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This study examines the interconnected effects of formal, informal, environmental and skill-based institutional barriers on firm performance. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region has implemented various reforms and policy initiatives to support small businesses yet are unsuccessful as formal institutional framework and governance remains a challenge.

The authors employ a sample of 3,515 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the ECOWAS and a two-stage instrumental variable approach to control for endogeneity. Additionally, the authors check for robustness using various measures of firm performance such as profitability, productivity and export intensity.

The authors confirm that formal institutions are insignificant for firm profitability and productivity, whilst reducing informal, environmental and skill-based institutional barriers are associated with firm performance. However, when barriers to informal, environmental and skill-based institutions are at the lowest, formal institutions are associated with firm performance.

The major limitation lies in the policy implications. Informal institutions come into play when formal institutions are weak. However, informal practices must be addressed in the form of formal enforcement. This leads to a conundrum.

Policymakers should continue to market-supporting institutions and a conducive business environment to complement the formal institutional framework.

This study provides new empirical evidence on how institutional quality affects firm performance by examining whether other institutional factors, such as the informal, environmental and skill-based institutional barriers, can moderate this effect.

Despite the inclusion of financial literacy in retirement studies, there are limited studies that look into retirement concerns and how financial literacy plays a role in managing retirement concerns. Understanding retirement concerns prior to retirement is important given how it affects retirement satisfaction. Therefore, this paper aims at assessing the retirement concerns in Brunei and the role of financial literacy in managing those concerns.

700 government employees, divided into three groups, were interviewed: Defined Contribution Plan (DCP) employees retiring in the next 10–15 years, DCP employees retiring in 20–30 years' time and Defined Benefit Plan (DBP) employees retiring in the next 10 years. Pearson's chi-square tests and logistic regressions were used to ascertain significant relationships.

The results indicate the relatively younger DCP group is more likely to be financially literate compared to senior groups however, these respondents are more inclined to focus on private home ownership at this juncture. The findings also indicate the importance of knowing how much to save for retirement towards determining those with an additional retirement plan, and consequently reducing their retirement concerns. The value of financial advice is also significant in determining the amount to save for retirement and in possessing an additional retirement plan.

Results cannot be generalised to the population, as purposive sampling was utilised due to the absence of a population frame.

The implications of the paper may provide value to policymakers to consider approaches to enhance the quality of financial advice and provide sound knowledge in computing the amount needed for retirement. Understanding the role of financial literacy vis-à-vis retirement concerns may also be useful for neighbouring countries with similar socio-cultural aspects such as Malaysia.

Given the limited research on retirement concerns and financial literacy, this paper is one of the few to emphasise on the importance of knowing how much is needed to save for retirement, in relation to retirement concerns. This may also be useful in other countries/communities with similar retirement context such as those with relatively low retirement planning or with similar retirement schemes. Further, with the 1993 pension reform, there is no known publication on retirement concerns and expectations in Brunei. Left unchecked, it may lead to poverty in old age and/or dependency on welfare institutions and family support.