This week in multidisciplinary research, we highlight 10 studies, many with African relevance, from journals across computer interaction, journalism, business, information systems, personality, finance, marketing, and operations research.
📊 This week at a glance
🌍 African-led research
Older adults engage more with digital narratives when paired with AI-generated imagery, but emotional resonance varies.
Qualitative interviews with 21 adults aged 59–85 show that AI-generated visuals can enhance engagement in cognitive training games by making narratives feel more vivid and personal. This challenges the assumption that older adults disengage primarily due to cognitive load; emotional connection to story and imagery matters. For African scholars, it suggests culturally tailored AI visuals could improve digital health interventions for aging populations.
Community radio journalists in Limpopo, South Africa, face safety risks and ethical dilemmas when covering service delivery protests.
Field reporting practices reveal that journalists often navigate pressure from both protesters and authorities, sometimes self-censoring to avoid violence. This changes the view that community radio is simply a mouthpiece; it shows active negotiation of safety and community trust. For African media policy, it highlights the need for protective measures and ethical training for local journalists.
Moroccan accounting professionals adopt ISSB sustainability reporting symbolically, driven by external pressures rather than genuine motivation.
Using self-determination theory, the study finds that when autonomy and competence are low, compliance becomes a box-ticking exercise. This shifts the focus from technical adoption to the psychological drivers of meaningful engagement. For African emerging economies, it implies that sustainability reporting standards need capacity-building and intrinsic incentives to avoid superficial implementation.
A new framework combines semantic NLP and PLS-SEM to assess and explain organisational AI illiteracy.
The explainable MIS framework identifies gaps in employees’ ability to critically evaluate AI-generated information, linking AI illiteracy to strategic decision-making. This changes how organisations can diagnose AI readiness beyond technical infrastructure. For African businesses, it offers a tool to target training and improve AI adoption in decision support.
Personality traits predict health, well-being, relationships, and employment outcomes among young adults in Namibia, Kenya, and South Africa over three years.
Using data from 2,770 young adults in the Africa Long Life Study, the research confirms that personality-outcome links observed in Western countries largely hold in sub-Saharan Africa. This challenges the assumption that these associations are culturally specific. For African policymakers, it underscores the importance of personality-informed interventions in education and employment programs.
ESG performance improves bank financial stability, but the effect is stronger when green finance activities are high and institutional quality is robust.
Analyzing 251 banks across 56 countries from 2009–2024, the study shows that green product portfolios and good governance amplify the stability benefits of ESG. This refines the view that ESG is universally beneficial; context matters. For African banks, it suggests that investing in green finance and improving institutional frameworks can enhance resilience.
🔬 Global breakthroughs
ChatGPT can forecast stock price movements, according to a study in the Journal of Financial Economics.
The paper, by Lopez-Lira and Tang, finds that large language models like ChatGPT have return predictability, suggesting they can process news and sentiment to predict market trends. This challenges the efficiency of markets if AI can consistently extract predictive signals. For African financial markets, it raises questions about the potential for AI-driven trading and the need for regulatory oversight. Note: Abstract not provided; findings based on title.
Floods persistently worsen European manufacturing firms’ performance, reducing total assets by about 2% in the year after and up to 5% seven years later.
Using granular flood hazard maps and firm geolocation data from 2007–2018, the study shows that water damage can endanger firm survival. This changes the perception that floods cause only short-term disruptions; effects are long-lasting. For African firms, it highlights the need for climate resilience strategies and disaster risk financing.
Virtual influencers are more impactful when they appear in photos with humans, suggesting social tie presence boosts engagement.
A multimethod investigation finds that computer-generated influencers who seem to have social interactions with humans generate higher consumer engagement. This challenges the idea that virtual influencers succeed solely on novelty; perceived social connections matter. For African marketers, it implies that virtual influencers should be portrayed in relatable social contexts to resonate with local audiences.
Airport games are a subclass of irrigation games, and the Shapley value provides a fair cost-sharing solution for both.
The paper formalizes irrigation games on rooted trees and characterizes them, showing that the well-known airport games fit within this framework. This advances cooperative game theory by unifying cost-sharing problems. For African infrastructure planning, it offers a mathematical tool for equitable allocation of costs in projects like irrigation systems.
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