Zimbabwe"s business operating environment is abounding with both micro and macro uncertainties that regularly impact on firm-level investment decisions. Under uncertainty and irreversibility private firms are forced to integrate into their investment appraisals and decisions some expectations regarding future product demand and prices, likely returns on fixed capital investment, expected margins, cost of capital expectations and cash flow projections. These important issues are not known with definitive assurance and hence, making investment decisions under uncertainty a challenging task for Zimbabwe"s private firms. The study examined investment under uncertainty and irreversibility in Zimbabwe"s private firms using a polychotomous regression model with the three investment decision outcomes; "invest now", "do not invest now" and "defer investment". The major findings are that; (1) liquidity constraints, firm size and credit constraints significantly influence the probability of investing now irrespective of uncertainties in the economy. (2) Poor public infrastructure, political uncertainty, inconsistent application of the indigenization laws and absence of laws that protect private property rights increase the probability of private firms" deferring investment decisions under uncertainty and investment irreversibility. The paper recommends that policy makers should reduce macro uncertainties in the financial sector that affect firm-level investment decisions, adopt policies that enhance productivity of public infrastructure and must observe national and international laws that safeguard investor property rights. Contribution/Originality: The study is one of the few studies that used a polychotomous probabilistic distribution function to investigate investment decisions of Zimbabwe"s private firms given the presence of uncertainty and investment irreversibility.

No abstract

Most of developing countries such as Zimbabwe see foreign direct investment as a panacea for augmenting domestic savings, generating employment, eradicating poverty and stimulating economic growth. Foreign direct investment also is associated with significant positive spillover benefits such as; facilitating technological progress, enhancing production efficiencies, promoting skills and knowledge diffusion and increasing international competitiveness. The paper investigated the role of cost of capital, uncertainty, exports, market size and other macro factors in attracting FDI in Zimbabwe. This paper relied on a time series analysis using Ordinary Least Regression equation for the period 1998-2017. Uncertainty and cost of capital were found to be negative and statistically significant whilst market size and lagged exports were found to be positive and statistically significant. The paper recommends adoption of policies that improve domestic absorptive capacity such as the elimination of uncertainties in the economy, promoting more trade openness, improving market size and liberalisation of credit and financial markets to reduce firm borrowing costs. Contribution/Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature on foreign direct investment by demonstrating the role of macro-uncertainty and cost of capital in attracting FDI. In addition, this study utilizes a new estimation methodology of FDI that is based on the modification of the flexible accelerator model of investment behaviour.

The zeitgeist of mobile banking epoch in Sub-Saharan Africa has marked a fundamental transition from the use of physical currency, debit/credit cards and cheques towards a mobile banking e-commerce. In these countries mobile banking provides consumers with added-on advantages such as user-friendliness, cost effective, fast transaction speeds and increased customer satisfaction. Despite the popularity of mobile banking, consumers in most rural areas have largely remained excluded from such beneficial financial innovation. In addition, the extent to which mobile banking services are being adopted by rural consumers has not increased as expected, yet, economic growth and development of Sub-Saharan Africa could fundamentally be contingent on how these potential consumers adopt and use mobile banking innovations. The main objective of the study was to examine the adoption of mobile banking in Sub-Saharan African rural areas drawing lessons from Zimbabwe. Quantitative data was collected using a questionnaire from a random sample of 100 respondents. The findings show that the likelihood of adopting mobile banking in rural Sub-Saharan Africa regions are influenced by perceived usefulness, compatibility perceived ease of use and demographic factors. The likelihood of deferring the adoption of mobile banking are due to complexity, relative advantages, perceived usefulness, social influence and perceived risk. The study recommends policies that reduce perceived risk and complexity, increase trust, confidentiality and awareness knowledge among rural user. Contribution/Originality:The study contributes to the existing literature by employing both technology acceptance model and multinomial regression technique to examine factors that affect the probability of adopting mobile banking in rural areas of developing economies. INTRODUCTIONSince time immemorial, payment systems have always been part and parcel of the human race evolution. The gradual development in payment methods started with barter transactions, then cash, followed by cheques, and later metamorphosed to electronic payment systems. In recent years innovations in financial intermediation have gained accelerated traction in developing countries abetted by the speedy diffusion of communication technology and other ancillary telecommunication infrastructure. Consequently, traditional payment systems in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have since gravitated towards the adoption of mobile phones for making payments and receiving funds. Traditionally the payment systems have primarily been expedited by banks and financial institutions. Nevertheless, in recent years mobile banking has expanded from being the sole preserve of financial

Like in most developing countries, the level of entrepreneurship growth as measured by the number of new firm start-ups has become a central economic issue in Zimbabwe. Necessity and opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activities in the country are being driven by weakening economic growth, poverty, idiosyncratic macro-uncertainties and high levels of unemployment. The country has consistently been listed by the Transparent International Perception of Corruption Index as one of the most corrupt countries in Sub-Saharan Africa outside a war zone. The study examined the nexus between entrepreneurial activities and corruption in Zimbabwe using Ordinary Least Regression equation for the period 1998 to 2016. Our findings suggest that productive entrepreneurial activities in Zimbabwe are significantly being curtailed by regressive tax regimes coupled with enfeebled public institutions. We also demonstrate a positive one way causality running from entrepreneurial activities to corruption and, hence proving the applicability of the greasing hypothesis of corruption in Zimbabwe. The study recommends a number of policy prescriptions that include: reducing levels of taxes on entrepreneurial activities, eliminating red-tape and regulations that add costs on opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, increasing the effectiveness of public institutions especially those that deal with entrepreneurs, introducing robust legislation aimed at reducing public officials' opportunities for rent seeking in entrepreneurial activities that are most prone to corrupt practices. In addition, there is need to monitor bureaucrats and impose severe penalties in order to make corruption payoffs too risky. Our study contributes to the literature on the greasing effect of corruption on entrepreneurial activities in developing countries.