Several previous studies have highlighted that the adoption of sustainable development goals in South Africa has contributed to poverty reduction, increased literacy rates, and progress in the fight against HIV. The purpose of this study is to understand the motivations underlying South African companies’ adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to assess the implications of this decision. To this end, the adoption of SDGs by 116 South African companies, focusing on board composition—specifically board size, diversity, skills, tenure, and independence—as antecedents, and corporate reputation as an outcome were analyzed. To analyze the data, we employed a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both multivariate analysis and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Both symmetric (multivariate analysis) and asymmetric (fsQCA) analyses provide strong evidence that three key board characteristics (gender diversity, board skills, and board independence) significantly influence the adoption of the SDGs. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that SDG adoption contributes to enhanced corporate social reputation. The findings have implications for both Agency Theory and Stakeholder Theory.
This systematic literature review (SLR), integrated with bibliometric analysis, provides a comprehensive investigation into the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on corporate strategic decisions. While previous studies often discuss EPU impacts broadly, this review specifically synthesizes the interplay between EPU, corporate cash holdings, and investment efficiency through the lens of agency theory. Using the PRISMA framework, a total of 105 high-quality articles published in Scopus-indexed journals (2018–2025) were analyzed. The bibliometric findings reveal that 66.7% of the literature is published in Q1 journals, with Elsevier as the dominant publisher. However, a significant research gap exists regarding the underrepresentation of emerging economies, particularly in developing markets where policy uncertainty effects remain understudied. The qualitative synthesis reveals that EPU significantly influences precautionary cash holdings and suppresses investment efficiency, with agency conflicts acting as a critical moderating mechanism. This study contributes by proposing an integrated conceptual framework that links policy uncertainty to managerial behavior, providing a foundation for future research to explore mitigation strategies in diverse institutional contexts, particularly in developing markets.
This study examines how different orientations of corporate venture capital (CVC) investment are associated with the strategic development of sport-tech firms in an emerging economy context. Using a longitudinal dataset of 48 Thai sport-tech firms and 73 CVC transactions between 2005 and 2025, the analysis focuses on two strategic outcomes: technology portfolio diversification and international market expansion. The results indicate that technology-oriented CVC is positively associated with broader technology portfolios, while foreign-oriented CVC is positively associated with wider geographic market presence. At the same time, the findings show that the strength of these relationships varies depending on the level of industry and cultural distance between investors and portfolio firms, suggesting that contextual compatibility influences the effectiveness of investment partnerships. The study adopts a mechanism-focused perspective that examines how strategic investment relationships may facilitate knowledge transfer and market access within CVC-backed firms. By applying the interorganizational learning framework to the sport-tech sector, the research extends existing corporate venture capital literature to an underexplored industry within an emerging economy context. The findings also provide practical insights for entrepreneurs, corporate investors, and policymakers seeking to leverage corporate venture capital as both a financial and strategic resource for innovation and international market participation.
This study investigates the mechanisms through which clan culture and adhocracy culture influence employees’ innovative work behavior via the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of innovation challenge stressors in manufacturing and service firms in Ho Chi Minh City. A quantitative research design was employed, and a structural equation model (SEM) was tested using Amos with a sample of 283 employees working in manufacturing and service firms. The results indicate that both clan culture and adhocracy culture have positive effects on job satisfaction and both directly and indirectly enhance innovative work behavior through job satisfaction. Job satisfaction plays a significant mediating role in the relationships between clan culture, adhocracy culture and innovative work behavior. In addition, innovation challenge stressors appraised as challenges positively moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and innovative work behavior, suggesting that when employees are satisfied with their jobs and simultaneously experience higher levels of innovation challenge stressors, they are more likely to actively engage in behaviors that generate, champion, and implement new ideas.
The paper examines knowledge sharing roles as factors in organizational performance in Ghana. Consequently, employee engagement and innovation capability are intervening variables in the knowledge sharing–performance relationship. The study employed a PLS-SEM approach to examine data from 347 managers in Ghana’s SME sector. The results showed that knowledge sharing directly improves organizational performance in the emerging economy. Both employee engagement and innovation capability significantly mediate the relationship between knowledge sharing and performance. Knowledge sharing from its end positively impacted employee engagement and innovation capability outcomes. These mediating variables, in turn, contributed to the performance of organizations under review in the SME category. Through the dual mediation mechanism, knowledge sharing effectively creates organizational value. Henceforth, increased employee engagement and innovation capacity become essential pathways towards performance enhancement. The firm’s particular style of knowledge sharing, both tacit and explicit, is translated into performance outcomes through these intangible assets. These results will help immensely in designing a feasible knowledge management strategy in two resource-constrained milieus, where employee engagement and innovation capacity matter for transforming knowledge assets into organizational performance outcomes. The study contributes to the knowledge management literature by establishing dual pathways of mediation. It also offers SME managers practical implications to gain a competitive advantage in knowledge resources.
The heightened global focus on sustainability has intensified expectations for financial institutions, including Islamic banks, to embed green finance and sustainable practices within their operations. Although Malaysia remains a global leader in Islamic finance, questions persist regarding the depth of sustainability implementation beyond narrative disclosure. This study examines the extent to which full-fledged Islamic banks in Malaysia operationalize green finance and sustainability principles, and evaluates their alignment with national and global frameworks. A qualitative exploratory design was employed, incorporating systematic content analysis and thematic review of sustainability, annual, and integrated reports from six Islamic commercial and development banks. To enhance rigor, a triangulation strategy validated findings against academic literature, regulatory documents, and institutional policy sources. In addition, a quantitative content analysis was conducted through a structured 0–4 scoring rubric applied across fifteen indicators, generating a Green Banking and Sustainability Index (GBSI) scaled to 0–100. The results reveal four emerging themes–climate risk management, compliance with sustainability frameworks, environmental footprint reduction, and green financing activities, with banks demonstrating varying maturity across initiatives. GBSI scores ranged from 40.3 to 66.7, indicating moderate progress yet uneven adoption across institutions. Positive strides were noted in energy efficiency, digitalisation, and initial climate-disclosure efforts, while gaps remain in renewable energy deployment, green procurement, verified performance metrics, and standardised reporting. This study contributes empirical insight into ESG integration within Islamic banking, advances legitimacy theory and provides actionable recommendations to strengthen execution consistency, enhance reporting quality, and support Malaysia’s strategic ambition in Islamic green finance.
Nearly two years after Nigeria’s exchange rate unification policy was introduced, questions remain about its effectiveness. This study uses the Exponential GARCH model to examine: (1) the impact of the policy on exchange rate returns and volatility, (2) whether it has achieved its intended goal of long-term stabilization, and (3) what forecasts reveal about future exchange rate dynamics. Results indicate that while the policy did not significantly affect mean returns, it led to a significant increase in volatility (4.3757, p < 0.05). However, volatility began to subside from Q4 2024, suggesting a market adjustment phase. Forecasts show a continued decline in volatility through mid-2025, implying the policy may be on track toward achieving its long-term goals. The study recommends ongoing monitoring of exchange rate behaviour, complementary short-term measures to manage short-term volatility while allowing the unification policy to mature further, and improved policy communication with market participants to support sustained stability.
Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response model and contextualized in the live shopping realm, this study investigates how host credibility and social presence (S) affect consumers’ flow experience (O) and their urge to buy impulsively (R). It also explores the moderating effect of time availability on the organism-response association. The authors used SmartPLS 4.0.9.6 to analyse the 244 valid responses from Indonesian Shopee Live consumers. The results empirically demonstrate that while both host credibility and social presence had positive significant impacts on consumers’ flow experience, they cannot directly affect their urge to buy impulsively without the formation of flow experience. The results also revealed that Indonesian consumers’ impulsive buying was not always behavioural, but also situational, justifying the moderating effect of time availability. The findings of this study suggest that a pleasant and entertaining experience facilitates impulsive buying in live shopping, led by credible hosts and real-time social interactions.
ASEAN nations’ healthcare sectors have grown as a result of rising healthcare demand, demographic shifts and increased government participation in health finance. In this context, dividend policy is an important financial choice since it signals stability of a company and success to investors while balancing reinvestment demands in a capital-intensive industry. Looking at the importance of the healthcare sector, the present research empirically examines the dividend policy decisions of publicly listed healthcare firms across ASEAN countries from 2019 to 2023 and sees how firm-specific characteristics and important macroeconomic variables, i.e., government healthcare expenditure, GDP and inflation, affect them. The study uses Pooled OLS on the panel data from selected ASEAN nations, with the random effects model chosen using the Hausman test. The result of overall ASEAN countries exhibits that all firm-specific and macro-economic variables, except inflation, exert a significant impact on the dividend payout ratio. Further, the present study uses the Generalised Method of Moment of the Arellano-Bond to address the issue of endogeneity and support the findings that we draw. Overall, the initial panel regression results are substantially supported by the GMM estimate results. In the context of ASEAN healthcare firms, this study fills the theoretical and contextual gap by examining the combined impact of macroeconomic variables (i.e., government healthcare expenditure, GDP and inflation) and firm-specific variables on dividend payout ratio. From the policy standpoint, the results show that continuous and predictable government healthcare funding might influence corporate payment behavior and minimize uncertainty in financial planning of the healthcare sector.
This study aims to determine the firm-specific factors that prompt earnings management within Pakistani manufacturing firms from 2013 to 2020. The proxy measure provided by Roychowdhury (2006a) is used to determine the firm’s value of managing earnings upward or downward using real techniques of earnings management. The results show that the leverage, return on assets, audit quality, dividend payout ratio, market competition, and size significantly drive earnings management. In contrast, the tax and market value of equity did not show signs of influencing this practice. The study also found that both downward and upward earnings management were driven by the same incentives, with an overall trend toward a contradictory relationship. Further, the abnormality denoting downward EM and the abnormality denoting upward EM have been segregated to make the research more conclusive on the trends and determinants of EM. It is suggested that in the future studies covering different sectors or stock markets should be conducted. Additionally, forecasting of EM using big data analysis and machine learning can be explored.
Environmental Toxicology and ChemistryVolume 35, Issue 12 p. 2885-2888 Editorial Board and Table of ContentsFree Access Editorial Board and Table of Contents First published: 29 November 2016 https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.3682Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume35, Issue12December 2016Pages 2885-2888 RelatedInformation
Grounded in uses-and-gratifications (U&G) theory, this research examines how millennials (Gen Y) nostalgically re-engage with media content and its outcomes in the emerging market context of India. The authors posit that nostalgia serves as both an emotional driver and a coping mechanism for digital overload, extending U&G theory by incorporating socially moderated gratifications beyond individual motives. Drawing on survey data (n=510) and using structural equation modeling to analyze the data, the authors find that while emotional needs and time of exposure boost nostalgic media engagement, perceived content overload reduces it. This engagement, in turn, enhances social sharing and emotional content attachment, with social connectedness moderating this effect. By showing that gratifications are not just individual (but also socially moderated) and by theorizing nostalgia as a coping mechanism against digital overload, the findings underscore that nostalgic re-engagement fulfils dual personal/social roles. Overall, the results detail the pathways and moderating factors influencing nostalgic media re-engagement, offering novel insight into the effect of individual motivations and social interactions on content consumption. Finally, the results reveal pertinent managerial implications, e.g., by suggesting the importance of reducing content overload (e.g., through curated recommendations), fostering social bonding via user-generated content, and incorporating nostalgic features like “memory lanes” and throwback content.
Retaining millennial employees in the workforce is a pressing challenge for organizations. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the interconnections between the meaning of work, job pride, and job performance, and how job pride and job performance impacted turnover intention of millennials. Cross-sectional surveys of 250 banking employees in Central Java, Indonesia, collected through a multi-stage sampling procedure were used. In addition, Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) was used to analyze these associations. The results showed significant positive associations among the meaning of work, job pride, and job performance. However, results proposed that job pride and job performance did not negatively affect turnover intention. This research contributed valuable theoretical understanding of the concept of the meaning of work for millennials and offered practical implications for banking managers in human resource management.
This research explores the financial role of Hello Gold (HGT) and X8X Token (X8X) as Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies to bridge digital (Bitcoin, Ethereum, UCRY Price, UCRY Policy, and ICEA) and traditional (conventional stock indexes, government bonds, foreign exchange, and Islamic stock indexes) assets. Quantile via moment by Machado and Santos Silva (2019) was utilized as the main methodology, followed by a feasible generalized least square (FGLS) and a difference generalized method of moment (Diff-GMM) as robustness testing. The research term spanned from August 6, 2018 until June 30, 2023 within five emerging countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) including Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan. It was found that Hello Gold and X8X Token primarily bridge the function as strong diversifiers, particularly for Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, Hello Gold performs strongly as a safe haven for Islamic stock indexes in bearish conditions and as a strong diversifier during high cryptocurrency price uncertainty.
Access to credit in agriculture is an important mechanism for increasing farms’ technological level and productivity, while the Fundo Constitucional do Centro-Oeste (FCO) policy also includes a reduction in regional disparities. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the FCO resources in rural credit are increasing access to rural credit by municipalities in the Brazilian Midwest region. This study covers a panel data of 467 municipalities from 1995 to 2022. To measure credit distribution, we employed inequality indices and an OLS regression to determine the main factors affecting credit demand. The results demonstrated a major concentration of resources, including FCO, in more developed regions where consolidated grain production is predominant. A slight tendency toward diffusing resources was observed, mainly in livestock production financial resources. Structural and institutional constraints in more backward municipalities are responsible for the huge gap in total credit obtained yearly, which the FCO policy is unable to completely surpass, limiting the fund’s intention to promote regional development. This study confirms that the FCO policy for the agricultural sector is market-oriented, funding mainly grains and cattle ranching, which occur more frequently in developed municipalities. We demonstrated that few changes have occurred to transform this pattern over the decades, reducing the effectiveness of this policy.
Prior research has highlighted that negative emotions have motivational features toward positive changes; however, findings are mixed and rather limited when it comes to the consumption domain. The present research expands existing perspectives on the motivational role of the negative emotion of sadness, which serves as a mechanism directed toward preventing losses in the future. With our research, we offer evidence that exposure to a meaning threat increases sadness. Moreover, the current research shows the direct effect of meaning threat on sustainable consumption. Most importantly, we demonstrate the mediating role of sadness and test this underlying process with different sustainable products. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.
The global focus on sustainable development intensified with the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, with the primary aim of balancing economic growth, social well-being, and environmental responsibility. This research explores how green bonds, interest rate policies, and foreign direct investment (FDI) contribute to the progress of SDGs in four developing ASEAN nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Using quarterly data from 2018 to 2023, the study applies the Panel Vector Error Correction Model (PVECM) to uncover the dynamics at work. The findings reveal that green bonds and foreign direct investment have a notable and positive effect on the SDG index in both the short and long term. On the other hand, the impact of policy interest rates is negative, though statistically insignificant, particularly when rates are high. These results provide valuable guidance for policymakers seeking to enhance the effectiveness of financial tools and investments in driving sustainable development. Furthermore, the study stresses the importance of well-rounded policy frameworks that integrate economic, social, and environmental objectives. Theoretically, this study contributes to the refinement of Ecological Modernization Theory by empirically demonstrating how green financing and FDI serve as pivotal instruments in advancing sustainable development within emerging ASEAN economies.
This study aims to evaluate the impact of formal entrepreneurship and economic freedom on the size of the shadow economy in Asian countries. The research sample includes 22 Asian countries over the period from 1995 to 2018. The study employs reliable panel data estimation methods, including the Fixed Effects Model with robust standard errors method, the Driscoll-Kraay standard errors method, and the two-step system GMM method. The findings indicate that formal entrepreneurship has a positive relationship with the size of the shadow economy, while economic freedom and its two sub-components, business freedom and trade freedom, reduce the size of the shadow economy. Additionally, economic freedom, business freedom, and trade freedom play a moderating role in reducing the positive relationship between formal entrepreneurship and the size of the shadow economy. Our study suggests that governments should comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of policies promoting entrepreneurship and consider expanding economic freedom, particularly business freedom and trade freedom.
The rapid expansion of financial technology (fintech) has reshaped financial behavior, especially among digital natives in Indonesia. This study examines the impact of financial inclusion and financial literacy on online loan decisions and impulsive buying behavior, with online loan decisions serving as a mediator. A survey was conducted with 334 respondents, focusing on digital natives who have used online loan services. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the study found that financial inclusion positively influences online loan decisions, while financial literacy negatively impacts both online loan decisions and impulsive buying behavior. Notably, online loan decisions partially mediate the relationship between financial inclusion, financial literacy, and impulsive buying behavior. These findings highlight the complex role of fintech in promoting financial inclusion while also introducing behavioral risks. The study underscores the importance of financial literacy in mitigating impulsive financial behaviors among digital natives.
This study investigates the influence of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and geopolitical risk (GPR) on the spillovers of foreign direct investment (FDI) within emerging markets, represented by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations. Using a Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model and a dynamic Diebold and Yilmaz (DY) (2012) spillover index, the research assesses the interconnectedness and spillover effects of FDI flows among the BRICS countries over a 25-year period (1998–2023). The findings reveal significant spillover effects in the FDI of the BRICS nations, with Russia being a net transmitter and China a net receiver. Moreover, EPU and GPR significantly influence these FDI spillovers, with the effect of GPR being more predominant, highlighting the increased sensitivity of emerging markets to economic and geopolitical risks. Therefore, these findings underscore the role of coordinated policy measures in mitigating systemic risks and enhancing resilience against geopolitical and economic shocks. Overall, this study represents a novel contribution to existing literature by providing insight into the impacts of economic policy and geopolitical uncertainties on spillovers of foreign financial flows in emerging markets, particularly the BRICS nations.
