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This paper aims to examine the association between income smoothing and the cost of debt in two different countries, namely, the UK and Nigeria.

The authors used a sample from listed firms in the UK and Nigeria during 2000–2019. The study hypotheses are examined by implementing quantitative methods, including panel regression analysis, cross-sectional regression analysis and parametric independent samples t-test.

The results reveal that Nigerian companies have a substantially higher cost of debt and are more active in using income-smoothing practices. However, the relationship between income smoothing and the cost of debt is not found to be statistically significant in both countries. Besides, the results of this study show that financial leverage, profitability, company size and asset turnover are significantly associated with the cost of debt.

The study contributes to the existing literature by providing new insights concerning the contrast between developed and developing countries in financial and reporting issues.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the socioeconomic determinants of profitability of fresh fish marketing in Ogun State, Nigeria.

The study was a cross-sectional survey of 120 fresh fish marketers selected randomly from four major fish markets in Ado-Odo Local Government area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Data were collected using structured questionnaire which was designed to solicit information on the marketers’ socioeconomic and marketing characteristics, operating costs and returns, and problems associated with fish marketing in the study area. A combination of descriptive statistics, marketing margin, budgetary and ordinary least square regression analyses were employed to analyze the study data.

The study showed that female (85.8 percent) dominated fresh fish marketing. The percent marketing margin of fresh fish was 34.55 percent. The percent marketing investment of 20,906.03, 20,453 per month and 1.43 were realized, respectively. The result of the regression analysis revealed that profit from fresh fish was significantly determined by education, proportion of household members involved in fresh fish marketing, marketers experience, capital, number of sales outlet and purchase price.

The findings was based on information supplied by the fresh fish marketers in the study area based on the authors memory recall since most of the respondents do not have diary where records of activities were kept before the survey.

This study contributes to the existing literature in fish marketing and will provide empirical information to policy makers in the formulation of appropriate policies. It will also serve as a guide to practicing and prospective fresh fish marketers and to researchers who may investigate further into the subject matter.

The social implications from the findings on the return on investment of 1.43 implies that for every one naira invested by fresh fish marketers, a return of 1.43 and a profit of 0.43 were obtained. The study concludes that fresh fish marketing is an economically rewarding and profitable venture in the study area. It also recommends the need to provide credit facilities to finance storage facilities of this group of marketers.

The study is original in nature and revealed the economic status of fresh fish marketing in Ogun State, Nigeria.

This study uses second-order measurement invariance analysis to investigate the perspective of gender divide on whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can serve as a promotional tool for halal certified companies in Malaysia. Perhaps researching into the perspective of gender on whether CSR can serve as a promotional tool has either been ignored or received limited attention among the researchers from this domain. Hence, this study aims to fill this gap.

In the quest to achieve the mentioned aim, quantitative research design was adopted for this study and the developed questionnaire was used to collect data from 295 respondents, consisting of 172 males and 123 females. In analysing the data, this study has mainly used second-order measurement invariance analysis to uncover the difference across gender divide on whether CSR can serve as a promotional tool for halal certified companies.

The findings of this study reveal two perspectives to the issue of interest in this study. The tests of measurement invariance at the model level suggest a significant difference between male and female to a certain extent. The post hoc test (at the path level) reveals that there are significant differences between gender divide with respect to responsible dealings with clients and legal responsibility only. However, there are insignificant differences between them in connection with commitment to halal best practices, zakat and charitable donations, environmental responsibility, halal economic responsibility and employee welfare. Nonetheless, both gender groups agree that CSR activities will promote halal certified companies if these activities are appropriately communicated to halal consumers.

The authors acknowledge that limitations cannot be avoided in any study, such as this study, where a nonprobability sampling technique is used. The respondents were largely drawn from Klang Valley in Malaysia; although Klang Valley’s population represents about a quarter of Malaysia’s total population, the authors admit that the opinions of the respondents may not represent the opinions of others in the country, and this may consequently limit the generalisability of the findings. Also, the authors acknowledge that self-report survey data is subject to response bias, which may reduce the accuracy of the data that were sourced from the respondents; though respondents were constantly reminded to respond honestly to all the questions in the questionnaire.

This study has uniquely employed second-order measurement invariance analysis to investigate the perspective of gender divide on whether CSR can serve as a promotional tool for halal certified companies in Malaysia. This study will enrich literature in this area of study.

This paper aims to intend to ascertain whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can serve as an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Starting from being nice to do, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought CSR to the forefront of businesses, forcing them to rapidly shift from profit maximisation to business preservation. Thus, it is practically crucial to ascertain whether CSR could be effectively used to promote halal brands in this era.

To achieve the stated aim, a survey questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from 295 participants who are familiar with the concepts of CSR and halal in Malaysia. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings reveal that the commitment to halal best practices, zakat and charitable donations, environmental responsibility, employee welfare and responsible dealings with clients are the most important CSR activities that can promote halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19. Whilst there is a positive relationship between halal economic responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool, such relationship is not significant. Nevertheless, the relationship between legal responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool is negative and insignificant.

Limitations are inevitable in any study where a convenient sampling technique is used. Respondents from Klang Valley in Malaysia make up a large proportion of the study’s sample. This may consequently limit the generalisability of the findings of this study. Hence, future research should adequately collect data from other cities in Malaysia. Moreover, this paper does not differentiate between perceptions of Muslims and non-Muslims or between male and female; this might have an effect, as Muslims are likely to favour most of the items in the questionnaire used to collect data for this study. Thus, future research may collect sufficient data to shed more light on this issue.

The researchers have revealed that CSR is an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Study of this nature is rare in academic literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index, Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies and halal chain in the presence of state (regime) dynamics.

The authors have used the Markov-switching model to identify bull and bear market regimes. Moreover, the dynamic conditional correlation, the Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner- generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity and the wavelet coherence models are applied to detect the presence of spillover and contagion effects.

The findings indicate various patterns of spillover between halal chain, Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index and Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies in high and low volatility regimes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the contagion dynamics depend on the bull or bear periods of markets.

These present empirical findings are important for current and potential traders in gold-backed cryptocurrencies in that they facilitate a better understanding of this new type of assets. Indeed, halal chain is a safe haven asset that should be combined with Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies for better performance in portfolio optimization and hedging, mainly during the COVID-19 period.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first research on the impact of the halal chain on the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index return, Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies returns in the bear and bull markets around the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital platforms increase their function and scope by leveraging boundary resources and complementary add-on products from third-party developers to interact with external entities and producers. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are essential boundary resources developers use to connect applications, systems and platforms. This notwithstanding, previous API studies tend to focus more on the technical dimensions, with little on the social and cultural contexts underpinning API innovations. This study relies on the new (neo) institutional theory (focusing on regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars) as an analytical lens to understand the institutional forces that affect API integration among digital firms.

The study adopts a qualitative case study methodology and relies on phone calls and a semi-structured in-depth interview approach of a Ghanaian digital music platform to uncover the institutional forces affecting API integration.

The findings reveal that regulative institutions such as excessive tax regimes mostly constrained API development and integration initiatives. However, other regulative institutions like the government digitalization agenda enabled API integration. Normative institutions, such as the growing use of e-payment options, enabled API integration in digital music platforms. Cultural-cognitive institutions like employee ego constrained the API integration process in music digital platforms.

This study primarily contributes to deepening understanding of the relevant literature by exploring the institutional forces that affect API integration among digital firms in a developing economy. The study also uncovered a new form of an institution known as motivational institution as an enabler for API development and integration in digital music platforms.