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Business Model Innovation (BMI) has been widely recognised by management scholars as a significant approach to analyse complex organisational issues and address challenges in volatile business contexts.  Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in highly turbulent business environments struggle to be viable. Hence, the need to adopt appropriate business models to ensure resilient and viability. This study sought to examine the influence of BMIs on the ability of SMEs in developing nations to withstand and recover from challenges posed by unstable business environments. This study uses a quantitative approach, with a cross-sectional survey to collect empirical evidence from 327 SMEs selected through quota sampling.  Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method, results of the study reveal that BMI has a positive impact on the resilience of SMEs. The findings demonstrated that implementing innovative modifications in the business model, namely value creation, value capture, and value proposition positively influence the resilience of SMEs. The study concludes that implementing innovative business models contributes to the development of resilience among SMEs in emerging economies. This paper is relevant to SMEs operating in developing economies as well as those in volatile business environments.

Despite changing Performance Management System (PMS) to Performance Management and Development (PMD) in 2018, public schools face difficulties in effectively implementing PMD in Botswana. This study, using a mixed methods approach, investigated the capacity of school managers to implement PMD. Quantitative analysis assessed capacity and workload, while qualitative insights explored managers’ perspectives on PMD.  From the study, poor PMD implementation is associated with capacity issues, moral laxity and organizational indifference. The study recommends building capacities at all levels of PMD and embracing PMD as a performance reform.

Does Botswana’s economic growth drive insurance sector development or follows it? This study evaluates the empirical applicability of the supply-leading and demand-following hypotheses. It employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds testing approach and Granger causality analysis within a Vector Error Correction Model framework, to examines the significance of dynamic long-run, short-run and causal relationship between the Insurance sector development (total insurance penetration) and economic growth (Gross Domestic Product per capita) over the period 2000–2023. To reduce specification bias, the control variables used are gross fixed capital formation for physical capital accumulation, inflation for macroeconomic stability and trade openness for external trade exposure. The findings indicate a statistically significant long-run cointegrating relationship among the variables, with inflation exerting a highly significant negative effect on Gross Domestic Product per capita while total insurance penetration indicates a statistically insignificant direct long-run impact. In the short run, total insurance penetration exerts a robust and statistically significant negative effect on Gross Domestic Product per capita, validating the presence of a 'savings-substitution' effect and domestic capital leakage channel identified in earlier literature. The Pairwise Granger causality analysis yields a strong backing for the demand-following hypothesis at 5% significance level, and a weak evidence of a supply-leading effect at 10% level meaning the insurance market acts primarily as a passive responder to macroeconomic expansion rather than a primary growth locomotive. Policy recommendations stress the need for regulatory reforms to boost domestic insurance premiums reinvestment, stimulate structural product innovation, and deepen financial inclusion to unlock growth-insurance complementarities.

In small and emerging markets like Botswana, what drives the financial resilience of non-life insurers? This study takes a closer look at this question, evaluating audited financial statement data from 14 Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) licensed insurers across the year 2010–2022 period. The resulting unbalanced panel dataset of 127 firm-year observations in total is used to test ten potential determinants: profitability, underwriting risk, reinsurance dependence, firm size, leverage, liquidity, asset tangibility, premium growth, firm age, and ownership structure. Following diagnostic testing via the F-test, Breusch-Pagan LM test, and Hausman specification test, the Fixed Effects (FE) model was retained as the preferred estimator. As findings, underwriting risk, rather than weakening solvency, showed the strongest positive association with capital adequacy. The most credible explanation for this is regulatory, companies with heavier claims exposure appear to respond to supervisory pressure by holding more capital, not less. Reinsurance dependence, firm size, liquidity, and asset tangibility were also positively significant, highlighting the importance of risk-transfer mechanisms and effective liquidity management. On the other hand, profitability, leverage, growth, and firm age fell short of significance reflecting the structural constraints of a concentrated, domestically oriented market rather than any theoretical irrelevance of these factors. Risk management practices and firm-specific structural characteristics positively influence solvency adequacy among Botswana's non-life insurers instead of profitability or growth considerations. This research adds to the already existing limited empirical evidence of drivers of solvency margins in Botswana and the Sub-Saharan Africa providing useful insights for insurers, regulators, and policymakers seeking to strengthen risk-based supervision and promote the long-term stability of the insurance sector in Botswana.

Decentralized approaches to solid waste management (SWM) have gained global attention because of their provision for the effective participation of local communities. This study investigates community participation in decentralized solid waste management policy-making processes, drawing insights from Ghana. Using mixed methods, the study reveals that community participation only takes place at the policy implementation stage and takes the form of planning and managing community-led solid waste management initiatives such as occasional community clean-up exercise during festivals and public holidays, which are usually organized on a frequent basis. Regarding the factors that promote the solid waste management policy-making process, it was realized that “including the community in the solid waste management policy-making process” was the most important factor for the community to participate in the solid waste management policy-making process. Based on these findings, the top-down approach in solid waste management policy should be reversed to bottom-up approaches.

The reduction in rural marginalization of infrastructure in Africa has been achieved through the wide diffusion of the so-called fiscal deviation. According to New Institutional Economics, the provision of public resourcing at the local level is more economic since it meets the geographic specificity of infrastructure provisions. However, when intergovernmental fiscal transfers are towards rural road provision, it is majorly because of several structural impediments, that the corrected road will not be realized. This systematic review of literature with regards to devolution and infra-structure provision has laid emphasis on going beyond overly simplistic input-output models to explore the multiple filters regulating decentralized public works. The focus here is on institutional capacity as a crucial explanatory factor and the way deficits in technical engineering, equipment maintenance, and procurement governance conspire to undermine the potency of devolved funding. Moreover, the study discusses the moderating effects in the face of instability in the broader economy, illustrating how hyper-inflation and currency depreciation can deplete real infrastructure funds purchasing power and result in the erosion of the contractor attrition as observed. Finally, the review has identified systemic barriers, such as climate vulnerability and ministerial red-tape friction. The synthesis of empirical literature from 2010 to 2024 suggests that fiscal decentralisation without a built institutional capacity and insulated mechanisms against macroeconomic turbulence cannot deliver in the long run.

Despite changing Performance Management System (PMS) to Performance Management and Development (PMD) in 2018, public schools face difficulties in effectively implementing PMD in Botswana. This study, using a mixed methods approach, investigated the capacity of school managers to implement PMD. Quantitative analysis assessed capacity and workload, while qualitative insights explored managers’ perspectives on PMD.  From the study, poor PMD implementation is associated with capacity issues, moral laxity and organizational indifference. The study recommends building capacities at all levels of PMD and embracing PMD as a performance reform.

Does Botswana’s economic growth drive insurance sector development or follows it? This study evaluates the empirical applicability of the supply-leading and demand-following hypotheses. It employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds testing approach and Granger causality analysis within a Vector Error Correction Model framework, to examines the significance of dynamic long-run, short-run and causal relationship between the Insurance sector development (total insurance penetration) and economic growth (Gross Domestic Product per capita) over the period 2000–2023. To reduce specification bias, the control variables used are gross fixed capital formation for physical capital accumulation, inflation for macroeconomic stability and trade openness for external trade exposure. The findings indicate a statistically significant long-run cointegrating relationship among the variables, with inflation exerting a highly significant negative effect on Gross Domestic Product per capita while total insurance penetration indicates a statistically insignificant direct long-run impact. In the short run, total insurance penetration exerts a robust and statistically significant negative effect on Gross Domestic Product per capita, validating the presence of a 'savings-substitution' effect and domestic capital leakage channel identified in earlier literature. The Pairwise Granger causality analysis yields a strong backing for the demand-following hypothesis at 5% significance level, and a weak evidence of a supply-leading effect at 10% level meaning the insurance market acts primarily as a passive responder to macroeconomic expansion rather than a primary growth locomotive. Policy recommendations stress the need for regulatory reforms to boost domestic insurance premiums reinvestment, stimulate structural product innovation, and deepen financial inclusion to unlock growth-insurance complementarities.

In small and emerging markets like Botswana, what drives the financial resilience of non-life insurers? This study takes a closer look at this question, evaluating audited financial statement data from 14 Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) licensed insurers across the year 2010–2022 period. The resulting unbalanced panel dataset of 127 firm-year observations in total is used to test ten potential determinants: profitability, underwriting risk, reinsurance dependence, firm size, leverage, liquidity, asset tangibility, premium growth, firm age, and ownership structure. Following diagnostic testing via the F-test, Breusch-Pagan LM test, and Hausman specification test, the Fixed Effects (FE) model was retained as the preferred estimator. As findings, underwriting risk, rather than weakening solvency, showed the strongest positive association with capital adequacy. The most credible explanation for this is regulatory, companies with heavier claims exposure appear to respond to supervisory pressure by holding more capital, not less. Reinsurance dependence, firm size, liquidity, and asset tangibility were also positively significant, highlighting the importance of risk-transfer mechanisms and effective liquidity management. On the other hand, profitability, leverage, growth, and firm age fell short of significance reflecting the structural constraints of a concentrated, domestically oriented market rather than any theoretical irrelevance of these factors. Risk management practices and firm-specific structural characteristics positively influence solvency adequacy among Botswana's non-life insurers instead of profitability or growth considerations. This research adds to the already existing limited empirical evidence of drivers of solvency margins in Botswana and the Sub-Saharan Africa providing useful insights for insurers, regulators, and policymakers seeking to strengthen risk-based supervision and promote the long-term stability of the insurance sector in Botswana.

Decentralized approaches to solid waste management (SWM) have gained global attention because of their provision for the effective participation of local communities. This study investigates community participation in decentralized solid waste management policy-making processes, drawing insights from Ghana. Using mixed methods, the study reveals that community participation only takes place at the policy implementation stage and takes the form of planning and managing community-led solid waste management initiatives such as occasional community clean-up exercise during festivals and public holidays, which are usually organized on a frequent basis. Regarding the factors that promote the solid waste management policy-making process, it was realized that “including the community in the solid waste management policy-making process” was the most important factor for the community to participate in the solid waste management policy-making process. Based on these findings, the top-down approach in solid waste management policy should be reversed to bottom-up approaches.