Search results

Due to its contribution to poverty reduction, which is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, inclusive finance is an issue of discussion. By using a bibliometric analysis approach, this study conducts performance analysis and keyword co-occurrences analysis under VOS viewer to synthesize the characteristics and essential dimensions of financial inclusion in Asia. This research studies 1,072 articles contributed by 1,928 authors, during the years 2005–2022. Numerous figures and networks are provided in order to comprehend publication trends, influential authors and their affiliations and countries, influential publications, and keyword occurrences. Six clusters were discovered, and financial inclusion is in the same cluster as financial literacy and financial service. This research will provide valuable insights for governments, regional authorities, and academic researchers, enabling them to enhance their comprehension of Asian financial inclusion and identify prospective avenues for future research. Ahead of this research, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of financial inclusion in Asian countries has not been conducted, as far as the authors’ knowledge goes. The study offers a comprehensive overview of financial inclusion in Asia and reveals insights into the field’s crucial messages. Future researchers can use this knowledge to obtain a deeper understanding of the field.

The growing use of internet communication technology has led to increased economic growth across the world, and this chapter seeks to assess the case of Czechia. The study also examines the changing employment distribution in the labour market with the growing influence of information and communication technology (ICT). The multiple indicators and multiple causes model as well as changes in employment or earnings shares of occupations are used for the analysis. The findings show that increased use of ICT contributes to growth in GDP and employment. It also shows that ICT has contributed to rising labour and factor productivity through increased innovation. There is also increased demand for highly educated labour leading to growth in employment in high skill occupations, while the share of low and middle skill occupations declines. The situation, however, does not indicate job polarisation in the labour market and total employment is still increasing. The study also finds that investment and use of ICT has led to progressive development in the human development index of the Czech Republic and a decline in the gender inequality index.

India depicts the picture of severe social stringencies keeping girls away from attending school education due to the harsh reality of early child marriage and denial of aspirations of girl students in Indian society. The gender disparity in school educational attainment is evident as the figures of girls' enrollment in comparison to boys' enrollment at higher secondary stage of education in India always turn lower. In this context, measurement of technical efficiency (TE) is important because existence of technical inefficiency implies that one cannot produce maximum amount of output, given the resources, which can be interpreted as the penalty that the system is paying, and there is also the need to find out the relation between TE and gender inequality. The chapter contributes to the literature by (i) in the first stage estimating output-oriented TE of Indian higher secondary education for the period 2010–2011 to 2015–2016, using nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis, for general category states and (ii) in the second stage, using the estimated TE scores from the first stage, and the regression analysis establishing the positive impact of the girls' enrollment relative to boys' on the resulting TE and hence the positive role of gender equality in enrollment on enhancing TE. The favorable role of (1) “government expenditures on education (as a ratio to aggregate expenditure for the state),” “proportion of para teachers” and the adverse role of (2) “percentage of schools without girl's toilet” and “percentage of schools without building,” in determining TE of Indian higher secondary education are evident.

This chapter explores the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from an Islamic Shari'ah-compliant perspective. It provides a comprehensive literature review on CSR with an explicit focus on the Islamic perspective of CSR, Islamic models of CSR, CSR practices in conventional and Islamic banks, and the consequences of CSR to Islamic banks. This chapter's main contribution lies in considering the current CSR literature from a Shari'ah perspective. Likewise, it identifies gaps in the current literature and suggests potential areas for future research. This chapter attempts to improve the understanding of how Islamic banks integrate social responsibility into their operations. The insights from this chapter are helpful to practitioners and academic scholars in Islamic finance, accounting, and CSR. This chapter emphasizes the importance of incorporating Islamic values and principles into CSR practices and encourages further research and investigation in this area.

This study aims to study the impact of corporate governance (CG) versus ethical investment on the firm performance. It takes into account the firms of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan for the purpose of the study. A composite variable of CG index and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) index is used to test the impact on the firm performance. Separate country wise and overall analysis is obtained. Regression analysis is used to obtain the results. Two measures of performance are used, one is return on assets (ROA) and other is Tobin Q. The findings of the study reveal that there is an impact of corporate governance index (CGI) on firm performance (overall and country wise) whereas ethical investment (EI) has an impact on firm performance when tested overall and no impact when checked for country wise results. The results further show that on country level, increase in CG measures may lead to positive results, but at the macro level, it may lower the performance. On the other hand, at the micro level, ethical finance may not show its impact; however, at the macro level, it has an impact. The study has implications for the investors and policymakers.