Ellis Kofi Akwaa-Sekyi

Team composition in sports rarely considers the significant mix of players in a national team's tournament performance. This study theorises that the mere inclusion of foreign‐based nationals is not enough to guarantee team success, especially in the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournaments. Using panel data on AFCON records of participating national teams from 1990 to 2025 in an ordinal logit regression, we reveal that an over‐reliance on either foreign‐based nationals or local players decreases the odds of finishing in the top four and subsequently winning the tournament. Drawing on social capital, modernisation, dependency, performance and systems theories, the study reveals that there is more to team composition and success at tournaments than the mere inclusion of foreign‐based nationals. The study finds a positive relationship between team experience, measured by the number of appearances made in previous tournaments, and team performance. The study provides useful information for coaches, managers, federations and scouts to have a good mix of team composition. Perhaps the playing time or activeness of foreign‐based nationals should be considered before their inclusion in the squad. This makes room for future team composition research to consider the skill sets, experience, techniques and knowledge acquired as a recipe for team performance.

This study examines how intellectual capital affects the financial success and long-term sustainability of Ghanaian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It also reviews how acquiring new knowledge could play a role in that relationship. The study used a quantitative survey, employing a structured questionnaire to gather data from 327 MSME owners and managers in Ghana. Intellectual capital is measured as human, structural, and relational capital, while absorptive capacity is measured as knowledge acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and use. Relational capital emerged as the dominant driver of firm outcomes, exerting significant positive effects on financial performance, business sustainability, and absorptive capacity. Structural capital marginally predicted financial performance and significantly predicted absorptive capacity, but produced no direct effect on business sustainability. Human capital yielded no significant direct or mediated effects on any outcome variable. Absorptive capacity strongly and independently predicted both outcome variables, fully mediating the effects of structural and relational capital while human capital pathways through absorptive capacity remained non-significant. These findings establish important boundary conditions for human capital theory in informal institutional environments and clarify absorptive capacity as a necessary conversion mechanism within the resource-based view (RBV) theoretical framework. Policymakers and MSME managers should prioritise external network cultivation and knowledge management systems over standalone workforce training investments.

Purpose: This study examines how professional African footballers finance their international careers and proposes an equitable model for distributing earnings among contributors, using the pecking order theory (POT) as a guiding framework. It seeks to determine whether players’ financing behaviour follows a pecking order and how earnings can be fairly shared among stakeholders to reduce conflict. Design/methodology/approach: Employing a mixed-methods design, the study draws on in-depth interviews with 36 African footballers from across the CAF zones who have played in over 30 professional leagues in UEFA countries. Primary qualitative data is supported by secondary sources, including player profiles, media reports, club websites and academic publications. Findings: The findings reveal that financing players’ careers in Africa follows a pecking order. Footballers initially rely on cheap internal financing sources (family and personal efforts) before turning to external, debt-like and equity-based support (community sponsors, local managers and agents) to pursue professional opportunities abroad. The study proposes a tripartite model for earnings distribution, allocating proportional returns to family, debt contributors and equity stakeholders, based on timing, risk and level of support. This addresses the financing gap and offers a practical solution to disputes over financial entitlements. Originality/value: This research is among the first to systematically apply POT to athlete financing in Africa and propose a model that reflects the informal yet critical roles played by non-institutional actors. By drawing parallels with startup financing, it contributes new theoretical and policy insights into sports migration, career development and conflict resolution in football. It also sets an agenda for further research into athlete financing in other sports and developing regions.

This study examines the relationship between corporate financial performance (CFP) and corporate social performance (CSP), exploring any inherent non-linearities (Jahmane & Gaies, 2020). Further, it investigates whether a formal ethics function on the board moderates this relationship. Literature suggests sustainability committees encourage investment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Velte, 2023; Velte & Stawinoga, 2020). Thus, the CSP should be higher and sustained for firms with such structures on the board. Using data from 239 companies across the largest stock markets in West, East, and Southern Africa (2014–2018), the study applies generalized linear regression models that are fitted to the data with CSP score as the outcome variable, and return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as independent variables. Polynomial terms are introduced to capture non-linearity, and the ethics function on the board is introduced as an interaction term. Findings reveal a non-linear relationship between CFP and CSP, where CSP increases with CFP but declines after a threshold. Furthermore, firms with a board-level ethics function demonstrate stronger CSP engagement, suggesting that ethical oversight influences corporate decision-making on social initiatives. The study underscores the vital role of sustainability committees in maintaining CSP as a strategic priority.

This study examines the impact of corporate governance determinants on the capital structure of manufacturing firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). Using a purposive sampling of 15 manufacturing firms, we collect secondary data for 14 years. We employ a system generalized method of moments (GMM) approach to address endogeneity issues. Apart from firms using more short-term debt financing than long-term debt, we report a significant positive relationship between managerial and institutional ownership and capital structure. There is a statistically significant and positive relationship between ownership concentration on both the short- and long-term debt ratios. Regarding company financial management, the study offers several recommendations and practical implications. Our findings have implications for improved management performance and corporate governance policies that lead to value-relevant capital structure decisions. The study also provides empirical support for the idea that firms might benefit from reduced agency costs and lower cost of capital if they implement appropriate corporate governance mechanisms. We provide support for the agency and pecking order theories. Future research could consider broader corporate governance variables and optimal capital structure.

This study aims to provide an empirical insight into whether institutional quality moderates the impact of public expenditure on economic sustainability among the Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries. Using a quantitative and explanatory research design, this study sourced a 20‐year longitudinal dataset on 48 SSA countries from the World Development Indicators (WDI) and World Governance Indicators (WGI) databases from 2003 to 2022. Both Pooled OLS and System GMM econometric techniques were employed for analysis. It was found that public expenditure and institutional quality positively and significantly influence economic sustainability. However, institutional quality was found to negatively and significantly moderate this relationship. The practical implication suggests nations may face a trade‐off between maintaining institutional quality and ensuring long‐term economic sustainability. The moderation effect of institutional quality is novel in nature and adds to the body of existing literature.

Purpose: This paper explores stakeholder perceptions on the nature and extent of sustainability reporting on the websites of technical universities (TUs) in Ghana.Design/methodology/approach: The authors collected data from the websites of the 10 TUs in Ghana and interviewed the stakeholders of the TUs. In analyzing the data, the authors used thematic analysis for the interview responses. The authors also adopted the global reporting initiative (GRI) guidelines and campus sustainability assessment tools for the presentation and analysis of the sustainability disclosures on the websites of the TUs.Findings: The authors found that due to weak institutional coercions, there were limited disclosures on the websites of the TUs, which aimed at gaining stakeholders' legitimacy; the disclosures were more focused on organizational profile, governance and educational aspects of sustainability. To a large extent, while some external stakeholders such as parents, regulators and alumni appear to be less interested in the disclosures on the TU's websites, internal stakeholders such as employees (teaching and non-teaching staff) and students who frequently visited the TU's websites perceived limited reporting and were not impressed with the extent of sustainability disclosures on these websites.Practical implications: The findings of this study are intended to assist policy-makers in the educational sector to appreciate the importance of sustainability reporting on their websites. The results of this study will assist higher educational institutions (HEIs) in increasing the success rate of sustainability implementation by overcoming the lack of sustainability disclosures on their websites. Thus, the results of this study have implications for sustainability implementations, particularly those in emerging economies and policy-makers of universities worldwide.Originality/value: This study could provide two significant values. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has explored stakeholder perceptions of sustainability reporting in implementing sustainability within the education sector. Second, the results were arrived at by combining stakeholder consultations with content analyses, which could be a good guideline for sustainability implementation in the educational sector of developing countries.

The global financial crisis affected the supply of funds to finance equity capital, thus calling for innovative risk capital financing methods. The paper explores the sources of venture capital (VC henceforth) fundraising and determines the relationship between VC fundraising, stock market returns, and market capitalization in Spain. The study uses time-series data of VC fundraising and stock market variables from 1989 to 2020 in a vector error correction model analysis after performing cointegration. The paper reports short-run and long-run causal relations between VC fundraising, stock market returns, and market capitalization when VC fundraising and stock market returns are used as dependent variables. However, such relations do not exist when the model is dependent on market capitalization. Our results show that the VC market raises funds from diversified (geographical and institutional) sources. Our findings support the risk diversification theory of VC financing. The paper provides implications for using alternative innovative ways of financing equity risk capital to spur economic growth.