Athenia Bongani Sibindi

This study investigates the impact of green finance on carbon emission intensity in South Africa’s metal production sector, utilizing the ARDL econometric model. South Africa faces the complex task of promoting economic expansion without compromising long-term environmental sustainability, given its fossil-fuel-dependent energy system and energy-intensive industries. Green finance, encompassing green credit, climate investment, and funding for eco-friendly projects, could be instrumental in mitigating emissions. This research analyzes both the short-term and long-term dynamics between green finance and carbon emission intensity, considering economic growth and metal output as additional explanatory variables. The findings indicate that green finance consistently reduces carbon emission intensity in both the long and short term. Over both horizons, annual gross domestic product growth was found to decrease carbon emission intensity, while metal production output was found to increase carbon emission intensity. These results offer valuable policy recommendations for achieving environmental objectives and long-term, responsible development. Overall, the findings deepen understanding of how financial systems can support climate mitigation efforts in emerging markets.

This study examined the effect of social investment on corporate cash holdings in South African financial institutions, addressing a gap in the existing literature, which has largely concentrated on developed countries and non-financial industries. The research provides empirical data on the association between social investment and corporate cash reserves within an emerging-market financial sector. A quantitative, positivist, and deductive research design was adopted, using secondary data collected from 18 South African financial institutions for the period spanning 2015 to 2024. The data were obtained from the Thomson Reuters Eikon and World Bank databases, and the analysis employed the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator to control for dynamic connections and potential endogeneity issues. The findings showed a highly significant negative connection between social investment and corporate cash reserves, indicating that firms holding larger cash reserves tend to allocate fewer resources to social investment activities. The results also revealed a strong inverse connection between social investment and cash holdings, suggesting that firms with higher cash balances invest less in social initiatives. These findings indicate a misalignment between the goals of corporate social responsibility programmes and liquidity management strategies in South African financial institutions. The study emphasizes the importance of incorporating social investment into corporate cash holding policies and recommends that managers direct cash reserves towards socially beneficial initiatives rather than maintaining excessive cash balances. By offering data from an emerging-market setting, the study contributes to the fields of sustainability and corporate finance and provides valuable insights for managers making financial and cash reserves decisions that enhance stakeholder value.

The growing socio-economic challenges associated with financial exclusion, digital inequality, and uneven technological transformation have intensified the importance of econometric modelling of inclusive growth across developing African economies. However, limited empirical evidence exists regarding the heterogeneous long-run and short-run effects of financial inclusion and technological infrastructure on inclusive growth in West and Southern Africa using advanced dynamic panel econometrics. The purpose of this study is to quantify the structural effects of financial inclusion and technological infrastructure on inclusive growth and to identify regional asymmetries within the finance-technology-growth nexus. The empirical analysis is based on a balanced panel dataset for 18 West and Southern African countries covering 1986-2024 using World Bank World Development Indicators data on GDP per capita growth, domestic credit, bank branches, mobile subscriptions, internet penetration, and electricity access. The study applies Principal Component Analysis (PCA); panel ARDL modelling using PMG and MG estimators; Pedroni, Kao, and Westerlund cointegration procedures; Pesaran CD diagnostics; heterogeneous Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality tests; and LLC, IPS, CADF, and CIPS unit root tests implemented in STATA. The econometric estimations reveal a statistically significant long-run effect of technological infrastructure on inclusive growth, where the composite infrastructure index generated a coefficient of 0.122 (p < 0.01), while electricity access produced a coefficient of 0.0929 (p < 0.05), confirming the structural role of digital and energy infrastructure in inclusive economic expansion. The statistical decomposition further identified substantial regional heterogeneity, as the West African financial inclusion index reached 0.269 (p < 0.01), whereas the technological infrastructure index generated a stronger coefficient of 0.358 (p < 0.01), demonstrating that simultaneous financial and technological deepening considerably accelerates inclusive growth dynamics. Moreover, the country-level estimations revealed mathematically differentiated adjustment mechanisms, where Botswana recorded a technological infrastructure coefficient of 0.342 (p < 0.01), while South Africa demonstrated a positive mobile infrastructure effect of 0.00280, suggesting heterogeneous transmission mechanisms between digital inclusion, financial development, and inclusive growth. The obtained findings substantially strengthen the econometric understanding of socio-economic challenges related to financial and digital inclusion and provide a rigorous analytical foundation for evidence-based regional development and digital transformation policies.

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of entrepreneurs’ facial disclosure on crowdfunding success. It emphasises examining how an entrepreneur’s image disclosure and display influence crowdfunding outcomes, to understand the complex factors that lead to successful or unsuccessful venture capital financing. We employed econometric analysis to develop a comprehensive index of an individual’s facial reliability, drawing on data from Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and fundraised crowdfunding platforms. The econometric analysis revealed that disclosure of the entrepreneur's face is positively correlated with crowdfunding success. Frequently asked questions, social networks, and backers were positively associated with crowdfunding success. A similarly targeted amount was found to negatively affect crowdfunding success. Providing the face and personality of the business to potential sponsors goes beyond just showing a product or idea; it also creates a connection with people. These personal touches are crucial factors in persuading people to contribute to a cause. It is advisable for entrepreneurs to intentionally use relatable, authentic images in their crowdfunding campaigns. The study's findings were limited to crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and fundraised platforms; therefore, they cannot be generalized to other crowdfunding platforms.

This study explores the moderating role of pre-disclosure information leakage on the impact of board-level corporate governance on the financial performance of listed banks in East Africa. The research is driven by ongoing debates surrounding governance and performance, as well as the limited evidence available from emerging-market banking systems, where trading environments are often less regulated. The focus is on all 18 banks traded on stock exchanges in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda from 2010 to 2023, utilising a balanced panel dataset. Grounded in agency theory, information asymmetry, and efficient market hypotheses, the analysis investigates how information leakage moderates the effects of board size, independence, and meeting frequency on profitability and asset quality. Employing a sequential econometric approach, comprising pooled OLS, fixed and random effects models, and two-step system GMM, robustness diagnostics were conducted to ensure validity. The findings reveal that information leakage enhances short-term profitability but heightens future credit risk, with its moderating role amplifying both the positive effects of governance on profitability and the negative effects on asset quality. These results indicate that the effectiveness of governance is contingent on the information environment. This study provides novel insights for emerging markets and recommends that regulators and bank boards optimise board structures while reinforcing disclosure controls to strike a balance between market gains and the preservation of asset quality.

Corporate liquidity management increasingly intersects with environmental performance in financial institutions, where cash-holding decisions must reconcile sustainability commitments, prudential liquidity requirements, and climate-related financial risk. Existing evidence remains limited for emerging-market financial institutions and provides little insight into whether the Environmental Pillar Score is associated with cash-holding behavior after accounting for dynamic adjustment, endogeneity, and macroeconomic conditions. This study examines the association between environmental performance and corporate cash holdings in listed South African financial institutions. The analysis uses a balanced panel of 18 banks and insurance firms observed over 2015–2024, comprising 180 firm-year observations in the full panel, of which 162 enter the dynamic estimation; firm-level financial and environmental data are obtained from Thomson Reuters Eikon and macroeconomic data from World Bank Open Data. The empirical strategy combines descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, panel diagnostics, and a two-step dynamic system generalized method of moments estimator with Windmeijer-corrected robust standard errors in Stata version 16.1, using 13 instruments and a collapsed instrument matrix. The dynamic estimates show a positive and statistically significant association between the Environmental Pillar Score and cash holdings (β = 0.000420, standard error = 0.000107, p < 0.01), while lagged cash holdings are negative and significant (β = −0.387, standard error = 0.0214, p < 0.01), indicating mean-reverting dynamics; Arellano–Bond first-order and second-order p-values are 0.444 and 0.303, while Sargan and Hansen p-values are 0.082 and 0.992. Cash flow and firm size are positively associated with cash holdings (β = 0.0888, standard error = 0.0162; β = 0.132, standard error = 0.0220; both p < 0.01), whereas the current ratio, leverage, and growth opportunities are negatively associated (β = −0.00225, standard error = 0.0000625; β = −0.157, standard error = 0.0131; β = −0.0328, standard error = 0.00388; all p < 0.01); the lending interest rate is positive and significant (β = 0.00443, standard error = 0.000557, p < 0.01), while real gross domestic product and the Consumer Price Index are non-significant. The Environmental Pillar Score averages 45.14, ranges from 0.00 to 96.44, and is positively correlated with cash holdings (r = 0.2372, p < 0.01); however, the fixed-effects coefficient is negative and non-significant (β = −0.0000659), showing that the sign of the environmental-performance coefficient is not stable across estimators. The findings extend sustainable finance and corporate liquidity research by quantifying this relationship in an emerging financial-sector setting, highlighting estimator sensitivity and supporting further research on climate-related financial risk, liquidity management, and financial resilience without inferring causality from observational data.

While extensive research has explored the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in BRICS nations, there remains a notable gap in understanding the influence of intangible factors, particularly soft power and nation branding. Historically, academic discourse has underemphasized the role of nation branding as a crucial emotional and perceptual component in investment decision-making processes. Consequently, governments in BRICS countries must enhance their national branding efforts to attract both capital and portfolio investment flows. The principal aim of this study was to jointly analyse the tangible and intangible determinants influencing FDI and FPI in BRICS from 1994 to 2024. Employing advanced econometric techniques, specifically the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach for cointegration and Vector Error Correction Models (VECM) for estimation. This study makes a unique contribution to existing literature by examining the nexus between nation branding, FDI and FPI, thereby introducing a novel perspective on the factors driving investment in the BRICS context with an emphasis on non-tangible determinants. The findings indicate that nation branding, along with exchange rate stability, property rights, and financial market development, are significant positive determinants of FPI in these countries. Conversely, capital openness demonstrated a negative relationship with FPI. Moreover, the positive impact of nation branding on FDI within BRICS nations was reaffirmed. This study substantiates the critical role of nation branding as a pivotal driver for both FDI and FPI, emphasising its strategic importance in the economic landscape of BRICS countries.

Crowdfunding has gained popularity among entrepreneurs who seek funding for their business projects on crowdfunding platforms. The success of these campaigns largely depends on the ability to attract and convince backers to support the fundraising initiative. Drawing on signalling, persuasion, and attribution theories, this study examines how campaign descriptions and visual features specifically word description length, spelling errors, images, frequently asked questions (FAQs), number of backers, funding target, flexible funding, and campaign duration. The study utilised econometric techniques such as ordinary least squares and logistic regression models on a dataset consisting of 854 small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurial projects collected from Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Fundraised databases. The probability of success is significantly increased by the length of project descriptions, the inclusion of images, and an increased number of backers. On the other hand, higher funding targets and flexible funding models decrease the probability of success. These results support the attribution and persuasion theories, indicating that detailed project descriptions can address information gaps and improve the project’s credibility and trustworthiness. This study contributes to the literature by providing an empirically grounded understanding of how textual and visual elements influence crowdfunding outcomes in the African context and offers practical guidance for entrepreneurs and investors on designing effective campaigns.

Crowdfunding has gained popularity among entrepreneurs who seek funding for their business projects on crowdfunding platforms. The success of these campaigns largely depends on convincing numerous backers to support the fundraising initiative. Effective communication, informed by signalling, persuasion, and attribution theories, is an efficient strategy that attracts potential investors and backers to ensure a campaign’s success. The study assessed how the length of the project description affects the success of crowdfunding projects in Africa. The study utilised econometric techniques such as ordinary least squares and logistic regression models. The unit of analysis comprised 854 African small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurial projects collected from Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Fundraised databases. The findings show that longer project descriptions and more backers are linked to higher success in crowdfunding. On the other hand, having flexible funding options and setting higher funding targets decreases the likelihood of success. These results support the attribution and persuasion theories, indicating that detailed project descriptions can address information gaps and improve the project’s credibility and trustworthiness. The study adds to the existing body of knowledge by providing a specific understanding of the diverse linguistic and cultural environment. It does so by extensively exploring the linguistic and cultural nuances of word choice and storytelling techniques unique to African crowdfunding campaigns, which contrasts with previous studies. The study offers valuable theoretical and practical insights for entrepreneurs and investors.

This study focused on investigating the factors that drive reward-based crowdfunding in Africa, particularly considering the increasing limitations that entrepreneurs face in accessing traditional financial resources globally, by analysing 215 crowdfunding projects from prominent platforms like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and Fundraised. The research aimed to identify the key drivers of crowdfunding success. The results from an econometric logistic regression analysis revealed that while images, longer campaign durations, and videos positively influenced crowdfunding, they did not significantly contribute to achieving success. In contrast, the number of backers showed a positive and significant impact on outcomes, whereas the targeted funding amount negatively influenced the success. Notably, the presence of spelling errors was found to have a positive, though statistically insignificant, relationship with crowdfunding success. These findings enhance the existing literature on crowdfunding and offer valuable insights into concepts such as information asymmetry and signalling theory within the context of reward-based crowdfunding.