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This paper has examined the effectiveness of foreign aid on Ghanaian economy under different political regimes.

Using vector error correction and co-integration models on the annual data set over a period of 35 years, the authors demonstrate that foreign aid has had varied impacts on economic growth depending on the political ideology of the government in power.

With capitalist political philosophy, foreign aid improves private sector growth through infrastructural development. On the other hand, a government with socialist philosophy applies most of its foreign aid in direct social interventions with the view of improving human capital. Thus, each political party is likely to seek foreign aid/grant that will support its political agenda. Overall, the results show that foreign aid has a positive impact on the growth of the Ghanaian economy when there is good macroeconomic environment.

This implies that the country experiences economic growth when there are sound economic policies to apply foreign aid.

The practical implication of the findings of this paper is that donor countries and agencies should consider the philosophy of the government in power while granting aid to recipient countries, especially in Africa. The results are robust to different proxies and models.

The purpose of this editorial is to provide a quick glance at the dominant issues that have characterized the developing economics debate during the past five decades. It seeks to offer a backdrop for the papers in the present volume of AJEMS.

It is based on a review of a selection of literature that highlights the dominant perspectives in development economics.

It draws a distinction between soft and hard economics, arguing that economic growth must be converted into social change that benefits poor for it to be described as development-oriented.

It provides a direction for future research into issues of economic growth and poverty alleviation in Sub-Sahara Africa.

As a backdrop to the empirical contributions contained within this special section, this Guest Editorial aims to review the context of construction employment. It summarises the challenges inherent in construction work which have impeded the development of human resource management within the sector and discusses the mutually supporting contributions of the papers in furthering our understanding of how to improve the performance of the industry.

The operational context of the sector is reviewed briefly, before the efficacy of the industry's employment practices are examined through a review of the contributions contained within the special section.

The papers reveal the interplay of structural and cultural factors which have led to the skills shortages currently impeding the industry's development. There is a need for the sector to modernise and formalise its working and employment practices if performance and productivity improvements are to be achieved.

By revealing the interconnected nature of the construction employment perspectives presented within this special section, this paper presents a case for adopting a fresh transdisciplinary research agenda for addressing the industry's employment concerns.

This study examines the multidimensionality of the environmental literacy concept among university business students in Ghana. The study also investigates the relationship between students’ interests in environmental issues and knowledge levels of environment and assesses how these two constructs influence students overall environmental behaviour and actions.

Using a total of 591 business students from the University of Ghana Business School, the study uses exploratory factor analysis to examine the multidimensionality of environmental literacy concept. A structural equation modelling-based approach was used to examine the relationship among the study constructs.

Based on the factor analysis results, the study documents that environmental literacy concept can be grouped under four distinct factors (general environmental factors; industry-related factors; environmental assessment factors; and accounting-related factors). The regression results indicate a direct and positive relationship between students’ interest in environmental issues and their environmental literacy level. Also, students’ interest and their knowledge levels of environmental issues were found to be good predictors of actual students’ involvement in activities that promote sustainable environment.

The conclusions of the study are based on only data from one public university, which limits the generalizability of the findings.

The study is unique as it is the first empirical study to investigate environmental literacy levels in higher education in the Ghanaian setting.

In the accounting field, sustainability accounting (SA) has evolved as a valuable tool that links improvements in environmental, social and governance issues to financial performance. This study aims to examine the structure and evolution of SA research, map the state of knowledge and analyse the literature trends and gaps.

The study adopts a bibliometric review technique with data sourced from the Scopus database. A total of 7,049 extant literature spanning from 1982 to 2022 was analysed using the VOSviewer software.

The authors find a significant growth in the number of publications on SA research, primarily driven by collaboration among researchers from Europe and America. The analysis highlights emerging themes, structure and discusses in detail the changing phases of SA research over the past four decades while highlighting key events that have impacted the development of SA research. Furthermore, the dominant theories used by extant studies are discussed and potential avenues for future research are provided. The authors draw the attention of the research community to the dominant authors, the most cited articles, prominent publication outlets and countries advancing research in this field.

This study advances knowledge on SA research by providing a retrospective assessment of the state of knowledge in the field while highlighting avenues for future research.

The construction industry’s contribution to environmental deterioration is widely established in the literature, implying that addressing this issue will require a coordinated effort from all stakeholders. According to literature, stakeholder involvement without stakeholder management (SKM) is not enough, in ensuring efficient construction waste management (CWM). This study investigates the impact of SKM on efficient CWM by aggregating all relevant SKM variables and measuring their degree of influence on efficient CWM.

This study used a four-stage research approach that included a literature review, a pilot study, a questionnaire survey and statistical analysis. After a thorough examination of the literature, nine essential SKM factors were identified and tested by a questionnaire survey following a pilot study. A total of 310 questionnaires were filled out and returned for analysis (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis).

The study established that SKM is a unidimensional construct since all the variables extracted unto one underlying component with total variance explained (TVE), accounting for 58.938% of the total Variance in the measure of SKM in efficient CWM. Additionally, the reliability and validity test results satisfied the recommended thresholds, thus justifying the factorability of the construct. Furthermore, the hypothesis test revealed that SKM has a statistically significant impact on efficient CWM, implying that increasing SKM will have a beneficial impact on efficient CWM.

The study is limited to material waste management in the construction industry and the outcome was determined solely by a field survey in Ghana. Extending the study to other jurisdictions would have improved its findings and made them easier to generalise.

The study’s findings are helpful for practitioners and researchers, especially regarding the influence of the eight SKM variables on efficient CWM.

The study’s findings will reduce pollution, thus enhancing public health and encouraging social inclusion through the creation of jobs in the waste management chain.

The uniqueness of this study is anchored on the fact that no CWM study has considered all the eight SKM variables measured in this study at the same time. Also, this study has contributed to the literature by establishing the determinants of SKM in efficient CWM in Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitude of business students towards the accounting profession and investigate the relationship between students’ attitude and their intention to pursue a degree in accounting.

A self-administered survey was used to collect data from students from the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS). A total of 457 questionnaires were used in the empirical analysis. A binary logistic regression analysis technique was employed to analyse the data.

The logistic regression analysis demonstrates that intrinsic interest in the accounting discipline, prior exposure to accounting at the senior high level and the desire to pursue professional accounting qualification in future are good predictors of students’ intention to major in accounting. The results also indicate family members, course instructors and other referent group play a crucial role in influencing students’ intention to pursue a career in accounting.

The findings of this study have important implications for the professional accountancy body and business educators interested in addressing the skill shortage in the accounting profession.

This study does not only examine students’ attitude towards the accounting discipline but also investigates how such attitudes influence intentions to major in accounting.

This study examines the factors that explain Ghanaian business students’ intentions to pursue a Certified Professional Accounting (CPA) qualification.

The study uses survey method of research and mainly used questionnaires as data collection instrument to elicit information from the respondent group. Using a total of 641 business students from the University of Ghana Business School, a mixture of factor analysis and logistic regression analysis techniques was used in investigating the study objectives.

Results from the regression analysis demonstrate that students’ preference and beliefs about accounting professional qualification, academic major and grade point average are significantly associated with their intentions to pursue a CPA qualification. Moreover, majority of the sampled respondents (47.9 per cent) with the desire to pursue a CPA qualification prefer to be affiliated with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, 27.2 per cent prefer the Institute of Charted Accountant Ghana qualification, while only 7 per cent of the students prefer to be affiliated with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountant.

The findings from this study have important implications for the various professional accountancy bodies, accounting educators and other stakeholders interested in promoting the choice of accounting as a career path among university students.

The results indicate that, as part of the broader strategy to increase the number of professional accountants in Ghana, there is the need to promote the study of accounting at the undergraduate level in the various universities in the country.

This study uniquely uses the behavioral decision theory to explain the dominant factors associated with students’ intentions to pursue a CPA qualification.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications in the Journal of Public Procurement (JoPP) from 2001 to 2021. The study provides insights into trends in publications, prominent publication themes, influential authors, institutions and countries that have prominently been associated with the journal’s journey.

The study used a bibliometric and content analysis approach using the VOSviewer software to develop insights into the trends, structures and patterns in publications in the journal. Data for the study was extracted from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases.

The study established that there has been consistent growth in the number of papers published by the journal within the last two decades. Yearly average publication by the journal stood at 14 papers between 2002 and 2009, with the annual average rising to approximately 18 papers between 2010 and 2021. The trend in publication has been established and identified the influential citations and contributors to the journal. The study has also clustered out the thematic structures in journal’s publications. The prominent and emerging research issues in the public procurement environment needing immediate research attention have been highlighted.

The study is a one-journal bibliometric analysis and subsequently ignores publications on public procurement from other journals.

The findings of this study highlight to the research community the contributions of JoPP to the public procurement discourse and present important avenues for future research agenda.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first bibliometric study for the JoPP, providing detailed bibliometric indexes of the 21-year period of the journal’s publications. The study comprehensively analyses the contributions in the JoPP to assess the trend and scope in publications in the field of public procurement and draws attention to emerging concerns and critical issues of neglect requiring research attention in the journal.

Exploring ways to acquire, sustain and improve competitive positions in supply chains through information sharing, supply chain visibility, collaboration and agility have been essential for scholars and practitioners. Basing on the relational view, resource based view and the extended resource based view, this study assesses the critical role of information sharing in supply chains through emphasizing its effect on supply chain visibility, collaboration, agility and supply chain performance. Particularly, the study proposes that information sharing, supply chain visibility, collaboration and agility collectively have crucial direct and indirect influences on supply chain performance which lead to superior gains, competitiveness and flexibility.

The study adopted a survey research design, a quantitative approach and partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in making data analysis and interpretations due to its suitability for predictive research models.

The results indicate information sharing positively and significantly influenced supply chain visibility, collaboration, agility and performance. Supply chain visibility presented significant effects on collaboration, agility and performance, while supply chain collaboration and agility had significant impact on supply chain performance. The study findings connote that information sharing is key to enhancing competitive gains and superior supply chain performance.

The study is among the few to probe on how information sharing as a variable interacts with supply chain visibility, collaboration, agility and performance. Although, information sharing has received a lot of attention in supply chains, this study is among the first to capture the study variables in a single model and thus, exposes the vital need for information sharing in improving supply chain performance seeing that it ensured significant and robust impacts on the study variables.