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This paper aims to provide new perspectives on the integration of East Asian stock markets and the dynamic volatility transmission to the Bitcoin market utilising daily data from 2014 to 2020.

The authors undertake comprehensive analyses of the dependency dynamics, systemic risk and volatility spillover between major East Asian stock and Bitcoin markets. The authors employ a vine-copula-CoVaR framework and a VAR-BEKK-GARCH method with a Wald test.

(a) With exception of KS11 and N225; HSI and SSE; HSI and KS11, which have moderate dependence, dependencies among other markets are low. In terms of tail risk, the upper tail risk is more significant in capturing strong common variation. (b) Two-way and asymmetric risk spillover effects exist in all markets. The Hong Kong and Japanese stock markets have significant risk spillovers to other markets, and quite notably, the Chinese stock market is the largest recipient of systemic risk. However, the authors observe a more significant risk spillover from the Chinese stock market to the Bitcoin market. (c) The VAR-BEKK-GARCH results confirm that the Korean market is a significant emitter of volatility spillovers. The Bitcoin market does provide diversification benefits. Interestingly, the Chinese stock market has an intriguing relationship with Bitcoin. (d) An increase in spillovers in East Asia boosts spillovers to Bitcoin, but there is no intuitive effect of Bitcoin spillovers on East Asian spillovers.

For the first time, the authors examine the dynamic linkage between Bitcoin and the major East Asian stock markets.

Under a gradual long-term plan of the Saudi Stock Market (TADWUAL) from 2016, Saudi Arabia decided to work with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) board to fully adopt its accounting standards. Saudi Arabia has undergone several reforms in governance and standards of internal controls are changing rapidly. This study aims to assess whether IFRS adoption has any moderator role in the relationship between disclosure quality and firm-specific characteristics in the Saudi Stock Market.

This study assesses whether IFRS adoption has any moderator role in the relationship between disclosure quality and firm-specific characteristics in the Saudi Stock Market. The key research hypotheses postulate that compared to IFRS status, after adoption, several independent variables influence the disclosure level. The analysis covers a local sample of 184 Saudi listed firms over the period 2016 to 2020. Using an in-depth content analysis technique, the voluntary disclosure and number of annual report pages are measured manually and year by year to capture levels and unique characteristics. The authors apply cross-sectional regression, first difference method, Pooled OLS and feasible general least square estimations. The mean of disclosure level increases from 33.03% in 2016 to 56.14% in 2020.

The results reveal that the vast majority of firm-specific characteristics were significant in pre-IFRS adoption period. First difference analysis shows a significant impact of firm size and non-executive composition on the disclosure level. The authors confirm that IFRS adoption plays a critical role in the quality of firms’ financial reports and supports to create a conducive economic environment in Saudi Arabia.

First, the implementation of IFRS adoption should impact the Saudi accounting information and disclosure quality in Saudi context markedly. Second, firm-specific characteristics align with corporate governance are the main determinants of accounting information and transparency; therefore, focusing on this angle enables regulators and policymakers to mitigate uncertainty and asymmetric information. Third, the findings of this research state that there is a negative relationship between disclosure quality and board meetings. This encourages policymakers to reconsider the number of board meetings in firms that was not as high as in the developed markets. Notwithstanding all previous implications, it is recommended that future research undertake a various quasi-experimental design such as a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the causal effect of corporate governance mechanisms on IFRS 7 mandatory disclosure requirements on in Saudi Arabia context.

There is a lack of studies on this realm and such as these studies will enrich the understanding of aspects of IFRS adoption and contribute to the prior empirical literature. Importantly, the extend of this sample into other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and exhibition the difference effect can be very useful to enrich the knowledge of IFRS adoption aspects in corporate disclosure and accounting information quality.

Saudi Arabia has undergone several reforms in governance, and their standards of internal controls are changing rapidly. This has been attributed to the importance of providing guidelines, practices and regulations for listed companies. One of the major turning points of financial reporting quality in Saudi listed firms was adoption of IFRSs. This adoption deems to be necessity in ensuring the highest level of transparency and information reliability. Based on the findings of this research, the present investigations set up a platform and furnish many implications for policymakers, companies’ board of directors, financial analysts and other related authorities. The results should provide policymakers with greater insight of the relationship between disclosure quality and corporate-specific characteristics throughout the IFRS adoption periods. Thus, the results derived from this study can be effective and useful for the IFRS adoption committee in the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA). According to the best of the authors’ knowledge and based on official secondary information sourced from the SOCPA website, there are several standards that are subject to difficulties in measurement and are modified from time to time, such as: IFRS1, IFRS8, IFRS12, IFRS16 and IFRS18.

Financial risk-taking attitude (FRT) plays an important role in consumers' financial decisions, thereby determining consumer well-being. Motivated by the recent research on consumer well-being, this paper explores the relationships between financial literacy, a propensity to plan (PTP), FRT, financial satisfaction and life satisfaction.

The authors use the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to achieve the purpose of this paper. Furthermore, the authors use the variance-based partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), also known as the PLS path modeling approach to test our proposed hypotheses empirically.

The study finds a strong partial mediation of FRT between financial literacy and financial satisfaction. Moreover, the analyses reveal that a high PTP combined with a high FRT results in achieving high financial satisfaction, which leads to improved life satisfaction.

The findings show the importance of creating financial plans in accordance with risk tolerance. While increasing financial literacy is relevant, the research suggests that tools that help consumers plan and invest in appropriate risky investments will lead to better outcomes.

Though scholarly acumen of consumer well-being is rapidly developing, little remains known regarding the collective roles of financial literacy, PTP and FRT. The study addresses this gap by showing that financial literacy, risk-taking attitudes and planning propensities are all interconnected and necessary ingredients to improve financial and life satisfaction.

This study aims to test a moderated mediation model for a twofold purpose. First, to examine the mediating role of financial capability (FC) in the association between financial literacy (FL) and financial well-being (FW). Second, to analyze if non-impulsive future-oriented behavior (NIB) moderates the associations of FL with FC and FL with FW.

The authors use the PROCESS macros in IBM SPSS Statistics to test the moderated mediation model and analyze the 2016 wave of the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey.

The empirical analysis shows that FC partially mediates the association between FL and FW. Furthermore, the moderated mediation analysis shows that NIB strengthens the associations of FL with FC and FL with FW. Specifically, the positive associations of FL with FC and FL with FW significantly increase for those consumers who score high on NIB.

The findings have implications for the financial services industry. Professional financial planners can positively improve the ability of consumers to deal with their financial matters by highlighting the importance of FL and NIB.

The study findings suggest educating consumers to discourage impulsive behavior and encourage them to create financial plans as it will enhance their ability to conduct financial tasks efficiently, improving their FW.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to assess a moderated mediation model, which examines the role of FC as a mediator variable and NIB as a moderator variable in the association between FL and FW.

The purpose of this paper is to measure efficiency of superannuation funds using data envelopment analysis (DEA), using data related to financial performance of superannuation funds. The sample comprises 183 superannuation funds covering approximately 79 per cent of the 231 largest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated funds in 2012. The research covers a period of seven years from 2005 to 2012. The results indicate that most Australian superannuation funds are inefficient relative to the benchmark efficiency frontier based on efficient funds. The findings emphasise the importance of improving the efficiency of Australian superannuation funds by reducing overall fund expenses to narrow the gap in performance between efficient and inefficient funds.

This study aims to contribute to policy, theory and practice in several dimensions. Member protection and the efficiency of the superannuation system are topical issues (Donald, 2009). Despite its importance from a regulatory point of view, efficiency has only been discussed in relation to operational issues such as managing agency relationships, fees and charges, investment return or economies of scale. The relative efficiency of the Australian superannuation system from an economic productivity perspective has rarely been examined, except for a study by Njie (2006), where the Malmquist productivity DEA technique was used to measure the efficiency of Australia’s retirement income system.

Most inefficient funds had very low efficiency scores and were fell into the lower quintiles such as Quintiles 4 (scored 0.200-0.399) and 5 (scored 0.001-0.199). Consequently, input reduction targets were significantly higher for these two quintiles. Similarly, input reduction targets were high under the period DEA estimates. In order to be comparatively efficient, Quintile 4 funds were required to reduce total expenses by 75 per cent (−0.754) and volatility of return by 80 per cent (−0.801). Similarly, Quintile 5 funds needed to reduce total expenses by, on average, 83 per cent (−0.824) and volatility of return by 89 per cent (−0.894).

As in other empirical research, this study also depended heavily on the data collected from the secondary sources such as APRA database and other financial reports. The issues of measurement errors in data sources such as APRA database are well documented (see, e.g. Cummins, 2012). This issue needs the attention of future research on the efficiency of superannuation funds.

The findings on individual year DEA estimates indicate that most funds were inefficient due to high expenses. Therefore, mandatory disclosure of fees and charges in a comparable manner may be necessary to justify fee payments and to address transparency and accountability issues, which are critical issues identified by the Cooper Review and the academic literature (Australian Government, 2014; Cooper et al., 2010; Gallery and Gallery, 2006).

The issue of Australian superannuation funds concentrating the majority of fund assets in highly volatile investment vehicles such as the share markets has been in the spotlight in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. There have been proposals to better diversify superannuation assets in other asset classes (Cooper et al., 2010).

This study contributes to the current literature on superannuation funds by investigating efficiency. As efficiency studies using DEA have not been conducted on the Australian superannuation industry, this study also contributes to the academic literature on DEA and its extensive applications to various economic sectors. Efficiency scores using DEA, ranking, trends and shifts in the efficiency frontiers could be obtained for Australian superannuation funds on an on-going or annual basis.

This paper aims to use the newly developed panel data cointegration analysis and the dynamic time series modeling approach to examine the linkages between financial structure (market‐based vs bank‐based) and economic growth in African economies.

The research investigates the dynamic relationship between financial structure and economic growth in a panel of a group of seven African developing countries over the period of 1986‐2007. The paper uses various indicators/measures of financial structure and financial system, and employs the traditional time‐series analysis for causality as well as the newly developed panel unit root and cointegration techniques and estimated finance‐growth relationship using FMOLS for heterogeneous panel.

From the dynamic heterogeneous panel approach, the paper firstly finds that market‐based financial system is important for explaining output growth through enhancing efficiency and productivity. Second, the authors' empirical evidence supports the view that higher levels of banking system development are positively associated with capital accumulation growth and lead to faster rates of economic growth.

Panel cointegration, group mean panel FMOLS and country‐by‐country time series investigations indicate that the market‐based financial system is important for explaining output growth through enhancing efficiency and productivity, whereas the development of banking system is significantly associated with capital accumulation growth. Further results from the time‐series approach show evidence of unidirectional causality running from market‐oriented as well as bank‐oriented financial systems to economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to use the recent development in unit root tests and cointegration as applied to panel data and dynamic time series, to estimate the relationship between financial liberalization, financial development and growth.

The paper assesses the dynamics of the relationship between financial development, financial liberalization and growth using the latest dynamic panel data framework and time series analyses comprising up to 15 Sub‐Saharan African countries with annual observations over the period of 1976‐2005. The research uses various measures of, or proxies for, financial intermediary development, including ratio of private sector credit and share of domestic credit to income.

The results obtained from a heterogenous panel investigation and time series methodology such as Granger causality, indicate a long‐run equilibrium relationship between financial development and economic growth. This is consistent with the view that financial development can act as an “engine of growth” and plays a crucial role in the process of economic development. However, there is little evidence to support the hypothesis that financial liberalization directly “leads” growth.

Group mean panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and country‐by‐country time series investigations show evidence of causality running from financial development to growth. The analysis yielded limited evidence of financial liberalization Granger‐causing economic growth. However, this is not to say that financial liberalization does not promote growth, as it could do so indirectly through fostering financial development.

The purpose of this study is to examine the demand for credit and credit rationing conducted by formal, informal and emerging microfinance lenders in the four poor counties of China.

This paper extends the existing studies on credit rationing in rural China by comparing the determinants of credit rationing by three different lenders, the formal lenders rural credit cooperatives (RCCs), the informal lenders and the new microfinance institutions (MFIs).

MFIs are capable of reaching out to the even poorer households if they develop the loan products based on the income and expenditure flows of these households.

The determinants of credit rationing by three types of institutions are estimated separately.

RCCs in China shall change their policy of discrimination against female-headed households. RCCs shall also simplify the loan application procedures and assess the clients based on their repayment capacities rather than the age or assets alone. RCCs could learn from MFIs to use incomes from migrant workers as a criterion to assess the loan applicants.

gender equity for loan access.

This paper extends the existing studies on credit rationing in rural China by comparing the determinants of credit rationing by three different lenders, the formal lenders (RCCs), the informal lenders and the new MFIs.

The study investigates the effect of autocratic, democratic and transformational leadership styles on employees' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The study further examines the moderating role of leaders' emotional intelligence between leadership styles and OCB.

Questionnaires were used to collect data from 618 small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) employees in Ghana. For this study, both simple random and convenient sampling were adopted in selecting respondents. Regression was used to test the hypotheses in the research model using IBM–Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

The results show that democratic and transformational leadership styles both positively predicted the OCB of SME employees, although transformational leadership has a more significant influence. On the contrary, autocratic leadership style was found to have an insignificant relationship with OCB of SME employees when the interactive effect of the various leadership styles and emotional intelligence were introduced into the model. The results also show that whereas leaders' emotional intelligence positively moderate the relationship between autocratic leadership style and OCB, the relationships between democratic leadership style and OCB and between transformational leadership style and OCB are not significantly moderated by leaders' emotional intelligence.

An examination of other prominent leadership styles (for example, the transactional leadership style and the laissez faire leadership style) could be key areas for future research as it is a potential limitation of this study. Similarly, the use of a Western leadership instrument could also be a potential limitation in the Ghanaian context, although these instruments and scales may be applicable. Future studies could also consider a longitudinal approach to give a more holistic picture of the effect of the leadership styles on OCB.

In general, the findings of the study support the idea that the autocratic leadership style affects SME employees' OCB both directly and indirectly through leaders' emotional intelligence. This study recommends that leaders of SMEs should focus on leadership styles that combine both result-oriented and people-centric behaviors to encourage SMEs' employees to engage in OCB.

This study provides firsthand information on the impact of autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership style and transformational leadership style on an employee's OCB from the Ghanaian SME perspective.

Although there has been a surge in the adoption of building information modelling (BIM) in the construction industry, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are still struggling and perceive its adoption as risky. The SMEs in developing economies are especially on the disadvantaged side of the digital divide. Extant studies have focused on large firms and there are scanty studies on the influence of the external environments on BIM adoption in SMEs. Thus, this study espouses institutional theory (INT) to examine the influence of coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures on BIM awareness and adoption in SMEs.

A quantitative approach was employed, and data were collected from the Nigerian construction SMEs via an empirical questionnaire survey using a sequential stratified and convenient sampling method. Hypothesized relationships between the coercive, mimetic, and normative pressure and BIM in SMEs were empirically tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique and the model was validated with the “PLSpredict” procedure.

The results revealed that coercive and mimetic pressures significantly influence BIM adoption in SMEs while normative pressures have the strongest influence on BIM in SMEs. Also, BIM awareness is an important predictor of BIM adoption. The findings also shed light on the influence of firmographics on BIM awareness and adoption in Nigerian SMEs.

The study empirically validates the applicability of INT and highlights that BIM adoption is not only influenced by internal responses to the need for efficiency but also by external pressures. It implies a clear need for intentional isomorphic pressures in driving BIM adoption in SMEs. The study employs the INT to explain a phenomenon that has not been theoretically explored in the context of SMEs in developing economies. Lastly, the study provided valuable insights into driving BIM adoption, together with the effective practical implications for implementation and potential research areas for further studies.