AAU Institutional Repository (AAU-ETD)
Addis Ababa University Institutional repository is an open access repository that collects,preserves, and disseminates scholarly outputs of the university. AAU-ETD archives' collection of master's theses, doctoral dissertations and preprints showcase the wide range of academic research undertaken by AAU students over the course of the University's long history.
How to Submit Your Work
The repository contains scholarly work, both unpublished and published, by current or former AAU faculty, staff, and students, including Works by AAU students as part of their masters, doctoral, or post-doctoral research
- All AAU faculty, staff, and students are invited to submit their work to the repository. Please contact the library at your college.
You may contact digirep@aau.edu.et.with any questions about the repository
Colleges,Institutes in AAU-ETD
Select a college,institute to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
Assessing the Social and Business Impacts of Community Engagement: a Case Study of the College of Business and Economics at Addis Ababa University
(Addis Ababa University, 2026-06-03) Mekdes Dagnachew; Asres Abitie
Universities worldwide are shifting from isolated institutions to engaged ones through community engagement. In Africa, this transformation supports local development. Ethiopia has adopted policies including the Higher Education Proclamation No. 1152/2019. Addis Ababa University's College of Business and Economics provides consultancy and training to address local business challenges. This research assesses the business and social impacts of community engagement at the College of Business and Economics, Addis Ababa University, with primary emphasis on business impact. The study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The target population consisted of final-year undergraduate students and academic staff from five departments: Management, Economics, Accounting and Finance, Marketing Management, and Business Administration and Information Systems. Using the Yamane formula, a sample of 327 students and staff was selected through simple random sampling. Additionally, 80 local business owners were surveyed quantitatively. Also, 25 key informants including department heads, community engagement coordinators, and community residents participated in semi-structured interviews. The research revealed that partnership quality was the strongest predictor of both business impact and social impact, indicating that trust-based collaborations produce the most substantial results. Community involvement and awareness and outreach were significant predictors of positive outcomes. Businesses receiving support experienced substantial growth in revenue, profit, employment, financial management, and credit access. The community reported strengthened social networks and improved wellbeing. Qualitative themes confirmed that trust, open dialogue, tailored support, and follow-up are essential for successful engagement
Examining the Influence of Internal Social Responsibility on Employee Turnover Intention in Sierra Leone’s Banking Sector: Mediating the Effect of Job Satisfaction and Moderating the Effect of Organizational Commitment. (Case Study: - Rokel Commercial Bank (SL) Ltd.)
(Addis Ababa University, 2026-04-02) Eunice Sally; Zelalem Gebretsadik
Employee retention has become a critical challenge in Sierra Leone's banking sector due to increasing competition for skilled labor, particularly from foreign and Pan-African banks. While many banks invest significantly in external Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, limited attention has been given to Internal Social Responsibility (ISR), which focuses on employee welfare through training and development, health and safety, work-life balance, and organizational justice. This study examined the influence of Internal Social Responsibility on employee turnover intention at Rokel Commercial Bank (SL) Ltd, while investigating the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of organizational commitment. The study was anchored on the Social Exchange Theory. A quantitative, explanatory, and cross-sectional research design was employed. Data were collected from permanent employees of Rokel Commercial Bank branches within the Western Area of Sierra Leone using a structured questionnaire. The study adopted stratified random sampling to ensure representation across management and non-management staff categories. Data were analyzed using advanced statistical techniques, including Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Hayes' Conditional Process Analysis, to test both mediation and moderation effects. The findings revealed that Internal Social Responsibility significantly influences employee turnover intention. Employees who perceived higher levels of ISR practices reported greater job satisfaction and lower intentions to leave the organization. The results further indicated that job satisfaction serves as a significant mediating mechanism through which ISR affects turnover intention. Additionally, organizational commitment was found to moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention, such that employees with higher levels of commitment exhibited lower intentions to leave even when job satisfaction declined. The study concludes that Internal Social Responsibility is a strategic human resource management tool capable of enhancing employee retention in Sierra Leone's banking sector. It recommends that Rokel Commercial Bank and other financial institutions prioritize employee-centered policies, including career development opportunities, fair treatment, workplace safety, and work-life balance initiatives. The study contributes to the limited literature on ISR in Sierra Leone and provides empirical evidence supporting the application of a moderated-mediation framework in understanding employee retention behavior within developing economies
Financial Deepening and Economic Growth in Ethiopia
(Addis Ababa University, 2026-04-03) Geza Mulaaw; Jemberu.N
Ethiopia has undergone significant financial sector transformation since 1991, yet the extent to which financial deepening translates into sustained economic growth remains an open empirical question. Existing studies are largely confined to conventional banking indicators such as broad money and private sector credit, and most predate the rapid expansion of mobile money platforms and the substantial growth of diaspora remittances, leaving a critical gap in the empirical literature. This study is motivated by the need to provide updated, comprehensive evidence on the finance-growth nexus in Ethiopia by incorporating both traditional and emerging financial indicators within a single analytical framework. Annual time series data covering the period 1990 to 2025 are used sourced from the National Bank of Ethiopia, the World Bank World Development Indicators, the International Monetary Fund Article IV reports, and Ethio Telecom annual publications. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds testing approach combined with an Error Correction Model is employed as the method of analysis, given its suitability for small samples and its capacity to handle variables of mixed integration orders. The key findings reveal that a stable long-run relationship exists among all variables. Financial account ownership and remittances are the most significant long-run drivers of economic growth, while broad money and private sector credit are statistically insignificant in the long run. In the short run, financial account ownership exerts the largest positive effect on growth, whereas public debt crowds out growth significantly. Inflation is consistently negative across both time horizons. These findings carry important policy implications. Policymakers should prioritize expanding digital financial inclusion, reducing remittance transfer costs, improving credit allocation toward the private sector, and maintaining price stability as a precondition for financial deepening to deliver meaningful and sustained economic growth in Ethiopia.
The Digital Edge: Analyzing the Post-implementation Effect of E-Procurement on Procurement Cycle Time in Selected Ethiopian Federal institutions
(Addis Ababa University, 2026-06-02) Rakeb Ayalew; Gemechis Terfa
This study examines the effect of Electronic Government Procurement (eGp) module utilizationon procurement cycle time in selected federal institutions, mainly through the E-Planning, E-Tendering and E-Purchasing modules. It focuses on the after implementation stage of the E-Procurement system. The study covers up for the gaps in literature regarding E-Procurement post implementation effects. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed resulting in 84.8% response rate. The data was collected from active eGp users with roles as procurement officers, technical experts, procurement unit head and endorsing committee that consistently use the E-Procurement system. The study is supported by Resource Based View (RBV) and Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) theoretical frameworks. It tests the relationship between E-Procurement module utilization and procurement cycle. The findings (R2=0.614, P<0.001) have confirmed the E-Procurement module utilization of the three main modules E-Planning, E-Tendering and E-Purchasing has statistically significant positive effect and explains 61.4% of the variance on procurement cycle time reduction. Staff competency was found to have a partial mediation role (B=0.3129) whereas System challenges has a negative moderation role (B=-0.7563). The comparative analysis results between manual and digital procurement also showed procurement cycle time improvement in all three modules. E-Tendering (Z=-12.579, p<0.001) showed the most improvement followed by E-Planning (Z=-12.527, p<0.001). However, E-Purchasingresults (Z=-9.672, p<0.001) showed comparatively lower improvement indicating an underlying limitation. In Conclusion, the Electronic Government Procurement (eGp) system has digitalized traditional procurement methods to reduce the durations of procurement cycles. However, tofurther achieve the „the Digital Edge‟, improvements are needed on staff capacity building, strengthening infrastructure reliability, improving technical support and addressing module bottlenecks.
Performance-Driven Climate, Overtime and Burnout in Digital Banking
(Addis Ababa University, 2026-06-01) Dagem Yitbarek; Zelalem Gebretsadik
Employee burnout is an increasing issue affecting the growing banking industry within sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is very little literature on how high-performance work environments contribute to burnout. Using the Job Demands-Resources framework, this research examines the pathways that connect a high-performance climate and employee burnout, and introduces power distance as a culture-based moderator. Data was collected via a cross-sectional quantitative survey with 217 full-time digital banking department employees at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), selected using a probabilistic simple random sampling methodology. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The study findings indicate that there is a statistically significant direct relationship between a high-performance climate and employee burnout. There was a statistically significant relationship between overtime norms and employee burnout; overtime norms are a significant predictor of employee burnout which points to compliance behaviors as a key job demand. Additionally, power distance was identified as a conditional moderator of the relationship between high-performance climate and overtime, whereby employees with high levels of power distance reached a ceiling level of overtime due to organizationally sanctioned obedience. Additionally, in-role performance and work engagement did not buffer or reduce employee burnout within the context of this research study. Lastly, a post-hoc analysis revealed that power distance indirectly influenced employee burnout through overtime norms. The study provides a vital empirical diagnosis of the Ethiopian financial sector, showing that cultural hierarchy functions as a structural demand and establishing a clear boundary for western organizational framework.