ABSTRACT Biodiversity loss is increasingly viewed as a form of natural capital depreciation, yet the economic literature still lacks a systematic account of how species‐level biodiversity is converted into measurable economic value. This review surveys the literature on avian biodiversity and economic outcomes. Birds offer a useful analytical entry point because they are widely monitored, highly sensitive to environmental change, and directly involved in ecosystem functions such as pest control, pollination, seed dispersal, scavenging, recreation, and cultural ecosystem services. Drawing on a hybrid review that combines bibliometric analysis, systematic content analysis, and the Theory–Context–Characteristics–Methodology framework, this article identifies six major research streams: ecosystem service valuation, birdwatching tourism, agricultural productivity and pest regulation, urban amenity and well‐being, conservation policy and regional development, and natural capital accounting and biodiversity finance. The review shows that the literature has moved beyond ecological conservation but remains fragmented across disciplines. Existing studies have clarified many ecological functions of birds, but they less consistently measure how these functions affect market and non‐market outcomes.
ABSTRACT This paper surveys infrastructure project finance and investment management through the organizing concept of bankability. It explains how long‐lived, capital‐intensive and politically exposed infrastructure assets are transformed into financeable projects and investable claims through special‐purpose vehicles, contractual risk allocation, cash‐flow controls, public support, credit structuring and capital recycling. The survey connects project‐finance practice with economic questions in incomplete contracting, public‐private risk sharing, financial intermediation, institutional investment, energy transition and ESG risk management. It argues that infrastructure finance is best understood not as a simple public‐versus‐private funding choice, but as a system for allocating construction, revenue, political, operating, currency, refinancing and ESG risks to parties able to manage, absorb or price them. The paper concludes with a research and practitioner agenda on bankability measurement, debt capacity, secondary markets, blended finance, and climate‐resilient infrastructure investment.
ABSTRACT The valuation of renewable energy investments conventionally assumes that electricity prices are exogenous, an assumption that fails once wind and solar reach a substantial share of the electricity supply. Because wind and solar generation is highly correlated across producers, large‐scale deployment depresses wholesale electricity prices during periods of high renewable output, reducing project revenues, a phenomenon known as revenue cannibalization. This review synthesizes the literature on renewable energy investment in the presence of revenue cannibalization, spanning investment appraisal methodologies, the diagnosis of cannibalization, and the modeling of mitigation strategies. Our analysis reveals that many valuation methods frequently neglect this endogenous price risk, and that existing research lacks an integrated framework for evaluating mitigation strategies, such as storage and sector coupling, from an investor's perspective. We propose a two‐level framework to bridge this gap between project‐level valuation and systemic market risk.
ABSTRACT This article summarizes the evolution of portfolio theory from mean–variance optimization to AI‐augmented investment systems. Rather than treating portfolio models as isolated techniques, it organizes the literature as a sequence of responses to different forms of uncertainty: variance, systematic risk, expected‐return estimation error, downside risk, tail loss, parameter ambiguity, risk‐budgeting instability, conditional volatility, regime dependence, high‐dimensional prediction, and AI governance. Combining a systematic literature review, public‐metadata bibliometric analysis, and thematic synthesis, the article covers leading academic journals and practitioner‐oriented outlets, including JF, JFE, RFS, RF, JFQA, Management Science, FAJ, JPM, FMPM, and JAM. The survey highlights how classical portfolio theory, CAPM and multifactor allocation, Bayesian/Black–Litterman models, CVaR, robust optimization, risk parity, volatility management, regime‐switching allocation, parametric portfolio policies, machine learning, and LLM‐based agents form a cumulative intellectual architecture. The article is designed as a compact roadmap for doctoral students, academic researchers, and quantitative researchers in hedge funds and asset management who seek a rapid but rigorous understanding of how portfolio theory has evolved and how its core problems remain relevant in the AI era.
ABSTRACT Green bonds are important financial instruments in sustainable finance, generating a rapidly expanding academic literature. This paper identifies the topics analyzed in green bond academic research and examines how these topics are associated with journal and post‐publication diffusion metrics. Using 1048 paper abstracts published between 2015 and 2024, Latent Dirichlet Allocation identifies five topics: sustainable development finance, greenium, carbon emissions, market connectedness and issuer performance. Papers investigating the greenium, carbon emissions, market connectedness and issuer performance are associated with publication in higher impact factor journals and higher average academic citations. The greenium topic is also associated with higher policy and news citations, suggesting broader post‐publication diffusion beyond academia. In contrast, papers with an emphasis on sustainable development finance are associated with lower journal impact factors and lower post‐publication diffusion. The findings provide insights for researchers, policymakers and journal editors into how different topics of green bond research circulate across scholarly, policy and media domains.
ABSTRACT Narrative disclosure has become an essential component of corporate communication as digital technologies reshape how firms interact with stakeholders. The rise of e‐government and corporate digital transformation has been accompanied by profound changes in corporate disclosure practices, including greater transparency, wider adoption of digital reporting, and the expansion of disclosure across ESG reports, corporate websites, and FinTech platforms. This study systematically reviews 205 articles published between 2010 and early 2026 using the Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Methodology (TCCM) framework. The review finds that prior research primarily examines linguistic characteristics, including tone, readability, complexity, sentiment, uncertainty, and forward‐looking language. These characteristics function as outcomes of firm, governance, managerial, and institutional factors while influencing the judgments and decisions of investors, analysts, auditors, creditors, consumers, and digital platform users. The review also reveals a shift from traditional disclosure settings to digital communication environments. Methodologically, the literature is dominated by archival data, econometric analysis, and computational text analysis, whereas qualitative, experimental, and mixed method studies remain less common. By synthesizing fragmented evidence, this study develops an integrated understanding of how e‐government and corporate digital transformation jointly reshape corporate narrative disclosure. It also identifies theoretical, methodological, and contextual gaps to guide future research.
ABSTRACT The major global challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity have gained centrality in policymaking and academia, with a growing body of research exploring the interlinkages among economic growth, trade, environmental outcomes, and policy interventions. These analyses and their results draw fundamentally on the definitions used to consider a firm, product, or process “green,” and on the related operationalization. Despite a proliferation of empirical approaches, however, the literature lacks a comprehensive overview of firm‐level sustainability indicators. This article addresses this gap by systematically reviewing existing definitions and the most frequently employed indicators Our analysis shows that, according to prevailing definitions of greenness, a firm can be considered green either because it is purpose‐sustainable, meaning that it primarily serves an environmental purpose, or because it is process‐sustainable, meaning that its activities reduce or prevent negative environmental impacts even if environmental goals are not its primary purpose. We further classify the existing firm‐level sustainability indicators into three groups: (1) product‐level indicators; (2) resource and pollution management indicators; and (3) investment, innovation, and commitment indicators. Our findings aim to support researchers in selecting indicators that align with specific research objectives and dimensions of sustainability under investigation.
ABSTRACT Cryptocurrencies have become a vital part of global economic and financial systems. To identify the main themes of cryptocurrency‐related publications, this study analyzes the literature in the Web of Science from 2014 to 2025 using text mining models. The empirical analysis reveals that text mining models exhibit relative strengths in terms of semantic interpretability and structural quality. We find that the main topics related to cryptocurrencies include (1) legal and regulatory issues; (2) currency systems and central bank digital currency; (3) blockchain technology and transaction security; (4) transaction‐network analysis and illicit‐activity detection; (5) adoption and digital finance; (6) financial risk and spillovers; (7) event‐driven market uncertainty; (8) price prediction; (9) trading behavior; and (10) portfolio management. Meanwhile, the temporal analysis shows heterogeneous evolutionary patterns across these themes. By providing a comparative, scalable analysis of cryptocurrency literature, our study suggests future research directions and offers evidence‐based insights into its development.
ABSTRACT We provide a comprehensive quantitative synthesis of the empirical literature on social support and the adoption of climate‐smart agriculture (CSA). Based on a meta‐regression analysis of 1541 estimates drawn from 145 primary studies, our baseline results indicate a positive and statistically significant mean association between social support and CSA adoption, which remains robust after correcting for publication selection bias using the FAT‐PET‐PEESE approach. However, the main finding of our analysis is substantial effect heterogeneity across support mechanisms and institutional contexts. Informational support exhibits a consistently positive and robust association, whereas instrumental support is positive but more sensitive to publication selection and institutional conditions. In contrast, emotional support shows no statistically significant mean effect once publication bias is taken into account. Further heterogeneity analyses suggest that the effectiveness of social support varies systematically with contextual conditions, particularly generalized trust, creditor rights protection, regional characteristics, and population composition. By jointly accounting for publication selection bias, mechanism‐specific support channels, and institutional heterogeneity, our results help reconcile the mixed and sometimes contradictory evidence in the existing CSA adoption literature. Our findings provide a structured evidence base for designing targeted, institutionally appropriate CSA policies that prioritize information‐based support while tailoring material interventions to local conditions.
ABSTRACT As global innovation cooperation continues to deepen, integrating into global innovation networks (GINs) has become an important pathway for latecomer firms to achieve technological catch‐up. This paper focuses on the unique perspective of integration into GINs and systematically reviews the relevant literature on technological catch‐up by latecomer firms in an open economy. The analysis indicates that expanding knowledge boundaries, optimizing resource allocation, and leveraging international knowledge spillovers are key mechanisms through which integration into GINs facilitates technological catch‐up by latecomer firms. Meanwhile, latecomer firms face challenges during integration, including cross‐border risk transmission and diffusion, the blockade of critical core technologies, and innovation path dependence. Based on these findings, this study systematically summarizes effective pathways for latecomer firms to achieve technological catch‐up through GINs, focusing on the synergy between local and global innovation networks, indirect integration into GINs, digital transformation, and differentiated integration strategies based on technological catch‐up stages. Future research directions are also outlined. This study not only provides a systematic analytical framework for understanding the relationship between GINs and technological catch‐up but also offers theoretical references and practical insights for emerging economies seeking suitable technological catch‐up pathways in a complex international context.
ABSTRACT This paper presents a PRISMA‐guided systematic literature review of 91 studies analyzing tax incentives for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and their stakeholders. Adopting an SME‐specific, instrument‐agnostic perspective, spanning both firm‐side and investor‐side incentives across multiple tax instruments, we identify three patterns. First, research is heavily concentrated on R&D incentives; second, evaluation practices remain fragmented and largely input focused; third, incentive effects vary with firm resources and institutional context. Comparing these patterns with policy data, this review argues that the existing empirical literature only partially maps the SME policy mix. Drawing on institutional theory and the resource‐based view (RBV), the review highlights how fiscal and administrative capacity shapes the sophistication of incentive design and evaluation. Policy implications include improving targeting of constrained SMEs, strengthening data infrastructures and evaluation standards, and the integration of tax incentives with complementary supports.
ABSTRACT Geopolitical risks have emerged as a significant factor influencing the resilience of transnational food supply chains. This paper systematically reviews the foundational theories and key issues related to the resilience of transnational food supply chains from the geopolitical risk's perspective. Literature analysis indicate that geopolitical risks primarily affect the resilience of China's transnational food supply chains: supply uncertainty, price uncertainty and logistics uncertainty. Additionally, review of empirical studies on the impact of geopolitical risks on the resilience of transnational food supply chains reveals that existing research generally supports the view that geopolitical risks significantly diminish the resilience of China's transnational food supply chains, although variations exist across different grain varieties and over time regarding the extent and nature of these impacts. Finally, this paper proposes future research directions, including identifying the transmission pathways of geopolitical risks affecting China's transnational food supply chains, uncovering the behavioral logic of multiple actors within these chains under geopolitical risks, systematically assessing the resilience of key nodes and the overall risk level of China's transnational food supply chains, conducting an in‐depth exploration of the reconstruction pathways for these chains, and designing strategies to integrate the interests of diverse stakeholders in transnational food supply chains.
ABSTRACT The growing importance of sustainability and environmental practices, along with a recent surge in related research, motivated this review of environmental management and climate finance within the SME sector. Starting with an initial sample of 2063 articles, we refined the dataset, resulting in a final sample of 124 key publications. Using a hybrid approach that combines bibliometric and content analysis, we identify the leading authors, countries, institutions, and influential articles shaping this field. Our analysis reveals four major research streams: (1) sustainability, environmental practices, and climate change; (2) climate finance and SME performance; (3) financing cleantech in SMEs; and (4) environmental practices in family firms. Finally, we provide recommendations and outline future research directions to further advance the field.
ABSTRACT Tracking of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) still relies mainly on household access rates and installed capacity, while policy and climate‐aligned investment debates increasingly demand evidence on health, welfare, and emissions outcomes. Here, we analyze more than 1200 peer‐reviewed studies on clean cooking and electricity access using computational topic modeling to identify core focus themes that span health, gendered time use, welfare, climate, affordability, and finance. Only about 57.6% the analyzed publications explicitly quantify impacts beyond access, and only one theme—health and household air pollution—meets stringent criteria for mobilizing climate‐finance, with consistent estimates of exposure, disease burden, and emissions. Categorizing these findings yields three main literature groups: access‐centered studies, socio‐economic impact studies, and a smaller multi‐dimensional group linking health and climate outcomes. Clean cooking studies concentrate on health, gender, and affordability, whereas electricity studies emphasize productive uses, reliability, and system design; climate‐ and affordability‐oriented topics gained prominence after 2015, but finance remains marginal. Embedding standardized impact and cost metrics in future access studies would transform a larger share of this literature into actionable evidence for investors, shifting SDG 7 monitoring from counting connections to measuring who benefits, by how much, and with which social and climate benefits.
ABSTRACT This study conducts a systematic review of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research in ASEAN, addressing the fragmented state of scholarship in a region largely composed of developing economies. Guided by the SPAR‐4‐SLR protocol, the review integrates bibliometric mapping with a modified theory–context–theme–characteristics–methodology (TCTCM) framework to provide a multi‐dimensional synthesis of theoretical foundations, empirical contexts, thematic developments, study characteristics, and methodological orientations. Based on 287 peer‐reviewed articles published between 2004 and August 2025, retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus and complemented by snowballing, the analysis demonstrates that ESG research in ASEAN has expanded significantly, with disclosure practices, governance mechanisms, and institutional factors emerging as dominant themes. The findings reveal consistent links between ESG transparency, firm performance, and legitimacy, but also highlight underexplored areas such as biodiversity, green innovation, supply chains, and the interplay between conventional and Islamic finance. By consolidating dispersed insights, this study not only advances ESG scholarship in ASEAN but also provides actionable implications for regulators, firms, and investors while outlining a forward‐looking agenda for future research.
ABSTRACT This literature review comprehensively analyzes the evolving research on digital financial literacy (DFL) and synthesizes findings from 53 articles published between 2005 and 2025. The review was based on a systematic search across major academic databases. The analysis reveals DFL as a multidimensional construct encompassing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary for the secure utilization of digital financial services. The absence of a standardized definition and a unified measurement framework causes the field to suffer from conceptual divergence. The review synthesizes evidence regarding DFL's key sociodemographic determinants, such as age, gender, education, and income, and their significant socioeconomic effects. These effects include improved financial behavior, enhanced financial inclusion, and superior individual financial well‐being. Methodologically, the field is progressing beyond fundamental descriptive analyses toward robust techniques, including structural equation modeling and causal inference. Based on these findings, this review outlines a future research agenda to establish unified metrics, address disparities among vulnerable populations, and explore the implications of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence. This study provides a consolidated overview of the existing literature to guide subsequent scholarly inquiry and inform targeted educational and policy interventions that foster economic resilience within an increasingly digital financial landscape.
ABSTRACT The new phase of geopolitical risk has emerged as a defining challenge to contemporary globalization, fundamentally reshaping the strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) and cross‐border mergers and acquisitions. Understanding how foreign direct investment (FDI) responds to geopolitical risk is therefore critical for policymakers and international business regulators navigating an increasingly uncertain international investment landscape. Following PRISMA guidelines, this study reviews 124 peer‐reviewed articles on geopolitical risk and FDI, employing bibliometric analysis and the TCCM framework to map publication trends, dominant themes, influential contributors, and collaboration networks across the global political economy. The bibliometric analysis reveals an annual growth rate of 6.62% in publications, with thematic analysis highlighting “geopolitical risk,” “geopolitical uncertainty,” and “foreign direct investment” as dominant and evolving research themes. Highly cited studies, leading authors, and international collaboration networks are also mapped. The TCCM analysis identifies critical theoretical and methodological gaps, particularly in cross‐country comparative research, and proposes directions for future studies. By integrating bibliometric analysis with a theory‐informed TCCM assessment, this review synthesizes a fragmented literature and provides actionable insights for global investment governance, risk‐mitigation strategies, and MNC decision‐making in the context of heightened geopolitical volatility.
ABSTRACT This critically reviews the construction and use of ESG scores, synthesizing and questioning the fundamentals of ESG measurement. It investigates the theoretical obstacles, examining the lack of a universal framework, the multidimensional nature of ESG, and the subjective methodologies that underpin ESG assessments. It also reflects on the practical limitations that arise from the application and use of ESG scores, such as data reliability, the lack of transparency in rating methodologies, and the risks of manipulation or greenwashing. By addressing both conceptual and practical challenges, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the limitations of ESG scores and contributes to the ongoing debate on how these limitations might be addressed.
ABSTRACT This study investigates the intellectual structure and thematic evolution of research on talent mobility, human capital, and economic performance. Drawing on 738 journal articles retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection for the period 2019–2025, the study combines bibliometric mapping with interpretive synthesis. Using VOSviewer and CiteSpace, it analyzes publication trends, collaboration networks, keyword co‐occurrence, thematic evolution, co‐citation structures, and bibliographic coupling. The findings indicate that the field is anchored in a stable conceptual core comprising human capital, innovation, performance, productivity, and economic growth. At the same time, emerging themes, including digital transformation, artificial intelligence, remote work, sustainability, and green innovation, are increasingly integrated into this core. Collaboration networks appear more consolidated at the country level than at the institutional and author levels, suggesting internationally active but unevenly coordinated knowledge production. By distinguishing established themes from emerging research fronts, this study advances a research agenda centered on conceptual clarification, measurement consistency, multilevel integration, and cross‐context comparability. The results should be interpreted as bibliometric evidence on the organization and development of the literature rather than as causal evidence on the economic effects of talent mobility.
ABSTRACT This study provides a systematic synthesis of the emerging literature on behavioral nudges in financial decision‐making within increasingly complex and digitalized environments. Although prior reviews have examined specific financial contexts, a comprehensive and integrative account remains lacking. Addressing this gap, the study reviews 66 peer‐reviewed articles from Web of Science and Scopus, employing the SPAR‐4‐SLR protocol and organizing insights through a combined Antecedents–Decisions–Outcomes (ADO) and Theory–Context–Method (TCM) framework. The analysis identifies a core set of behavioral interventions—defaults, framing, informational cues, reminders, and social norms—as dominant across financial domains, while systematically mapping 19 antecedents, 24 decision types, and 19 outcomes into higher‐order categories. Beyond classification, the review reveals structural imbalances in the literature, including a concentration of evidence in limited institutional and geographical contexts, and a reliance on a narrow set of theoretical perspectives. By integrating dispersed findings, the study advances a more generalizable understanding of how nudges operate through the interaction of individual, informational, and environmental factors. It further develops a research agenda that emphasizes theoretical diversification, contextual expansion, and the need for more rigorous empirical and experimental designs, thereby contributing to the evolution of behavioral finance scholarship.
