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The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the perspectives of key stakeholders on strategies to improve the effectiveness of audit committees (ACs) in African economies, with a specific focus on the Libyan banking sector.

The study uses a mixed-methods approach, combining questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. The data collection process involves gathering responses from participants through questionnaires and conducting in-depth interviews to gain deeper insights into the subject matter.

The research findings highlight several key points. Firstly, fortifying Libya’s accounting and auditing profession emerges as the most widely endorsed suggestion for enhancing AC effectiveness. Secondly, participants identified various actions that can strengthen ACs, including appointing members with financial expertise, refining the legal requirements governing AC responsibilities, securing board support, enhancing Libya’s legal and regulatory framework, adequately compensating AC members and reducing government intervention in AC practices.

This research contributes to the field of corporate governance by providing valuable insights into the perspectives of stakeholders on enhancing AC effectiveness in the Libyan banking sector, within the broader context of African economies. The findings offer actionable plans for regulators and policymakers seeking to improve AC effectiveness in Libya.

To investigate the impact of board characteristics (board gender diversity, board chair age, board subcommittees, board meetings, board skill, board size and board independence) on corporate social responsibility disclosures (CSRD) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Kenya during the period 2015–2018.

The study employed fixed-effects balanced panel data to examine the impact of board characteristics on CSRD. The analysis is repeated using two regression estimators (robust least square and random effects) and the four CSRD subcomponents to evaluate the robustness of the main analysis.

The results established that board gender diversity, board chair age and board subcommittees had significant negative effects on CSRD. The impact of the remaining board characteristics was found to be insignificant.

The study was limited to the disclosures included in the annual reports, which means that information disclosed in other media, like websites, was not considered. The second limitation concerns mediating and moderator variables that were not considered.

There is a need for a stricter corporate governance implementation mechanism, as opposed to the “comply or explain” principle, since results suggest that most of the board characteristics do not appear to be impactful. Additionally, the low level of reported CSRD calls for the establishment of Corporate Social Responsibility or related committees.

The evidence suggests that SOEs are reluctant to report on issues such as ethics, health and safety initiatives, environment and social investments.

The paper extends the literature on the impact of board characteristics on CSRD in unlisted non-commercial SOEs in a developing country context.

Scholars have been sounding the alarm of novice teacher turnover crises for decades. South Africa is soon to be facing an educational catastrophe because of a shortage of experienced teachers. Globally and in South Africa, novice teacher attrition is high, and teachers entering the classroom often described feeling isolated and unsupported.

This qualitative study was underpinned by an interpretative phenomenology approach. The author reviewed the literature and newly emerged findings of novice teacher mentoring support needs through the theoretical lens of the Ubuntu philosophy “I am because we are” which emphasises the importance of interconnectedness and community. Using semi-structured interviews, this study aimed to explore novice teacher mentoring needs from an Ubuntu perspective.

Novice teachers report feeling overwhelmed with the complexities of teaching in their early careers and express the desire to be formally mentored by a knowledgeable “elder” teacher. This paper argues that a competent mentor who values Ubuntu in their mentoring could offer collaboration, respect, compassion and support to novices that may keep them in the profession. This paper further explores the potential benefit of a prescribed Ubuntu-orientated mentoring programme to formalise mentoring for novices. In addition, it explores the school micro-community from the Ubuntu principles to support novices.

While there is a plethora of studies about mentoring novice teachers, literature from an Africanised Ubuntu perspective is scarce. Perhaps the time has come to find African solutions to our African problems.

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether audit committees (ACs) influence corporate social responsibility (CSR) outputs.

A structured literature review of 57 archival studies on the influence of ACs on CSR outputs was conducted. According to a stakeholder–agency theoretical framework, the AC variables were structured as follows: presence, composition and resources, incentives and diligence. CSR is mainly divided into CSR performance, CSR reporting and CSR assurance.

Previous studies have mainly focused on AC composition and CSR reporting. There are indications that AC composition and CSR performance and assurance are positively linked. Moreover, AC resources, incentives and diligence increase CSR reporting.

This study stresses the need for linking AC composition with sustainability, the inclusion of moderator and especially mediator variables and addressing endogeneity concerns via advanced regression models.

This paper reports the first literature review on the interaction between AC and CSR. It presents the main variables that have been included in previous studies, the limitations of these studies and useful recommendations for future research, business practice and regulators.

The literature on the influence of audit committees (AC) and cosmetic accounting (CA) is scarce. AC plays a unique and vital role in boosting earnings reliability in countries with weaker application of accounting standards or weaker legal protection for investors. AC, therefore, are considered to be one of the essential tools available to directors in supervising management decisions regarding financial reporting. This paper aims to examine the influence of AC characteristics (ACC) on CA and how this relationship is moderated by the audit fee.

This study used probit regression to analyze 1,218 firm-year observations of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2020.

The results show that AC financial accounting expertise, AC independence, female AC membership and AC tenure were negatively related to CA. The negative relationship is highly pronounced when a firm incurs higher audit fees, and audit fees moderate the relationship between ACC and CA. Results for the robustness checks show that only AC independence was significant, and the results of other characteristics were not significant.

This research was conducted in an Iranian setting where the formation of ACs is on the verge of regulation; therefore, the data used for the study only contains the seven-year period of ACs’ statutory activity. In addition, a lack of consensus on the precise measures of an AC’s effectiveness could be considered as a restrictive factor.

The findings provide an initial insight into the effect AC on CA and moderating effect of audit fee on the relationship between ACC and CA.