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This study aims to examine the dynamics of the market development of Islamic banking in Pakistan. This study investigates how shocks to the economy in the form of changes in benchmark rate and exchange rate and internal factors such as efficiency, profitability and asset quality affect the development of Islamic banking. The study also evaluates the impact of Islamic banking on the real economy in the macro perspective and society at large in terms of inclusiveness, competitiveness and fairness.

Autoregressive distributed lagged model method is used for analysing the short-run and long-run determinants of market development of Islamic banking and the economic impact of Islamic banking on the real economy.

Profitability and exchange rate have a positive effect on market development of Islamic banking while higher inefficiency and interbank rate have a negative effect. On the other hand, financing intensity and profitability in Islamic banking positively affect the large-scale manufacturing sector.

Stable profits, high asset quality, efficiency and rising import demand with low policy rate environment complement Islamic banking growth. Moreover, the economic assessment shows that Islamic banks have been able to achieve the financial inclusion of those who want to avoid Riba, but they need concerted efforts to improve competitiveness and distinction with regard to distributional impact.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Pakistan to evaluate determinants of market development of Islamic banking taking 16-year quarterly data and assessing the economic effects of Islamic banking on inclusiveness, competitiveness and fairness.

Financing remains a serious concern for firms and is considered the main hurdle in the growth and development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Recently, a new stream of financing (SCF; supply chain finance) has emerged to meet the financing issues of SMEs. Therefore, measuring SCF is essential to support SMEs’ operations. This study aims to develop and validate the SCF scale based on extant literature.

Using a mixed-method approach, this study recruited different samples of SME entrepreneurs to confirm the internal consistency, assess construct validity and check the item structure of the SCF scale in AMOS.

The outcomes of confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the six factors of SCF (inventory financing, working capital optimization, reverse financing, fixed assets financing, logistics financing and order cycle financing) spread over 21 items. An interitem solid structure of the SCF scale offers invaluable contributions to the supply chain management literature.

This research supports SME entrepreneurs to obtain secure financing at the best cost, mitigating the risk of default, supporting the buyers’ payment terms, providing early payment to suppliers and strengthening the firm’s value chains. SMEs can obtain financing per their requirements to support their operational business processes. Moreover, SMEs can plan, manage and control finance-related transactional activities by correctly identifying financing solutions.

The present study contributes to SCM literature by developing and validating the SCF scale. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that redefined SCF and identified its six dimensions.

This paper explores the connection between capital structure and financial performance within European listed firms. The primary objective is to demonstrate an inverse U-shaped relationship between these two variables and pinpoint an optimal debt-equity mix.

In this study, we adopt a dynamic modeling approach to investigate the relationship between a firm’s capital structure and financial performance. Drawing on well-established theories and prior empirical studies, our model examines 3,121 dividend-paying firms from 41 European countries over 14 years, from 2008 to 2021. To enhance the reliability of our findings, we employ two distinct estimation techniques: the fixed effect model (FE) and the system generalized method of moments (System-GMM).

This study reveals an inverse U-shaped relationship between the firm’s financial performance, measured by the return on equity (ROE) and its capital structure (total liability to total assets ratio). Furthermore, an optimal capital structure of about 29% is determined for all firms in the sample, and about 21%, 28% and 41% industry-specific capital structure for manufacturing, real estate and wholesale trade, respectively.

This paper contributes to existing knowledge by empirically determining an optimal capital structure for listed firms across various industries in Europe, which very few studies have attempted to do in the past. An optimal capital structure is an invaluable benchmark for managers and other stakeholders, informing their decision-making.

Infrastructure financialization plays a critical role in infrastructure development and urban growth around the world. However, on the one hand, the existing research on the infrastructure financialization focuses on qualitative and lacks quantitative country-specific studies. On the other hand, the spatial heterogeneity and influencing factors of infrastructure financialization are ignored. This study takes China as a typical case to identify and analyze the spatial characteristics, development process and impact factors of infrastructure financialization.

To assess the development and characteristics of infrastructure financialization in China, this study constructs an evaluation index of infrastructure financialization based on the infrastructure financialization ratio (IFR). This study then analyzes the evolution process and spatial pattern of China's infrastructure financialization through the spatial analysis method. Furthermore, this study identifies and quantitatively analyzes the influencing factors of infrastructure financialization based on the spatial Dubin model. Finally, this study offers a policy suggestion as a governance response.

The results demonstrate that infrastructure financialization effectively promotes the development of infrastructure in China. Second, there are significant spatial differences in China’s infrastructure financialization. Third, many factors affect infrastructure financialization, with government participation having the greatest impact. In addition, over-financialization of infrastructure has the potential to lead to government debt risks, which is a critical challenge the Chinese Government must address. Finally, this study suggests that infrastructure financialization requires more detailed, tailored,and place-specific policy interventions by the government.

This study not only contributes to enriching the knowledge body of global financialization theory but also helps optimize infrastructure investment and financing policies in China and provides peer reference for other developing countries.

Know your customer (KYC), accounting standards, issuance, clearing, and trade settlement became the major barrier to implement accounting, accountability and assurance process in supply chain finance (SCF). Blockchain technology features have the potential to solve accounting problems. This research focuses on exploring how blockchain technology provides solutions to overcome the barriers of accounting process in SCF. The benefits, opportunities, costs and risks related to blockchain adoption are also explored.

Multi-case study and qualitative methods are used with a framework based on blockchain role to overcome the accounting process barriers. Ten blockchain projects in SCF and 29 interviews of participants as a unit of analysis are considered.

The findings indicate that blockchain technology offers solutions to solve accounting, accountability and assurance problems in SCF. Validity, verification, smart contracts, automation and enduring data on trade transactions potentially solve those barriers. However, it is also necessary to consider costs such as implementation, technology, education and integration costs. Then there are possible risks such as regulatory compliance, operational, code development and scalability risk. This finding reflects the current status of blockchain technology roles in SCF.

This study unveils blockchain's SCF accounting potential, emphasizing multi-case method limitations and future research prospects. Diverse contexts challenge findings' applicability, warranting cross-industry studies for deeper insights. Addressing selection bias and integrating quantitative measures can enhance understanding of blockchain's accounting impact.

Accounting professionals can get an idea of the future direction and impact of blockchain technology on accounting, accountability and assurance processes.

This study provides initial findings on the potential, costs and risks of blockchain that is beneficial for parties involved in SCF, especially for banks and insurance underwriters. In addition, the findings also provide direction for the contribution of blockchain technology to accounting theory in the future.

The rapid rise of Islamic crypto assets, underpinned by blockchain technology, has introduced a novel dimension to the Islamic financial landscape, raising questions about their potential as safe havens within emerging Islamic economies. However, the opportunities and challenges associated with this phenomenon remain insufficiently explored. In this context, this study aims to empirically investigate the extent to which blockchain technology can establish Islamic crypto assets as safe havens in equity markets within Islamic economies.

This study addresses the need for rigorous empirical analysis to understand the dynamics between Islamic crypto assets and stock markets in emerging Islamic economies, focusing on the transmission of volatility. While the evolving nature of the Islamic financial sector demands reliable data, the reliance on the most available data offers insights into the expected future trends in this emerging field. The research specifically focuses on three essential assets in the Islamic financial portfolio: OneGram Coin and X8XToken, both backed by gold and MRHB DeFi, an Islamic DeFi asset lacking gold backing. These crypto assets are compared with corresponding assets in seven stock markets of emerging Islamic economies. Using daily log returns of the Islamic crypto assets from various sources and seven Islamic stock indices. The data covers the period from December 27, 2021, to December 28, 2022, capturing the fluctuations in Islamic stocks and cryptocurrency markets during the post-COVID-19 era. This research uses advanced econometric techniques, including pairwise dynamic correlation and the DCC GARCH model.

The findings indicate that Islamic crypto assets exhibit distinct characteristics, with lower volatility and low correlations compared to their conventional counterparts in non-Islamic contexts. This outcome suggests that these Islamic crypto assets could potentially serve as safe havens within Islamic stock markets, offering valuable insights for various stakeholders, including investors, governments and policymakers.

The findings are based on a specific set of Islamic crypto assets and may vary with a different selection. Market dynamics can also influence the relationships observed. Nevertheless, the outcomes provide valuable insights for investors, policymakers and researchers interested in the intersection of Islamic finance, cryptocurrency and technology.

In essence, this research not only unveils the potential of Islamic crypto assets as stabilizing forces but also delineates a trajectory for subsequent research endeavours within the realm of emerging Islamic Fintech, elucidating the challenges, opportunities and benefits that lie therein. With a discerning eye on circumventing the pitfalls entrenched within conventional crypto finance, this study contributes to a heightened comprehension of the transformative role that Islamic crypto assets can assume, ultimately enriching the financial resilience of Islamic economies.

This study investigates the relationship between bank capital and liquidity creation and further examines the effect that institutional quality has on this relationship in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The data comprise 41 universal banks in nine SSA countries from 2010 to 2022. The study employs the two-step system generalized methods of moments and further uses alternative estimators such as the fixed-effect and two-stage least squares methods.

The empirical results show that bank capital has a direct positive and significant effect on liquidity creation. In addition, the positive effect of bank capital on liquidity creation is enhanced, particularly in a strong institutional environment. The results imply that nonconstraining capital regulatory policies bolster bank solvency, improve risk-absorption capacity and increase liquidity creation.

This study has several policy implications. First, it provides empirical evidence on the position of banks in SSA on the financial fragility and risk-absorption hypothesis of bank capital and liquidity creation debates. This study shows that the effect of bank capital on liquidity creation in SSA countries is positive and supports the risk-absorption hypothesis. Second, this study highlights that a country's quality institutions can complement bank capital to increase liquidity creation. In addition, this study highlights that nonconstraining capital regulatory policies will bolster bank solvency, improve risk-absorption capacity and increase liquidity creation.

The novelty of this study is that it introduces the country's quality institutional environment into bank capital and liquidity creation links for the first time in SSA.

This study aims to investigate the opacity of bank assets because of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9 implementation. It highlights that the Asian-Pacific countries’ banking industries are experiencing economic volatility. In other words, it examines information asymmetries because of the standards requiring a mechanistic treatment. Thus, this focuses on the tragedy of the commons (ToTC) caused by the implementation of the standard.

This research selects a sample of banking firms in the Asia-Pacific region from 2010 to 2021. Furthermore, it examines the impacts of IFRS 9’s implementation on earnings forecasts and share-return conveyances. This research first uses the OLS regression for examining the bank assets’ opacities, which may affect future earnings and information conveyancing. Second, it arranges these opacities, earnings and stock returns with the 2-SLS regression to find the staging associations because of hierarchical relevances.

This study finds that bank assets’ opacity is caused by a standard’s implementation, which is a ToTC, and this study signifies its first occurrence. Simultaneously, it recognises an information asymmetry because of the implemented procedural calculation mandated by the standard. Furthermore, these opacities affect future earnings and information conveyancing that inherited information asymmetries, which have affected them as the second ToTC. Finally, current and future earnings as a consequent impact of asset opacity are recursively associated with stock return conveyancing as the third ToTC.

This study demonstrates hierarchical information about bank asset opacities, starting by recognising and measuring them in financial statements. Then, these recognised and measured asset opacities are associated with current and future earnings, ending on the ordinarily and staged influencing of stock return conveyancing. Moreover, it reveals hierarchical information in the direct-ordinarily and staged associations among bank asset opacities, earnings and return conveyances. Thus, these associations are valid and occur because of the mandates of the standard’s measurement.

This paper aims to investigate the efficiency and performance of the Islamic banking industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors used a two-stage data envelopment analysis to first estimate the efficiency of 78 Islamic banks (IBs) across 15 countries for the 2005–2020 period (a total of 782 bank-year observations) and then to examine their determinants, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors found that the Islamic banking industry performed at a moderate level during the 2005–2020 period, providing evidence that IBs are resilient to the financial shocks created by COVID-19. The authors also found that bank-level characteristics (such as bank size) and country-level characteristics (such as inflation) can contribute to the bank’s operational efficiency.

The results of this study suggested that banking management and government macroeconomic policy, especially in terms of precautions and continuous support, are important for IBs to improve their performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the efficiency and performance of IBs amid COVID-19.

This examine the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance on financial reporting quality (FRQ) before and during COVID-19 in the Egyptian market.

This study uses quarterly data from 2017 to 2021 to draw conclusions, with a sample consisting of 486 firm-year observations for 27 Egyptian companies listed on the Standard and Poor’s/Egyptian Stock Exchange ESG index. This study uses both firms’ ESG scores and the Beneish Model, an earnings detection model, as proxies for FRQ. COVID-19 effects on ESG performance and FRQ were examined by using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and two-stage least squares.

COVID-19 has a significant impact on the link between ESG and FRQ. This implies that corporations with high ESG performance are less likely to manipulate earnings (having a low M-score) and thus provide high FRQ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, there is a significant positive relationship between firm size, leverage and M-Score, indicating that large firms typically present a high FRQ.

The sample size and data availability are the main research limitations. Additionally, this study only considers the effects of firms’ ESG performance on FRQ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, future research should consider other factors associated with investors’ corporate social responsibility (CSR).

This research has practical implications for market regulators seeking to establish a legislative framework and enhance guidance to mandate managers to provide ESG data and CSR reports appropriate for Egypt and other developing economies in times of crisis.

Promoting the adoption of ESG practices in business, particularly during crises, has the potential to effectively provide high-quality and reliable financial reporting required for investment.

This study aspires to address notable deficiencies in the pertinent literature concerning the relationship between ESG performance and FRQ during COVID-19. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, little is known about how ESG performance changes in response to pandemics in emerging markets. To address this gap, this study examines the effects of COVID-19 on the relationship between ESG performance and FRQ in Egyptian-listed firms from 2017 to 2021.