign offices.

Although previous research has provided some insight into how chief executive officer international experience can manifest in strategic change, this understanding remains far from complete for the members of board of directors. Furthermore, the topic of firm performance as a potential moderating influence remains underexplored. The aim of this study, therefore, is to assess the impact of FDs among directors on corporate strategic change while taking into account the possible confounding role of firm performance in this relationship.