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The bread and butter of marginal communities primarily rely on their artisanal work, to which the communities’ women have notable contributions despite facing numerous challenges. This study aims to unveil the challenges along with latent opportunities of different marginal women entrepreneurs in the rural areas of Bangladesh.

This study used narrative inquiry to explore the real-life business phenomena of 15 marginal women entrepreneurs with more than 5 years of business experience living in 4 districts of Bangladesh. This approach was used to document participants’ responses through the storytelling of their daily business experiences.

The findings of this paper indicate that vulnerable living conditions, social negligence, availability of substitutes, frequent sickness, increasing price of raw materials, lack of entrepreneurial skills and lack of managerial skills are the major challenges of marginal women entrepreneurs. In contrast, minimum capital requirement, home-based business, traditional profession, retaining cultural heritage and lack of accountability are the main opportunities that motivate marginal women to continue their entrepreneurial activities.

The insight of this research can promote and sustain marginal women entrepreneurship and aid researchers, policymakers and businesses in improving the various entrepreneurial aspects of informal community entrepreneurs in developing countries. However, the study was limited to five marginal community entrepreneurs (Rishi, Kumor, Jele, Cobbler and Kamar) in Bangladesh. Therefore, conducting future research encompassing all marginalized communities is recommended, and empirical studies on this domain are highly encouraged.

The insight of this research can promote and sustain marginal women entrepreneurship and aid researchers, policymakers and businesses in improving the various entrepreneurial aspects of informal community entrepreneurs in developing countries.

In the authors’ knowledge, this is unique research on marginal women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.

Prior research shows that religiosity affects the degree of managers' risk aversion. As a result, religious firms are less likely to invest in R&D activities. Moreover, US GAAP treats these investments as expenses. For this reason, religious firms have fewer expenses in their earnings and are less likely to be in financial distress.

Data are collected from Worldscope and the Churches and Church Membership files of the American Religion Data Archive website from 1985 to 2018. With 18,199 observations in US context, the authors used the marginal effect to test the mediating effect of R&D accounting treatment.

The authors find that the marginal effect of religiosity on financial distress with US GAAP is higher than the marginal effect of religiosity on financial distress with capitalization of R&D costs, which means that accounting treatment can explain the relation between religiosity and financial distress in the US context.

The authors used linear interpolation and linear extrapolation data to be able to conduct this research over a period of 1985–2018. For future researches, the authors propose to test other factors which can explain the relationship between religiosity and financial distress based on the ethics element.

These results should be of interest to regulators because treating R&D activities as expenses can destroy the accounting performance of firms that prefer investing in risky projects. This favoritism prevents the comparison between two firms in the same industry with different risk-taking behaviors. This problem is more prevalent if the authors have two firms with different ratios of religiosity. This paper suffers from a major limitation related to data availability.

This may be the first study that investigates why religious firms are less likely to be in financial distress. This paper notes that religious firms are less likely to be in financial distress because their conservative behavior towards R&D activities coincides with the conservative R&D accounting treatment. In fact, the mismatch between expenses and revenues from R&D activities can cause financial distress.

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of corporate reputation (hereafter CR) and the degree of economic development on firms’ cost of capital remains unresolved. This study addresses these issues.

Using a global sample across 20 countries, the study investigates the discrete and joint effects of CR and jurisdictional economic development on the cost of equity (COE) and cost of debt (COD) capital. The analysis encompasses a dual data set, comprising 1,308 observations for COE and 1,223 observations for COD, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of these dynamics.

The findings indicate that CR leads to a reduction in the cost of capital for reputable firms. Nevertheless, the extent of this decrease varies per type of capital and firm’s reputation level and is contingent upon the economic development level within the firm’s jurisdiction. Particularly noteworthy is the moderating effect of economic development on CR, which shows that COE capital tends to be lower for reputable firms operating in economically developed jurisdictions. Albeit, this is not the case for COD capital for reputable firms in similarly developed jurisdictions.

This study illustrates that effective CR management, aimed at reducing the cost of capital, necessitates a combination of the firm’s unique competitive advantage and the economic development context of its jurisdiction to truly achieve its intended goal.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first global study to explore the impact of CR on both COE and COD capital. Furthermore, this study is primarily towards understanding the moderating role of economic development in the relationship between CR and cost of capital.

Based on the organizational learning theory, this study regards market orientation as market-based learning and seeks to advance insight into how proactive and responsive market orientations affect two kinds of open innovation strategies, sourcing and selling. A firm’s information and communication technology (ICT) capability is considered an essential moderator in these relationships.

This study adopted a quantitative design and used the questionnaire survey method to collect data. The authors finally collected data on samples in China. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that proactive and responsive market orientations act as antecedents of open innovation, showing linear and curvilinear relationships between them. Specifically, responsive market orientation positively affects selling, and proactive market orientation positively affects sourcing. Responsive market orientation has an inverted U-shaped relationship with sourcing, and proactive market orientation has a U-shaped relationship with selling. In addition, ICT capability strengthens the positive effects of market orientation on open innovation and weakens the negative effects.

Drawing on organizational learning theory, this study provides a novel perspective to explain the complex mechanism between market orientation and open innovation. This study also explores the moderating role of ICT capability in this process, which advances research on how to select open innovation strategies under different conditions.

This paper aims to investigate the heterogeneous effects of macroeconomic and financial factors across various distributions of financial deepening in 22 African countries over the past two decades (2000–2019).

The paper uses a recent method of moments quantile regression, which accounts for the often overlooked heterogeneity effects. The analysis focuses on the banking sector, which is predominant in Africa, using a broad range of macroeconomic and financial indicators.

The findings show that gross domestic product per capita positively and significantly impacts financing deepening with an increasing marginal benefit as depth increases. Trade openness positively and substantially affects only high financial deepening. Real interest rate, real exchange rate and inflations negatively and significantly affect financial deepening, especially at higher than lower levels. Financial stability positively and substantially influences financial deepening with an increasing marginal benefit as the depth increases. Bank lending interest rate, bank lending–deposit rate spread, bank concentration and return on equity negatively and substantially impact higher levels of financial deepening than lower levels.

These findings are crucial to policymakers and development partners, as promoting a favourable financial environment and stable macroeconomic policies based on the heterogeneity of financial depths can increase debt financing in Africa.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first attempts to analyse the heterogeneous effects of macroeconomic and financial determinants on varying levels of financial depth in Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of demand information sharing on products’ greening levels with downstream competition. Specifically, this study examine two types of green products, “development-intensive” (DI) and “marginal-cost intensive” (MI), in a two-echelon supply chain where the manufacturer produces substitutable products, and competing retailers operate in a market with uncertain demand.

The authors adopt the manufacturer-led Stackelberg game-theoretic framework and consider a multistage game. This study consider how retailers receive private signals about uncertain demand and decide whether to share this information with the manufacturer, who then decides whether to acquire this information at a certain given cost. This paper considers backward induction and Bayesian Nash equilibrium to solve the model.

The authors find that in the absence of competition, information sharing is the only equilibrium and improves the greening level under DI, whereas no-information sharing is the only equilibrium and improves the greening level under MI, an increase in downstream competition drives higher investment in greening efforts by the manufacturer in both DI and MI and the manufacturer needs to offer a payment to the retailers to obtain demand information under both simultaneous and sequential contract schemes.

This paper contributes to the literature by examining how the nature of products (margin intensive green product or development intensive green product) influences green supply chain decisions under information asymmetry and downstream competition.

This paper aims to examine how the rise of financial technology (Fintech) lending affects bank competition. Moreover, this study also identifies the structure of Indonesian commercial banking sector and the different behaviour of competition among bank groups (based on their size, type and ownership) and the joint impact of COVID-19 due to the rise of Fintech lending.

Using an unbalanced panel data set of 118 commercial banks in Indonesia over the period 2018–2022, both static panel and 2SLS/IV data analysis were used and found that random effect model is the best model.

The results show that the Indonesian commercial banking sector can be considered as monopolistic competition. Moreover, using the Lerner index reveals that the entry of the Fintech lenders increases bank competition. Furthermore, there were different responses to the impact of Fintech lending on bank competition among state-owned banks, private banks, regional development banks and foreign banks. Greater efficiency and stability lead to greater market power. In the meantime, higher level of asset growth, capitalisation and cost-to-income ratio increase the competition. Lastly, higher bank credit growth and lower inflation boost overall bank competitiveness.

This study highlights some policy recommendations for commercial banks to be aware of the coming of Fintech lenders because they have started to increase the market competition. The government should create a more collaborative ecosystem between banks and Fintech lending to anticipate unhealthy competition.

This study will contribute to the literature by expanding the determinants of bank competition by considering the rise of Fintech lending in the market.

This research examines the relationship between green innovation and firm performance, focusing on identifying the moderating effects of government subsidies and digital transformation R&D investments. The study aims to provide insights on how firms can leverage green innovation for enhanced performance while addressing potential drawbacks.

This study adopts a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both analytical models and empirical analyses. It investigates the curvilinear relationship between green innovation and firm performance and explores the moderating roles of government subsidies and digital transformation R&D investments.

The findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between green innovation and firm performance, indicating that initial investments in green innovation led to performance improvements, but beyond a certain point, the returns diminished. The study also finds that government subsidies and digital transformation R&D investments significantly enhance the positive impact of green innovation up to the optimal threshold and help mitigate negative effects.

The research provides practical guidance for firms on managing their green innovation investments to maximize performance benefits. It also offers insights for policymakers on designing effective subsidies and support mechanisms to promote environmental sustainability and economic growth.

This study contributes to the literature by elucidating the complex relationship between green innovation and firm performance and highlighting the critical roles of government subsidies and digital transformation R&D investments. It offers valuable implications for businesses seeking to balance environmental and economic objectives and policymakers aiming to foster sustainable and profitable practices.

With more cities aiming to achieve climate neutrality, identifying the funding to support these plans is essential. The purpose of this paper is to exploit the present of a structured green bonds framework in Sweden to investigate the typology of abatement projects Swedish municipalities invested in and understand their effectiveness.

Marginal abatement cost curves of the green bond measures are constructed by using the financial and abatement data provided by municipalities on an annual basis.

The results highlight the economic competitiveness of clean energy production, measured in abatement potential per unit of currency, even when compared to other emerging technologies that have attracted the interest of policymakers. A comparison with previous studies on the cost efficiency of carbon capture storage reveals that clean energy projects, especially wind energy production, can contribute to the reduction of emissions in a more efficient way. The Swedish carbon tax is a good incentive tool for investments in clean energy projects.

The improvement concerning previous applications is twofold: the authors expand the financial considerations to include the whole life-cycle costs, and the authors consider all the greenhouse gases. This research constitutes a prime in using financial and environmental data produced by local governments to assess the effectiveness of their environmental measures.

In the construction of charging piles, traditional gas stations possess significant advantages in terms of regional and financial resources. The transformation of gas stations into “refueling+charging” integrated gas stations relies on charging pile manufacturers and government, involving coordination issues with them. This paper aims to propose a joint coordination contract based on the principles of cost-sharing and revenue-sharing. The objective is to achieve systemic coordination among integrated gas stations, charging pile manufacturers, and the government, optimizing the planning of the quantity of charging piles and charging prices.

We have constructed an operational system model based on the Stackelberg game between charging pile manufacturers, integrated gas stations, and government. We have analyzed the optimal quantity of charging piles and charging prices under the impact of government subsidy policies in both decentralized and centralized operation scenarios. Additionally, we have proposed a joint coordination contract based on cost-sharing and revenue-sharing to coordinate this tripartite operational system.

The study reveals that, under simple cooperative contracts, the optimal decision does not yield maximum profits for the operational system due to the “double-marginal effect”. However, under the impact of the joint coordination contract, which combines cost-sharing and revenue-sharing as proposed in this paper, gas stations will consider the charging pile manufacturer’s costs and government subsidies when determining the optimal quantity and price. This not only achieves system coordination but also results in Pareto improvement in the benefits of all system members by adjusting contract parameters.

The value of this research lies in its insights into operational strategies for the construction of charging piles for electric vehicles. By analyzing optimal decisions under different contract arrangements, the study provides guidance to relevant stakeholders, enabling the operational system to achieve greater efficiency and coordination and realize more extensive Pareto improvements. Furthermore, it extends the application of coordination contract theory in the context of charging pile construction and operations.