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South Africa is the leading market for luxury goods in Africa – a fact evident from the statistics on luxury retail and the expanding footprint of international and local luxury brands. In a market that is dominated by prominent international brands, indigenous South African brands are seldom the subject of empirical research. This study addresses this gap by analysing the consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of South African luxury fashion brands and its outcomes on the purchase/repurchase intention of consumers of South African luxury fashion brands.

The study adopted quantitative research methods and utilized survey questionnaires to acquire data from 130 respondents. Structural equation modelling was used in testing the proposed alternative hypotheses.

The study affirmed the relevance of Aaker's (1991) CBBE model for luxury goods in the emerging economy of South Africa. It established perceived quality and behavioural loyalty as significant predictors of brand equity while affirming the prevalence of hedonism and behavioural loyalty in South Africa's luxury fashion market.

The small sample size and the limited geographic scope of the study had a significant adverse impact on the broad application of the study's outcome. Furthermore, Aaker's (1991) CBBE model, while adequate, may have diminished the probability of a nuanced outcome.

This study advances the frontiers of interdisciplinary research by applying the marketing framework of CBBE to fashion studies in South Africa. The validated measurement scale, which emphasises the relevance of hedonism and behavioural loyalty in South Africa, may be useful for a similar study on luxury fashion brands in other emerging economies.

The nature of international markets and the challenges with respect to the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) makes it imperative to examine government support. This study aims to assess the role and effectiveness of government and the export promotion agencies in supporting exports by non-traditional horticultural SMEs in Ghana.

The study used a qualitative research design, which involved semi-structured interviews with senior managers of six export facilitating institutions to gain an understanding of the services offered to SMEs with respect to exports of non-traditional horticultural products.

The findings reveal inadequate cost-efficient sources of non-traditional horticultural export financing for SMEs. This is a hindrance to the international competitiveness of exporting SMEs in developing countries such as Ghana. In addition, effective and coordinated support from export promotion agencies was found to be critical.

The study highlights the importance of government’s role in policymaking and implementation of export-led programmes for horticultural exporting firms in Ghana. Despite their strategic importance, this area of research has not attracted the attention of researchers, with little or no information on the horticultural international competitiveness of non-traditional horticultural products.

This study aims to examine why Ghana has English legal origins (hypothesised as a legal framework that promotes financial development) but has not developed a well-functioning mortgage finance market.

The authors adopt the institutional autopsy approach developed by Milhaupt and Pistor (2008). This study is not a cross-country study but a historical examination of Ghana’s mortgage finance regulatory framework. The institutional autopsy framework considers the iterative process of change in a system and allows for context-specific system analysis.

The authors note that for a long period of about 68 years (1940-2008), some of the legal rules regulating mortgage finance were not typical of the hypothesised characteristics of the English common law tradition. These rules, including, interest rate controls, excessive entry barriers, loan default guarantee discriminations and complex foreclosure procedures, tended to inadequately protect creditors. In the context of the history of military rule and law-making, judicial discretion that could have promoted legal efficiency and strengthened contract enforcement was also limited. During this period, the legal system demonstrated a concentrated and coordinative character. New legislation in the form of the Home Mortgage Finance Act 2008 (Act 770) attempts to resolve some of these bottlenecks and improve creditor rights protection.

The study focuses solely on how the legal institution affects creditor protection and mortgage finance in Ghana.

Policy-wise, the study deepens the understanding of the channels through which the law affects the development of mortgage finance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the methodology used (institutional autopsy) is novel in the context of analysing mortgage finance.

The emergence of housing microfinance (HMF) as a response to the low-income groups’ inability to access traditional housing finance is an innovative strategy by creative Microfinance Institutions. Yet, low-income groups’ still face barriers in accessing these innovative products, particularly in Ghana. This paper aims to examine the critical demand barriers and how to develop and improve the design and delivery of HMF interventions in the low-income housing market in Ghana.

The paper achieves its aim by adopting a focus-group discussion strategy to examine the constraints to the demand for HMF among low-income groups’ in Ghana.

Nine factors constrained the design, delivery and demand for HMF – affordability issues; risk; land tenure insecurity; high interest rate; collateralization and insurance challenges; unfavourable HMF loan conditions; lack of social capital; high cost of land and building materials; and ineffective consumer protection.

Although limited to low-income groups, strategies to stimulate demand for HMF should focus on three broad problems – affordability, macroeconomic management and institutional development and government intervention.

The paper makes significant contributions to the body of knowledge, regarding understanding the low-income housing market and its financing in the context of a developing country.

The novelty of the paper is founded on the premise of the research methodology adopted to unearthed the barriers to the demand of HMF in Ghana. Future research effort should be directed at exploring the motivations behind low-income groups’ decision to demand HMF and the risk associated with the use of HMF in the context of Ghana.

Most households in Sub-Saharan African cannot afford adequate housing. Most often, their pension benefits are also meagre, usually resulting from low contribution levels and mismanagement. Coupled with low life expectancies, most would not live to enjoy the benefits of pensions, thus validating the need to utilize their hitherto deferred pension benefits for immediate housing investment and consumption.

Quantitative research methodology via the present value technique was used in valuing pension benefits to demonstrate the potential of pension schemes as savings mobilization mechanisms for long-term pension-backed housing financing in Ghana.

Policy wise, the paper provides some evidence to support proposals for the development of pension-backed housing finance systems in Ghana with lessons for Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors demonstrate that the Tier 2 defined contribution mandatory occupational pension scheme could serve the purpose of a savings mobilization mechanism for long-term housing financing. The authors observe that by increasing the Tier 2 contribution rate to 30 per cent, the majority of the sample, mainly of the middle-income class, could accumulate between US$11,000 and US$17,000 over their working life. At the same rate, between US$5,783 and US$9,550 could have been raised as savings between 2010 (when implementation began) and 2014. This could form a substantial equity contribution in a mortgage investment and or borrowed on a housing microfinance basis.

The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the need to develop alternate savings mechanisms and collateral assets using pension assets, other than property, for mortgage financing. The proposals made are aimed at influencing policy by way of advocating for the use of latent pension equity to improve the housing conditions of members while they are alive, and also to suggest pension-backed housing financing as an alternative investment option. A comprehensive study would be required to settle issues of scalability, pricing and model design.

Mobile banking (m-banking) can be defined as a service offered by a bank or any other financial institution that allows the customers of such establishments to carry out a variety of banking operations via a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, tablet or personal digital assistant. The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that influence customers to adopt and subsequently use m-banking services in Ghana using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) model with age, educational level, user experience and gender as moderators.

Using questionnaire survey, the study sampled 300 users of m-banking services in Ghana as respondents. The primary data collected were analyzed using SmartPLS software.

Findings of the study indicate that Habit, Price Value and Trust are the main factors influencing adoption and use of m-banking in Ghana. Individual differences of gender, age, educational level and user experience responded differently as they moderate the relationship between UTAUT2 constructs and use bahaviour. The applicability of UTAUT2 model was confirmed in the context of the research.

M-banking is a new phenomenon in Ghana’s financial industry, thus it is imperative to understanding the customer adoption behavior. The outcome will aid financial institutions to develop strategies that will sustain the interest of consumers to embrace m-banking.

This paper is among the first ever known attempts to examine m-banking adoption in Ghana using UTAUT2 model.

This study aims to focus on delineating the drivers of intention to adopt mobile banking (m-banking) and its actual use among Islamic banking customers by extending the UTAUT2 model with the trust factor. The study also examined the moderating roles of age, gender and experience in the model.

An explanatory research design was used, and an online survey was conducted to collect responses from Islamic banking customers. A total of 329 completed responses were used to analyze the data. The partial least squares method was used for data analysis, and a multi-group analysis was applied for moderation-related analysis.

Trust positively and significantly influences the behavioral intention to adopt m-banking among Islamic banking customers. In addition, social influence, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation and habits significantly influence behavioral intentions among Islamic banking customers.

This study provides an extended UTAUT2 model that has never been tested in the context of Islamic m-banking. In addition, this study is expected to be the first scholarly research on Islamic banking in the Maldives.

In this era of digital technology, the banking sector has revolutionized its operations by using web-based Internet banking services. However, the success of these financial services is dependent on Internet banking user continuance intention instead of initial adoption. The current study develops a theoretical framework based on three well-known theories, namely the expectation–confirmation theory, self-determination theory (SDT) and the commitment trust theory, to investigate Internet banking user continuance intention towards use of Internet banking services.

Following positivist paradigm, a research survey was conducted towards Internet banking users of commercial banks. In response, 355 valid observations were retrieved and used for data analysis. For data analysis, this study has used a latest statistical approach, namely structural equation modelling (SEM).

This study has confirmed that factors underpinning the commitment trust theory, SDT and expectation–confirmation model have significant impact on Internet banking user continuance intention. The research model explained 68.4% of variance in determining Internet banking user continuance intention, which is substantial. The effect size analysis (f²) indicates that perceived usefulness is the most important factor among all other exogenous variables. The predictive relevance of the research model was found substantial Q² 50.3%. These findings confirmed that the research model has substantial power to predict Internet banking user continuance intention.

From a managerial perspective, findings of this research give deeper insight into financial advisors, bank managers and policy- makers to understand human motivation and expectation–confirmation factors in order to retain customers and gain return on Information Technology (IT) investment. Additionally, results suggest that attention should be given on user trust, which in turn boosts user intention towards continuance use of Internet banking services. Extension of the self-determination framework contributes to theory and augments e-commerce literature, especially in a post-adoption setting.

There are several studies that investigate Internet banking user pre-adoption behaviour. Therefore, less is discussed about the Internet banking user’s post-adoption behaviour. Findings of this study help financial advisors to comprehensively understand which factor influences Internet banking user behaviour towards continue use of Internet banking services.

This study aims to examine factors driving millennial loyalty towards artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled mobile banking services in Islamic banks.

This research collected the data from 204 millennial customers of Islamic banks in Aceh, Indonesia. Partial least square (PLS) was used to evaluate the effect of service factors (the need for service and service quality), technology-based factors (attitudes towards AI, relative advantage, security and trust) and religiosity on millennial loyalty towards AI-enabled mobile banking.

This inquiry reveals that service quality, attitude towards AI and trust are determinants important for millennial loyalty towards AI-enabled mobile banking. Further, this research notes the significant role of religiosity on millennial loyalty towards mobile banking services.

This study suggests Islamic banks focus on developing millennial trust and attitude towards AI to increase their loyalty towards AI-enabled mobile banking services. Further, Islamic banks operation that complies with Islamic law is strongly suggested to develop millennial loyalty.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that tries to scrutinize loyalty towards AI-enabled mobile banking.