New Issue of the Journal Risk Governance and Control: Financial Markets & Institutions

The recent issue of the journal Risk Governance and Control: Financial Markets & Institutions pays attention to issues of risk and strategic management, Islamic banking, dividend policy, CEO compensation, corporate ownership, credit rating agencies etc. More detailed issues are given below.

Nonhlanhla Mbatha and Musawenkosi Ngibe examine the critical factors that affect SME’s financial stability which in the long run result in the liquidation of SMEs. The study was descriptive and quantitative in nature, using questionnaires to collect data from a sample of one hundred and twenty (120) SMEs across the Durban area. The findings show that lack of understanding of financial reporting has a negative impact on the financial stability of the business. Also the lack of insufficient financial experience proved to have a negative impact on the financial stability of SMEs. The study recommends that a short accounting programme should be developed by government incubators to assist and provide owners and accounts staff of SMEs with practical experience in financial reporting in order to increase their level of understanding financial reporting processes.

Leandi Steenkamp sets 3 main goals: Firstly, to discuss the findings of a literature review on uncertainties, ambiguity and confusing aspects in legislation regarding the audit of sectional title property that may cause or increase the audit expectation gap. Secondly, to discuss the empirical findings of accountancy-related aspects of a sample of body corporate financial statements and accompanying audit reports, in order to identify current benchmarks, challenges, trends, deficiencies in reporting and possible norms for the sectional title industry. Specific reference will be made to the difference between the bodies corporate in the Mangaung and Matjhabeng areas. Thirdly, practical recommendations will be made on possibilities of closing the expectation gap, and further research opportunities in this regard will be discussed.

Emmanuel Innocents Edoun divides the research into four major parts. The first part gives a background of the notion of decentralisation, urbanisation and local economic development. The second part provides an overview of the review of the related literature while the third part gives an account on how the above are inter-related. The fourth part provides the challenges faced by urbanisation in achieving local economic development and part five is presented as conclusion and recommendations.

Vincent A. Onodugo, Kenneth Onyebuchi Obi, Oluchukwu F. Anowor, Nnenna Georgina Nwonye and Grace N.Ofoegbu recommend inter alia, that the proportion of capital expenditure in Nigerian budget profile should be systematically increased while the recurrent expenditure should be reduced; and there is need to stimulate competition among investors through removal of structural and institutional rigidities and government should design clear policy incentives to private sector investment.

Last Mazambani and Emmanuel Mutambara undertake to review literature on the causes of failure in mobile money. In the context of those causes of failure, the paper proposes and explains how the adoption of the balanced scorecard by mobile money innovators can lever their performance and ultimately survival. By demonstrating how the balanced scorecard can align strategy to mission in mobile money deployments, the study contributes towards improved strategy execution in the sector. It also sets a research agenda.

Philemon Nji Kum, Chux Gervase Iwu and Samuel Augustine Umezurike affirm that a notable gap exists in scholarly literature which has not provided the full-fledged understanding of the impact of Chinese manufactured goods into South Africa. We draw from the concepts of protectionism and free trade to expatiate the concerns raised by many with respect to the nature and benefits of the relationship. While the results show that South African clothing firms are increasingly shutting down because of lower prices from international competitors (especially China), and also due to structural issues of the present South African economy, we are equally aware of the extensive pressure from interest groups for the South African government to protect major local industries such as steel and textile. We argue anyway that the South African government is playing its cards carefully to avoid a backlash, especially considering its position within the BRICS bloc.

Johannes Tshepiso Tsoku, Nonofo Phukuntsi and Daniel Metsileng employ the Box-Jenkins Methodology to forecast South African gold sales. For a resource economy like South Africa where metals and minerals account for a high proportion of GDP and export earnings, the decline in gold sales is very disturbing. Box-Jenkins time series technique was used to perform time series analysis of monthly gold sales for the period January 2000 to June 2013 with the following steps: model identification, model estimation, diagnostic checking and forecasting.

Tu DQ Le employs Data Envelopment Analysis to examine the relative efficiency for Vietnamese banks from 2008 to 2015. Efficiency level is relatively high and remains stable over the examined period, suggesting the banking system is less affected by the global financial crisis. More specifically, technical efficiency and scale efficiency in Vietnamese banking is examined when controlling for problem loans.

Wissal Ben Letaifa reviews a synthesis of theories and empirical studies dealing with the mergers and acquisitions in the recent decay in an attempt to provide directions for future research. The review focuses on four main streams including: first, the motives for mergers-acquisitions; which are the strategic profits, the overconfidence of managers and the desire to create a big empire resulting from merger. From second, corporate characteristics of firms that did merger or acquisition; third, the economic consequences of the operation of merger and acquisition and finally; fourth, the implication on the market with the impact of merger on the value of the firm.

Simon Zaby investigates success factors of innovative start-up firms from the perspective of young start-up managers. One part of the data has been collected by the author, the other part originates from the Swiss Venture Capital Database (total sample size: 306). The results show a significant role of venture capital financing for the success of innovative start-ups. Interestingly, this is to some extent because the start-ups see various additional benefits from venture capitalists involved in their firm. Thus, the findings shed new light on a proper definition of venture capital that should not solely focus on the flow of funds.

Michael Adiwijaya, Thomas Kaihatu, Agustinus Nugroho and Endo Wijaya Kartika explain the relationship between customers trust, perceived risk and online purchase intention. However, we added e-servicescape as the antecedent of customers trust, perceived risk, and purchase intention. The respondents are 120 online shop customers. The data is processed using SmartPLS 2.0.

Gisele Mah examines the shocks of the variables on others in the USA economy by using quarterly data. The variance decomposition and the Generalised Impulse Response Function techniques were employed to analyse the data. The result revealed that high variation of shocks in real federal debt is explained by their own innovations in the short run, by CPI followed by real federal debt its self. In the long run, this leads to CPI and real government spending. The results lead to the recommendation that the US government should focus on real federal debt in the short run.

To browse the papers in the issue please visit this page.