This paper examines the three-stage privatization of the Icelandic bank Íslandsbanki in 2021–2025 as a case of how public sellers balance revenue maximization against ownership and governance objectives. Using official reports, auction documentation, order-book data, market prices and post-sale shareholder lists, the study evaluates whether discounts granted to buyers produced durable benefits in ownership structure. All three offerings were heavily oversubscribed. In the 2022 accelerated book-building (ABB) sale, demand remained many times the amount offered even at prices above the chosen sale price. Yet dispersed ownership declined after the public offerings, foreign participation remained limited, and common ownership across competing Icelandic banks became substantial. The findings suggest that discounted pricing and initial allocation are weak instruments for shaping long-run ownership when shares are freely tradable. The case contributes to corporate governance research by linking privatization design to ownership structure, institutional ownership and principal–agent problems in public asset sales.
This study examines how intellectual capital affects the financial success and long-term sustainability of Ghanaian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It also reviews how acquiring new knowledge could play a role in that relationship. The study used a quantitative survey, employing a structured questionnaire to gather data from 327 MSME owners and managers in Ghana. Intellectual capital is measured as human, structural, and relational capital, while absorptive capacity is measured as knowledge acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and use. Relational capital emerged as the dominant driver of firm outcomes, exerting significant positive effects on financial performance, business sustainability, and absorptive capacity. Structural capital marginally predicted financial performance and significantly predicted absorptive capacity, but produced no direct effect on business sustainability. Human capital yielded no significant direct or mediated effects on any outcome variable. Absorptive capacity strongly and independently predicted both outcome variables, fully mediating the effects of structural and relational capital while human capital pathways through absorptive capacity remained non-significant. These findings establish important boundary conditions for human capital theory in informal institutional environments and clarify absorptive capacity as a necessary conversion mechanism within the resource-based view (RBV) theoretical framework. Policymakers and MSME managers should prioritise external network cultivation and knowledge management systems over standalone workforce training investments.
Supply chain sustainability governance lacks a framework connecting indirect greenwashing to the governance responses feasible under varying resource dependence constraints. Indirect greenwashing is defined as the transmission of misleading environmental claims from suppliers to lead firms that lack the informational or structural capacity to detect them. Prior research treats disengagement as the default governance response, abstracting from the resource-dependence conditions under which exit is neither economically nor operationally feasible. This paper asks how companies can respond structurally to indirect supplier greenwashing across varying configurations of resource dependence and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) transparency. Drawing on an integrative literature review, the paper develops the Indirect Greenwashing Strategies Prevention (IGSP) framework, a four-quadrant matrix that crosses supplier ESG transparency with buyer resource dependence to generate contingent governance prescriptions. Four strategic propositions are advanced, each associating a distinct governance logic with a relational configuration: mitigation, transformation, monitoring, and co-creation. The framework makes three contributions. First, it integrates resource dependence theory with the emerging stream of indirect greenwashing into a unified analytical structure. Second, it moves beyond the binary integration-versus-engagement logic that characterises prior upstream governance research. Third, it specifies the relational conditions under which blockchain-based transparency tools function as complements to governance rather than autonomous solutions.
Private equity (PE) has expanded into a major owner type over the last decades. With its ever-increasing relevance and the latest opening of the asset class to retail investors, controversies about its impact on their acquired companies’ innovation activities have recurrently intensified. However, research in this field lacks a coherent structure and remains insufficiently embedded within a broader context. Using a large corpus from the Web of Science (WoS) and EBSCO, this study presents a structured analysis of the literature body in the field, summarizing and synthesizing the current state of the art. The review reveals that PE ownership has an impact on the quantity and quality of research and development (R&D) outcomes at the acquired companies. A strong focus of research on the United States (U.S.) is found, and the predominant measurement of a company’s innovation through patent metrics and R&D expenditures is identified. The study yields implications for PE practitioners by providing an outlook on value-enhancing timing, innovation-based value creation, and divestment channel strategies. Policymakers gain new insights informing the design of PE-related legislative frameworks promoting innovation.
This study deals with the performance analysis and volatility estimation of conventional indices including Dow Jones, S&P 500, Brent Oil, Crude Oil and Gold and cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum for the period January 3, 2011 to November 26, 2021 for all of the indices except Ethereum for which the period chosen was from March 10, 2016 to November 26, 2021 due to late incorporation of the cryptocurrency. The stationarity, heteroscedasticity, and serial correlation of the data were considered. Time series regression using the GARCH model is applied for performance analysis and volatility estimation. GARCH (1, 1) estimates show the high performance of cryptocurrencies over the conventional indices, except Gold, which was insignificant, with Ethereum followed by Bitcoin being the most volatile among the different indices. However, Gold remains inert in response to the different indices. However, although the cryptocurrencies add to the country’s revenue, thus minimizing the deficits, there should still be proactive policies and practices to prevent the exploitation of stakeholders, especially for the sake of minority ones.
