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The purpose of this study is to test various hypotheses regarding if managers' voluntarily prefer honesty in self-reported managerial performance (HPR).

This study uses an experimental approach with a data set of 300 Ghanaian employees.

The results confirm that the current trend where employee contracts are underpinned by the classical agency theory (CAT) is problematic, ineffective and costly because it does not appropriately explain the observed behaviour of honesty and partial honesty in self-reported performance or the dishonesty in reporting performance when there is no financial reward to be gained by employees. Therefore MNCs may benefit from a consideration of wider and alternative perspectives. Additionally, stakeholders must consider a strategy of delaying performance-related bonuses (pay-offs) to improve HPR and avoid capping performance-related pay off with an arbitrary threshold. This is because the setting of arbitrary thresholds reduces the established relationship between effort and reward and introduces gaming into the managerial performance reporting process.

Unlike other prior studies that rely on students as surrogates for employees, this study uses actual employees to test the experimental constructs. Aside from the comparatively large data set, this study is the first exploration of the differential effects of national characteristics on HPR in Ghana.

Some African policymakers have turned their attention towards electronic transaction levy (e-levy) to maximise tax revenues in recent years due to the inability to meet revenue targets. However, some argue that the implementation of an e-levy will increase the tax burden (TB) and the currency outside banks (COB). Primarily, this paper examined the effects of the TB and COB on economic development as well as the impact of institutional quality on moderating the nexus.

This paper used structural equation modelling (SEM) and maximum likelihood (ML) estimation techniques on quarterised data from 1996 to 2020.

The results show that the TB negatively impacts gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and urbanisation but positively affects the Economic Freedom of the World Index (EFWI). The COB impacts EFWI, GDP per capita and urbanisation positively. Institutional quality moderates the TB and the COB, establishing positive relationships with the economic development indicators.

The findings strongly imply that the arguments that TB and COB are catalysts for tax evasion and corruption lack substantial empirical evidence.

The examination of the econometric impact of the COB on economic development is one of the first studies in the field. The paper recommends that to drive economic development and accelerate sustainable development goals (SDGs) achievement, tax revenues should be channelled into the productive sectors of the Ghanaian economy.

Most emerging economies have made conscious efforts through policy initiatives to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). However, a significant obstacle to FDI inflow has been the prevalence of corruption in the host country. This study, therefore, aims to examine whether there is an optimum corruption value that results in threshold effects of corruption on FDI.

To achieve this objective, this study used Hansen’s (1999) panel threshold regression (PTR) model by using a panel data of 30 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2000 to 2021.

This study finds that the nexus between corruption and FDI has a single threshold effect, with a 5.37% optimum corruption threshold value. At this threshold value, corruption affects FDI negatively. Any corruption value that is below the threshold value also elicits a negative corruption–FDI relationship. Despite having a negative relationship when the corruption value is above the optimum corruption threshold, it is not statistically significant.

The implication of the results is that it is deleterious to use corrupt practices to draw FDI to SSA nations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first in the corruption–FDI nexus literature to use Hansen’s PTR model to estimate an optimal corruption threshold. The authors recommend that policymakers in the selected SSA countries reconsider the use of corruption to attract FDI because there is an optimal corruption threshold that could impact FDI in the host country.

The purpose of this paper is to test if activism by civil society organisations (CSOs hereafter) in successfully mobilising resistance to the Government of Ghana “collateralization” of gold resources and other mineral royalties in 2020 (dubbed the “Agyapa deal”) espouse tenets of Foucault’s (2009) “governmentality” and “counter conduct” dispositions.

This paper draws on Dean’s (1999) discussion of government analytics to highlight how CSO activism can simultaneously challenge government practice and share in it. This paper uses an evidence-based and interpretive qualitative content analysis approach. This paper relied on secondary data sources from 1 January 2020 to 21 August 2021. Data collection involved an extensive review of secondary materials concerning the Agyapa deal, relying on the author's local knowledge to identify the likely sources of information.

This paper exposes how the counteractions of CSOs, underpinned by the desire for so-called “good governance”, invariably extend governmentality and other neo-liberal ideals. In this case, CSOs' actions espoused the ideals of marketisation, extended governable spaces, engrained subjectivation and treated citizens as incapable of formulating and advancing their desires without overt help. Secondly, it provides evidence that massive deployment of accountability and other calculable practices, however wilful, complement efforts at shaping public opinion.

CSO counter-conduct is merely symbolic rather than substantive. Substantive counter-conduct requires the citizenry to actively lead the problematisation process, holding CSOs accountable for acting on their behalf. The current trajectory where CSO accountability is primarily to their international financiers, predominantly neo-liberal advocates, raises questions about “in whose interest they seek another form of governance?” Practically, the splinter of interests that may emanate from citizenry directly led counter-conduct can affect garnering the critical mass needed to force a policy change. That said, however, there is a case for citizenry “making themselves” rather than “being made” within the governmentality process.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first application of the Foucauldian and Dean framework to a data set from Ghana.

This study explored the tax evasion and corruption–economic development nexus in Ghana and the moderating role of institutional quality in this relationship.

To achieve this objective, this study employed the structural equation modelling (SEM) strategy and maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method on selected quarterised data from 1996 to 2020.

The study found that tax evasion has a positive impact on GDP per capita and urbanisation but a negative impact on the Economic Freedom of the World Index (EFWI). The study revealed that corruption has a positive relationship with GDP per capita but relates with EFWI inversely. Finally, the study found that institutional quality moderates the nexus between tax evasion and corruption and economic development.

The findings imply that the quality of state institutions has a significant impact on the government's ability to control tax evasion and corruption in order to drive economic development.

One novelty of the study is the examination of the combined effects of tax evasion and corruption as exogenous variables in a single econometric model. Again, to moderate the multivariate relationships of the study, the principal component analysis (PCA) was used to create an institutional quality index. The study recommends that policymakers implement comprehensive tax evasion and corruption reduction strategies simultaneously in order to increase tax revenues for economic development and SDGs achievement.

This study aims to explore the main features of managerial performance reporting (MPR) in Ghana and applied a national social-cultural framework to understanding the MPR practices.

It is a qualitative study based on responses from mid-level managerial employees within the top companies in Ghana dubbed Ghana Club 100 (GC100). GC100 includes a balanced mix of companies across varied industry classifications and local and multinational companies (MNCs). This enriches the data and deviates from similar studies that have usually relied on data from multinational companies.

There is evidence that while MPR practices in Ghana do not significantly deviate from western approaches, the underlying reasons for such managerial practices and actions may defer on national socio-cultural lines. This study discusses how various cultural attributions explain the features and motivations for MPR practices in Ghana, including a difference in expectations about the purpose of an MPR.

MNCs must be guided by the findings of this study in their drive to inculcate standardised practices across organisations. It is also essential for MNCs to appreciate the more than usual reliance on verbal cues and symbols in interpreting the appropriate course of action. Regulators must consider systematic activities that reduce the tension and suspicion between them and business actors to improve information transparency. Whistleblowing schemes, while helpful, may not be effective because organisational agents within MPR practice consider themselves part of an “in-group” and manage their dissonance through categorisation, rationalisation and superficial attention to standards. Because of the excessive use of unwritten cues, auditors must consider visits to the client’s operational premises and other independent observation efforts vital to their evidence gathering process.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is among the first to evaluate MPR practices based on direct responses from “persons close to the MPR action” rather than the current overreliance on secondary data sources such as content analysis.

This paper aims to examine the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in Ghana. This provides answers to the call for further empirical examination of the contextual impact of corruption on FDI inflow.

The study uses a non-linear ADRL time series econometric model to estimate data from the World Bank and the international country risk guide (1984–2019).

The study confirms the sand in the wheel and the grabbing hand hypothesis of the impact of control of corruption (CoC) on FDI both in the short and long run. However, degradation on the CoC index has a significant and more than a proportionate constraint on FDI inflows, while an improvement in CoC has no significant impact on improving FDI inflows. An explanation for this outcome was proposed after comparing this finding to a similar prior study with a Nigerian data set (Zangina and Hassan, 2020). The proposed explanation relied mainly on the rational expectation hypothesis and drawing elements of the efficient market hypothesis. FDI inflows do not react to outcomes or trajectories reasonably expected because such rationally expected future outcomes will have been modelled into existing FDI movement decisions. Instead, FDI flows react to “surprises” and often respond in a more than proportional manner.

Political leadership in Ghana should be conscious of the severe adverse effects of inaction or ineffective action in curbing corruption, leading to slippering in CoC rankings. In the case of Ghana, the dependence of FDI on CoC is even more pronounced as the other variables within the specified model show an insignificant impact on FDI. Additionally, admittedly aggregated cross-country data in econometric modelling is appealing and has some empirical basis, but these must not erode the relevance of country-specific studies as both are needed to support theorization.

The paper is among the first to test for the asymmetric relationship between corruption or its control thereof and FDI with a time series approach, and hence, the findings offer new insight.

This study aimed to explore the effect of Financial Innovation (FI) on economic growth in Ghana, with a dataset spanning 1960–2019, adopting a broader conceptualization of FI as the ratio of broad money to narrow money.

The study employs a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) time series econometric model to estimate data from the World Bank (1960–2019).

There is no evidence that FI significantly impacts economic growth. This could be due to the early and strict regulation of the financial technology (FIN-TECH) sector and the general inconclusiveness of the impact of financial development on economic growth.

Policymakers must empirically explore the impact of early and strict regulation on the transformational impact of FI.

The paper is among the first to apply a broader conceptualization of FI in estimating the impact of FI on economic growth.

This study applies social identity theory (SIT) to explore the perceptual differences among various stakeholder groups regarding the relevance of social and environmental accounting (SEA), SEA education and mandatory disclosure of SEA.

The study adopts a mixed method applying a qualitative and quantitative approach. In total, 325 structured questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively, using ANOVA and group comparison methods. Responses from 18 interviews were analyzed qualitatively to provide complementary evidence for the quantitative study.

There were significant differences between various stakeholder groups regarding the relevance of SEA practice and SEA education. Regulators were mostly affected by considerations about the external perception of work quality, followed by financiers. Practitioners and shareholders were influenced by the ability of SEA in its current state to affect actual work quality. This possibly indicates that academic qualifications have marginal effects on predicting considerations about SEA compared to social identity.

This is the first application of SIT to SEA research and contributes to the effort to improve SEA within emerging economies, highlighting that a one-size-fits-all approach may be ineffective.