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This chapter aims to critically analyse the implications that the national protectionist policies have on the global supply and value chains and the relocation of production. The analysis is based on the assumptions that the global economy is facing the possibility of decoupling of many trade connections, and this trend favours de-globalisation processes that have long been promoted by populism, nationalism and economic protectionism. It is concluded that global supply, production and value chains although being economically efficient are no longer any more secure under national protectionist policies, and therefore, the relocation of production processes is mainly due to the increase in the level of income and wages of the developing countries that are the destination and which reduce the advantages to relocate.

As the economy re-shapes, so too must the modern organization and its governance. We examine corporate governance codes and their limits in predicting an executive’s performance. We look at the Code of Professional Practice of executive search consultants, the in-built factors that have prevented the sector from becoming a qualified profession, and how to move beyond them. We examine how sustainability is migrating to the heart of modern governance, and present eight reasons to change existing codes and a call for tolerant governance. Mining engineer Henri Fayol is considered the founder of corporate governance. Despite dramatic changes in management during the past 100 years, much of his theory still holds. We take a tour of Fayol’s thinking, how management has evolved, and examine the unstructured shape of things to come: an organic architecture, an emphasis on knowledge capital and an agile leadership culture. We conclude with “change ability” – an evolutionary leap for the chair, CFO, supervisory board and organizations as a whole. The executive search profession finally comes under a harsh spotlight. What’s next for the profession, in light of digitization, its representation on boards, its effect on diversity? And why do executive search firms need to walk the sustainability talk in the way they seek and position leaders?

An earlier form of this chapter by the author was published in Dutch in “Bestemming Boardroom: over zoeken en gevonden worden” (Boom, Amsterdam, 2018).

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the elements that can enhance financial inclusion (FI) in a nation, which in turn promotes economic development and growth.

Need for the Study: FI is crucial in providing people with the skills and resources to manage their money effectively and make informed financial decisions. Accessible, reliable and secure financial services play a significant role in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) and fostering economic progress.

Methodology: Data from 571 respondents were collected for analysis. The study utilises Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS and Analysis of Moment Structures AMOS software to analyse data and achieve the study’s objectives. The researchers employ these tools to obtain substantial results.

Findings: The findings indicate that FI contributes to economic growth (84%) and helps in accomplishing SDGs. Access, usage, affordability, technology, availability and technology adoption all play a vital role in increasing FI in the nation.

Practical Implications: The study’s outcomes have practical implications for policymakers and stakeholders, emphasising the importance of promoting FI through various measures such as enhancing access, affordability and technological advancements in financial services.

The world has seen significant level of emergence of the developing nations over the years. But the world has been going through certain economic crises – be it the worldwide recession of 2008 – that had a worldwide impact, be it the ongoing depression in economic activities since 2018–2019 due to several economic issues. Under these circumstances, how far these developing nations have been able to cope up with is an issue of worry. Can they overcome these depressions or recessions and get on the sustainable path of progress again and compete at par with the developed nations? In this chapter, we have used multiple regression analysis to analyse how far and to what extent these recessions have had impact on the exchange rates (ERs) and other important variables, including growth, of the selected eight developing nations. By taking ER as our dependent variable and five important macroeconomic indicators as regressors, we have checked if the recession caused any structural breaks in these economies or not. We have found the significant impact of gross domestic product (GDP), inflation and trade balance on ER, while the effects of net foreign direct investment (FDI) and rate of interest were not significant. By applying Chow test, we have seen that there is existence of structural breaks in these economies over the period of 2007–2010. These breaks can be attributed to the global recession as well as economic activities prior to the recession. We have also conducted few diagnostic tests to prove the robustness of our analysis.

This study aims at investigating the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) on corporate financial performance (CFP) in firms headquartered in developed versus emerging countries. Drawing upon stakeholder and legitimacy perspectives, the authors argue that the CSR/CSI–CFP relationship differs depending on the home-countries’ level of economic development as this reflects their different sensitivity to sustainability. Indeed, as emerging economies are normally characterized by weaker regulations, they are likely to place lower pressures on companies for superior CSR practices. Therefore, the authors expect the effect of CSR on CFP to be more positive for firms headquartered in advanced than in emerging countries. At the same time, the authors propose a more negative relationship between CSI and CFP for firms headquartered in developed countries due to the higher overall sustainability expectations required to gain legitimacy. The empirical analyses, run on a sample of 1,971 publicly listed firms between 2010 and 2020 from developed and emerging economies, support the expectations, thus confirming that country-specific contextual factors do play a role in shaping both the positive and the negative impact of CSR and CSI on CFP, and that the reactions of stakeholders to responsible and irresponsible behavior are stronger when their sensitivity to sustainability is higher.

This study investigates the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate innovation. We selected the listed nonfinancial firms of South Asian Economies. The sample of the study comprised a total of 426 listed manufacturing firms of South Asian Countries for period spans 10 years from 2012 to 2021. In this study, descriptive statistics, multicollinearity diagnostic tests, correlation analysis and two-step dynamic panel system generalized method of moments (GMM) were applied to analyze the data. CSR measured with three proxies' social indicators, environmental indicators, and CSR composite index of social and environmental indicators. However, corporate innovation is captured with number of citations received in a year and number of patents filed in the year. Overall, findings of the study using all measures of CSR shows that CSR significantly and positively related with corporate innovation. Our results find support for CSR-innovation view with all measures of CSR. The findings suggest that the current study is helpful for managers, regulators, policymakers, and researchers. For managers, the study helps them to make the CSR and innovation decision. The policymakers should take appropriate innovative decision while considering factors such as CSR. This study can also be extended by considering this study for developed and emerging economies sample.

The context of sustainable development dwells, quite significantly, upon the one of gender parity in a society and nation. This is so because the issue of gender equality is key to distributive justice, which is in turn much essential for creating a good amount of precondition for sustainable development. Academic inquests into the problem into the gender disparity are indicative of how gender disparity on economic and social parameter triggers a negative productivity change over time and space. Thus, the current chapter brings forth an analytical approach to contemplating into the above-mentioned narratives in both theoretical and empirical terms. The tack of our analysis is as follows. To begin with, this chapter develops an index to determine the extent of gender disparity in health, education and participation in workforce (namely, Gender Gap Index or GGI). Moving on, the study extends to looking at India changing dynamics on gender gap vis-à-vis developing and less-developed countries. Besides, a general equilibrium model has been developed to unfurl the fallout of gender disparity in terms of the wage gap between male and female workers in the labour force, extant and conditioned further by demographic and sociopolitical factors.