Search results

This study aims to contribute to the existing literature by empirically investigating the impact of digital competitiveness and technology on corruption under the moderating effect of some cultural and economic control variables and providing evidence on the links between corruption and various cultural dimensions at the country level.

The cross-sectional sample covers 61 countries (41 high-income and 20 lower-income countries) during the 2016–2020 period, and the analysis was carried out for both the full sample and the subsamples.

The results provide clear evidence supporting the hypothesis that digitalisation and technology significantly affect the perceived level of corruption under the moderating role of cultural framework and economic development. Furthermore, the most significant cultural dimensions of corruption are individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and indulgence versus restraint, even if, in some cases, its influence might be felt differently when the results are estimated on subsamples. Thus, in the case of indulgence versus restraint, high-income countries with higher indulgence scores would register higher scores for the corruption perception index and thus a better control of corruption, while for lower-income countries, the more indulgent these countries are, the weaker the corruption control will be. Furthermore, our results validate a powerful and significant correlation between the index of economic freedom and corruption in both digitalisation and technology.

This study may have relevant implications for policymakers who need to recognise the role of digitalisation and technology in the fight against corruption but considering the cultural and economic characteristics specific to each country.

To the authors' knowledge, the relationship between digital competitiveness, technology and corruption within an economic and cultural framework, while highlighting the differences between high-income and lower-income countries, has not been previously documented in the literature. Thus, this article argues that the level of digital competitiveness and the adoption of technology would significantly impact the level of perceived corruption, although this impact could be felt differently by countries in the high-income category compared to countries in the lower-level income category.

The study examined the impact of financial development, foreign direct investment, market size and trade openness on domestic investment for 119 countries divided into four panels that are low-income countries (LIC), lower middle-income countries (LMIC), upper middle-income countries (UMIC) and high-income countries (HIC) between 1995 and 2019.

The present study bases its empirical procedure on the bases of the data mix. To this end, based on the presence of cross-sectional dependence, covariate-augmented Dickey–Fuller unit root and Westerlund cointegration second-generation tests were employed to validate the stationarity and cointegration of the variables, respectively. The novel Dynamic Common Correlation Effects estimator was employed to estimate the heterogeneous parameters while the Dumitrescu and Hurlin test was used to test for causality direction of the highlighted variables.

The empirical results show that market size and trade openness had a positive and statistically significant effect on domestic investment for all the income groups. Results also show that financial development had a positive and statically significant effect on domestic investment only for LMIC and HIC economies, while a positive and statistically insignificant effect was obtained for LIC, UMIC and the global panel. The causality results revealed a bidirectional relationship between domestic investment and the exogenous variables – financial development, foreign direct investment, market size and trade openness.

It is therefore, recommended that LIC and LMIC need to consider harmonising the financial system to lower credit limitations and adopt business-friendly policies. HIC and UMIC should seek more outward FDI policies and harmonise their trade policy, to reap more benefits from FDI and international trade.

On novelty, previous studies have been criticised for the effect on technical innovation of bank financing and institutional quality. This research tackles the deficiency using systematic institutional quality indicators and by taking other variables into account.

This study aims to examine the appropriate measures needed toward achieving sustainability of renewable energy production among developing and middle-income countries.

This study uses semi-annual panel data covering the period 2000–2020 among 152 developing and middle-income countries and Cox proportional hazard model for the analysis.

Estimates indicate that effective operations of environmental institutions, investment in research and development, subsidizing the production of renewable energy, government investment in producing renewable energy and investment in renewable energy production made by the private sector will contribute immensely toward achieving sustainability of renewable energy production.

This study recommends that governments should rationalize their expenditures to mobilize enough resources for investment in renewable energy production. Again, operations of environmental institutions should be enhanced through giving their managers’ performance contracts and licensing its employees. Enabling environment should be created for private sector to increase their investment in renewable energy production.

Empirical studies have been carried out exploring measures to deal with climate change. Nonetheless, the appropriate measures needed toward achieving sustainability of renewable energy production among developing and middle-income countries have not been explored in existing empirical studies. Hence, this study fills the gap in existing empirical studies.

Due to the high expense of obtaining and accessing scientific research, readers with diverse financial abilities are not offered equal opportunities. This study investigates the preferences for journal access types among Arab university academics and explores the implications of publishing research articles in open access vs closed access journals in low- and lower-middle income countries.

An online survey and an in-person focus group consisting of 74 scholars from Arab institutions throughout the Arab World were conducted.

Findings show that most professors at Arab universities favour open access publication without author fees. The results also show that this method of publishing research will help these nations advance by giving all citizens equal access to information and providing researchers with a good opportunity to be read and cited, which contributes to the overall progress of science.

This topic has not been investigated yet, and it is of great importance to university professors and stakeholders in higher education institutions in the Arab world.

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 outlines sustainability as associated with peace, good governance and justice. The perception of international tourists about security measures and risks is a key factor affecting destination choices, tourist flow and overall satisfaction. Thus, we investigate the impact of armed forces personnel, prices, economic stability, financial development and infrastructure on tourism.

This research used data from 130 countries from 1995 to 2019, which were divided into four income groups. This study employs a two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) technique and a novel tourism index comprising five relevant indicators of tourism.

A 1% increase in armed forces personnel expands tourism in all income groups – 0.369% High Income Countries (HICs), 0.348% Upper Middle Income Countries (UMICs), 0.247% Lower Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and 0.139% Low Income Countries (LICs). The size of the tourism-safety coefficient decreases from high to low-income groups. The impact of inflation is significantly negative in all panels, excluding LICs. The reduction in tourism was 0.033% in HICs, 0.049% in UMICs and 0.029% in LMICs for a 1% increase in prices. The increase in the global tourism index is more in LICs (0.055%), followed by LMICs (0.024%), UMICs (0.009%) and HICs (0.004%) for a 1% expansion in the gross domestic product (GDP)/capita growth. However, the magnitude of the growth-led tourism impact is greater in developing countries. A positive impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow was found in all panels like 0.016% in HICs, 0.050% in UMICs and 0.119% in LMICs for a 1% increase in FDI inflow. The rise in the global tourism index is 0.097% (HICs), 0.124% (UMICs) and 0.310% (LMICs) for a 1% rise in the financial development index. The increase in the global tourism index is 0.487% (HICs), 0.420% (UMICs) and 0.136% (LICs) for a 1% rise in the infrastructure index.

Empirical analysis infers important policy implications such as (a) establishment of a peaceful environment via recruitment of security personnel, use of safe city cameras, modern technology and law enforcement; (b) provision of basic facilities to tourists like sanitation, drinking water, electricity, accommodation, quality food, fuel and communication network and (c) price stability through different tools of monetary and fiscal policy.

First, it explains the effect of security personnel on a comprehensive index of tourism instead of a single variable of tourism. Second, it captures the importance of economic stability (i.e., economic growth, financial development and FDI inflow) in the tourism–peace nexus.

This paper proposes a new multi-dimensional financial inclusion index.

The authors employ two-stage principal component analysis (PCA) and aggregating indicators of availability, access and use. The paper first assesses the cross-country variations in the index and analyses trends over time for a sample of countries members of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) from 2010–2018. Second, it investigates factors that could explain the level of financial inclusion across countries.

The financial inclusion index shows a downward trend for the full sample over the period under investigation; however when splitting the sample by income group, it appears that high- and middle–income countries did not register the same trend. When examining the determinants of financial inclusion for the UfM countries, the authors find that macroeconomic, social and governance factors, as well as banking conditions, matter. Policy-makers in low- and middle-income economies should consider the importance of digital financial inclusion, which is substituting the role to traditional banking system, to close the gap and accelerate its development.

First, the authors provide a new measure of financial inclusion using a three-dimensional index: availability, access and use, for which weights are assigned using PCA. It uses data available for the UfM sample by combining data from different databases in order to include most indicators considered in the literature, as the majority of studies only use single measures (number of bank branches, ownership of a bank account, ratio of credits or deposits to gross domestic product [GDP], etc.). Second, by focussing on UfM countries, the study covers a region that includes both large developed and small developing economies that are connected via financial and trade ties, whilst previous studies generally give global evidence from an international sample with little or no economic ties. Third, splitting the sample by country income groups, the paper presents a more comprehensive representation of the cross-country variation in financial inclusion levels between high- and middle-income economies for this region.

This paper aims to investigate whether the perceived level of corruption influences companies' decision to address principles and standards aimed, inter alia, at fighting corruption [i.e. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), (2) United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), (3) International Standards Organisation (ISO) 26,000 and (4) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines] in companies' sustainability reporting.

The paper uses a sample of 1,171 sustainability reports published in the year 2017 by organisations from Asia and Africa's low- and middle-income countries.

Results from the Probit model reveal that corruption negatively affects corporate sustainability reporting activity. Indeed, the more companies are exposed to high levels of corruption, the less likely they appear to engage in sustainability reporting. Furthermore, the authors find clear regional and sector-level differences in the extent to which companies engage in sustainability reporting. The results show that Asian companies operating in the agricultural and financial services sectors exhibit significantly higher reporting activity, whilst those operating in the construction and mining sectors report less than the sectors' peers.

The authors' findings provide important implications for understanding companies' behaviour in the sustainability reporting in emerging economies as well as for designing corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure initiatives in the future.

This paper provides a better understanding of the impact of corruption on companies' reporting behaviour in the context of emerging economies.

This study presents time-series data estimations on the association between the indicators of institutional environment and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in India utilizing a comprehensive data set from 1996 to 2021.

The study employs the nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag (NARDL) model. The asymmetric ARDL framework evaluates the existence of cointegration among the factors under study and highlights the underlying nonlinear effects that may exist in the long and short run.

The significance of coefficients of negative shock to “control of corruption” and positive shock to “rule of law” is greater when compared to “government effectiveness, regulatory quality, political stability/absence of violence.” The empirical outcomes suggest the positive influence of rule of law, political stability and government effectiveness on FDI inflows. A high “regulatory quality” is observed to deter foreign investment. The “voice and accountability” index and negative shocks to the “rule of law” are exhibited to have no substantial impact on the amount of FDI that the country receives.

This study empirically examines the institutional determinants of FDI in India for a comprehensive period of 1996–2021. The study's findings imply that quality of the institutional environment has a significant bearing on India's inward FDI.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0375

Financial inclusion is a critical component of financial development, which disseminates accessible financial services to benefit all parts of society and consequently promotes economic growth. The study explores the dynamic common correlated effects of financial inclusion on economic growth in Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries.

The conventional econometric techniques overlook heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence and provide false results. Hence, a unique methodology, ‘Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCCE)’, is used, which can efficiently tackle the above-mentioned issues.

The DCCE estimation indicates a positive and significant impact of financial inclusion on economic growth in overall and higher-income OIC economies. Moreover, in the lower-income OIC group, financial inclusion is inversely correlated with economic growth, which converts into a positive linkage by including an interaction term of financial inclusion and institutional quality.

Based on the research outcomes, it is recommended that policymakers and governments of OIC economies seek to increase financial inclusion to achieve sustainable, optimal and inclusive economic growth.

The DCCE technique in this study considers heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence among countries and thus provides robust findings.

This study examines the role of financial development (FD) in enhancing the growth effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) in emerging and developing Asia from 1996 to 2019.

The study exploits the new broad-based Financial Development Index of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and adopts panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) to perform alternative empirical models for a multidimensional analysis of the FD threshold effect in the growth–FDI nexus.

The results show two thresholds of FD mediating the nonlinear effect of FDI on growth. FD beyond a certain level will enhance the growth effect of FDI, but very high levels of FD will not induce foreign investment to benefit economic growth in emerging and developing Asian economies. The impact of financial institutions on the FDI–growth link is stronger than that of financial markets. Besides, FDI’s effect on growth has an inverted-U shape conditional on financial depth, whereas it is positively associated with the accessibility and efficiency of the financial system.

These results suggest policy implications for emerging and developing Asian countries, emphasizing the other side of “too much finance” and the potential for improvement in the access to and efficiency of the financial system to boost the effects of FDI and FD in the growth of these economies.

The study is the first multifaceted investigation into the influence of FD on the growth effect of FDI. Beyond the previous empirical evidence showing only the impact of credit from banking sector, this study shows different mediating effects of different financial sectors and three dimensions of financing (depth, access and efficiency). The study suggests essential implications for the region in adjusting long-run policies to enhance the FDI–FD–growth link.