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In recent years, investing with robo-advisors has gained momentum and is seen as a simplifying approach for individual investors to participate in financial markets. This chapter contributes to a better understanding of the concept of a robo-advisory and its implications for private investors by discussing its past, present, and future. It explores key issues, like cost-efficiency, historical performance, and automation levels, based on research and industry insights. Moreover, this chapter examines a robo-advisor's benefits, limitations, and challenges, like behavioral biases, regulation, and risk profiling. Finally, the importance of the ongoing megatrends of AI and green investing is examined concerning a robo-advisory.

To cope successfully with the pressures imposed by a devastating pandemic and other challenges, companies and policymakers need to look at how they conceptualize, define, measure and operationalize “value”. This paper aims to support this conversation.

This study presents a historical review of how the value construct has been conceptualized over time, demonstrating that its history is one of tension and debate with conceptualizations swinging between objective (i.e. the value of something exists independent of the observers) and subjective (i.e. the value of something depends on the personal response of the observer to what is being considered) views over time.

This paper outlines the implications to researchers of value’s low construct clarity, offering suggestions designed to exploit rather than ignore the duality of the value construct. Instead of thinking of the value construct as being subjective or objective, this study recommends that scholars consider value’s objectivity and subjectivity as being interrelated and complementary. The paper recommends that researchers use both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in studying this construct.

A major limitation of this paper is the word count limitation restricting the extent to which this paper could explore a more comprehensive list of the conceptualizations of value throughout history.

This paper presents practitioners with a nuanced understanding of value that should assist those interested in examining the worth of investments with observable expenses but less quantifiable outputs.

The authors have not found a similar analysis of the various conceptualizations of value.

Prior research suggests a chief executive officer’s (CEO) background is highly predictive of the strategic predisposition. This paper aims to focus on the need for accuracy in the categorization of CEO background and the impact that modest, nuanced changes in coding definitions yield.

This study evaluates the use of biographic and demographic information of CEOs to provide a more nuanced and expansive approach to understanding the influence of legal education and experience on business strategy. Propositions as to more nuanced coding definitions are developed. Building upon Fligstein (1987), a proof-of-concept example is developed using CEO information available for 2010. That data is then reexamined using an altered method (Modified Fligstein) to discern changes in the number of CEOs contained within the background categories.

The two categorizations performed reveal that substantial differences in the number of CEOs coded into a category can come from relatively small changes in categorical definitions. In comparing the first categorization to the second, each of the vocational categories experienced a change, ranging from a decrease of 11.1% to an increase of 142.9%.

This study informs both theory and practice by increasing the efficacy of the use of biographic and demographic information to assess the strategic orientation of executives. It postulates and demonstrates that simple changes in the categorical definition produce significant changes and can skew empirical results that reduce the utility of prior studies.

The purpose of this study is to provide evidence that government financing behavior has an impact on the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of enterprises.

This paper uses debt data from local government financing vehicles to measure the local government debt in China. Based on the data of listed manufacturing firms in China from 2010 to 2018, this paper uses the Tobit model to verify the impact of local government debt and firms' OFDI.

The results indicate that local government debt impedes firms' OFDI, with a more pronounced impact on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and those with higher political connections. Furthermore, our study suggests that the dampening effect of local governments on firms' OFDI is mitigated in regions following the implementation of the Local Government Debt Management Act.

This study verifies the negative impact of local government debt activity on firms' overseas investments. This is not due to debt crowding out, but rather to the fact that local governments prefer to keep resources locally to stimulate the economy. This paper offers novel insights into the theoretical mechanisms by which local government behavior influences firms' investment activities in emerging markets.

The present study reviews the literature on the history and evolution of investment strategies in the stock market for the period from 1900 to 2022. Conflicts and relationships arising from such diverse seminal studies have been identified to address the research gaps.

The studies for this review were identified and screened from electronic databases to compile a comprehensive list of 200 relevant studies for inclusion in this review and summarized for the cognizance of researchers.

The study finds a coherence to complex theoretical documentation of more than a century of evolution on investment strategy in stock markets, capturing the characteristics of time with a chronological study of events.

There were complications in locating unpublished studies leading to biases like publication bias, the reluctance of editors to publish studies, which do not reveal statistically significant differences, and English language bias.

Practitioners can refine investment strategies by incorporating behavioral finance insights and recognizing the influence of psychological biases. Strategies span value, growth, contrarian, or momentum indicators. Mitigating overconfidence bias supports effective risk management. Social media sentiment analysis facilitates real-time decision-making. Adapting to evolving market liquidity curbs volatility risks. Identifying biases guides investor education initiatives.

This paper is an original attempt to pictorially depict the seminal works in stock market investment strategies of more than a hundred years.

This study explores a novel conception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) hybridity and investigates its effect on returns following CSR announcements and the moderating role of aspirational CSR talk.

Based on an event study of 136 Chinese companies’ CSR announcements, this study empirically insights into an overall tension between the short-term firm performance (FP) loss and medium-term FP success of CSR hybridity.

First, CSR hybridity has a negative impact on short-term FP. Second, although there is positive effect on medium-term FP, this influence is not permanent. Third, aspirational CSR talk has a moderating role on the positive relationship between CSR hybridity and FP. These results point to the unique features of hybridity that require time to diffuse the impacts.

First, by adopting new concept of CSR hybridity, this study contributes to the literature by considering better solutions to integrate strategic CSR. Second, by investigating the complexity of the CSR hybridity–FP dialogue, the results provide insights into the questions of why and when organizations could be incentivized to adopt hybrid CSR approaches. Third, this study contributes to the CSR–FP and stakeholder literature by demonstrating that aspirational talk is key in CSR’s medium-term success. The implication of this is a growing pressure on companies’ CSR communications with investors through managerial talk that depicts organizational ambitions for CSR engagement.

With corporate social responsibility (CSR) becoming mandatory, several firms in India have been compelled into spending resources on CSR while their business strategy and processes were unprepared to take up CSR activities, effectively. In this light, the CSR relationship with other business functions would be altered. Using Thomson Reuters data from 2010 to 2018 (pre-mandate to post-mandate) this study aims to re-examine the relationship between CSR and financial performance.

The current study is rooted in the bandwagon-bias effect theory and uses a long-term data (2010–2018) of Indian firms. It uses Refinitiv Thomson Reuters ESG rating to measure CSR and accounting measures for financial performance (FP) to make a pre-post analysis of the impact that mandatory CSR regime has had on firms performance. The study uses the weighted panel regression method.

The relationship between CSR and FP is different when CSR was voluntary than when it has been mandated by Law. CSR has a positive effect over the FP during the voluntary phase but this positive relationship weakens during the mandatory phase. The waning effect of CSR over FP substantiates the presence of bandwagon bias effect which can be explained by the crowding-in of several companies engaged in CSR activities because of the mandatory CSR law.

Few countries have made CSR mandatory therefore CSR literature is limited. But mandating CSR is a growing phenomenon so this study augments to the body of knowledge. Until now literature generally converged on a positive relationship between CSR performance and FP but the current study shows altering directions to this relationship in a changing CSR environment. The use of the bandwagon-bias theory contributes to the theoretical approaches. Theoretically, the findings add to the body CSR literature and offer impetus to the evolving domain of impact measurement and reporting.

Results of the study offer a clear indication to managers that they need to re-strategise their CSR activities during the mandatory CSR environment if they wish to draw instrumental benefits of a positive impact on the FP of their firms. CSR expenditure is now a leveller so managers may either exceed the mandatory 2% expenditure as some firms did during the voluntary CSR phase or else design their CSR implementation plans to bring about a more impactful positive change. Communicating the impact of CSR to influential and powerful stakeholders beyond the mandatory reporting to the government is yet another way through which managers can draw benefits of CSR activities. Additionally to draw positive results from CSR activities firms may consider adopting international reporting and benchmarking standards such as the GRI and ISO 26000. Finally, the results of the study can be used by policymakers to make a note that the CSR law is causing a weakening of the financial benefits and therefore.

The results of the study can be used by policymakers also need to make a note that the CSR law is causing a weakening of the financial benefits and therefore firms are adopting shortcuts, by donating the required amount of funds. But donation of funds defeats the real purpose of mandatory CSR which is social impact, therefore the regulators may want to make the necessary changes unplug the gaps in the CSR law to ensure better adherence to the law in spirit and a real impact on the ground activities.

While CSR–FP relationship has been extensively explored but limited studies have explored this relationship in a mandatory CSR environment and no other work presents a comparative view of the CSR–FP relationship, namely, before and after the mandatory CSR policy. The current study is one of the limited few studying the impact of mandatory CSR policy on FP, and the only one that uses the bandwagon-bias effect to explain the phenomenon of weakening impact of CSR on FP of firms. Bandwagon-bias effect has been used in studying consumer behaviour, where group effect impacts behaviour of individuals and with mandatory CSR policy, firms following the other firms leading to crowding in. Using the bandwagon-bias effect has found limited attention from the CSR scholars, the current study uses this theoretical basis and therefore augments the CSR literature.

This paper aims to analyze the factors that affect the attitudes of Armenian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) regarding digitalization, examining whether they view it as a tool to foster innovation and business growth, while also assessing the extent to which digitalization mitigated the negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

The empirical approach is based on data collected from 452 Armenian SMEs, which were further analyzed using SPSS Statistics 23.0 software. Scales for assessing the COVID-19 impact, innovation and digitalization were constructed and validated. To test five hypotheses, binomial logistic regression was conducted to appraise the importance of digitalization for Armenian SMEs, including the ability to mitigate the consequences of the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

The results of the analysis showed that the economic sector plays a significant role in forming the expectations of firms on the positive impact of digitalization, while the company size does not affect them. This paper found that the provision of online services before the pandemic did not help Armenian SMEs to be less affected by the crisis. Furthermore, the perception of whether digitalization facilitated innovative processes, products and services did not depend on the degree of being affected by COVID-19. Finally, the findings indicate that the more agile companies which had the ability to convert their business model into an e-business model were less affected by the crisis.

This paper contributes to the literature by studying the effect of digitalization on SMEs, as well as how SMEs in small developing countries like Armenia mitigated the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current work is unique as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no prior empirical studies focusing on impact of digitalization and innovation induced by exogenous shocks in an under-researched country like Armenia.

There does not exist any precise definition of ‘development’. In view of the indispensability of an interpretation of this concept a degree of speculation seems to exist in a development process. This is the reason this chapter has been included in this work. No scholar has precisely defined ‘development’ and ‘developing’ countries. It is believed that indigenous people know best what would be most suitable for them for development of their country. However, any discussion of these topics becomes incomplete, controversial, etc. in the absence of any precise definition. This chapter is no exception to this although an attempt has been made to outline development.