This research seeks to enhance the current literature by exploring the nexus among environmental contamination, economic growth, energy use, and foreign direct investment in 6 selected sub-Saharan African nations for a time of 34 years (1980–2014). By applying panel unit root (CADF and CIPS, cross-sectional independence test), panel cointegration (Pedroni and Kao cointegration test, panel PP, panel ADF), Hausman poolability test, and an auto-regressive distributed lag procedure in view of the pooled mean group estimation (ARDL/PMG), experimental findings disclose that alluding to the related probability values, the null hypothesis of cross-sectional independence for all variables is rejected because they are not stationary at levels but rather stationary at their first difference. The variables are altogether integrated at the same order I(1). Findings revealed that there is a confirmation of a bidirectional causality between energy use and CO₂ in the short-run and one-way causality running from energy use to CO₂ in the long run. There is additionally a significant positive outcome and unidirectional causality from CO₂ to foreign direct investment in the long run yet no causal relationship in the short run. An increase in energy use by 1% causes an increase in CO₂ by 49%. An increase in economic growth by 1% causes an increment in CO₂ by 16% and an increase in economic growth squared by 1% diminishes CO₂ by 46%. The positive and negative impacts of economic growth and its square approve the EKC theory. To guarantee sustainable economic development goal, more strict laws like sequestration ought to be worked out, use of sustainable power source ought to be stressed, and GDP ought to be multiplied to diminish CO₂ by the utilization of eco-technology for instance carbon capturing, to save lives and also to maintain a green environment.

The Southern African Development Community is lagging behind in terms of knowledge economy relative to other regions worldwide. This dramatically reduces the chances of keeping up with their economically established counterparts in terms of sustainable development. This paper therefore, applies multivariate panel data analysis which is predicted on the Cobb–Douglas production function to analyze the affiliation flanked by knowledge-based economy pillars and economic growth from 1998–2018. The World Bank knowledge-based economy framework is employed. To achieve the study goal, the long-run effect regarding proxies of each pillar in the knowledge-based economy on economic growth is first estimated. Afterwards, the average impact of each pillar is examined using the average impact index (AII). Employment of both conventional unit root and co-integration tests showed all observed series are stationary and co-integrated. Further estimation of the long-run relationship using both static and dynamic models (fixed effect and generalized method of moment) portrayed that government effectiveness, adjusted savings on education expenditure, tertiary enrollment, scientific and technical journals, and mobile cellular subscriptions have significant positive impact on economic growth. Finally, the AII estimation unveiled that the innovation pillar is the most impactful aspect on economic growth followed by education and skills with the least being information and communication technology infrastructure. Feasible policy recommendations are further suggested.

Strategic decisions like supply chain integration and interfirm value co-creation are significant to SMEs’ performance. Therefore, this paper aims to find out the relationships between supply chain integration, interfirm value co-creation, and firm performance in Ghanaian SMEs. We employed a structural equation model (SEM) to estimate the responses of 473 SMEs registered with the Association of Ghanaian Industries (AGI) to find the nexus between supply chain integration, interfirm value co-creation, and the performance of Ghanaian SMEs. Further, we test for the mediating role of innovation capability and stakeholder pressure in the relationships between supply chain integration and firm performance and the relationship between supply chain integration and interfirm value co-creation, respectively. We found a positive significant relationship between the variables. Innovation capability mediates the positive relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance. Interfirm value co-creation has a negative relationship with the innovation capabilities of SMEs. Therefore, Ghanaian SMEs can invest in technologies, which promote collaborations with external parties to create value while minimizing cost.

The paper examines the association between health expenditure, carbon emission, economic growth, natural resources, and population in developing countries for 2000–2018. It further explores the relationship between these variables over the same period. The study applied Pooled mean group (PMG) and Dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) estimations to explore the long and short-term impact of environmental pollution, economic growth, and natural resources on health expenditure. PMG and the DOLS results show that economic growth and environmental pollution, and natural resources increase health expenditure at the panel level. However, improved sanitation reduces health spending. The findings for the individual country level from the FMOLS confirmed similar results for some countries. Furthermore, there is bidirectional causality between health spending and economic growth. Developing nations should implement strategic environment management policies that enhanced clean and healthy air to decrease the pressure on health care expenses.