Institutional Quality and Financial Sector Development: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

In view of the indispensable role of financial sector in both emerging and developing economies, there has been a notable spotlight on the financial sector development over the years in most African countries. Nonetheless, there are only a few studies on this topical issue, particularly for Nigeria. Hence, this study examines the long – run and short – run dynamic relationship between institutional quality and financial development in Nigeria over the period of 1984 – 2015 using Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach to cointegration. Using two different indicators (Private credit and M2) of financial development, the results consistently show that institutional factors do not have significant effect on financial development in the long – run as well as in the short – run. Furthermore, the empirical evidence indicates that regulatory quality and governance system (institutions) do not necessarily contribute to financial development in a feeble institutional environment, specifically in Nigeria. Thus, our findings suggest that whilst weak institutions could increase the risk of limiting the functioning of financial system, good governance and strong institutions are the essential ingredient of financial development in Nigeria. As a consequence, policies aimed at strengthening the quality of institutions and governance should form the major policy thrust of government (policy makers). These could help improving financial sector development in Nigeria.

A Framework for the Strategic Management of Information Technology

The complementary between IT as a competitive factor and strategic management is very important for gaining competitive advantages. This paper explores factors related to strategy and IT that should be considered for the strategic analysis of IT as a competitive factor, and proposes a framework for Strategic Technology Management (STM). The research is conducted by means of quantitative and qualitative analysis of data. The framework is expanded and validated through inference to findings of large and small to medium-sized enterprises through interviews, finally ending on theory matching. The results of the analysis show that the strategic management of information technology is a continuous process of evaluation and change and that the alignment between factors such as competitive environment, competitive strategies (business and IT strategies), competitive outcome, and competitive factors gain competitive advantages for industrial companies.

Harmonizing Modern Day Employee Engagement with the Sociological Theory of Symbolic Interactionism

Employee Engagement (EE) spans over 30 years discourse within the practitioner and scientific domain, and have become a strategic imperative within organizations. However, due to the tumultuous history of inconsistencies in conceptualization, poor validation, and various discrepancies among scholars and practitioners, the construct has attracted interest across disciplines and industry. Accordingly, the claims of its positive impact on bottom line and other organizational outcome have become the catalyst for further research. Owing to that, this paper highlights past and present findings on EE. Drawing on previous studies, we highlight the cons of the construct and propose a multi-foci approach that extends the positive psychology perspective. We reference the earlier works of Kahn, and the influence sociology played in the conceptualization of Kahn’s theory of the employee’s preferred self. We conclude and recommend the Interactionist view as a theoretical framework within the field of industrial sociology to support our arguments.Keywords: Employee engagement, positive psychology, sociology, rational choice theory, social interactionism.

Influence of Microfinance Bank Products Accessibility on Small Scale Enterprises Performance

This study examined the influence of the Microfinance bank products accessibility on Small scale enterprises (SSEs) in Osun State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. The population for the study comprised all microfinance banks and small scale enterprises in Osun State. Thirty (30) MFBs were purposively sampled and For Hundred and Fifty (450) SSEs were randomly sampled. Two sets of questionnaires designed to collect data were tested for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha: QMFB (r = 0.89) and QSSEs(r = 0.70). Data were analysed using tables, frequencies as well as simple percentages while multiple regressions were used to test hypotheses one and two at 0.05 level of significance. Degree of accessibility to MFB products was measured using savings account (92%), current account (54.2%) and business loan (52.3%). A regression analysis designed to examine the influence of MFB products accessibility on SSEs’ performance revealed that MFB products accessibility perception jointly predicted changes in SSEs total capital given F(8,318) = 17.936; number of employees F(8,318) = 4.136; sales F (8,318) =15.316; and profit F(8,318) = 15,699; all values being significant at 0.05 level. In conclusion, activities of MFBs impacted on the SSEs in the study area given the predicted values of financial product accessibility on sales and profit but with a limited effect on total capital and number of employees engaged.