Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Electronic Finance

 

Special Issue on: "The Issues and Challenges of E-Banking Applications and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa"

Guest Editor:
Dr. Francis Kofi Andoh-Baidoo, University of Texas – Pan American, USA

Electronic finance (e-finance or e-banking) promises banking institutions and their customers several benefits. Hence various banking institutions in both developed and developing countries have implemented various electronic applications to enhance operations and customer service.

While studies on electronic banking in developed countries abound, there is little, if any, research on developing countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). SSA is the larger of the two (SSA and Arab) geopolitical regions of Africa. The forty-nine countries in SSA have been further classified into four sub-groups: oil exporting (7), middle-income (11), low-income (14) and fragile (12) countries; Southern Sudan joined the region in 2012 but has no data available to place it in a particular sub-region.

For many years, the African continent has been neglected in many ways, including in academia, to the extent that a publication in a top IS journal (Mbarika et al, 2005) refers to Africa as the “neglected continent.” However, a recent UN Outlook report indicates that several SSA countries have experienced better economic growth rates than those of the United States, Western Europe and some Asian countries. Other reports have recognised Africa as the second-fastest growing region of the world only after Asia, and have highly praised the prospects of its economies (McKinsey Global Institute, 2010 and The Economist, 2011).

The purpose of this special issue is to create and distribute knowledge on e-finance/e-banking development and its application in Sub-Saharan economies. We are looking for theory development, empirical studies and qualitative studies for this issue.

References

1. McKinsey Global Institute (2012), The Rise of Africa Consumer, http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/The_rise_of_the_African_consumer_3030
2. Mbarika, V., Okoli, C., Byrd, T., & Datta, P. (2005).The neglected continent of IS research: a research agenda for Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS), 6(5), 130-170.
3. The Economist (2013), Afria rising, a hopeful continent, http:// http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21572377-african-lives-have-already-greatly-improved-over-past-decade-says-oliver-august/print
4. World Bank (2012), Regional Economic Outlook, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2012/afr/eng/sreo1012.pdf

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Current e-banking development status in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Major issues and challenges facing e-banking development in SSA
• Comparative studies about e-banking applications and development differences between developed, developing and SSA countries
• Case studies on e-banking development status in SSA
• Emerging m-banking - mobile technology such as wireless network and mobile devices that directly facilitate banking services in SSA
• Application of innovative e-banking services in SSA countries to improve banking industry as a whole
• Analysis of political, economic, social, legal and cultural environment in e-banking development in SSA
• Government support and e-banking development in SSA
• The relationship between nations' IT technology infrastructures and e-banking development in SSA
• The relationship between nations' general public education of modern IT technology and e-banking development in SSA
• The relationship between countries' banking industry history and e-banking development in SSA
• The impact of government regulations and policies on e-banking development in SSA
• The issues and challenges of e-banking development in rural and remote areas of SSA
• The current status of telephone-banking, PC-banking, internet-banking and m-banking in SSA
• The economic analysis of e-banking: cost and benefit tradeoff in SSA
• Performance evaluation of e-banking systems in SSA
• Technological issues in e-banking development in SSA
• Reviews of the application of e-banking services in SSA
• Human-computer interaction issues in e-banking system in SSA
• Privacy and security issues in e-banking development in SSA
• Critical success factors for e-banking development in SSA
• Different cultural perceptions of e-banking services in SSA
• E-payment systems including mobile money in SSA
• E-stock markets in SSA
• Internet banking innovations and challenges
• Internet adoption and use among microfinance institutions - reaching the unbanked
• Regulatory environments of internet/e-banking innovations in SSA
• Electronic financial fraud in SSA
• Electronic payment security in SSA
• Social innovations in electronic payment systems in SSA
• Policy readiness in electronic finance in SSA
• Strategic analysis of development of electronic payments in SSA
• Sub-regional comparative studies on e-finance development and/or applications
• The future of m-learning

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: 1 July, 2013

Notification of status and acceptance of paper: 31 August, 2013

Final version of paper: 15 October, 2013