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This paper aims to answer the following important questions: Is public debt in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries sustainable? What are the determinants of public debt sustainability in these countries, and do these determinants exhibit heterogeneity due to regional, natural resource, and income differences among SSA countries?

This study analyzes the public debt sustainability in SSA countries using the theoretical model known as the Present Value Budget Constraint (PVBC) model developed by Hamilton and Flavin (1986), and adopts the econometric testing method proposed by Trehan and Walsh (1991). Moreover, to empirically investigate the determinants of public debt sustainability in SSA countries, the System-Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM) method is applied. Furthermore, this study conducts heterogeneity analysis by categorizing the sample based on different regions, natural resource endowments, and income levels. The data of this study are sourced from the IMF and World Bank databases for 45 SSA countries from 2005 to 2021.

Findings reveal that public debt in SSA countries is not sustainable in the long run, with factors such as the previous government debt, long-term debt ratio, debt repayment capacity, economic growth rate, inflation rate, export to GDP, and government fiscal deficit rate influencing sustainability. Additionally, the factors exhibit heterogeneity attributed to regional, natural resource, and income variations among SSA countries.

The findings of our study will serve as a catalyst for policymakers in the SSA countries to embrace and sustain robust fiscal consolidation and debt stabilization measures. Moreover, countries with distinct characteristics should implement tailored approaches. Additionally, policymakers in SSA countries should implement economic measures to address public debt issues. These measures include improving the macroeconomic structure, promoting economic transformation and diversification of industries, fostering sustainable economic growth, ensuring price stability, and strengthening resilience against external shocks and debt risks. Specifically, countries endowed with indigenous species, resources, and tourism potential should adopt a well-coordinated strategy that utilizes agriculture, tourism, ecotourism, and the hospitality industry as instruments for sustainable local community and rural development.

Firstly, it assesses the sustainability of public debt and its determinants for countries in SSA, which distinguishes it from previous studies that only focus on either debt sustainability or determinants of debt separately. Secondly, by including multiple SSA countries in the analysis, this study stands out from prior research that predominantly concentrates on specific nations. Thirdly, the utilization of the System-GMM method for analyzing determinants adds a novel dimension to this study, departing from earlier literature primarily focused on debt thresholds. Lastly, the heterogeneity analysis conducted in this study provides an empirical foundation for tailoring policies to different countries, addressing a facet often overlooked in earlier literature.

Internal compulsions in the South African political economy have meant that the trend toward internationalization is not only contradictory but also ambivalent. Fulfilling the need for international compatibility in economics education undermines two parallel domestic pressures: commanding demands to transform socio‐economic institutions and the need to restructure education to reflect new international development priorities. These pressures constitute a severe brake on the pace and scope of internationalization. The paper discusses various aspects of internationalization of Economics education in South Africa and demonstrates that the trend has not taken off on any significant scale. In the process, it presents the history and organization of Economics education, the debates and tendencies in transforming tertiary education in South Africa, as well as alternatives in internationalizing the Economics syllabus in business education. Finally, it argues for a non‐ideological, open‐ended methodology for deriving practical policies on external economic relations.

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of African community leaders, on factors that influence substance use and mental health status of Sub-Sahara African immigrants living in the northeast region of the USA.

A social constructionist approach to grounded theory was used to understand social life’s complexity in the African community. Data analysis consisted of initial coding and focused coding, which led to the emerging of the following mid-range theories.

The following mid-range theories are developed: the work culture of Sub-Sahara African immigrants may influence substance-use behaviors, impact treatment for mental health and contribute to interpersonal conflicts related to marriage and parenting; there may be a relationship between the culture of privacy and spirituality because the church is often a place of comfort, and many may not seek treatment for mental health for fear of losing that community; Sub-Sahara African immigrants’ mental health and substance-use behaviors are influenced by unique factors that stem from balancing living in the new culture while also preserving their unique cultural norms.

The analysis of perceptions of African community leaders underscored “On the go” as a metaphor for describing Sub-Sahara African immigrants.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between gender disparities in rural education attainments and agricultural landownership (ALO) in Sub-Sahara Africa with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) perspective.

This study uses SDG indicators interactions and pairwise correlation analysis.

There is a significant negative association between gender disparities in rural education attainments and ALO in Sub-Sahara Africa. Such negative relationship is not influenced by national economic development and living standards.

The data is limited with 16 Sub-Sahara African countries, and as this is an early output of a number of follow-up studies in the author’s plan, the methodology is relatively simple.

Reducing gender disparity in rural Sub-Sahara Africa especially in ALO requires more integrated approaches which also address other aspects of sustainable development. This is particularly the situation because of the strong male-favored customary practices in rural Sub-Sahara Africa. The prioritization of different dimensions of sustainable development is also important in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Strong awareness of SDGs is important. Further efforts in collecting data for and use data of sustainable development, especially the SDGs, are essential. Emerging trend of studying the interactions across SDGs reflects the future direction of relevant fields.

This paper has high originality because it is an early-stage research in the SDG interactions in Sub-Sahara African countries with the perspective of gender, gender disparity, Sub-Sahara Africa, SDGs, ALO and rural education attainments. This paper has both academic and practical values because of its innovative research thoughts and policy-oriented implications.

The purpose of this study is to compare the spatial distribution of different types of Airbnb hosts – based on a novel typology – and to investigate their association with neighbourhood characteristics in Brussels.

This study describes the location of Airbnb dwellings across the types of hosts and use spatial tests to compare their distributions to the traditional hospitality industry. With regression models, this study examines the relationship between the provision of Airbnb listings and neighbourhood indicators.

While different types of hosts offer their listings in the same urban space, they also cover different areas and exhibit different clustering processes. Their locations are associated with structural, socio-economic and demographic neighbourhood characteristics that vary across the types and provide support for the new typology.

This study focuses on the type of Airbnb hosts and their listings in one year, 2019. It would be worthwhile to apply the typology to other cities and to observe how the distributions change over time, including the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to suggest a finer typology of Airbnb hosts than the regular distinction into professional and non-professional types and reveals how hosts differ in the location of their Airbnbs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative impact of bank-based and market-based financial developments on economic growth from 1984 to 2015, using 60countries.

This study uses fixed effect and generalized method of moments (GMM) to investigate the relative impact of bank-based and market-based financial developments on economic growth from 1984 to 2015, using 60 countries. The study further controls regional effects and the Asian crisis, as well as the global economic crisis.

The empirical results of the study revealed that market-based development positively affects economic growth. Besides, market-based financial development indirectly promotes investment, which has the potential to strongly enhance growth. The findings of this study, therefore, provide more support to pro-market-based financial development policies in these regions. Interestingly, bank-based development has no direct impact on development, but indirectly encourages investment, which also promotes growth.

This paper is the first of its kind to empirically examine fixed effect and GMM to investigate the relative impact of bank-based and market-based financial developments on economic growth from 1984 to 2015, using 60 countries.

This chapter offers a survey of education development in Sub-Saharan Africa, dynamics of global forces and Sub-Saharan African context. First, the regional context of Sub-Saharan Africa is surveyed. This is followed first by an overview of the incoming tide of global forces impinging on education in the sub-continent, followed by a discussion of education developments in Sub-Saharan Africa as co-shaped by contextual contours. It transpires that the contextual realities of sub-Sahara Africa not only have a powerful mediating role on the impact of global forces but also are in their own right an agency in shaping the education response of societies in the region. The other common thread running through the chapter is the lack of knowledge explicating the interrelationship between education and societal context in the region. This lacunus is evident from the fact that no country in the region has ever been included in international surveys such as the TALIS survey, to lack of research on, for example, informal settlements or the informal economy and its intersection with education. Such research, when placed on the Comparative and International Education research agenda, will not only be of significance to Sub-Sahara Africa, but also to the entire world, many aspects of the contextual architecture of the region are becoming increasingly evident world-wide.

Purpose — This chapter investigates how dishonesty may be legitimized in organizations through customary practices of gift giving, patronage, and non-meritocratic employment practices.Design/methodology/approach — A survey of managers was undertaken in four sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.Findings — Gift giving was perceived to be widespread in organizations in all four countries and yet the vast majority of managers we surveyed, rejected the proposition that the practice of gift giving causes dishonesty in organizations. There were cross-country variations as to whether the expectations of the society on individuals “glorify and endorse” dishonesty as they may feel pressured to accumulate and (re)distribute wealth among their wider social groups. Non-meritocratic employment practices were unanimously perceived to engender incompetent workforce, lack of accountability and transparency without necessarily improving trust, and loyalty in organizations.Research limitations — This study used quantitative methods to gauge managers’ perceptions of the relationship between customary practices and dishonest behavior in only four African countries. Further qualitative research is required to gain a deeper insight into how customary practices may inform dishonest behavior in organizations.Implications for managers — Managers should be clear about the distinction between customary practices and dishonest behavior in order to facilitate the development of appropriate organizational strategies to minimize their negative impacts.Originality/value — This paper explores the relationship between dishonesty and customary practices of gift giving, patronage and nepotism in African organizations from the managers’ point of view, an approach that had not been undertaken previously.

The paper aims to show the impact of insider/outsider researcher positionality and the lessons from researching the social construction of HIV stigma and sexual health-seeking behaviour within black sub-Sahara African communities (BSSA).

The paper is a reflection on the impact of researcher positionality based on lessons learnt following a research study on the social construction of HIV stigma and sexual health-seeking behaviour within BSSA communities.

Researcher positionality has a direct impact on the quality and nature of study outcomes. Depending on the nature and circumstances of a given research study, the researcher status in terms of position (insider or outsider) can be dynamic and instrumental in the level of participation by research participants. In this paper, the authors consider three important interdependent aspects central to conducting research including researcher identity, research participants and the research topic to assess the impact of researcher status on the quality and nature of the information provided by the research participants.

A researcher who is viewed as both an insider/outsider can either positively or negatively influenced the quality and nature of the information given by the research participants.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight important contemporary themes in international marketing strategy from the perspective of Sub-Saharan African firms.

The approach adopted is a review and synopsis of the existing body of research on international marketing research in Sub-Saharan Africa, and a discussion of the manuscripts included in the special issue.

International marketing in Sub-Sahara Africa is growing steadily, driven largely by rapid changes in socio-economic and demographic characteristics of consumers in this market. The growing appetite of multinational enterprises to explore new growth opportunities on this continent and the increasing intra-Africa cross-border transactions is driving unique approaches to international marketing that are predicated on using non-traditional means to produce, communicate and distribute products and services.

While the international marketing opportunities and challenges discussed in this paper are not exhaustive, the paper highlights important research themes that need consideration regarding international marketing research in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This introductory paper emphasizes the unique international business landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa and discusses its international marketing strategy implications. The paper further draws attention to a number of unanswered research questions that require additional research, and thus bring Sub-Saharan Africa to international marketing scholarly enquiry.