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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of firm environmental, social and governance (ESG) rating scores on market perception and stock behavior from 2017 to 2021 while controlling for COVID-19 severity score.

The authors used panel regression models with robust standard errors based on cross-country and cross-industry sample of 1,324 ESG firms from 25 emerging countries across four regions. Four separate regression analyses are used. Hausman test is used to determine whether fixed-effect (FE) or random-effect approaches should be used in regression models. Lagrange multiplier test is used to test for time FEs, and F-test for individual effects to choose between pooled ordinary least squares model and FE. Two-unit root tests are conducted to check stationarity. Heteroskedasticity and serial correlation were controlled through a robust covariance matrix estimation.

The authors provide evidence that the stakeholder theory persists in emerging countries. Overall, the results suggest that firms’ stock behavior is positively associated with the level of environmental and social performance in the region. However, the results do not provide empirical evidence to support the link between ESG performance and stock market perception proxied by the price-to-sales ratio. The results suggest that Refinitiv and Bloomberg ESG rating scores have a positive impact on stock performance in emerging markets, albeit the Bloomberg rating score is insignificant.

Favorable impact of environmental and social performance on stock performance suggests that policymakers should take initiatives to raise awareness toward investments in ESG projects. Evidence shows that ESG stock performance in emerging markets does not insulate firms from the COVID-19 severity. Furthermore, this study highlights the inconsistency in calculating the ESG ratings, therefore, a more standardized approach is recommended to support investors seeking sustainable investments.

The findings have social implications for investors with proenvironmental preferences and nonpecuniary motives for ethical investments. Asset fund managers should develop ESG investment strategies to promote investor preferences that are linked to the proenvironmental and prosocial attitudes by increasing their investments in stocks of firms that behave ethically and support the environment. Furthermore, the findings show that investors pay a price for ethical and socially responsible investments as they are evaluating the environmental and social activities, hence, the firm ESG profile influences equity valuation and risk assessment.

The study extends the literature and provides evidence from the unique setting of emerging markets by analyzing the relationship between ESG rating scores and the COVID-19 severity scores on one hand, and stock behavior and market perception on the other.

In response to growing concerns over the negative consequences of Internet addiction on adolescents’ mental health, coupled with conflicting results in this literature stream, this meta-analysis sought to (1) examine the association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms in adolescents, (2) examine the moderating role of Internet freedom across countries, and (3) examine the mediating role of excessive daytime sleepiness.

In total, 52 studies were analyzed using robust variance estimation and meta-analytic structural equation modeling.

There was a significant and moderate association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, Internet freedom did not explain heterogeneity in this literature stream before and after controlling for study quality and the percentage of female participants. In support of the displacement hypothesis, this study found that Internet addiction contributes to depressive symptoms through excessive daytime sleepiness (proportion mediated = 17.48%). As the evidence suggests, excessive daytime sleepiness displaces a host of activities beneficial for maintaining mental health. The results were subjected to a battery of robustness checks and the conclusions remain unchanged.

The results underscore the negative consequences of Internet addiction in adolescents. Addressing this issue would involve interventions that promote sleep hygiene and greater offline engagement with peers to alleviate depressive symptoms.

This study utilizes robust meta-analytic techniques to provide the most comprehensive examination of the association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms in adolescents. The implications intersect with the shared interests of social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is embracing digital transformation and e-government services, aiming to improve efficiency, accessibility and citizen-centricity. Nonetheless, the country faces challenges such as evolving cyber threats. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing cybersecurity practices to ensure the reliability and security of e-government services.

This paper investigates the multifaceted dynamics of cybersecurity practices and their impact on the quality and effectiveness of e-government services. Five key factors explored include organizational culture, technology infrastructure, adherence to standards and regulations, employee training and awareness and financial investment in cybersecurity. This study used a quantitative method to gather data from 320 participants. The researcher collected 285 completed questionnaires, excluding unusable or incomplete responses, and analyzed the final data set using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings show that financial investment in cybersecurity, employee training and awareness and adherence to cybersecurity regulations significantly influence the adoption of robust cybersecurity practices. However, the relationship between organizational culture and cybersecurity practices is less straightforward. The research establishes a strong positive correlation between cybersecurity practices and e-government service quality, highlighting the role of security in fostering public trust and user satisfaction and meeting the evolving needs of citizens and businesses.

This research contributes valuable empirical evidence to the fields of e-government and cybersecurity, offering insights that can inform evidence-based policy decisions and resource allocation. By understanding the nuanced dynamics at play, Saudi Arabia is better poised to fortify its digital governance infrastructure and provide secure, high-quality e-government services to its constituents.

The susceptible-infectious-susceptible (SIS) infectious disease models without spatial heterogeneity have limited applications, and the numerical simulation without considering models’ global existence and uniqueness of classical solutions might converge to an impractical solution. This paper aims to develop a robust and reliable numerical approach to the SIS epidemic model with spatial heterogeneity, which characterizes the horizontal and vertical transmission of the disease.

This study used stability analysis methods from nonlinear dynamics to evaluate the stability of SIS epidemic models. Additionally, the authors applied numerical solution methods from diffusion equations and heat conduction equations in fluid mechanics to infectious disease transmission models with spatial heterogeneity, which can guarantee a robustly stable and highly reliable numerical process. The findings revealed that this interdisciplinary approach not only provides a more comprehensive understanding of the propagation patterns of infectious diseases across various spatial environments but also offers new application directions in the fields of fluid mechanics and heat flow. The results of this study are highly significant for developing effective control strategies against infectious diseases while offering new ideas and methods for related fields of research.

Through theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, the distribution of infected persons in heterogeneous environments is closely related to the location parameters. The finding is suitable for clinical use.

The theoretical analysis of the stability theorem and the threshold dynamics guarantee robust stability and fast convergence of the numerical solution. It opens up a new window for a robust and reliable numerical study.

As public awareness of the concept of sustainable development has increased, a new investor market has appeared. These investors will only make investments in sustainable financial instruments. Yet, how corporate managers can effectively exploit this new financing concept to make their companies risk resilient remains unaddressed. This study, a conceptual research, aims to examine the impact of sustainable finance (SF) on business risk resilience (BR) and the impact of SF on risk management infrastructure (RI). It also addresses the impact of RI on BR and the mediating effect of the former between SF and BR in the corporate world. Finally, this research explores the moderating effect of managerial capability (MC) and firm technology-focused innovation capability (IC) between SF and RI.

This study incorporates both theoretical and empirical works in the sustainability, innovation, risk management and HRM fields. Afterwards, it constructs a conceptual model alongside suppositions that can be tested in further studies.

This study proposes that SF will enhance BR and RI. Moreover, RI will promote BR and positively intervene between SF and BR. Furthermore, MC and IC will reinforce the SF–RI impact such that the SF–RI impact will be strengthened for companies whose MCs and ICs are high than low.

This research affords suggestions for researchers in multidisciplinary fields. It reinforces BR and RI by introducing SF, MC and IC as tactical devices. It also serves as a reference point for forthcoming academics to investigate this conceptual model, empirically, in diverse industries worldwide.

Practical lessons for finance, investment and risk managers, as well as corporate investors are discussed.

This study provides a new research model that demonstrates how SF can be exploited to promote BR and build RI. It also shows how RI can bolster BR and how RI can connect SF to BR. This new model also exhibits how MC and IC moderate the impacts of SF and RI. Thus, it attempts to advance existing knowledge and theoretical frameworks.

Prior studies use two measures of firm-specific return variation (FSRV): idiosyncratic volatility in absolute and relative terms, the latter of which is also termed stock price nonsynchronicity. Whereas most research focuses on investigating the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle, the authors carry out comparison of these two measures and further investigate which of the two constituents of nonsynchronicity explain the association between FSRV and stock returns, emphasising the importance of assessing which component drives stock returns.

The authors use the US individual stock returns from 1925 to 2016 and define the two measures of FRSV based on the Fama and French (1993) model. Specifically, the authors decompose the relative measure into two components: (i) absolute idiosyncratic volatility and (ii) systematic volatility. The authors conduct various tests based on high-minus-low, zero-investment quintile portfolio sorts and perform the Fama–MacBeth analysis by singling out each component.

The authors find a positive return on the portfolio sorted on relative idiosyncratic volatility or on systematic volatility, but find a negative return sorted on absolute idiosyncratic volatility. The results are robust after controlling for size, BM and other risk characteristics using a double-sorting approach. The Fama–MacBeth regression results show that a positive association between the relative measure and stock returns is driven primarily by the low-systematic-volatility anomaly across firms. The findings are robust to controlling for return residual momentum, skewness, jumps and information discreteness.

Extant research posits the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle and the low-volatility anomaly. The authors emphasize the importance of integrating these two streams of research. This study enhances the understanding of the driving force underlying the relationship between FSRV and cross-sectional stock returns.

Supply chain management (SCM)-embedded valuable resources, such as capital, raw-materials, products, partners, customers and finished inventories, where the evaluation of environmental texture and flexibilities are needed to perceive sustainability. The present study aims to identify and evaluate the directory of green and agile (G-A) attributes based on decision support framework (DSF) for identifying dominating measures in SCM.

DSF is developed by exploiting generalized interval valued trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (GIVTFNs). Two technical approaches, i.e. degree of similarity approach (DSA) and distance approach (DA) under the extent boundaries of GIVTFNs, are implicated for data analytics and for recognizing constructive G-A measures based on comparative study for robust decision. A fuzzy-based performance indicator, i.e. fuzzy performance important index (FPII), is presented to enumerate the weak and strong G-A characteristics to manage knowledge risks in allied business environment.

The modeling is illustrated from the insights of decision-makers for augmenting business value based on cognitive identification of measures, where the best performance score is identified by the “sustainable packaging” under the traits of green supply chain management (GSCM). “The use of Web-based applications” under the traits of agile supply chain management (ASCM) and “Outsourcing flexibility” under traits of ASCM is found as the second and third most significant performance characteristics for business sustainability. Additionally, the “Reutilization (recycling) and reprocessing” under GSCM in manufacturing and “Responsiveness and speed toward customers needs” under ASCM are found difficult in attainment.

The G-A evaluation will assist in attaining performance excellence in day-to-day operations and overall functioning. The outcomes will help executives to plan strategic objectives and attaining success.

To reinforce the capabilities of SCM, wide extent of G-A dimensions are presented, concept of FPII is reported to manage knowledge risks based on identification of strong attributes and two technical approaches, i.e. DSA and DA under GIVTFNs are presented for attaining robust decision and directing managerial decision-making process.

This study explores the key platform affordances that online social platform providers need to offer digital creators to strengthen the creator ecosystem, one of the leading accelerators for platform growth. Specifically, it aims to investigate how these affordances make the dynamic combinations for high platform quality across diverse platform types and demographic characteristics of digital creators.

This study adopts a multi-method approach. Drawing upon the affordance theory, Study 1 aims to identify the key affordances of online social platforms based on relevant literature and the qualitative interview data collected from 22 digital creators, thereby constructing a conceptual framework of key platform affordances for digital creators. Building on the findings of Study 1, Study 2 explores the dynamic combinations of these platform affordances that contribute to platform quality using a configurational approach. Data from online surveys of 185 digital creators were analyzed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The results of Study 1 identified key online social platform affordances for digital creators, including Storytelling, Socialization, Design, Development, Promotion, and Protection affordance. Study 2 showed that the combinations of these platform affordances for digital creators are diverse according to the types of platforms, creators’ gender, and their professionality.

Like many studies, this research also has several limitations. One limitation of the research is the potential constraint of the extent of how well the data samples represent the group of creators who are actively producing digital content. Despite the addition of screening questions and meticulous data filtering, it is possible that we did not secure sufficient data from creators who are actively engaged in creative activities. In future research, it is worth contemplating the acquisition of data from actual groups of creators, such as creator communities. Future researchers anticipate obtaining more in-depth and accurate data by directly involving and collaborating with creators.

This study highlights the need for online social platforms to enhance features for storytelling, socializing, design, development, promotion, and protection, fostering a robust digital creator ecosystem. It emphasizes clear communication of these affordances, ensuring creators can effectively utilize them. Importantly, platforms should adapt these features to accommodate diverse creator profiles, considering differences in gender and expertise levels, especially in emerging spaces like the Metaverse. This approach ensures an equitable and enriching experience for all users and creators, underlining the importance of dynamic interaction and inclusivity in platform development and creator support strategies.

This study underscores the social implications of evolving digital creator ecosystems on online platforms. Identifying six key affordances essential for digital creators highlights the need for platforms to enhance storytelling, socializing, design, development, promotion, and product protection. Crucially, it emphasizes inclusivity, urging platforms to consider diverse creator profiles, including gender and expertise differences, particularly in transitioning from traditional social media to the Metaverse. This approach nurtures a more robust creator ecosystem and fosters an equitable and enriching experience for all users. It signals a shift towards more dynamic, adaptive online environments catering to diverse creators and audiences.

For academics, this study builds the conceptual framework of online social platform affordances for digital creators. Using the configurational approach, this study identified various interdependent relationships among the affordances, which are nuanced by specific contexts, and suggested novel insights for future studies. For practices, the findings specified by creators and platform types are expected to guide platform providers in developing strategies to support digital creators and contribute to platform growth.

This paper aims to derive a reduced-order model for the heat transfer across the interface between a millimetric thermocapillary liquid bridge from silicone oil and the surrounding ambient gas.

Numerical solutions for the two-fluid model are computed covering a wide parametric space, making a total of 2,800 numerical flow simulations. Based on the computed data, a reduced single-fluid model for the liquid phase is devised, in which the heat transfer between the liquid and the gas is modeled by Newton’s heat transfer law, albeit with a space-dependent Biot function Bi(z), instead of a constant Biot number Bi.

An explicit robust fit of Bi(z) is obtained covering the whole range of parameters considered. The single-fluid model together with the Biot function derived yields very accurate results at much lesser computational cost than the corresponding two-phase fully-coupled simulation required for the two-fluid model.

Using this novel Biot function approach instead of a constant Biot number, the critical Reynolds number can be predicted much more accurately within single-phase linear stability solvers.

The Biot function for thermocapillary liquid bridges is derived from the full multiphase problem by a robust multi-stage fit procedure. The derived Biot function reproduces very well the theoretical boundary layer scalings.

This study aims to examine whether the presence of advisory directors affects firm discretionary accruals (DACC), a widely used proxy for financial reporting quality. The authors argue that the advisory director weakens the board monitoring role and impairs the firm financial reporting quality by increasing DACC.

The sample consists of listed firms on the Australian Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2015 using 7,649 firm-year observations. The authors perform descriptive statistics, regression and propensity score matching analyses to examine the research hypothesis.

The research evidence that firms with a higher presence of advisory directors have more DACC, indicating poor financial reporting quality. Furthermore, the authors categorize the DACC and find that the firm has higher income-increasing DACC in the presence of higher advisory directors. The findings are robust concerning endogeneity issues.

The research evidence that firms with a higher presence of advisory directors have more DACC, indicating poor financial reporting quality. Furthermore, the authors categorize the DACC and find that the firm has higher income-increasing DACC in the presence of higher advisory directors. The findings are robust concerning endogeneity issues.

The research contributes valuable insights for regulators and policymakers seeking to comprehend the implications of firms using more advisory directors. Additionally, the authors recognize the potential significance of the findings for the institution of directors, as they can provide a nuanced understanding of the specific roles played by advisory directors in organizational dynamics.

While the extensive body of literature on corporate governance and financial reporting quality has been well-established, a noticeable void exists in academic research delving into the relationship between advisory directors and DACC management. This study seeks to fill this gap, making a distinctive and original contribution to the existing literature on corporate governance.