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E-government development (EGD) is vital in enhancing the institutional quality and sustainable public service (SPS) delivery by eradicating corruption and cybersecurity crimes.

The present study applied econometric fixed-effect (FE) regression analysis and random forest (RF) algorithm through machine learning for comprehensive estimations in achieving SPS. This study gauges the nexus between the EGD as an independent variable and public service sustainability (PSS) as a proxy of public health services as a dependent variable in the presence of two moderators, corruption and cybersecurity indices from 47 Asian countries economies from 2015 to 2019.

The computational estimation and econometric findings show that EGD quality has improved with time in Asia and substantially promoted PSS. It further explores that exercising corruption control measures and introducing sound cybersecurity initiatives enhance PSS's quality and support the EDG effect much better.

The study concludes that E-Government has positively impacted PSS (healthcare) in Asia while controlling cybersecurity and institutional malfunctioning made an E-Government system healthier and SPS development in Asia.

This study added a novel contribution to existing E-Government and public services literature by comprehensively applied FE regression and RF algorithm analysis. Moreover, E-Government and cybersecurity improvement also has taken under consideration for PSS in Asian economies.

The study examines the relationship between the consequential social cost of market power (i.e. welfare performance of banks) and cost efficiency using data covering the period 2009 to 2017 from the Ghanaian banking industry.

The study adopts the ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effect (FE) panel regression and the quantile regression (QR) approaches to control for heterogeneity and provide increased room for policy relevance. The two-stage least squares instrumental variables (2SLS-IV) regression is used to ensure the robustness of the findings against the problem of possible reverse causality.

The results indicate a positive relationship between banks' welfare performance and cost efficiency, which suggests that greater cost efficiency hedges welfare losses. In other words, welfare gains and cost-efficient banks are not mutually exclusive. Also, the results show evidence that the sensitivity of welfare gain to cost efficiency depends on the knowledge of local market dynamics. Further, the findings from the QR estimation suggest that, but for welfare loss at low (Q.25) to the median (Q.50) quantiles, cost efficiency is a necessary and sufficient condition to hedge the welfare losses.

The results demonstrate that financial consumer protection cannot be achieved without cost efficiency in the presence of both foreign banks and high market knowledge. Therefore, our paper suggests an integrated cost efficiency policy approach that has the complementary effect of a robust information sharing mechanism and incentives to hedge against welfare losses in the banking sector of emerging economies. Moreover, if welfare gain is synonymous with cost-efficient banks, then the presence of a quiet life is typical of financial consumer protection.

This study provides insight into the importance of cost efficiency to the public policy of financial consumer protection in an era of foreign banks' dominance. From the review of prior literature, this paper is the first to apply the QR estimation technique to examine the effect of cost efficiency throughout the conditional distribution of bank welfare performance rather than just the conditional mean effect of cost efficiency.

Drawing on legitimacy theory, this study aims to investigate whether the benefits of the external assurance process pass beyond the current period and help firms improve corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in the subsequent periods. Furthermore, the authors examine whether corporate governance (CG) and firm visibility moderate the relationship between assurance and CSR performance.

The authors retrieved data from Thomson Reuters from 2002 to 2019 and executed a fixed-effects (FE) panel regression analysis. The country-level sample distribution includes 63 countries with 4,625 unique firms and 29,054 data points within these countries. The authors run several robustness tests using an alternative subsample, instrumental variable regression analysis, country-industry-year FE regression analysis, excluding the financial sector and including additional control variables and regression analysis based on propensity score matching.

The findings indicate that external assurance helps firms achieve greater CSR performance in the current period and the subsequent two periods following external assurance. However, external assurance exerts its strongest positive impact on CSR performance in the current period, and its influence extends, albeit at a weaker level, to the following two periods. Furthermore, the first moderation analysis reveals that governance structure helps firms translate the assurance process into the greater social performance but does not help to achieve higher environmental performance. The second moderation analysis reveals that firm visibility/size positively moderates between the assurance process and governance and social performance but not between the assurance process and environmental performance.

Despite the concurrent association between CSR performance and assurance being examined before, the lag-lead relationship is the novelty of the study to highlight the long-term effect of assurance on CSR performance. Besides, although the direct effect of both CG practices and firm visibility on CSR performance and the external assurance process has been investigated before, the authors extend the literature by examining the moderating effect of CG practices and firm visibility on the external assurance and CSR performance relationship. This provides a better explanation of the extent to which the effect of external assurance on CSR performance is constructed and conditioned by CG practices and firm visibility, thereby drawing attention to contingencies’ role in firms’ practices.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between corporate risk and the interaction between CEO incentive compensation and CEO overconfidence.

This empirical study performs random and fixed effect (FE) regression analysis. It uses option-implied measures of CEO overconfidence.

The authors contribute to the existing literature by showing (1) that the positive association between high CEO incentive compensation and corporate risk only exists in the sphere of overconfident CEOs and (2) that the positive association between overconfident CEOs and corporate risk only exists in the sphere of high CEO incentive compensation. The authors show that the combination of high CEO incentive compensation and CEO overconfidence is associated with an increase in corporate risk of approximately 6% while the individual effects are for all practical reasons negligible. The results imply that only the combination of high CEO incentive compensation and CEO overconfidence is associated with a significantly elevated level of corporate risk.

The findings are based on S&P 1500 non-financial firms in the period 2007–2016.

The findings have important implications in terms of CEO selection and compensation.

This study provides empirical evidence on the importance of the dual presence of high CEO incentive compensation and CEO overconfidence for corporate risk. The previous literature has primarily investigated these phenomena in isolation.

This study investigates the relative flexibility of payouts vis-à-vis investment in the UK, motivated by concerns regarding this market's distinct payout characteristics and limited relevant research. It addresses the information gap related to the use of conditional mean estimations and examines firm behavior across the investment distribution.

The sample is an unbalanced panel of 6,173 firm-year observations, from 271 non-financial firms in the FTSE-All Share Index, during 1990–2019. Estimation methods include pooled- ordinary least squares (OLS) and firm fixed-effects regressions as well as unconditional quantile regressions with firm fixed effects.

For the “average” firm results show a negative relationship between share repurchases and investment, amplified in the presence of financial constraints and growth opportunities. Quantile regressions analysis reveals heterogeneous firm behavior as this relationship becomes stronger in successive quantiles of the investment distribution and disappears at the upper/lower extremes. Results suggest that UK firms exploit the inherent flexibility of share repurchases to facilitate investment. However, this flexibility appears irrelevant to firms with extremely high/low investment, characterized by significant differences in growth opportunities, cash flows and external financing cost. Dividends and investment are independent across the investment distribution, underlining the rigidity of dividends in the UK.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relative flexibility of payouts vis-à-vis investment in the UK, using firm-level financial data and at points other than the conditional mean. Its value lies in that it shows that share repurchases facilitate rather than impede investment and thus do not corroborate relevant concerns by economists and policymakers. Additionally, by utilizing a relatively new methodology it uncovered heterogeneous firm behavior across the investment distribution suggesting that conditional mean estimations should be applied with caution at least for highly heterogeneous samples.

Environmental degradation is a global concern that results from massive economic activities. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are one of the environmental degradation indicators. This study investigates the impact of population, oil consumption, international tourist arrival, and corruption on CO₂ emissions in ASEAN’s five developing countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam from 1998 to 2017. This study employed panel Fixed-effect (FE) regression to estimate the panel data generated by British Petroleum and World Bank. The result revealed that the population has a significant positive effect on CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, oil consumption has a significant positive effect on CO₂ emissions. Meanwhile, the effect of tourism and the corruption perception index (CPI) as a proxy of corruption on CO₂ emissions was positive but not significant. Authorities should construct such policies to reduce CO₂ emissions by applying low-carbon technologies, green mass transport, and creating less corrupt behavior.

This study aims to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) adoption on differentiation and cost leadership strategies and how governance structure moderates this CSR–strategy relationship.

The study data were retrieved from Thomson Reuters for non-financial firms between 2013 and 2019, and a fixed-effects panel regression analysis was executed.

The results indicate that CSR fosters cost leadership strategy but weakens differentiation strategy. This result supports the value generation school for cost leaders but also confirms the agency theory perspective for differentiators. Moreover, the governance structure does not moderate the relationship between a firm's CSR engagement and its business strategy, which implies a lack of corporate policies that concurrently consider both its CSR investment and strategies.

The findings of this study imply that cost leaders can integrate CSR practices into their business strategy and use their CSR engagement to increase their competitive position by stimulating cost efficiency and creating greater turnover. On the contrary, for differentiators, there is a trade-off between environmental and social engagement and business strategies. Thus, they are advised to enrich their unique product development abilities through the integration of environmental and social practices and reinforce their competitive position by addressing stakeholders' interests. The practical implication of the moderation analysis is that there is no rooted corporate policy behind the connection between CSR and firm strategy for both cost leaders and differentiators, which constitutes a missing link.

The findings of this study are of critical importance for firms, offering justification for the integration of two vital perspectives: social and environmental sustainability and financial sustainability. The moderating effect of governance performance tests the upper echelon's role in maintaining both sustainability perspectives concurrently and strengthening the legitimacy of the firms in society. Although maintaining a business strategy is important for shareholders' interests, pursuing a social and environmental sustainability strategy is crucial for meeting the expectations of all stakeholders.

In recent years, the field of financial technology (Fintech) has garnered significant attention due to advancements in technology, evolving consumer preferences and the growing need for financial services that are more accessible and user-friendly. The exponential expansion of Fintech is presenting novel prospects and obstacles for business. This study aims to investigate the relationship between gender diversity on corporate boards and firms’ performance, with a particular focus on the moderating role of Fintech.

The study sample consisted of financial sector firms listed on the Bahrain Bourse (banks and insurance firms) during the period 2016–2022. The data were gathered primarily from annual reports and the Bahrain Bourse website. The independent variable represents the percentage of female directors on corporate boards while firms’ accounting and market-based performance were measured using return on assets and Tobin’s Q variables. The moderating variable, Fintech, was measured using a checklist developed using the Global Fintech Adoption Index. Fixed effect (FE) regression was used to analyze the study data. An alternative gender diversity measure was used to test the reliability of the main regression analysis.

The results of the study indicate a positive relationship between gender diversity on corporate boards and financial performance. Additionally, the findings of the study highlighted the positive impact of Fintech practices on firms’ performance. Nevertheless, the impact of Fintech on the relationship between board gender diversity and corporate performance was found to be insignificant.

The study sample included a particular sector in a single country, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Also, the current study applied FE regression to analyze the data; however, other econometric approaches could be used to overcome the endogeneity issue.

The findings of this study may have implications for policymakers and society, particularly in terms of promoting gender diversity and Fintech innovation.

This study contributes to the existing body of research by examining the potential impact of the percentage of female directors and the utilization of Fintech on firms’ performance in Bahrain. Given the ongoing endeavors to provide advanced Fintech solutions in the financial sector and the increasing focus on enhancing gender diversity in Bahraini corporate boards, this research aims to provide additional evidence in this domain. Moreover, this study stands out as one of the limited number of research endeavors that use Fintech as a moderating variable in the investigation of the impact of female directors on firms’ performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how outside directors' experience and their compensation affect firm performance through the quality of their monitoring and advising, when traditional board structure devices do not seem to work well.

First, the authors use a two‐way fixed effects (FE) regression model to explore the effects of outside director experience and compensation on firm performance. Second, in order to address the potential endogeneity problem of outside director compensation, the authors adopt two‐stage least squares regression (2SLS).

Controlling for other potentially influential variables, it is found that outside director experience and outside director compensation have an economically positive impact on a firm's accounting and market performance. Even when taking into account the endogeneity problem of outside director compensation, outside director compensation and experience still have positive effects on firm performance, consistent with the authors' predictions.

It is inferred that regulators are able to ask publicly owned firms to provide outside director's experience and compensation in detail. In addition, future research should investigate the social relationships between outside directors, which also affect the functions of monitoring and advising.

First, this paper contributes to this area of the extant literature by simultaneously considering the direct impacts arising from the outside director's experience and compensation. Second, the paper highlights the importance of considering multiple dimensions of director's experience in assessing its effects on firm performance.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on firm performance (FP) in the Indian context.

This study is based on annual data of 200 companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the period 2012–2019. The authors have used the fixed-effects (FE) regression and system generalized method of moments to estimate the impact of board gender diversity and workforce gender diversity (WGD) on FP. The authors have used Blau's Index (BI) and Shannon's Index (SI) to measure gender diversity. Further, the authors have used return on assets and Tobin's Q (TBQ) to measure FP.

The authors' panel regression results suggest that board gender diversity and WGD have a positive and statistically significant impact on FP. The authors' findings are robust across different methods of estimation and alternative measures of FP.

This paper examines the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on FP of 200 companies listed on BSE. The authors' study contributes to the literature that is sparse in the Indian context and provides new insights on the impact of board and WGD on FP. The findings have useful policy implications. To achieve better performance, it is imperative to appreciate gender diversity at the governance and workforce level in a fast-growing economy like India.