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Despite the advancement of the assumptions of agency and institutional theories whereby monitoring structures and controls form the basis of management, inadequate public finance regulatory compliance among public entities has continued to be a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how to break out of the apparent cycle of failures to comply with public finance regulations.

A cross-sectional study that integrates two approaches (cooperative and coercive models) drawing from the view that in central government agencies, there may be stewards and also agents motivated by self-interest, suggesting that the most promising framework is that which renders the traditional ways of achieving regulatory compliance to be supplemented with the stewardship model. Thus, the authors focus on four variables: management mechanisms, ethical climate, deterrence measures and public finance regulatory compliance all drawn from agency, institutional and stewardship theories. The authors collect data from 67 central government agencies in Uganda using a structured questionnaire.

The authors find that management mechanisms dimensions of leadership support and organisational commitment significantly associate with public finance regulatory compliance and so too are deterrence measures particularly oversight organs, penalties and procedural justices.

Public finance regulatory compliance can be improved through management mechanisms and deterrence measures.

The study generates empirical evidence on the applicability of stewardship theory in the management of public entities for regulatory compliance

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between deterrence measures, leadership support and public finance regulatory compliance among public secondary schools in Uganda.

A questionnaire survey of 257 Ugandan public secondary schools was undertaken. Ordinary least squares regression was used to determine whether, in addition to deterrence measures, leadership support also explains variances in public finance regulatory compliance.

Results based on a hierarchical regression analysis indicate that deterrence measures explain 17.4 per cent of variances in public finance regulatory compliance. In addition, leadership support explains a further 18.2 per cent of the variances in public finance regulatory compliance.

The results imply that in addition to deterrence measures, secondary schools in Uganda should also emphasise leadership support in order to improve their public finance regulatory compliance.

Contrary to previous studies, the authors explain regulatory compliance using deterrence measures and leadership support in a single study while also focussing on institutions and not individuals as a unit of analysis. The authors also extend the predominantly financial institutions compliance studies to the education sector. Thus probably for the first time, the authors show that leadership support complements deterrence measures in explaining public finance regulatory compliance in the education sector. Even with strong deterrence measures, the lack of leadership support may lead to inadequate public finance regulatory compliance.

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether all the dimensions of regulatory compliance matter for environmental sustainability practices of manufacturing small and medium entrepreneurial ventures (SMEVs) using evidence from Uganda.

This study is cross-sectional and correlational. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey of 106 manufacturing SMEVs. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.

The results indicate that controls, legitimacy and deterrence do matter for environmental sustainability practices of the manufacturing SMEVs in Uganda, unlike social norms and values.

This study fosters the understanding of environmental sustainability practices, as it provides insights on whether all the dimensions of regulatory compliance do matter for environmental sustainability practices of manufacturing SMEVs in Uganda.

This study aims to (1) examine the contribution of internal audit quality, punitive measures to accountability in statutory corporations in developing countries such as Uganda and (2) test whether internal audit quality mediates the relationship between punitive measures and accountability in Uganda's statutory corporations.

This study is cross-sectional and correlational. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey conducted for 82 statutory corporations. The study's unit of analysis was a statutory corporation. Chief Internal Auditors and Chief Finance Officers were the study's unit of inquiry. Data were analyzed through correlation coefficients and linear regression using Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

The results suggest that internal audit quality and punitive measures independently predict accountability. However, punitive measures do not predict accountability in the presence of internal audit quality. Results further indicate that internal audit quality mediates the relationship between punitive measures and accountability in Uganda's statutory corporations.

This study confirms internal audit quality (a preventive measure) as a significant predictor of accountability in statutory corporations relative to punitive measures. To achieve accountability, more emphasis thus needs to be put on preventive mechanisms than on punitive mechanisms. This study also enhances our understanding of the relationship between punitive measures, internal audit quality and accountability. In this study, we arrive at new evidence on the mediating role of internal audit quality in the relationship between punitive measures and accountability in Uganda's statutory corporations.

This study aims to investigate the whistle-blowing behaviour in Ugandan public procurement by using whistle-blowing supporting institutions, procuring and disposing entity (PDE) ethical climate and whistle-blowing expectancy.

A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted using a sample of 118 drawn from a population of 179 central government (PDEs). Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires, resulting in 222 usable questionnaires from 70 PDEs, representing a response rate of 62.71 per cent.

The results reveal that the whistle-blowing supporting institutions and PDE ethical climate are significant predictors of whistle-blowing intentions and behaviour, accounting for 30.2 per cent of the variance. The authors therefore recommend that whistle-blowing supporting institutions, like the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, should be reviewed and strengthened to promote whistle-blowing intentions and behaviour. This could be done through reviewing the Act to make it enforceable, giving power to the whistle-blowers, strengthening policies, developing safeguards against retaliation by making every chief executive officer in the public sector accountable, increasing whistle-blowing incentives and providing whistle-blowing hotlines for anonymous whistle-blowers. PDEs should also create conducive ethical climates that encourage people to voice their concerns internally or externally, and ethical committees should be established within PDEs and other bodies such as the Inspector General of Government for ensuring that whistle-blowing systems are in place and promoted. There is a need to increase whistle-blowing expectancy through the effective handling of reported cases to their conclusion and the use of role models.

The paper aims to estimate the capacity of supreme audit institutions’ (SAIs) audits to deter potentially wasteful year-end procurement spending. It also studies heterogeneous responses to SAIs’ audits depending on whether agencies’ top managers are appointed through a competitive procedure or not.

A letter signed by the head of Chile’s SAI was sent to a hundred randomly chosen agencies two weeks before the end of the fiscal year, with instructions on year-end spending accounting and an audit threat. In addition, a hundred agencies that did not receive the letter were used as a control group.

Agencies that received the letter reduced year-end aggregate procurement spending by 33% relative to controls. Purchases of office supplies, safety equipment, personal care products and paper products experienced the most considerable reductions. The decrease in year-end spending was smaller for agencies with at least one top manager appointed through a competitive procedure.

A SAI’s audit threat significantly reduced year-end procurement spending. Larger reductions in agencies headed by political appointees and across categories of goods that have been flagged as likely to be purchased to exhaust the budget suggest the avoided expenditures would have been wasteful. Further research is needed to determine if the net social value of year-end procurement spending deterred by SAIs audits is negative as suggested.

This paper has implications for the institutional support of SAIs audits and civil service.

This paper provides novel experimental evidence of SAIs’ audits’ deterrence power on public agencies’ year-end procurement spending.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the mediation effects of public–private–partnership (PPP) on the association between complementary entrepreneurial networking and the entrepreneurial ecosystem quality for sustainable franchising.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect this study’s qualitative data from a study population of sub-franchisor organizations in Uganda. Statistical techniques were used to analyze the data.

Part of the authorized distributors’ mutually beneficial networking is directly connected to multi-actor networks that continuously simplify their local access to affordable franchise financing, mentors and supportive leaders. Also, the same association is mediated through PPP supported franchise-business information and widely appealing awards to be won.

One of the areas for further study is a related study on the moderating effects of the PPP support in another developing country, which is clarified in this study.

The complexity theory has provided an explanation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem quality for sustainable franchising across the rural and urban markets in an African country.

The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of the financial performance of local governments to the level of welfare in 25 city/regency in South Sulawesi during 2009–2014.

The financial performance is measured by the rate of local autonomy, the effectiveness of local own-source revenue, budget harmony and budget absorption, while the welfare society measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), unemployment and poverty level.

The regression analysis showed that the performance of region autonomy proved to increase the HDI over the next year and to reduce the poverty rate in two and three years ahead, however, has no correlation with the unemployment. The effectiveness of local own-source revenue can lower unemployment at two and three years ahead but failed to increase the HDI and to reduce poverty. Harmony of spending also neglected to raise the HDI and to reduce the level of unemployment although it can alleviate poverty. The level of budget absorption can improve HDI and reduce the unemployment at two and three years ahead, but failed to lower poverty. Expenditure harmony and budget absorption failed to moderate the relationship between local autonomy, the effectiveness of local own-source revenue and all measurement of welfare, while the expenditure harmony able to moderate the relationship between the effectiveness of local own-source revenue and HDI.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, no previous study has comprehensively studied the effects of level of regionality autonomy and effectivity of local own-source revenue to public welfare, and the moderation effect of Expenditure harmony, budget absorption in relationship between financial performance of local government to public welfare, especially in Indonesia.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The propose of this study is to focus on the mediating role of compliance with procurement regulatory frameworks in implementing public road construction projects.

A cross-sectional research design was adopted. Structured questionnaires were developed in a three-step process including generating items, purifying measurement items and validating measurement items. Variables were anchored on a five-point Likert scale because it is an efficient unidimensional scale that ensures all items measure the same thing and widely applicable in construction research.

The findings show that compliance with a public procurement regulatory framework significantly mediates the relationship between familiarity with a public procurement regulatory framework, monitoring activities, sanction on staff and contractors’ resistance to non-compliance and public road construction project success. However, compliance with a public procurement regulatory framework does not mediate the relationship between the professionalism of staff and perceived inefficiency with public road construction projects’ success.

Limited mediation studies and examples in the public road construction subsector affected this study to comprehensively investigate and compare study findings. Furthermore, the study adopted a cross-sectional research design that limits responses to one point in time. Finally, the study missed out other participants in different organizations and departments that could have had relevant information.

The study contributes to public procurement and construction management research fields by uncovering this strong mediating role of compliance with a public procurement regulatory framework that collectively would help the government to implement public road construction projects successfully. Because no single factor can reliably attain objectives, blending these factors through a hybrid governance system would enable the government to achieve value for money, increase the quality and quantity of paved roads and save funds that can be channeled to other priority sectors for economic development.

Despite scholarly efforts to establish project success factors, studies have been limited to factors directly impacting the project success without considering a mediating effect among the factors that affect the success of these projects.