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This study investigates the dynamic interdependence between Islamic and conventional stock markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies and the influence of global financial uncertainties on this interconnection.

The study employs the time-varying parameter vector autoregressions (TVP-VAR) technique and analyzes daily data from December 1, 2008 to July 14, 2021.

The research reveals robust interconnectedness within individual countries between Islamic and conventional stock markets, particularly during crises. Islamic stock markets exhibit greater susceptibility to spillover effects compared to conventional stocks. The UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) stock markets are identified as net transmitters of spillovers, while Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait receive more spillovers than they transmit. Global financial uncertainty measures (GVZ, USEPU and UKEPU) positively influence financial market interconnectedness, with EVZ exhibiting a negative impact while VIX and OVX remain statistically insignificant.

Investors and portfolio managers in Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait should carefully evaluate the UAE and KSA markets before making investment decisions due to the latter's role as net transmitters in the region. Additionally, it is emphasized that Islamic and conventional stocks should not be considered interchangeable asset classes for risk hedging.

Investors must be aware that Islamic and conventional stocks cannot be used as an alternative asset class to hedge risk.

The present article offers valuable insights for practitioners and researchers delving into the comparative analysis of Islamic and conventional stock markets within the GCC context. It enhances our comprehension of the dynamic interdependence between Islamic and conventional stock markets in the GCC economies and the impact of global financial uncertainties on this intricate relationship.

This study aims to find whether sukuk (Islamic bonds) possess a safe haven property for investors or not.

To analyze this statement, the study used data from MSCI World conventional and MSCI World Islamic indices from August 17, 2012 to June 8, 2022. The study used the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) variance technique, the most common technique used in stock data analysis.

The results dictate the absence of sukuk as a safe haven for investors as both the conventional and Islamic markets show decoupling behavior. The study finds concrete evidence of a strong association between the debt-based bond market and the Islamic sukuk market. As these markets mostly like to move in a parallel direction, a recession in a conventional bond market likely means a recession in the Islamic sukuk market.

This study is unique in incorporating the MSCI World Islamic Index and other Islamic indices of several Muslim countries, which was absent in previous research. Second, this study is unique because it adds a separate regression for the COVID era to show whether the movement of indices changed during regression.

Using a GED-GARCH model to estimate monthly data from January 1990 to February 2022, we test whether gold acts as a hedge or safe haven asset in 10 countries. With a downturn of the stock market, gold can be viewed as a hedge and safe haven asset in the G7 countries. In the case of inflation, gold acts as a hedge and safe haven asset in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, and Indonesia. For currency depreciation, oil price shock, economic policy uncertainty, and US volatility spillover, evidence finds that gold acts as a hedge and safe haven for all countries.

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.

The purpose of this research article is to explore the behavioural intention of consumers to use app-based shopping for green-tech products in the emerging economy of Bangladesh. The study investigates the indirect effects of perceived ease of use, usefulness, perceived delivery and perceived security on the behavioural intention to use app-based shopping for purchasing green-tech products by considering the mediating role of perceived trust.

A quantitative research approach was applied to collect data from the respondents who had previously used app-based shopping for green-tech products in Bangladesh. An online, self-administered survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 348 respondents. The survey data was analysed using SmartPLS-4 to measure the reliability and validity of the constructs. In addition, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the research model and hypotheses.

The study's results reveal that perceived usefulness, ease of use, security and delivery positively and significantly influence perceived trust, leading to a higher behavioural intention to use app-based shopping for green-tech products. Additionally, perceived trust significantly mediates the relationship between the behavioural intention to use app-based shopping and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived security and perceived delivery.

The study's findings have important implications for app-based shopping services to support customers interested in purchasing green-tech products in an emerging economy. The results also indicate that green-tech product companies must adopt new service delivery channels and ensure consumers' convenience and cost and time savings. The present research findings suggest that green-tech product companies need to ensure that they integrate digital technologies into their services for secure and timely delivery of products, improving customer convenience.

The study's findings can be insightful for app-based shopping service providers to foster their businesses by focussing on developing a positive trust perception in the consumer's mind, leading to a positive intention to use the app-based shopping services. The present study will enrich the current literature by investigating how consumers' perceived trust affects their behavioural intention to use app-based online shopping for purchasing green-tech products. It will also expand the existing knowledge on app-based shopping by exploring how perceived delivery impacts perceived trust, which subsequently affects customers' intentions to adopt the purchase of green-tech products.

This research investigates the influence of corporate–NGO collaborations on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure measured in three different ways (i.e. extent, level and quality) in low-income developing economies. Additionally, it examines the moderating effect of corporate profitability in the relationship between corporate–NGO collaborations and CSR disclosure.

This research uses multivariate regression analysis based on data collected from 201 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE).

The findings reveal that corporations with NGO partnerships are more likely to disclose CSR information and provide high-quality information regarding workers, the environment and community-related issues. Further, corporate profitability positively moderates the corporate–NGO collaborations and CSR disclosure relationship.

Research limitations are presented in the conclusion section.

The findings underline the crucial significance of NGOs and their associated normative isomorphism logics for CSR disclosure in low-income countries with weak law enforcement and relatively ineffective state institutions, which were previously believed to lack such institutions.

While some research has suggested that companies in developing countries perceive significant pressure from NGOs to adopt social disclosure, no study has specifically explored how internally driven corporate–NGO collaboration (as opposed to external NGO activist pressures) promotes CSR disclosure specifically in developing economies.

The primary objective of this research is to conceptualize the integration of enterprise risk management (ERM) as a mechanism to enhance the connection between corporate sustainability (CS) reporting and financial performance. This study suggests that future researchers should validate the proposed conceptualization by conducting a comprehensive content analysis of sustainability reports of Malaysian oil and gas companies. This analysis will allow for the collection of pertinent data regarding CS reporting and ERM implementation. The present study takes a comprehensive approach by integrating legitimacy, stakeholder, and resource-based view (RBV) theories, proposing a robust conceptual design that emphasizes the role of ERM in the connection between CS reporting and firm performance. Drawing on theoretical foundations, this study proposes that CS reporting will have a direct effect on financial performance. Moreover, the integration of ERM serves to strengthen the nexus between CS reporting and financial performance. This study offers valuable insights for stakeholders in the oil and gas sector by providing strategic guidance to enhance financial performance not only through CS reporting but also by implementing ERM. Moreover, the framework proposed in this study is expected to bring tangible and intangible benefits to corporations, including reducing information asymmetry, improving the quality of disclosure, and creating value within the field of CS. The proposed conceptual framework holds great significance as it enhances the applicability of legitimacy, stakeholder, and RBV theories, while also creating value for stakeholders through CS reporting and the adoption of risk management practices to enhance financial performance.

With the increase in uncertainty around the globe, an intensifying interest is seen in Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) as a topic of research. Researchers worldwide understand the significance of the impact of EPU on the country's development. EPU has a far-reaching impact as uncertainty shocks in one part of the world resonate worldwide due to the level of interconnectivity, globalization and quick communication. In order to facilitate these researchers, this study presents a bibliometric analysis of the existing research in this field using VOS viewer software, by consolidating all the studies from Scopus indexed journal articles, conference proceedings and review papers published in English language from 2006 to 2022. Bibliometric analysis on EPU has rarely been performed. The analysis identifies the publication trends, journal-wise citation, most influential authors, countries, institutions, keyword co-occurrence and authors of different countries who have collaborated for the research in the field. Finally, 1,055 papers were used for bibliometric analysis. The findings depicted that the most cited article on EPU is ‘Measuring economic policy uncertainty’ by Baker et al. (2016) and the most prolific author appears to be Rangan Gupta from University of Pretoria which as an institution also has the maximum publications on this topic. The Journal Finance Research Letters has published the greatest number of researches on EPU. This chapter also summarizes the limitations of the study along with new areas of research.

The primary objective of this paper is to determine the factors that affect the entrepreneurship propensity of students undergoing compulsory entrepreneurship education courses at various universities.

A research instrument was developed and implemented on a sample of 380 students who were offered compulsory entrepreneurship education courses at six major universities in the Jammu and Kashmir region of India. The study employed multiple cross-sectional designs with a simple random sampling technique to gather data. The collected data was subjected to descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling using SMART-PLS (Version 4).

The findings reveal that conceptualization, opportunity identification and implementation are the three antecedents of entrepreneurship propensity. The results indicate that the conceptualization factor is one of the most important predictors of entrepreneurship propensity, followed by opportunity identification, whereas implementation through education has the weakest influence on students' entrepreneurship propensity.

This research provides important insights to universities for designing and developing entrepreneurship courses that can foster the start-up culture. The results will be helpful for policymakers to devise various programs to boost entrepreneurship.

The study integrated the theories of planned behavior and human capital to evaluate the effectiveness of entrepreneurship courses at the university level. The three factors, namely, conceptual factors, actualization factors and implementation factors of entrepreneurship propensity are under-researched.

This paper aims to examine the dynamic relationship between economic growth and sustainable development, integrating the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in 22 Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries across income groups.

Using annual data between 1990 and 2022, the authors apply the cross-correlation coefficient (CCC) approach of Narayan et al. (Economic Modeling, 2016, 53, 388–397) to examine the lead/lag relationship between GDP per capita and sustainable development. This study further validates the findings through a panel Granger causality test and a fixed panel regression model.

This research provides evidence of a U-shaped EKC for only 1 out of 22 (5%) OIC countries. For 13 out of the 22 (59%) OIC countries, increasing income growth is expected to enhance sustainable development in the future. The results show that as income levels rise, there will be a more significant decline in sustainable development for high-income OIC countries in the future than for both middle-income groups, contradicting the EKC hypothesis. The findings from the panel Granger causality and panel regression models also support the CCC results.

This study proposes a reverse version of the EKC hypothesis and contributes to the literature on economic growth and environmental sustainability. With increasing economic growth, the results can assist OIC member governments and policy-makers in designing tailored policies and practical measures for future sustainable development.