The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought unprecedented impacts on the global tourism industry. Starting in 2020, the virus spread from Wuhan, China, where it was first detected, to more than 216 countries around the world (WHO, 2021). To date, there has been more than 240 million confirmed cases and more than 4 million deaths arising from the virus (WHO, 2021). To reduce the spread of the disease, most countries initiated nationwide or community lockdowns, border closures, suspension of flights, or closure of public spaces and restrictions of public gatherings. These restrictions have had negative ramifications for the tourism industry, which stands as an important economic sector in most countries. In pre-pandemic 2019, international global tourist arrivals clocked 1.5 billion and the industry contributed US$3.5 trillion to the total direct gross domestic product (TDGDP) (UNWTO, 2022). However, by 2021, international tourist arrivals had dropped to 415 million and the TDGDP had also dropped to US$1.9 trillion (UNWTO, 2022). Because of the fragility of the tourism industry arising from the pandemic, there is a need for tourism organizations to effectively manage their destinations.
Chatibura, D. M. and Motshegwa, N. (2023) ‘Developing Virtual Tourism in the Wake of COVID-19: a Critical Function of Tourism Destination Management Organizations’, CABI Books. CABI International. doi: 10.1079/9781800621022.0002. Developing Virtual Tourism in the Wake of COVID-19: a Critical Function of Tourism Destination Management Organizations
Under-five mortality remains a global health concern as many countries have failed to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4). Children under five (under-fives) continue to perish to preventable deaths globally. Zimbabwe is amongst the Sub-Saharan African countries that failed to achieve the MDG 4 on under-five mortality. Regardless of evidence from other regions that emerging technologies help eliminate preventable deaths among under-fives, Zimbabwe’s adoption of such technologies in public health facilities remains nascent.
Batani, J. and Maharaj, M.S., 2023, March. A Framework for the Adoption of Emerging Technologies to Reduce Under-Five Mortality in Zimbabwe. In 2023 Conference on Information Communications Technology and Society (ICTAS) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Android applications are indispensable resources that facilitate communication, health monitoring, planning, data sharing and synchronization, social interaction, business and financial transactions. However, the rapid increase in the smartphone penetration rate has consequently led to an increase in cyberattacks. Smartphone applications use permissions to allow users to utilize different functionalities, making them susceptible to malicious software (malware). Despite the rise in Android applications’ usage and cyberattacks, the use of deep learning (DL) models to detect emerging malware in Android applications is still nascent. Therefore, this review sought to explain DL models that are applied to detect malware in Android applications, explore their performance as well as identify emerging research gaps and present recommendations for future work. This study adopted the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to guide the review. The study revealed that convolutional neural networks, gated recurrent neural networks, deep neural networks, bidirectional long short-term memory, long short-term memory (LSTM) and cubic-LSTM are the most prominent deep learning-based malicious software detection models in Android applications. The findings show that deep learning models are increasingly becoming an effective technique for malicious software detection in Android applications in real-time. However, monitoring and tracking information flow and malware behavior is a daunting task because of the evolving nature of malware and human behavior. Therefore, training mobile application users and sharing updated malware datasets is paramount in developing detection models. There is also a need to detect malicious software before downloading mobile applications to improve the security of Android smartphones.
Elliot M,Benhildah M., Batani J. c, Nobuhle M ( 2023) A review of deep learning models to detect malware in Android applications. Cyber Security and Applications
Volume 1, December 2023, 100014
Educational data mining has become an effective tool for exploring the hidden relationships in educational data and predicting students’ academic performance. The prediction of student academic performance has drawn considerable attention in education. However, although the learning outcomes are believed to improve learning and teaching, prognosticating the attainment of student outcomes remains underexplored. To achieve qualitative education standard, several attempts have been made to predict the performance of the student, but the prediction accuracy is not acceptable. The main purpose of this research is significantly predict the student performance to improve the academic results. In order to accomplish the prediction with supplementary exactness, XGBoost based methods have been adopted. This work introduces a novel hybrid Lion-Wolf optimization algorithm to solve the problem of feature selection. Two level overlap improves the exploitation part. First phase overlap is used for feature selection and second phase used for adding some more important information and improve the classification accuracy. The XGBoost classifier improved the classification accuracy which is most famous classifier based on wrapper method. XGboost model using two different parameter adjustment methods are compared. XGBoost based on hybrid Lion-Wolf optimization performs better than traditional XGBoost on training accuracy and efficiency. Experiments are applied using the dataset and results prove that proposed algorithm outperform and provide better results.
Viswanathan, S. Vengatesh K (2023) A NOVEL APPROACH FOR ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION OF STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE USING MACHINE LEARNING ALGORUTHMS. Semiconductor Optoelectronics, Vol. 42 No. 1 (2023), 674-68
Many elderly people have hypertension, and health systems are faced with the challenge of responding to the needs of this population. The availability of Nutrition Management Service (NMS) in Outpatient Department (OPD) services is one of the strategies that have the potential to control these patients’ blood pressure. The study sought to investigate the availability of NMS for the hypertensive outpatient elderly in Thamae Health Centre and Khubetsona Health Centre. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study employing both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. NMS was found to be available in the facilities, but incomplete. Of all the patients followed, 16.2% received nutrition counselling and 9.5% received nutrition follow-up, but none of them received nutrition screening. NMS is available in the facilities, but it is incomplete, due to many factors which originate from the planners’ failure.
Motsieloa, Lineo Florina, and Mpati Evelyn Fosa. “INVESTIGATING THE AVAILABILITY OF NUTRITION MANAGEMENT SERVICE FOR HYPERTENSIVE ELDERLY PEOPLE IN KHUBETSOANA AND THAMAE HEALTH CENTRES.” Pharmacology 3, no. 1 (2023): 103-123.
Abstract
This study aims to explore the influence of surprise and delight on the loyalty intentions of retail banking customers in an emerging market context. This study also considers the moderating effect of trust on these relationships.
Svotwa, T.D., Makanyeza, C., Roberts-Lombard, M. and Jaiyeoba, O.O. (2023), “A relationship marketing perspective on delight, its antecedents and outcomes in a banking context”, European Business Review, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 306-336. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-09-2022-0170
Emmanuel Z, Molelekeng K., Thekiso M. (2023) Lessons From COVID-19: A Silver Lining For Teaching And Learning In Selected Lesotho Institutions Of Higher Learning. International Journal of All Research Writings Vol. 4 Issue. 8
There has been a myriad of negative implications on teaching and learning at tertiary level that came along with the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lessons and opportunities presented by the pandemic to the learning and teaching process in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). The study employed a survey design and used diary and semistructured questionnaires as key data generation tools. A sample of 80 lecturing staff was used from three HEIs in Lesotho adopting a stratified random sampling. The findings from the study suggest that the implementation of online teaching and learning brought positive implications to Lesotho’s HEIs as most of the sampled respondents supported the intervention. The study also revealed that the COVID19 pandemic exposed shortcomings such as a lack of staff capacity to teach online, adoption of blended learning, and teaching and infrastructural preparedness in tertiary institutions. The study further suggests that there is a need to redevelop and redesign the curriculum, harmonize policies of teaching and assessment, and align them to online learning and teaching. The study recommended an inclusive stakeholder approach at the national and institutional level to drafting and implementing online learning supportive policies. Further research is recommended to quality regulators of tertiary institutions to understand their insights and perceptions of adopting online teaching and learning in HEIs.
Government expenditure on health and economic growth in Botswana: Testing for cointegration and specification of deterministic components using the pantula principle. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 12(2), pp.204-216.
This study examines the relationship between government expenditure on health and economic growth in Botswana. It seeks to test the existence of cointegration and specification of the deterministic components with special reference to the Pantula Principle. This helps to overcome the shortfall of the method by Johansen, which may lead to spurious results by omitting the presence of deterministic components in the analysis. The cointegration approach is used and tested using three methods by Engle and Granger (1987) or EG, a procedure suggested by Johansen (1988) and error correction model (ECM) approach proposed by Granger(1988) and short-run analysis is made using the pairwise granger causality tests. Findings show that the correct model specification for testing long-run relationships consists of one cointegrating vector with a constant which is the most restrictive hypothesis according to the Pantula principle. Using the Johansen approach, total health expenditure and recurring health expenditure have a cointegration relationship with growth while development health expenditure and growth are not cointegrated. The ECM and the approach by EG confirm a weak and/or no cointegration between the variables. Growth has no effect on government expenditure on health in the short run, but a cointegration relationship suggests that it may marginally contribute to an increase in health expenditure over the long term. The study clarifies the correct model to test for cointegration and specification for the deterministic component. It confirms the existence of a healthcare expenditure-led growth hypothesis.
Sinha, N. and Mbulawa, S., 2023. Government expenditure on health and economic growth in Botswana: Testing for cointegration and specification of deterministic components using the pantula principle. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 12(2), pp.204-216.
This chapter introduces the concept of financial globalization and examines the factors driving financial globalization in emerging and developing market economies. The role of financial globalization in driving the development and strengthening of the financial sector, sustainable economic growth, and the nature of innovations are explored. On a broader scale, there is a need to understand the developments in global financial innovation and their implications for developing and emerging markets. The chapter explores the challenges, risks and benefits of financial globalization to emerging and developing markets and how they will shape future behavior and interactions by economic agents in these markets. Financial globalization can lead to different outcomes that include but not limited to domestic capital flight and potential effects on net capital flows, investment, and growth; capital inflows and higher investment and growth; or volatile capital flows and unstable domestic financial markets. The chapter discusses the measurement issues of financial openness. These all need to be explored in this context and consider the rise in innovations in the financial sector.
Applied Intelligence, pp.1-38.
HUIM (High utility itemsets mining) is a sub-division of data mining dealing with the task to obtain promising patterns in the quantitative datasets. A variant of HUIM is to discover the HAUIM (High average-utility itemsets mining) where average-utility measure is used to obtain the utility of itemsets. HAUIM is the refined version of FIM (Frequent itemset mining) problem and has various applications in the field of market basket analysis, bio-informatics, text mining, network traffic analysis, product recommendation and e-learning among others. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art methods of HAUIM to mine the HAUIs (High average-utility itemsets) from the static and dynamic datasets since the induction of the HAUIM problem. We discuss the pros and cons of each category of mining approaches in detail. The taxonomy of HAUIM is presented according to the mining approaches. Finally,various extensions, future directions and research opportunities of HAUIM algorithms are discussed.
Singh, K., Kumar, R. and Biswas, B., 2021. High average-utility itemsets mining: a survey. Applied Intelligence, pp.1-38. High average-utility itemsets mining: a survey | SpringerLink
International Journal of Natural Computing Research (IJNCR), 10(2), pp.21-41.
This paper presents results on modelling of AES and RSA encryption algorithms in terms of CPU execution time, considering different modelling techniques such as linear, quadratic, cubic, and exponential mathematical models, each with the application of piecewise approximations. C#.net framework is used to implement this study. The authors consider the symmetric encryption algorithm named AES and the asymmetric encryption algorithm named RSA to carry out this study. This study recommends quadratic piecewise approximation modelling as the most optimized model for modelling the CPU execution time of AES and RSA towards encryption of data files. The model proposed in this study can be extended to other symmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithms, besides taking them over a mobile cloud environment.
Thomas, A. and Narasimhan, V.L., 2021. Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption Algorithm Modeling on CPU Execution Time as Employed Over a Mobile Environment. International Journal of Natural Computing Research (IJNCR), 10(2), pp.21-41. https://www.igi-global.com/article/symmetric-and-asymmetric-encryption-algorithm-modeling-on-cpu-execution-time-as-employed-over-a-mobile-environment/285450
Bioinorganic chemistry and applications, 2021.
A new hexadentate 2-picolyl-polypyridyl-based ligand (4, 4′-(butane-1, 4-diylbis(oxy))bis(N, N-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)aniline)) (2BUT) (1) and its corresponding Ru(II/III) complexes were synthesized and characterized, followed by assessment of their possible bioactive properties towards drug-resistant and non-drug-resistant bacteria. Spectroscopic characterization of the ligand was done using proton NMR, FTIR, and ESI-MS, which showed that the ligand was successfully synthesized. The Ru(II/III) complexes were characterized by FTIR, UV/Vis, elemental analysis, proton NMR, ESI-MS, and magnetic susceptibility studies. The analysis of ESI-MS data of the complexes showed that they were successfully synthesized. Empirical formulae derived from elemental analysis of the complexes also indicated successful synthesis and relative purity of the complexes. The important functional groups of the ligands could be observed after complexation using FTIR. Magnetic susceptibility data and electronic spectra indicated that both complexes adopt a low spin configuration. The disc diffusion assay was used to test the compounds for antibiotic activity on two bacteria species and their drug-resistant counterparts. The compounds displayed antibiotic activity towards the two non-drug-resistant bacteria. As for the drug-resistant organisms, only [Ru2(2BUT)(DMF)2(DPA)2](BH4)43 and 2, 2-dipyridylamine inhibited the growth of MRSA. Gel electrophoresis DNA cleavage studies showed that the ligands had no DNA cleaving properties while all the complexes denatured the bacterial DNA. Therefore, the complexes may have DNA nuclease activity towards the bacterial genomic material.
Matshwele, J.T., Odisitse, S., Mapolelo, D., Leteane, M., Julius, L.G., Nkwe, D.O. and Nareetsile, F., 2021. Antibacterial Activity of 2-Picolyl-polypyridyl-Based Ruthenium (II/III) Complexes on Non-Drug-Resistant and Drug-Resistant Bacteria. Bioinorganic chemistry and applications, 2021 https://repository.bothouniversity.ac.bw/buir/handle/123456789/139
Journal of African Business.
Based on a survey of 501 television viewers, this study investigated factors moderating the effect of viewer satisfaction on viewer loyalty toward television channels. Research hypotheses were tested using moderated regression analysis. The study found that viewer satisfaction, perceived service quality, corporate reputation, switching cost and price all positively influenced viewer loyalty while corporate reputation, gender, age, education and income did not influence viewer loyalty. Only switching cost and price had significant moderating effects on the viewer satisfaction-viewer loyalty relationship; the rest of the hypothesized relationships were insignificant. The findings of this study have theoretical, practical and future research implications.
Makanyeza, C., Gomwe, A.G. and Jaiyeoba, O.O., 2021. Moderators of the Effect of Viewer Satisfaction on Loyalty Towards Television Channels in Harare, Zimbabwe. Journal of African Business, pp.1-18. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15228916.2021.1956801
This research aims to ascertain how universities’ stakeholders perceive the reconfiguration of Corporate/University Governance to enable the production of green knowledge and innovation needed for sustainable development. A questionnaire was applied to 89 academic stakeholders (90% confidence level, 5% relative tolerable error), consisting of three interrelated Likert items, grouped under the Green Corporate Governance (GCG) construct. In the process, the perceptions of five universities’ stakeholders (Professors, Senior Lecturers, Academic Managers, Non-Academic Managers, and Students) were successfully collected. Chi-Square tests reflected that all the stakeholders agreed that the reconfiguration of the university governance system is warranted. The data analysis (contingency tables) revealed a chi-square test statistic lower than the chi-square value, signifying that all five stakeholders perceive in the same direction that the conventional university governance system needs to be reformed. This research will spur policymakers, governors, and university or education system managers to take appropriate actions to reconfigure the university governance system towards green corporate governance.
Liyanage, S.I.H., Ferasso, M. and Lima, U., 2021. Green Corporate Governance for Greening Universities: A Non-Linear Model of Innovation Analysis. GREEN_CORPORATE_GOVERNANCE_FOR_GREENING.pdf (ac.bw)
Journal of the Knowledge Economy, pp.1-31.
Most of the knowledge-based economies (KBEs) operate in a neoclassical economic model that does not recognize the importance of natural resources and sustainability beyond the market forces. In contrast, KBEs that rely on endogenous factors harmonize with the enlightened anthropocentrism for sustainable development with scientific and technical abilities to design the ecological system for infusing human values into nature. For example, the Quintuple Helix Model of Innovation. In this exploratory research, it was found that the conventional structure of universities in Botswana is unable to produce glocal green knowledge and innovation in their mainstream knowledge production process due to bureaucratism, rationalism, myths and ceremonies, isomorphism, and legitimacy whereas institutional logics and agency of social actors support for Paris Climate Agreement and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, the Quintuple Helix Model with Mode 3-Knowledge production is used to redesign universities’ conventional structures. This study perused two sources of data, document analysis, and interviews. Data collected from documents were analyzed by axial coding. After that, interview data from five internal stakeholders were collected based on prior codes, themes, and concepts developed with document analysis. They were thematically analyzed for triangulation. Finally, the theory was developed by induction underpinning with interpretive philosophy when redesigning universities’ conventional structure. The proposed model designed is called the “Green University System” to facilitate the production of glocal green knowledge and innovation for sustainable development with Mode 3 and Quintuple Helix model of innovation.
Liyanage, S.I.H. and Netswera, F.G., 2021. Greening Universities with Mode 3 and Quintuple Helix Model of Innovation–Production of Knowledge and Innovation in Knowledge-Based Economy, Botswana. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, pp.1-31. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13132-021-00769-y
International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 11(1), p.459.
It is conspicuous that the mainstream financial system in the EU is transforming into a sustainable financial system by a supra/national policy and institutional framework for meeting the goals of SDGs and the targets of the Paris Agreement for climate change together with Nationally Determined Contribution. However, Botswana or Sri Lanka has no such framework. Hence, a need of the hour has arisen to evaluate the sustainable finance policies in Botswana, Sri Lanka, together with the EU seeking insights from the EU’s policy framework. Since sustainable finance is not a well-grown branch of the conventional mainstream financial system, the nature of the knowledge is produced by social constructivism based on the grounded theory and the theory is inductively developed for achieving the purpose of the research. The study found, among other things, that incorporating existing policies into the multiple ministries and affiliated institutions together with the current industry-led policy initiatives to manage ESG risks are not adequate. Hence it is recommended various insights to be taken into consideration by the policymakers to formulate a national framework for mobilizing public and private capital to meet the goals of sustainability.
Liyanage, S.I.H., Netswera, F.G. and Motsumi, A., 2021. Insights from EU Policy Framework in Aligning Sustainable Finance for Sustainable Development in Africa and Asia. International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 11(1), p.459.
https://repository.bothouniversity.ac.bw/buir/handle/123456789/126
In 2016, the Paris agreement on climate change agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and ideally 1.5°C by the end of the century. Even though the global temperature on track shows a rise towards 3.2°C by the end of the century breaking the 1.5°C targets by 2040, one wonders how the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) assessed the vulnerability of Botswana in reaching the limit, 2°C. Accordingly, Botswana will show a steady rise in temperature to 2.8°C, the annual rainfall will drop by 9% and increase in dry days by 17 extra days. In addition, even the Limpopo catchment in Botswana will show a decline of 36%. Given these scenarios, water as a lifelong commodity becomes highly vulnerable in Botswana. With a view to mitigating the intensity, the local, regional and international legal, policy and institutional framework legislated, agreed otherwise ratified expects sustainable water management by voluntary, responsible behaviour from the consumers apart from other stakeholders in Botswana. For example, 2030 Agenda for 17 SDGs: the SDG 06: Clean Water and Sanitation & 12th SDG: Responsible Consumption and Production. Consequently, this study qualitatively investigated the ex-ante and ex-post behaviour of a consumer manifested by the strategic management in the light of the theory of planned behaviour for the water conservation project implemented by the installation of newer water-efficient appliances at Botho University in a landlocked country, Botswana. The test of theory of planned behaviour finds that the attitudes, social norms and Perceived Behavioural Control of the strategic management made strong intention for the responsible behavioural change in implementing the project. Further, the project has been able to save water by 80%, supply water continuously to consumers, protect the environment and further a cost-saving to the university. These findings will be significant to ascertain how antecedent factors determine the decision-making behaviour of a water conservation project. Such understanding acts as a catalyst for African universities to be a beacon of vision and mission in water conservation, distribution and governance in Africa in which continent 33% of people are affected by water scarcity which is getting worse with urbanization, population, industrial use and climate change. Keywords: Global Warming, SDGs, Water Conservation, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Voluntary Behaviour
Shantha Indrajith Hikkaduwa Liyanage, Venkataraman Vishwanathan, 2020. Water Conservation Through Voluntary Responsible
Link – https://bit.ly/3oCC1s4
Entrepreneurship is abundantly taught in the classrooms at universities worldwide to bridge the gap that has arisen between the number of graduates and employment opportunities available in the job market. Since the entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial mindset is different from others in the process of creating value and appropriation of rewards, the purpose of this study is to understand the readiness of the mindset of entrepreneurship students for sensing the uncertainty in the environment for venturing into entrepreneurship opportunities in the market. Hence, this metacognition research founded on a positivist approach quantitatively assesses the cognitive adaptability of a sample of 196 students at an African university. The study’s findings reflect that the metacognitive adaptability of the students had not been developed similar to the entrepreneurs. Hence, it is recommended to redesign the pedagogies of entrepreneurial education so that the university’s entrepreneurial students would be dynamic, flexible, and self-regulating to sense the uncertainty in the environment. However, the results are subject to the study’s limitation that the self-administered questionnaire may inflate or deflate variables even though several ex-ante and ex-post approaches would be used to minimize common method bias.
Indrajith, S.I.H., Chikari, G., Gombiro, T. and Kumar, B., 2021. A Measure of Adaptive Cognition of Entrepreneurship Students for Sensing the Environment’s Uncertainty A Study in An African University.
International Journal of Innovative Research in Applied Sciences and Engineering (IJIRASE)
The growth of technology advancement has promoted a borderless environment among users, organizations, global industry and easy access to information. The use of the internet and computer systems in a teaching environment parallel increased the number of threats in today’s world. Lack of information security practices is the major cause of security breaches. Information security needs to be addressed amongst users for the protection of organizational assets. Human knowledge, attitude and behaviours habitually influence information security. Humans are considered as the least strong link concerning information security. The study explores a literature review in information security awareness amongst users. As a result, this research will come up with a proposed security awareness framework to enforce information security practices.
Mbereki K. and S. Doss Investigating the Level of Awareness on Information Security Amongst Users at Botho University International Journal of Innovative Research in Applied Sciences and Engineering (IJIRASE) Volume 4, Issue 9, DOI:10.29027/IJIRASE.v4.i9.2021.905-912, March 2021. https://repository.bothouniversity.ac.bw/buir/handle/123456789/130
CMC-COMPUTERS MATERIALS & CONTINUA, 66(2), pp.1577-1594.
In the healthcare system, the Internet of Things (IoT) based distributed systems play a vital role in transferring the medical-related documents and information among the organizations to reduce the replication in medical tests. This datum is sensitive, and hence security is a must in transforming the sensational contents. In this paper, an Evolutionary Algorithm, namely the Memetic Algorithm is used for encrypting the text messages. The encrypted information is then inserted into the medical images using Discrete Wavelet Transform 1 level and 2 levels. The reverse method of the Memetic Algorithm is implemented when extracting a hidden message from the encoded letter. To show its precision, equivalent to five RGB images and five Grayscale images are used to test the proposed algorithm. The results of the proposed algorithm were analyzed using statistical methods, and the proposed algorithm showed the importance of data transfer in healthcare systems in a stable environment. In the future, to embed the privacy-preserving of medical data, it can be extended with blockchain technology.
Doss, S., Paranthaman, J., Gopalakrishnan, S., Duraisamy, A., Pal, S., Duraisamy, B., Le Van, C. and Le, D.N., 2021. Memetic Optimization with Cryptographic Encryption for Secure Medical Data Transmission in IoT-Based Distributed Systems. CMC-COMPUTERS MATERIALS & CONTINUA, 66(2), pp.1577-1594. https://bit.ly/30EXQiS
International Journal of Business & Economic Sciences Applied Research. 2020 Jul 1;13(3).
Zimbabwe experienced hyperinflation (2000-2008) followed by dollarization from 2009 onwards which had implications on dividend policy. In this context, this study isolates the main determinants and examines their behaviour across the distribution of dividend policy. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs quantile regression analysis and a sample of 30 firms listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), covering the period 2000 to 2016. The fixed effects (FE) analysis is applied as a base model. Finding(s): The most robust determinants are ownership structure, earnings per share (EPS) and taxation. In our context, results are more informative, than those based on FE analysis by showing the change in the impact of each explanatory variable across the distribution. EPS has a positive and significant impact on dividend policy throughout the distribution in both sample periods. Its effect increases in magnitude as firms move from low to high quantiles. The other variables are useful in explaining dividend policy at selected points of the distribution. Thus, there is clear heterogeneity in the determinants of dividend policy. Research limitations/implications: The study shows the importance of developing a dividend policy by focusing on the position of the firm on the distribution. Dividend policy should be developed in view of the earnings potential of the firm, ownership concentration and perceived changes in fiscal policy. A well-designed policy should have a differentiated approach to influencing corporate dividends. Originality/value: This study enhances our understanding of dividend policy in unique markets. It confirms the applicability of dividend relevance theories. Furthermore, It shows that quantile analysis provides more reliable estimates than those obtained using standard panel data models.
Mbulawa S, Okurut FN, Ntsosa M, Sinha N. Dynamics of Corporate Dividend Policy under Hyperinflation and Dollarization: A Quantile Regression Approach. International Journal of Business & Economic Sciences Applied Research. 2020 Jul 1;13(3).
https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=ffd6a235-daf1-4295-bde6-4dbfba6f38b0%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=149607567&db=buh
