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This study aims to investigate the impact of governance indices (especially control of corruption) on economic growth in some selected Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries with a view to making policy recommendations. Specifically, the study attempts to assess whether either governance reforms (especially those relating to control of corruption) or simultaneous policy reforms could have any impact on the growth of the sample SSA countries.

The governance indicators used in this study were drawn from the PRS Group and the Worldwide Governance Indicators for 2002-2009, while the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth data were obtained from the World Bank database. The study covered 47 SSA countries, and it adopted the panel data framework, the fixed effect, the random effect and the maximum likelihood estimation techniques for the analyses.

The study found that political stability and regulatory quality indicators have growth-enhancing features, as they impact on economic growth in the region significantly, while government effectiveness impacts negatively on economic growth in the region. Despite, several anti-corruption policies in the region, the impact of corruption control on economic growth is not very obvious. The study also found that simultaneous implementation of the voice and accountability and the rule of law indicators has more positive impact on economic growth in the region. Both policies are complementary, and, hence, can be pursued simultaneously.

The results suggest that reform efforts that aim at enhancing accountability, regulatory quality, political stability and the rule of law have more growth-enhancing features and, thus, should be given more priority over reform efforts that singly address the issue of control of corruption due to the endemic, systemic and ubiquitous nature of corruption in the region.

The study suggests that reform efforts that aim at enhancing accountability, regulatory quality and rule of law have more growth-enhancing features and, therefore, should be given more priority.

Many previous studies attempted to examine the impact of corruption on economies, but this paper tries to assess the effect of corruption control and other governance indices on economic growth in the most vulnerable region of the world, the SSA. Besides, the study adopts the panel data framework which makes it possible to allow for differences in the form of unobservable individual country effects.

Today, many countries strive to develop their small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) sectors because of their acknowledged capacity to facilitate the optimal utilization of locally available resources while engaging local technology for the production of goods and services for local consumption as well as export trade. Also in area of agriculture, these enterprises serve as means of sustainable food production, improve employment generation, combat food shortage, and enhance economic growth and development. However, the growth performance of this sector in Nigeria has been dwindling over time, which requires government expenditure (GE) policy intervention. Therefore, this study examines the influence of public expenditure on the growth of SMEs in Nigeria employing unit root and co-integration tests for the period 1981–2019. The results reveal that SMEs and selected macroeconomic variables have a long-run relationship with SMEs output performance. It also shows that GE has direct and significant impact on the growth of SMEs in Nigeria, while government deficit financing (GDF) has adverse and insignificant effects on the Nigeria SMEs both in the short- and long-run period. Inflation rate (INF) has an inverse but significant effect on the growth of SMEs in Nigeria both in the short- and long-run periods. This study thus recommends, among others, that government should ensure the proper management of capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure in raising the growth of SMEs in Nigeria to achieve inclusive growth.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of expectation in fighting corruption in a society.

The methodology is analytical in nature, drawing evidence from the Quran, Hadith and Seerah. It has a strong theoretical basis on the role of expectation in eliciting desirable response.

The paper suggests that a continuous disregard to corruption‐reducing impact of the revealed ethics would always lead to a suboptimal anti‐corruption policy and exacerbate a drifting pressure to locally stable corruption equilibrium.

The paper focuses on the role of expectation at micro level, a macroeconomic perspective can be a good research effort. Also, due to the paucity of data as a result of the nature of the topic being investigated, new research can further investigate this issue empirically.

Potential outcome of this paper is to stem the wave of corruption through revealed ethics or God consciousness which is relatively easier to administer and less costly, since reform effort is internally supported not externally imposed.

This paper would positively impact on the society, by stemming the upsurge of corruption through religious ethics. It further allocates a greater role to the society in curbing corruption through the revealed ethics. This paper would positively influence public attitudes towards corruption, hence improve the quality of.

The paper is novel, in that it applies an economic theory to solving a social menace. It further optimally combines both conventional economic theory with revealed religious teachings and argues that both may not conflict if properly understood or properly applied. The paper is a necessary bridge between Western perspective and Islamic Position, more importantly now that the world is looking for a viable alternative to the inadequacies of the conventional Western perspectives.

Bangladesh is home to one of the world's leading ship breaking and recycling industries. Whilst these industries are booming in Bangladesh, it is not safe for workers or the environment. According to International Maritime Organization's (IMO) regulations, Bangladesh is lacking in a number of areas such as having a safe recycling plan and environmental protections reviewed by a competent authority. There is a need to develop safer working conditions, more stringent regulation and corporate responsibility programmes towards protecting human health and the environment. Possible solutions require stakeholders (industry, governments and the IMO) to work together in order to develop sustainable practice. This research contributes by taking a step forward by focussing on the implementation of sustainable practices in the supply chain of global shipping industries in a developing country. Using stakeholder theory, this research offers insight into the need and barriers to implementing social sustainable initiatives.

Poverty is a plague which has continental manifestation, but its impact is heavily felt in several Muslim majority nations (MMNs), where unemployment, illiteracy, chronic diseases, food shortage, sectarian wars and wave of militancy are surging at alarming rates. The purpose of this paper is to develop a faith-based model (FBM) to complement the conventional poverty reduction models. Experiences have shown that FBMs find more acceptability among Muslim nations because they have theoretical and theological underpinnings from the Qur’an and Hadith, as opposed to conventional models that are often viewed with suspicion, sequel to Islamic revivalism.

This research adopts a qualitative research method relying on secondary data/information sourced from CIA Factbook, previous scholarly works, working papers, case studies and relevant internet resources. In line with methodological approach of qualitative research, the secondary data/information were subjected to content and thematic analyses (CTA) from which facts, figures and presumptions were derived to support the FBM.

The paper justified the plausibility of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR), Waqf system (WS) and Zakat system (TZS) as FBM for poverty reduction, enterprise development and economic empowerment in MMNs.

The gap left behind by the paper is for future researchers to carry out an empirical investigation on the viability or otherwise of the FBM. This could include the governance structure, operational modalities and regulatory frameworks that would enhance the functioning of the FBM.

FBM framework is practically a corporate social investment (CSI), which would be heavily funded by Zakat payers, CSR donations and Waqf. The funds would be deployed to poverty reduction in a number of ways ranging from training, micro-credit support for SMEs, apprenticeships, setting up technology business incubation centres, cluster development, infrastructural development in industrial parks, as well as providing welfare support services to the poor, marginalised communities and other economically disadvantaged groups.

The theoretical research is a contribution to theory and practice of CSR in the field of management and Islamic economics. It has developed a FBM for adoption by MMNs who are hesitant in adopting western model for fear of compromising their ethical values.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance of three economic growth theories in Sub‐Saharan Africa economies.

This empirical paper employs a panel data framework, using fixed effect, random effects and maximum likelihood estimation techniques. It further conducts some sensitivity analyses.

The paper finds that both the stock of human capital (HC) and the physical capital are important for growth in the region, the paper does not find strong impact of financial development (FD) in the region, perhaps due to long period of financial repression or financial underdevelopment in the region. It however finds strong complementarity features in interaction of both finance and HC on growth.

The analysis in the paper is confined to banking development indicators, due to inadequate data for capital market indicators as well as underdevelopment of the stock market in the region.

The policy regime since the mid‐1980 s (Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, era) is to reduce government investment and involvement in economic activities; this paper however suggests that this measure has to be carefully considered especially with due concern for the trade off between short‐run adjustment programmes and long‐run stabilisation policies. The paper advocates for more efficient and effective investment in HC and FD in the region.

It is believed that this is the first time such a study has been carried out, testing the relevance of three growth theories and further testing an interaction of two different theories in a growth model.

The paper was written to highlight the advantages of initiating economic integration among Muslim countries across the globe, drawing special lessons from Europe's experience; its successful economic integration and challenges which trailed the process.

The methodology is basically descriptive and analytical. Theoretical construct and model on economic integration was developed for adoption by the Muslim countries. The model seeks to enhance their economic strength through intra and inter trade relations and reduces their weaknesses through specialization. Secondary data from Organization of the Islamic Conference and Islamic Development Bank member countries were exhaustively used in the study.

The paper found out that integration is plausible and beneficial, however, a concerted effort must be made in promoting technological development, raise human capital, and improve the product diversification among Muslim countries while developing stable institutions and infrastructures. Two, the potential benefits of integrating exceed the costs. The emphasis needs to be, not in cutting costs/inputs (reductionist approach), but on generating more wealth/revenue/income (incrementalist approach) that results in reducing the huge external debt, poverty, diseases, frustration, and corruption in most Muslim countries. Three, key to Muslims' socio‐economic happiness is through mutual cooperation for growth and development (Qur'an 42:38, Q3:159).

The major contributions of this paper are three, firstly, the paper explores a faith‐based integration effort, and secondly, it identifies reasons for low success in the integration efforts among Muslim countries and finally suggests an econometric model based on faith that neglects the artificial geographical barrier.

The practical implication of the paper is the recommendation to establish a Muslim Economic Bloc because Muslim countries are economically heterogenous group, with uneven development and growth pattern.

The paper is major contribution in the field of Islamic economics and applied economics. Contrary to what we know in the conventional economics, this paper advocates a faith‐based economic model and bloc in a globalised world economy. It is a contribution to existing literature.

The general objective of the paper is to investigate the impact of corruption and other institutional factors on economic growth in some selected transitional economies for the period of 1990‐2004 and make policy recommendations for combating it. Specifically, the study attempts to: assess whether corruption has any impact on the growth of the sample countries; examine whether simultaneous policy reform focussing on accountability and rule of law impact positively on growth of these economies; and investigate whether corruption in these countries exhibit the efficient grease syndrome.

The indices for corruption and other institutional variables were drawn from International Country Risk Guide (ICRG – PRS) for the period of 1990‐2004, the polity data were obtained from the Polity IV, while the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth were obtained from the Penn World 6.2. The study covered the period between 1990 and 2004 that coincides with the real transition of these economies from centrally planned to market economies. It adopts the panel data framework, the fixed effect, the random effect and the maximum likelihood estimation techniques for the analysis.

The study's findings support Mauro's hypothesis that corruption has a negative impact on the economies. However, the study cannot find a robust statistical evidence to support the efficient grease hypothesis of Leff and Huntington.

The paper recommends policy efforts that would strengthen accountability and bureaucratic quality, reduce discretionary power, ethnic fractionalisation and military involvement in politics with a view to enhancing social responsibility practices at both micro and macro levels.

Unlike previous studies that focussed on single cross‐country regression with an assumption of identical aggregate production function for all countries, this study adopts the panel data framework that makes it possible to allow for differences in the form of unobservable individual country effects. The paper employs the fixed effect, the random effect and the maximum likelihood estimation techniques.

This study presents a fuzzy synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city realisation in developing countries, using Nigeria as a case study. By defining and delineating the problems faced by the country, more viable directions to attaining smart city development can be achieved.

The study adopted a post-positivist philosophical stance with a deductive approach. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from built environment professionals involved in the delivery of Nigerian public infrastructures. Six dimensions of the challenges of smart cities were identified from literature and explored. They are governance, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal issues. Data gathered were analysed using Cronbach alpha test for reliability, Shapiro-Wilks test for normality, Kruskal-Wallis H-test for consistency and fuzzy synthetic evaluation test for the synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city attainment.

The findings revealed that all six assessed dimensions have a significant impact on the attainment of smart cities in Nigeria. More specifically, issues relating to environmental, technological, social and legal challenges are more prominent.

The fuzzy synthetic approach adopted provides a clear, practical insight on the issues that need to be addressed before the smart city development can be attained within developing countries.