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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of firm- and country-specific factors on the dynamics of capital structure for a new data set of firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. Design/methodology/approach Panel data estimation techniques are carried out on a set of 412 firms from 12 countries within Sub-Saharan Africa. Findings The results show that firm- and country-specific factors play an important role in the choice of debt for firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, firm profitability is the most common significant predictor of capital structure for firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. The significance and magnitude of profitability coefficients is more pronounced in countries with the least developed banking and stock markets and the weakest legal systems. Second, the rule of law in Nigeria and Zimbabwe provides avenues for firms in these countries to increase their debt maturity structures. The choice of debt for firms in Ghana is significantly influenced by the strength of the legal rights, the time to enforce a contract and the cost of contract enforcement. Third, capital structure adjustment speeds in all the sampled countries are relatively slow, possibly due to the market imperfections associated with the underdeveloped financial markets of Sub-Saharan Africa. Lastly, firms in the most developed stock markets of Sub-Saharan Africa tend to have lower mean debt ratios and faster capital structure adjustment speeds. Similarly, firms in countries with strong legal mechanisms tend to have higher mean long-term debt ratios and faster capital structure adjustment speeds. Originality/value This paper explores the influence of firm-level and country-specific factors on the dynamics of capital structure for a new data set that was previously ignored in the literature.

Background: Kenya has become the epicentre of branchless banking financial innovations in the last decade, effectively attracting global research interest.Aim: This article examines the relationship between financial innovation and the financial performance of 42 commercial banks in Kenya. Setting:The financial innovations covered are the branchless banking models, which represent a departure from the traditional branch-based banking. More specifically, the financial innovations covered are: mobile banking, agency banking, internet banking and automated teller machines. Methods:We use the Koyck dynamic distributed lag model to estimate the relationship between financial innovations and bank financial performance. The model has been using dynamic panel estimation with system generalised method of moments. Results:The results show that financial innovations significantly contribute to bank financial performance, and that firm-specific factors are more important in determining the firm's current financial performance than industry factors. Conclusion:We provide evidence that financial innovations generate good results for the shareholders, suggesting that shareholders are the primary beneficiaries of financial innovations used by commercial banks.

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