Mabutho Sibanda

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of KwaZulu-Natal

The relationship between ESG and firm performance is complex and tends to yield mixed results globally. In South Africa, ESG implementation is still in its infancy stage due to economic and developmental challenges. Despite these challenges, the JSE introduced sustainability disclosure guidelines in 2022 to enhance ESG adoption in South Africa. Thu...

In emerging economies, where the legislative and economic landscapes may significantly differ from those of advanced economies, accrual-based earnings management (AEM) is especially problematic for financial disclosure and investor trust. This paper conducts a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the incentives for A...

The chairperson’s statement (CS) has evolved into a key component of corporate reporting, offering an authoritative, high-level summary of a company’s activities, initiatives, operations, financial performance, and achievements over the preceding financial year, along with insights into future outlooks. Recognised for its informative value, the CS...

This study aimed to identify the financial management techniques of waste pickers and their perspectives on entrepreneurship. The research concentrates on the Durban metropolitan region and employs a sample of 100 rubbish pickers from three suburbs adjacent to significant informal populations. A quantitative methodology is utilised, employing a que...

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is an investment strategy developed to minimize the negative socio-economic and environmental impacts of each financial investment. Inconsistent results are presented during the analysis of the absolute risk-adjusted returns of SRI funds in comparison to conventional funds, and this negatively impacts investor a...

Orientation: The ageing healthcare workforce has been an issue of concern in the health sector over the recent years. This unique demographic challenge poses numerous challenges like knowledge loss and possible skill shortages.Research purpose: This analysis seeks to examine the association between job engagement (JE), organisational engagement (OE...

Orientation: Chinese-owned businesses in Zimbabwe are affected by high labour turnover. High labour turnover in these businesses reduces productivity, causes low employee morale, and augments recruitment and training costs.Research purpose: The study assesses the association between precarious employment, job engagement and employees’ intention to...

Background and relevance: Irregular expenditure has become an entrenched problem in South African municipalities, severely impacting the delivery of essential services to communities across the country. Objective: The study aims to investigate the causes of irregular expenditure in KZN municipalities by exploring the perspectives of councillors. Da...

Background and relevance: Irregular expenditure remains a pervasive issue in South African municipalities, undermining public trust and compromising service delivery. Consequence management is a critical tool for addressing this problem. Objective: This study explores councillors' perspectives on the implementation of consequence management for irr...

This study examines the tax incentives and challenges faced by Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) in South Africa, with a focus on those registered as Public Benefit Organizations (PBOs). NPOs play a vital role in addressing socioeconomic issues and serving vulnerable communities. While these organizations operate for non-profit purposes, the tax ince...

Objective: In practice, the securities industry is characterized by processes exhibiting both randomness and Liu's uncertainty, sometimes called uncertainty. This study proposes Asian option pricing models in uncertain random markets with jumps. Theoretical Framework: This research is based on the concepts of probability, uncertainty, and uncertain...

Review of Business and Economics Studies (RoBES) published a new issue: ---Tahsina Khan, Md M.H. Emon, Md A. Rahman---A Systematic Review on Exploring the Influence of Industry 4.0 Technologies to Enhance Supply Chain Visibility and Operational Efficiency ---Benjamin B. Sambiri, Noah C. Mutai, Sushma Kumari---Understanding the Republic of Malawi’s...

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), whose atmospheric volume has been increasing, is the principal greenhouse gas (GHG) that causes global warming and climate change. Climate change from increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) has broad health and environmental influences. Human-emitted GHGs constitute a significant cause of global warming. The main objective of th...

This study examined the tax knowledge and behaviour of individual taxpayers in South Africa in light of the crucial link between understanding tax principles and compliance with tax regulations. Individuals’ compliance with tax laws is vital for economic development, with their contributions forming a significant part of overall tax revenue. The st...

The study aimed to design the auditing framework for the audit of the chairperson’s statement. The chairperson’s statement is one of the most read narrative disclosure statements in the integrated report. Non-financial information has become twice as important as financial information yet, it is not required by the International Financial Reporting...

This paper gives insight into innovative facilities' role in the effect of economic freedom on inclusive finance in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) using data from 2008 to 2020. After using the generalized method of moment for the analysis, the study concluded that improving economic freedom promotes financial inclusion while expanding innovative faciliti...

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), belongs to a category of investment strategies aiming to reduce the negative impacts associated with financial investments, while yielding competitive returns. The literature reveals inconsistent results when comparing the performance of SRI funds to traditional funds, limiting investor awareness on the perform...

This article implements correlation analysis and a fixed effects model to assess the influence of entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs) on economic growth in middle-income countries. The implemented panel data set for EFCs is unearthed from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor website and that for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, a sur...

This article implements correlation analysis and a fixed effects model to assess the influence of entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs) on economic growth in middle-income countries. The implemented panel data set for EFCs is unearthed from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor website and that for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, a sur...

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sector volatility in sub-Saharan Africa by drawing evidence from two large and two small stock exchanges in the region. The analysis included stock-specific data, COVID-19 metrics, and macroeconomic indicators from January 2019 to July 2022. This study employs generalized autoregressive con...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth a novel and challenging investment environment for stock markets in both developed and emerging economies. This study delves into the under-researched field of factor investing, analysing the influence of firm-specific factors on stock performance in sub-Saharan Africa during the pandemic in four selected sto...

The main aim of this study was to unpack the health and socioeconomic status of waste-picking activities in Mayville, Cato Manor, and Westville in Durban. It analyzed the quality of life of waste pickers, their awareness of the risks associated with this kind of work, and the extent of their uptake of health-protective measures. A quantitative appr...

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of abnormal accruals on abnormal tone in the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) statements of South Africa’s (SA) top 40 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed businesses in the 2021 financial year. This study employs the quantile regression analysis and the generalised linear regression model. For this e...

Stakeholders receive a comprehensive message that includes financial information, non-financial information, and a forecast for the future. Chairman’s disclosure is susceptible to manipulation by directors resulting to less transparency and thereby misleading the stakeholders. An evaluation of the chairman's messages in relation to financial perfor...

This study seeks to examine the role of regulation in the relationship between financial development and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Based on available data, the study used 30 SSA economies from 2008 to 2020, employing a generalized method of moments. The study found that as much as financial development enhances financial incl...

Purpose: This study aimed to establish the perceptions of employees of a municipality in South Africa on how audit opinions are crafted into the audit implementation plan, and how such opinions affect service delivery. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study adopted a quantitative approach using a questionnaire as a data collection instrument. A cas...

Purpose: The use of impression management in corporate reporting is mostly in pursuit of value creation for stakeholders. The study exposes the use of impression management practices in voluntary narrative disclosures. The study focused on Top 40 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed companies. Impression management was examined through the leng...

Purpose This study assessed the role of political institutions in the relationship between economic institutions and public debt in Sub-Saharan Africa. Design/methodology/approach Based on data availability, the study was done for 40 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2010 to 2019 employing generalized method of moment. Findings The authors docum...

In South Africa, the devastating effects of the COVID-19 plague forced several corporates to resort to business rescue proceedings to guarantee the continuance of their operations. However, the low success rates associated with the current South African business rescue regime are a thing of concern among policymakers. In this article, we conduct a...

This paper examines the problem of pricing a guaranteed minimum maturity benefit (GMMB) in uncertain markets. Several uncertainties are encountered in financial markets. The pricing process of a GMMB does not exhibit randomness alone, but also nonrandom uncertainties. We introduce uncertainty theory into pricing a GMMB. The assumption is that the s...

This study examines the relationship between asset revaluation and accounting and economic factors among firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). It employs a quantitative model using seven explanatory variables, namely, leverage, operating cash flow, firm size, return on equity, return on assets, Tobin’s q, and common share ownership...

Orientation: This study examined the main predictors of net foreign portfolio investment volatility in low-income Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. Based on the World Bank data (July 2014), the selected countries are Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, DRC, Swaziland and Tanzania. Research purpose: The...

This study surveyed 1582 students studying Accounting degrees at universities in South Africa to assess their financial capability levels and intra-component drivers of financial capability. The study utilised statistical methods such as structural equation modelling technique was used to determine drivers of financial capability; regression analys...

Understanding the volatility behaviour of specific sectors of the economy enables investors to formulate workable investment strategies, and policy-makers to formulate policies that dampen excess volatility. This study examined the volatility features of the infrastructure sector in emerging markets. The features assessed were the GARCH effects, vo...

This study investigated the directional linkages among net foreign portfolio investment volatility, financial deepening and capital market performance in low-income Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries employing a dynamic panel vector error correction model (P-VECM) on unbalanced quarterly panel data for the period spanning from...

This study seeks to establish the relationship between carbon emissions, agricultural output and industrial output in South Africa. It uses data from 1960 to 2017 based on an annual frequency, giving a total of 58 annual observations. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag technique is employed to estimate the model on a bivariate basis. The evidence s...

This study evaluated the relationship between inflation and infrastructure sector stock returns in emerging markets in the long and short run. It employed a panel autoregressive distributed lag (PARDL) model applying the mean group (MG), pooled mean group (PMG) and dynamic fixed effects (DFE) estimators after preliminary cross-sectional dependence...

This study seeks to establish the relationship between agriculture, industrial output and financial sector development in South Africa. It uses the Autoregressive Distributed Lag, Error Correction models and Granger causality techniques to test for long- and short-run relationships. The evidence from the models indicates the presence of a longrun r...

Background: Global concerns about financial literacy have heightened following the 2007–2008 global financial crisis during which it became apparent that lack of financial literacy was one of the factors that contributed to detrimental financial decision making. This recognition shows that poor financial decisions have a harmful overspill impact on...

This study uses the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model to examine the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI), per capita GDP, and per capita carbon emissions in South Africa. It finds evidence of a positive relationship between carbon emissions and the investment flows of both FPI and FDI as well...

Dividend payout policy of banks has been the commonest dividend policy in commercial banks world-wide owing to the assumption that it will minimise agency costs in the banks. Hence, this study adopts the dynamic panel two-step system and differenced GMM in analysing the data of 250 commercial banks from 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for...

Whilst the classical theoretical models in finance suggest that firm risk considerations are irrelevant to firm value, previous studies have found that the implementation of the Enterprise Risks Management (ERM) improves operational efficiency, capital structure and capital allocation decisions which ultimately improves firm value. This article exa...

Factors that drives the implementation of ERM for JSE-Listed Mining Companies.

The study of risk management can be traced back to the early 1950's when Modigliani and Miller (1958) argued that firm risk considerations are irrelevant to the firm of value. As new sets of risk management tools began to emerge, several studies and examined their effectiveness. In 2004, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Com...

Factors that drives the implementation of ERM from JSE-Listed Companies.

Employs GMM to investigate the effect of ERM on Firm Value for JSE-Listed Mining Companies. Results were also by PGM, MG and DFE.

The study builds on previous studies of the consequences of non-performing loans on an economy. Using a seven-by-seven matrix in the impulse response function (IRF) of the structural autoregressive model, we find a long-run impact of an impulse to non-performing loans on the banking system and the macroeconomy in Nigeria. Conversely, non-performing...

The process of risk management is constantly shifting towards a more holistic and comprehensive approach, the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) system, which is arguably more efficient than the conventional approach, the Traditional Risks Management (TRM) system. While there have been attempts to evaluate the effects of ERM on a firm‘s performance a...

Dividend policy remains one of the top ten unresolved issues in corporate finance including in the banking sector. Hence, this study explores data from 250 commercial banks in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries to establish the causal relationship between the use of two major dividend policies in the sector and financial performance for the period 20...

Dividend policy remains one of the top ten unresolved issues in corporate finance including in the banking sector. Hence, this study explores data from 250 commercial banks in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries to establish the causal relationship between the use of two major dividend policies in the sector and financial performance for the period 20...

This study examines the dynamics of Lintner's model using bank-specific panel data from 15 commercial banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, using the newly introduced dynamic Panel-Auto Regressive Distributed Lag technique for the period 2006Q01 to 2015Q04. The study findings from the long-run estimates reveal that Lintner's model holds well...

This study examines the roles of agency cost (monitoring and bonding cost) on compensation of managers with a view from the managerial-power approach to agency cost. We modelled managers’ compensation and agency cost of banks to emphasise the potential influence of agency cost on managers’ compensation. A Panel Generalised Least Square model was es...

This study examines the roles of agency cost (monitoring and bonding cost) on compensation of managers with a view from the managerial-power approach to agency cost. We modelled managers’ compensation and agency cost of banks to emphasise the potential influence of agency cost on managers’ compensation. A Panel Generalised Least Square model wa...

The exponential development of information technology has presented many opportunities to organizations; however, it has also presented several challenges. A key challenge is how do organizations effectively use information technology and incorporate it into their strategies to make full use of its capabilities as an enabler. The fast-changing natu...

Technology has evolved at an increasing pace over the decades. This advancement in technology has compelled organizations to include technology as a key component in their overall strategy. The proliferation of information technology tools aimed at making decision making more efficient and faster has also impacted the role intuition plays in an org...

This paper investigates the major determinants of non-performing loans in the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) economies. Identifying major determinants of non-performing loans, which are observed to be growing in these countries in recent time, will also guide policy and forecasting future levels that will be useful for pre-emptive pol...

This study investigates the existence of chaos on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and studies three indices namely the FTSE/JSE All Share, FTSE/JSE Top 40 and FTSE/JSE Small Cap. Building upon the Fractal Market Hypothesis to provide evidence on the behavior of returns time series of the above mentioned indices, the BDS test is applied to tes...

This study seeks to provide new evidence on the stock market and exchange rate relationship in Zimbabwe, a country that does not have its own sovereign currency. The bivariate vector autoregressive approach is used to establish the relationship between the stock market and exchange rates. The results show that no relationship exists between the sto...

This study investigates the association between information technology spend and future company performance for a sample of companies where accounting and market value measures are used as proxies for performance. While the earnings measure indicated a strong positive relationship initiating early on, the profit margin and asset turnover measures p...

This paper investigates if there is a relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance in selected firms listed on the JSE, and if so, what that relationship is. The study conducts regression analyses over a sample of 23 retail sector firms, observing data stretching from 2010 to 2013. The results are found to be robust. The results s...

This study examines dividend payout policies and the appropriateness of Lintner’s dividend smoothing model on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed firms. The ordinary least squares method is used to analyze the data using annual data from 1995 to 2011. The study found that the dividend smoothing model slightly overstates the payout ratio by...

This paper explores the relationship between financial development and economic growth in South Africa. It employs an Auto Regressive Distributed Lag bounds testing approach and the Vector Error Correction Model to examine this relationship. The starting point of the analysis emanates from the works of Goldsmith (1969) who set out to chart the evol...

This paper seeks to evaluate Zimbabwe’s banking sector capital requirements based on existing theory and evidence. Literature surveyed is used to critically evaluate the existing design of bank capital requirements. The study shows that all banks in Zimbabwe had fallen short of minimum capital requirements in 2012, prompting aggressive capital rais...

This study seeks to investigate herd behaviour among equity mutual fund managers and the performance of mutual funds that trade against the herd in South Africa. The behaviour of mutual funds has an effect on the stability and volatility of stock markets, the ultimate returns to the investors. The study builds upon the efficient market hypothesis,...

This study seeks to establish the influence of the short-term insurance industry on financial and economic development in South Africa. The study uses quarterly data from 1994 to 2009 to perform the Johansen (1991) co-integration tests and subsequently the Granger causality tests to establish the relationship between the short-term insurance indust...

Since the 1990s assets of institutional investors have remained elevated in comparison to those of deposit-taking financial institutions in South Africa. This paradigm shift in the financial markets has provoked the ongoing theoretical and empirical debate, which, on the one hand, pits institutional investors as causing financial 'disintermediation...

The corporate investment and financing decision plays a pivotal role in the financial management of firms operating under any economic environment. This paper investigates and analyses corporate financial strategies employed by banking institutions during the hyperinflationary period in Zimbabwe. Descriptive statistics are employed and the results...

A new phenomenon called “green knowledge” is fast developing in the modern economy albeit without responsive actions from management studies programmes offered by universities. Green knowledge refers to the awareness of climate change issues in everyday life. As much as business ethics has been given much attention in all spheres of academia, I arg...

Climate financing (green financing) is currently attracting a lot of attention as governments, private sector, multilateral institutions and the donor community endeavor to control and reduce carbon emission and its dire consequences on the planet. On the other hand, the global capital system has become sophisticated and largely driven by financial...