The interplay of competition, regulation and stability: the case of Sub-Saharan African commercial banks

This paper aims to examine the impact of Good Corporate Governance (GCG) practice on bank stability and performance. Governance is measured using the GCG rating that covers eleven aspects. The authors apply instrumental regression to link governance to performance and stability. The study covers a sample of 150 banks. The result shows that bank stability can mediate bank governance and bank performance. On the determinant of bank performance, it can be concluded that the GCG rating is positive and directly influences bank performance. Bank stability is also positive for bank performance indicating the indirect contribution of the GCG rating to bank performance. NPL, LDR, CAR and bank’s size (LASSET) are all negative and significant. The aim of this paper is to provide strong empirical evidence on the importance of governance and stability for performance. The limitations of this paper are the size of the sample and that it only covers public banks which are theoretically required to apply better governance in all aspects of their business by the Capital Market Authority.

The paper evaluates the level of competition on the vegetable market. Based on the analysis of the production development trends and resource potential, dynamics and ratio of export and import of agricultural products, including vegetables are presented; dynamics of self-sufficiency ratio of these products is studied; challenges of food security and competitive advantages of Georgian vegetables are identified.
The article concludes that the country has a significant potential for exporting vegetables both to the countries of Europe and Middle East. The paper discusses the factors that hinder export of vegetables; in addition, the ways for reducing dependency on seasonality, opportunities for the development of modern greenhouses and mechanisms for supplying goods to customers all year round are suggested.
On the basis of analyzing the level of competition on the vegetable market, vegetable business is considered as monopolistic. In addition, it is calculated that, currently, local vegetables products account for only 75% of the market.
The paper evaluates the outcomes of high market power caused by monopoly in vegetable business; the impact of market power on pricing mechanism and the welfare of population is determined. In accordance with the problems identified, conclusions are made and recommendations for solving these problems are suggested.

Since customer loyalty is key, especially in the highly competitive commercial banking environment, this article evaluated the effects of features of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) on customer loyalty. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from a convenience sample of customers of a major international Kenyan bank using self-administered questionnaires. The findings based on correlation and multiple regression analyses, revealed that pre-service, during (the) service and post transactional e-CRM features have a positive and significant relationship with loyalty, and that the pre-service and during service features significantly predict loyalty. Thus, enhancing e-CRM practices could be a strategic competitive tool to impact the banks’ relationship with their customers.