Kansilembo Freddy Aliamutu

There is little research on the impact of environmental costs on plastic manufacturing companies’ financial performance and sustainability. This paper aims to explore the relationship between environmental costs and financial performance of two large national plastic manufacturing companies, namely Bowler Metcalf Limited (BML) and Nampak Ltd, between 2018 and 2019 since research allows for five year old information. Further, the study used pre-Covid-19 data to conceptualize. It adopted a qualitative method of inquiry using content analysis to analyze the financial statements and reports of the two companies (secondary data analysis) available in the public domain. The interpretative analysis further supported the analysis and interpretation of the two variables of environmental costs and financial performance. The results showed a positive relationship between environmental costs and profits in the financial statements of these two companies during 2018 and 2019. BML had a decrease in plastic penalties from R 23.171 million in 2018 to R 14.596 million in 2019, which supported a reduction in spending on legal and constructive obligation items. Nampak also decreased stakeholders’ equity from R 10,140.3 million in 2018 to R 8,932.33 million in 2019, which meant that the stakeholders’ equity funds were reduced, possibly due to reduced spending on environmental costs during that period. It can be concluded and established that when these two plastic companies spend more on environmental costs, this positively affects overall financial performance and improves financial sustainability. It is recommended to allocate more resources/funding to support environmental costs to increase the profitability of the two plastic manufacturing companies.

Accounting information systems are an important instrument in the hands of administrators seeking to maintain a competitive edge in the face of fast technological innovation, having the knowledge, and demanding expectations from customers and business owners. The objective of the study is to investigate the empirical literature pertaining to accounting information systems and companies. This study uses a systematic literature review method to provide responses to the research issue, and the bulk of the research was conducted in industrialized economies where computerized accounting system approaches were widely adopted. The selected method of inquiry consists of the following phases: study choice, development of both inclusion and exclusion guidelines, research designation, quality of research assessment, data collection, and data compilation. Based on the paper’s findings, most small businesses fail to implement accounting information systems in their operations, resulting in low-efficiency levels because of the difficulty of preserving company information records. Furthermore, this systematic literature review adds to the prior literature in three ways: (1) it indicates the usefulness of accounting information systems; (2) it expresses the suggestions that might be implemented to boost the accounting information system; and (3) it describes the research gaps that require to be filled to encourage an improved adoption of accounting information systems for small business profitability.

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of financial regulations on bank lending in emerging economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The dynamic system-generalized method of measures (GMM) is used to address difficulties such as unexplained periods and nation-specific implications, besides the endogeneity of the variables in question. Spanning from 2012 to 2022, the research used data from 80 banks in 20 sub-Saharan African nations. The findings show that expansive financial regulation, which includes a boost in the amount of cash in circulation, induces bank lending. At the same time, restrictive financial regulations, with the value as an improvement in interest rates by central banks, lead to credit contractions, albeit with little impact because of the attainable poverty of banking sectors, organizational limitations, bank-focused attention, and additional system rigidity typical of developing nations, which compromises the efficiency of the system. Other characteristics that substantially impact bank lending routes include capital sufficiency ratios and the scale of economic activity. Sub-Saharan African countries may boost the efficiency of financial regulations propagation on bank lending by making better use of the transfer process of fluctuations in cash supplies and interest rates.