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Intellectual capital (IC) plays a crucial role in today’s volatile business landscape, yet its measurement remains complex. To better navigate these challenges, the authors propose the Integrated Intellectual Capital Measurement (IICM) model, an innovative, robust and comprehensive framework designed to capture IC amid business uncertainty. This study focuses on IC measurement models, typically reliant on secondary data, thus distinguishing it from conventional IC studies.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis across Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO Business Source Ultimate in February 2023. This yielded 2,709 IC measurement studies, from which the authors selected 27 quantitative papers published from 1985 to 2023.

The analysis revealed no single, universally accepted approach for measuring IC, with company attributes such as size, industry and location significantly influencing IC measurement methods. A key finding is human capital’s critical yet underrepresented role in firm competitiveness, which the IICM model aims to elevate.

This is the first SLR focused on IC measurement amid business uncertainty, providing insights for better management and navigating turbulence. The authors envisage future research exploring the interplay between IC components, technology, innovation and network-building strategies for business resilience. Additionally, there is a need to understand better the IC’s impact on specific industries (automotive, transportation and hospitality), Social Development Goals and digital transformation performance.

This study aims to identify the key factors driving consumer adoption attention toward FinTech services in a bank-based financial system to lay a firm ground for further policy recommendations to promote the dual development of FinTech and the banking industry in Vietnam as well as other emerging economies similar banking system.

A technology acceptance model with a data set of 387 observations collected from a thorough research design is used and proceeded with probit regression.

The paper finds that existing bank users are holding a high intention to approach FinTech services regardless of involved costs and time, suggesting a traditional banking system to open up the collaboration channel with FinTech firms in prospective business areas. The findings also reveal an interestingly important position of consumers’ latent needs in inclining consumers to use FinTech services in Vietnam.

In this study, the variable measurement is not comprehensive as the authors use a single question for each variable. Second, most of the respondents reside in two big cities of the country, which are currently witnessing the rising presence of FinTech companies. So, if the future penetration of FinTech firms reaches out of these big cities, a better research sample with a diversified geographic trait should be considered.

This study’s findings draw out valuable recommendations to bankers and especially policymakers to stimulate the future penetration of FinTech firms along with assuring and strengthening the important position of the banking sector in the economy.

This paper’s novelty lies in several aspects. First, this study provides a broad view of the market potentials for FinTech firms from the demand side on a wide range of FinTech services rather than focusing only on payment services as presented in previous studies. Besides, the paper also discovers a new factor attributing to the adoption intention of the FinTech end-users, the users’ latent needs. Third, these empirical results carry a considerable contribution to the limited literature on this topic in Vietnam. And, most importantly, this study’s findings significantly prove the noticeable contribution of consumers’ preference to the indisputable development of FinTech. This afterwards helps to shape viable governmental regulations to facilitate effective market penetration strategies of FinTech in accordance with nurturing the future strategic development of a bank-based financial system under the emergence of FinTech. Of which, the authors call for clear and official moves of the governmental bodies in facilitating the collaboration between FinTech and the banking system coupled with enhancing measures of customer protection in the financial field in Vietnam. The findings and the regulatory implications for our country could be a vital source and replicated for other emerging economies’ cases with similar traits of the financial system.

Despite the importance of tax policy in reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions, there is a dearth of research on the environmental impact of indirect taxes. This paper examines the impact of indirect taxes on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, with an emphasis on institutional quality.

The study uses the Government Revenue Dataset (2021), comprising 143 countries, dividing into 114 developing and 29 developed countries, during the period between 1996 and 2019. The author adopts panel data techniques, with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors to account for the issue of cross-sectional dependence (CSD).

The results indicate that indirect tax revenues have a negative and significant impact on CO₂ emissions for the total sample. The subsample analysis revealed that while indirect taxes reduce carbon emissions in developing countries, opposed results are reported for developed countries. This finding implies that most of the advanced countries have already reached a high level of taxes, at which carbon emissions increase as indirect tax increases further. Interestingly, the results revealed that institutional quality enhances the role of indirect taxes in mitigating carbon emissions for both developing and developed countries.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the sole study using the newly developed tax data by the United Nations University, World Institute for Development Research (UNU-WIDER) to investigate the impact of indirect taxes on carbon emissions, with an emphasis on institutional quality. The existing literature focuses on specific taxes, like carbon taxes, with no comprehensive research on the link between indirect taxes and carbon emissions.

The paper aims at addressing the following research questions: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency? And which pillars of institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

By specifying a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method where GHG emissions are considered as the bad output and the GDP is referred as the desirable one, the work computes the environmental efficiency into the appraisal of a production function for the European countries over three decades.

According to the countries' performance, the findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries. In this environmental context, the role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries.

This article attempts to analyze the role of different dimensions of institutional quality in different European countries' performance – in terms of mitigating GHGs (undesirable output) – while trying to raise their economic performance through their GDP (desirable output).

1. The paper aims at addressing the following research question: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

2. We adopt a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method, considering 40 European economies over a 30-year time interval.

3. The findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries.

4. The role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries, while the performance decreases for the low middle-income countries.

The paper aims at addressing the following research question: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

We adopt a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method, considering 40 European economies over a 30-year time interval.

The findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries.

The role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries, while the performance decreases for the low middle-income countries.

The investment behaviour of individuals has been a major area of interest for several researchers and policymakers due to its great impact on the economy. This study aimed to assess the investment behaviour of individuals in light of their risk appetite and how financial literacy regulates this relationship.

A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect responses from individuals using purposive and convenience sampling techniques. Individuals were presented with 16 investment avenues widely offered by the Indian financial market to choose from to construct a hypothetical portfolio. The association between risk appetite, financial literacy and the composition of the hypothetical portfolio was analysed using a gologit model.

Increased risk appetite increased the probability of respondents creating a portfolio with a greater proportion of risky assets and less diversification. Lower levels of financial literacy pointed towards portfolios with traditional and low-risk avenues. The results also revealed a significant moderating impact of financial literacy on risk appetite and the creation of the type of a hypothetical portfolio.

Even though the intended behaviour is a close estimate of actual behaviour, there is a possibility of deviation that cannot be ignored.

The present study provides insights into how individuals make portfolio choices by incorporating risk appetite and diversification factors whilst making investment decisions, thereby expanding the literature from an emerging economy perspective. The role of financial literacy as a moderator has not been studied in the domain of hypothetical portfolio creation in India, which has been empirically explored in the current study.

This study analyses configurations of national culture as boundary conditions of countries’ national systems of innovation (NSI). Drawing from the NSI approach, we argue that culture’s role is that of a contingency factor shaping the relationship between investments in innovation and national innovation outputs.

We assessed the moderation effect of national culture through a systematic, two-stage approach using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), which allows the analysis of changes induced by the moderator variables. Analyses were conducted with a diverse sample of 61 countries over a period spanning 12 years, from 2011 to 2022.

Findings reveal that investments in innovation, but not individual cultural dimensions, is a necessary condition for high innovation outputs. Furthermore, several configurations of cultural dimensions were identified as moderators of the relationship between investments in innovation and innovation outputs.

This study provides insights into cross-national innovation research by exposing the role of cultural configurations, rather than just individual cultural dimensions, as boundary conditions involved in the achievement of high levels of innovation.

Despite city authorities in Bangladesh being concerned about urban sustainability, they often face difficulties in addressing predominant urban challenges threatening urban sustainability, due to limited relevant literature. To reduce this gap, this study aims to address the predominant urban challenges and assess their severity levels in four city corporations of Bangladesh, e.g. Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barishal, and Gazipur.

Using a mixed-method approach, this study rigorously analyzed field-level data obtained from 1,200 residents across selected cities using diverse statistical techniques. The quantitative analysis included descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and chi-square tests, whereas qualitative insights were derived through thematic analysis.

The study uncovered nine predominant urban challenges under two crucial factors “Feeble Urban Management” and “Illicit Activities” that collectively explain 62.20% variance. “Feeble Urban Management” explains 44.17% variance, whereas “Illicit Activities” accounts for 18.13%. Within these challenges, uncontrolled urban sprawl, inadequate disaster management, congested roads, and shabby drainage and waste management pose significant threats to urban sustainability. Illicit activities, manifested by encroachment on water sources, grabbing roadside, destruction of natural properties, and activities undermining social security, compound the urban sustainability issue. Severity analysis reveals Sylhet (54.5%), Rajshahi (46.4%), and Barishal (31.2%) as highly impacted, whereas Gazipur exhibits moderate severity (66.7%).

The findings of this study reveal intrinsic insights into urban challenges in Bangladesh that will provide valuable guidance to city authorities, equipping them to implement integrated and effective initiatives and programs that overcome these predominant urban challenges, with a specific focus on Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Barishal city corporations.

Human capital is a portfolio of rich skills that the labour possesses. Human capital has attracted significant attention from scholars. Nevertheless, empirical findings on the utility of human capital have often been divided. To address the research gap in the literature, the authors attempt to understand how human capital plays a significant role in financial development and economic growth nexus.

The authors rely on secondary data published by the World Bank. The authors use econometric tools such as the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model and related statistical tests to study the relationship between human capital, India's financial growth and gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

Study findings suggest that human capital and financial development contribute significantly to economic growth. Further, the authors found that human capital has a positive and significant moderating effect on the path of joining financial development and economic growth.

The study contributes to the human capital debate. Despite the rich body of literature, the study based on World Bank data confirms the previous findings that investment in human capital is always useful for the financial and economic growth of the nation.

This paper reveals some unique findings regarding effect of financial development and economic growth nexus which opens the window of new dimension to think about their nexus. It also provides a different pathway to foster the economic growth by using human capital and financial development as together, especially in India.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of political stability on corruption by drawing upon a sample encompassing both developed and developing European and Asian countries.

The dataset, sourced from the Refinitiv database, spans from July 2014 to May 2022. Panel data techniques, specifically pooled estimation and dynamic panel data [generalized method of moments (GMM)] are employed. The analysis encompasses both fixed and random effects models to capture country-specific cross-sectional effects. To validate our findings, we perform a robustness test by including in the investigation four control variables, namely poverty, type of governance, economic freedom and inflation. To test heterogeneity, the dataset is further divided into two distinct subsamples based on the countries’ locations.

Empirical findings substantiate that political stability (viewed as the risk of government destabilization) has a positive and significant impact on corruption in all analyzed samples of European and Asian countries, though some differences are observed in various subsamples. When we take into account the control variables, these analysis results are robust.

This research provided a panel data analysis with GMM, while other empirical methodologies could also be used, like the difference-in-difference approach. However, our results should be validated by extending the time and the sample to a worldwide sample and using alternative measures of corruption and political stability. Moreover, our focus was on a linear and unidirectional relationship between the considered variables, but it would be interesting to test in our further research a non-linear and bidirectional correlation between them. Furthermore, we have introduced in the robustness test only four economic variables, but to consolidate our findings, we plan to include socioeconomic and demographic variables in future studies.

These outcomes imply that authorities should be aware of the necessity of implementing anti-corruption policies designed to establish effective agencies and enforcement structures for combating systemic corruption, to improve the political environment and the quality of institutions and to apply coherent economic strategies to accelerate economic growth because higher political stability and sustainable development determine a decrease in levels of corruption.

At the microeconomic level, the survival of organizations may be in danger from new types of corruption and money laundering. Therefore, in order to prevent financial harm, the top businesses worldwide should respond to instances of corruption through strengthened supervisory procedures. This calls for the creation of a mechanism inside the code of conduct where correct reporting of suspected situations of corruption would have a prompt procedure to be notified of. To avoid corruption in operational procedures, national plans and policies should be developed by government officials, executives and legislators on a national level, as well as by senior management and the board of directors on an organizational level. This might lower organizations' extra corruption-related expenses, assure economic growth and improve global welfare.

A novel feature of our research resides in its broad examination of a sizable sample of European and Asian countries regarding the nexus between corruption and political stability. The paper also investigates a less explored topic in economic literature, namely the impact of political stability on corruption. Furthermore, the study depicts policy recommendations, outlining effective and reasonable measures aimed at improving the political landscape and combating corruption.

This study aims to examine the relationship between the environment and tourism flows, as well as the economic variables of the 32 states of Mexico for the period 1999–2019 based on data availability. The related literature studying tourism and environmental impacts is scarce at a national level, with most of them being local case studies. Some international studies find that if the relationship exists, it is weak or nonexistent, using CO₂ as a proxy in most cases.

The present study uses panel data and cointegration panel methodologies, while also using geographic information systems to observe the distribution of variables at a state level between tourism and environmental variables.

The findings of the study are as follows: state gross domestic product, the inertia of environmental variables (i.e. volume of water treatment and solid waste), occupied rooms (proxy variable for tourism activity) and average temperature have an impact on the contemporary evolution of environmental variables; national and international tourist variables have no impact on the environment; the panels are integrated in such a way that there is a long-term equilibrium between states and some environmental care variables; and no conclusive evidence is found regarding the impact of tourism activity on the considered environmental variables.

The main limitations and areas of opportunity of the work refer to the amount of data available over time and the precision of the measurement of the variables. The availability, temporality and frequency of the data are also limitations of the research. An example of this is the nonexistence of CO₂ emissions at the state level. Additionally, studying other countries and regions for which there are limitations of data and applied studies is also a challenge.

The results are important for economies (in growth) and societies whose economic growth depends on tourism flows and have done little to reverse the damage that tourism has on the environment.

The models can contribute to study the relation between tourism and environmental variables and could be extended to regions, states and provinces for decision-making on actions to be taken for the present and future.

The originality of the research is innovative for the region: Mexico, Central and Latin America. There are no works that have studied these problems with this methodology and these variables. In terms of originality, the classic models of panel data and cointegration of panel data are useful and easily replicable for others to use for different countries. The results are relevant because there is apparently no relationship between tourism and some environmental variables in the short run, but there exists a weak and strong long-run relation between some of them.

本研究采用面板数据和协整面板模型方法, 同时利用地理信息系统(gis)观察州一级层面旅游和环境方面的变量分布。

本研究根据数据可用性, 研究了墨西哥32个州1999–2019年期间环境与旅游流量及经济变量之间的关系。在国家层面上研究旅游与环境影响的相关文献很少, 而且大多是地方的个案研究。一些国际研究发现, 即使有这种关系, 大多数案例中使用二氧化碳作为替代变量, 这种关系也是很弱或不存在。

i)国家国内生产总值, 环境变量的惯性(即水处理量和固体废物量), 占用的房间(旅游活动的代理变量)和平均温度对环境变量的现有演化有影响。ii)国内和国际旅游变量对环境没有影响。iii)面板数据以这样一种方式集成, 即国家和一些环境变量之间存在一种长期平衡。iv)关于旅游活动对所考虑的环境变量的影响没有确凿的证据。

这项工作的主要局限和机会领域是指随着时间的推移可获得的数据量和变量测量的精度。数据的可用性、时效性和频率也是本研究的局限性。这方面的一个例子是在州一级不存在二氧化碳排放。此外, 由于数据和应用研究的局限, 研究其他国家和地区也是一个挑战。

研究结果对经济增长依赖旅游业流量的经济体和社会具有重要意义, 这些经济体和社会对扭转旅游业对环境的破坏方面做得还不够。

这些模型有助于研究旅游业与环境变量之间的关系, 并可推广到地区、州和省, 以制定当前和未来的行动决策。

这项研究的原创性对该地区(墨西哥、中美洲和拉丁美洲)来说是具有创新性的。没有人用这种方法和这些变量研究过这些问题。就原创性而言, 面板数据和面板数据协整的经典模型是有用的且易于复制, 可供其他国家使用。 研究结果具有一定的相关性, 因为旅游业与部分环境变量在短期内不存在明显的相关性, 但在它们中的一些变量在长期内存在着或强或弱的相关性。

Se examina la relación entre medio ambiente y flujos turísticos, así como variables económicas de los 32 estados de México para el período 1999-2019 basado en la disponibilidad de datos. La literatura relacionada que estudia el turismo y los impactos ambientales es escasa a nivel nacional, siendo la mayoría de ellos estudios de casos locales. Estudios internacionales encuentran que, si la relación existe, es débil o inexistente, utilizando el CO2 como un indicador en la mayoría de los casos.

Se utilizaron metodologías de datos de panel y cointegración de panel, además sistemas de información geográfica para observar la distribución de variables a nivel estatal.

i) El Producto Interno Bruto Estatal, la inercia de las variables ambientales (es decir, volumen de tratamiento de agua y residuos sólidos), habitaciones ocupadas (proxy de la actividad turística) y temperatura promedio tienen un impacto en la evolución contemporánea de las variables ambientales, ii) las variables turísticas nacionales e internacionales no tienen un impacto en el medio ambiente, iii) los paneles están integrados de tal manera que existe un equilibrio a largo plazo entre turismo, crecimiento económico y algunas variables ambientales, y iv) no se encuentra evidencia concluyente con respecto al impacto de la actividad turística en las variables ambientales consideradas.

Las principales limitaciones y áreas de oportunidad del trabajo se refieren a la cantidad de datos disponibles en el tiempo y a la precisión de la medición de las variables. La disponibilidad, temporalidad y frecuencia de los datos también son limitaciones de la investigación. Un ejemplo de ello es la inexistencia de emisiones de CO2 a nivel estatal. Además, el estudio de otros países y regiones para los que existen limitaciones de datos y estudios aplicados también es un reto.

Los resultados son importantes para las economías (en crecimiento) y las sociedades cuyo crecimiento económico depende de los flujos turísticos y que han hecho poco por invertir los daños que el turismo produce en el medio ambiente.

Los modelos pueden contribuir a estudiar la relación entre el turismo y las variables medioambientales y podrían extenderse a regiones, estados y provincias para la toma de decisiones sobre las acciones a emprender para el presente y el futuro.

El artículo proporciona un análisis innovador y exploratorio hacia una perspectiva futura que agrega valor al turismo y la planificación para la sostenibilidad. La relación entre turismo y medio ambiente se ha estudiado durante varios años. La UNTWO ha abordado las consecuencias del turismo en el medio ambiente, particularmente, más basura, mayor consumo de agua, emisiones de CO2 y otros aspectos. Pocos trabajos estudian la relación entre estas variables.

La originalidad de la investigación es innovadora para la región: México, América Central y América Latina. No existen trabajos que hayan estudiado estos problemas con esta metodología y estas variables.

En términos de originalidad, los modelos clásicos de datos de panel y cointegración de datos de panel son útiles y fácilmente replicables para que otros los utilicen en diferentes países.

Los resultados son relevantes porque aparentemente no hay una relación entre el turismo y algunas variables ambientales a corto plazo, existe una relación débil y fuerte a largo plazo entre algunas de ellas.