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This study aims to investigate the effects of institutional qualities on corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement from a global perspective.

The authors examine CSR engagement across 83 developed and developing economies focusing on four potential institutional drivers: the rule of law, economic financial development, human capital formation and exposure to international trade.

The authors find that the level of human capital formation and financial development is positively associated with CSR engagement in both developing and developed economies. However, the rule of law was only associated with CSR engagement in developing economies whereas the level of international trade was found having no association with CSR engagement across both developed economies and developing economies.

The effect of macroinstitutional qualities on aggregate CSR engagement practices across 83 developed and developing economies was examined; however, the analysis did not attempt to identify the relevance of these institutional factors at the micro or mezzo level and how they interplay with firm-level factors.

The empirical findings in this study offer some important insights into the theoretical constructs of institutional qualities and institutional logics that impact CSR engagement from both developing and developed economy contexts. Not only will these findings encourage regulators and stakeholders to call for enhanced CSR engagement, it will also benefit the accounting and assurance profession’s efforts to evaluate organizational risk and mitigate corporate opportunistic use of CSR disclosure. The finding that strengthening a country’s rule of law enhances CSR engagement in developing economies is further evidence for the current debate in the accounting literature regarding mandating firm CSR disclosure.

The authors conclude that improving the level of human capital formation and encouraging financial development is important for the overall social well-being of all economies, whereas developing economies can further encourage CSR engagement by enhancing their rule of law.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

It is essential to validate whether a nation's economic strength always transpires into new business capacity. The present research strives to identify the key indicators to the proxy new business ecosystem of countries and critically evaluate the similarity through the lens of advanced Fuzzy Clustering Frameworks over the years.

The authors use Fuzzy C Means, Type 2 Fuzzy C Means, Fuzzy Possibilistic C Means and Fuzzy Possibilistic Product Partition C Means Clustering algorithm to discover the inherent groupings of the considered countries in terms of intricate patterns of geospatial new business capacity during 2015–2018. Additionally, the authors propose a Particle Swarm Optimization driven Gradient Boosting Regression methodology to measure the influence of the underlying indicators for the overall surge in new business.

The Fuzzy Clustering frameworks suggest the existence of two clusters of nations across the years. Several developing countries have emerged to cater praiseworthy state of the new business ecosystem. The ease of running a business has appeared to be the most influential feature that governs the overall New Business Density.

It is of paramount practical importance to conduct a periodic review of nations' overall new business ecosystem to draw action plans to emphasize and augment the key enablers linked to new business growth. Countries found to lack new business capacity despite enjoying adequate economic strength can focus effectively on weaker dimensions.

The research proposes a robust systematic framework for new business capacity across different economies, indicating that economic strength does not necessarily transpire to equivalent new business capacity.

The fight between two nations on each other’s exportable on the basis of tariff is known as tariff war. Although an economic policy, very ­often ­motivated by nationalism and politics, a nation imposes tariff on the ­exports of another nation which, in retaliation, again imposes tariff on the exports of its trading partner. The prime cause of such war is certainly to enhance employment opportunities in the home nation. But politics and nationalism provoke the opposite nation to follow the same policy. Effects of such tariff war, whether beneficial or harmful, are yet to be seen. In this context, we have adopted a general equilibrium model to illustrate the probable effect of the above-stated trade war in a structure consisting both H–O nugget and export sector dualism. The effect of imposition of tariff on multinational corporation (MNC) that has its own origin nation and production activities in other nation as well where it faces the war of tariff is considered. But it gets relief in the form of tax reduction in its origin nation. Under such a scenario, the study has shown the effect of tariff in the presence of full employment in the economy as well as in the presence of unemployment. It is seen that the MNC will continue its production procedure in both nations and enjoy profit, under some conditions. Further, in the presence of unemployment it is seen that if rate of tax on the MNC rises, unemployment may fall and welfare can increase under certain conditions.

The paper studies how the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) positioned itself in the process through which capacity building in developing countries was interpreted and enacted within the global development aid agenda from 1999 to 2016.

The paper is an in-depth case study drawing on a comprehensive analysis of publications, reports and archival materials.

The paper unveils how IFAC shaped the interpretation of capacity building and its associated practices in a manner aligned with its expansionary aims thereby transforming itself into a prominent actor within, what we term, the capacity building issue-based field. It unpacks the strategies pursued by IFAC as it mobilised economic, social and cultural resources in support of its global capacity building ambitions for the accountancy profession. It reveals how key interactions between actors in the international development exchange field and the professional exchange field of accounting underpinned IFAC’s infiltration of, and impact on the evolution of, the capacity building issue-based field. We show how IFAC increased its influence in this field despite initially operating on the periphery of the global development aid agenda.

The paper reveals how the global accountancy profession’s engagement with the capacity building activities of international development agencies became central to its commitment to serving the public interest. Our analysis suggests that deeper explorations of capacity building by the global accountancy profession in specific developing countries are required in order to determine whether these efforts have effectively catered to the needs of the citizens of those countries.

The work of professional accountancy organizations (PAOs) operating at the global level in the area of capacity building has been addressed in a fragmented fashion in prior research. This paper presents a unique analysis of developing alliances between the global accountancy profession and international aid agencies aimed at supporting the globalising efforts of IFAC within the realm of capacity building in international development aid. Theoretically, the paper advances prior work exploring the evolution of issue-based fields, in particular the role of inter-field relations in interstitial spaces within these processes.

This study aims to analyze the long-run dynamic relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth for developing nations.

This study develops a comprehensive financial inclusion index based on the UNDP methodology for 53 developing nations. The authors use second-generation unit root tests, cointegration techniques and an advanced dynamic common correlated effects estimator model called cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) to examine long-run dynamics among variables.

The tests confirm the presence of slope-heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependency. The second-generation panel unit root tests show the chosen variables are stationary at first difference. The bootstrap Westerlund cointegration result shows the variables are cointegrated in the long run. The CS-ARDL estimates conclude that financial inclusion positively enhances gross domestic product per capita in selected developing countries. The robustness check through augmented mean group estimation validates the findings.

The study makes three important contributions: first, it constructs a comprehensive financial inclusion index using 10 variables for a panel of 53 developing nations; second, the potential cross-section dependence and slope heterogeneity of panel data have been accounted for by applying the second-generation unit root tests; third, the study uses the dynamic common correlated effects estimator model (CS-ARDL) to examine long-run dynamics among variables.

There are many channels through which terrorism can influence macroeconomic variables, such as economic growth and international trade. However, the intensity of the consequences of terrorist events on the economy may be varied across countries based on the economic structure. Therefore, it is not unusual for the impacts of terrorism to vary across the developed and developing nations. Against this backdrop, this study assesses the influences of conflicts and terrorist activities on the growth of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 21 developed and 23 developing countries from 1970 to 2015. The stochastic properties of the variables are looked into by carrying out panel-specific Augmented Dicky-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Peron (PP) unit root test followed by estimating the dynamic regressions equations in structured balanced panel frameworks for selected developed and developing economies separately. This study draws on data from various sources namely, Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and World Development Indicators (WDI; World Bank). Our empirical findings imply that terrorist activities have a significant growth-limiting effect, and the extent and significance of impacts are higher in case of developing economies.

As the world economies have become more integrated and with the global economy subsequently growing, there is increasing concern regarding how such trends will affect the developing and developed nations’ trade, trade in services, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and climate change. In fact, the relationship between globalization and the environment has become quite contentious in policy circles. In part in response to these controversies, a burgeoning amount of academic attention has emerged that examines the globalization linkage between trade and economic growth as an after effect (positive and negative). Although there have been advances in the thinking about these relationships, significant challenges still persist. In light of the above, this chapter talks about the evolution of globalization, prevailing benefits and also caters to the views of some famous economists like Stiglitz, Simon Kuznets. The crucial aspects include the review of globalization on the basis of certain parameters like Trade (as % of GDP), Trade in services (as % of GDP), per capita CO₂ emissions and per capita GDP that have impacted the trends of both developed and developing nations. It arrives at the position that many current and proposed national and multilateral environmental policies are in a possible conflict with current and proposed trade and investment rules. When climate policy and global trade rules are combined, the nature of their linkage is often a function of both domestic and international politics. This also implies that, despite the worldwide awareness of climate change, the address of climate change in trade will become increasingly significant for reducing carbon footprints.

The purpose of this paper is to provide detailed findings regarding the perceived role of corporate governance in Zambia. There have been no detailed studies of opinions in a setting such as Zambia, i.e. a nation which has experienced relative political calm and which has an abundance of natural resources – but where corporate governance failures have been blamed directly for economic difficulties.

The study reports the results of a series of 24 in-depth interviews with Zambians, including politicians, regulators, senior business executives, transnational organisation representatives, academics and governance consultants. The discussions were conducted face-to-face and recorded in all cases.

Understanding of corporate governance is at an embryonic stage in Zambia, but embedded corruption is likely to require addressing before any meaningful change is likely. A range of isomorphic forces appear to be prevalent and the study argues that root and branch change in structures and attitudes is a necessity if improvements are to be forthcoming. The paper concludes with a call for unity in purpose and recognition of current malignancies.

Despite Zambia’s idiosyncrasies, the evidence suggests that a pan-African picture is emerging, with growing awareness of the potential benefits of improved corporate behaviour – but deep cynicism exists about the likelihood of these arising given corruption in reward structures. Such is the extent of embeddedness in power amongst those who benefit from current arrangements that both mimetic and coercive forces are argued to be ranged against any shift in extant systems and processes.

Two landmark studies of national culture undertaken approximately a quarter century apart present a unique opportunity for a longitudinal analysis of the shift in cultural values in work organizations over time. Using comparable data from Hofstede and GLO BE, we investigate the hypothesis that, in the rapidly developing nations of Asia, there has been a convergence of collectivist values in work organizations toward the level of collectivist values found in work organizations in the highly developed nations of the major economies. Findings suggest that collectivist values in rapidly developing nations are converging towards collectivist values of highly developed countries. This convergence is not exclusively due to economic growth or wealth but rather due to the speed of the economic growth. Specifically, periods of prolonged rapid economic transformation appear to also have a transforming effect on national cultural values. Implications of this finding and directions for future research are discussed.