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This paper explores how the manufacturer’s strategic choice (acquisition or investment) impacts product quality in a supply chain comprising two complementary suppliers and a common manufacturer.

The manufacturer faces six strategic choices to improve product quality: acquiring or investing in the high-capable supplier, the low-capable supplier, or both. As the Stackelberg leader, the manufacturer determines which strategy is adopted, while suppliers are separately responsible for components’ quality and wholesale prices. The authors use game theory and calculate the model with Mathematica.

The authors develop analytical models to analyze how acquisition costs, investment proportions, component importance and quality improvement coefficients influence decision-makers. The results show that the highest quality may not benefit the manufacturer. Investing in or acquiring a low-capable supplier is better than a high-capable supplier under certain conditions. If the gaps between two suppliers’ quality improvement coefficients and the importance of two components are dramatic, the manufacturer should choose an investment strategy.

This study contributes to the complementary supply chain management by comparing two kinds of strategies-acquisition and investment, with a high-capable supplier and a low-capable supplier.

We expect to provide a complete theoretical framework and large sample evidence on the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the efficiency of labor investment. We also hope to provide micro-evidence based on labor investment behavior for the two-sided impact of corporate CSR behavior.

This paper measures labor investment efficiency by estimating the difference between actual and expected net hiring of enterprises. CSR is measured on the basis of the CSR score of Chinese listed companies published by Hexun.com. A regression model is constructed to analyze the relationship between CSR and labor investment efficiency. Possible endogeneity problems are controlled by lagging independent variables, propensity score matching method and difference-in-difference method.

Results show that CSR can improve labor investment efficiency by reducing over-hiring and under-hiring in emerging markets. The existence of the mediating effect of agency cost, information disclosure quality and employment fluctuation confirms that CSR improves labor investment efficiency through two mechanisms of corporate governance and labor market friction. The improvement effect of CSR on labor investment efficiency is more significant in non-state-owned, high CEO shareholding ratio and high-average urban wage enterprises.

In conclusion, our study is an important supplement to the existing research on the factors affecting labor investment efficiency. Our research conclusions will be helpful for enterprises in developing countries or enterprises in labor-intensive industries to improve labor investment inefficiency. The conclusion of the mechanism analysis in this paper provides more complete and reliable microscopic evidence for accurately identifying the specific path of CSR's impact on labor investment efficiency. This paper verifies the positive impact of CSR from the perspective of labor investment efficiency in the context of a developing country, which provides evidence for the theoretical conflicts related to CSR based on the effectiveness of enterprise labor investment decisions.

This study sought to examine the interaction between rural bank performance, information and communication technology (ICT) investment, ICT diffusion and financial development.

Data were sourced from the Association of Rural Banks (ARB) Apex and World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period 2014–2020. A total of 122 rural banks were used for this study. The study adopted the two-step system generalized method of moments (SGMM) estimation technique in assessing the interactions among variables.

This study found compelling evidence to support the positive effect of ICT investment on banks’ performance (return on asset and net interest margin). Further, ICT diffusion and financial development positively influence banks’ performance. The results show a positive moderating effect exerted by ICT diffusion and financial development on the impact of bank risk (bank stability) and ICT investment on all three performance measures.

The study focuses on the rural banking sector in the Ghanaian economy, compared to related studies that examine the subject matter for commercial banks. The moderating effects of ICT diffusion and financial development are assessed to guide policy on rural banking development in Ghana.

This study aims to explore the relationship between firm risk, capital structure, cost of equity capital and social and environmental sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic for companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange.

To this aim, the information about 190 companies in 2014–2020 was retrieved to be analyzed. The total risk and systematic risk were used as the indicators of company risk; the industry-adjusted earnings price ratio (IndEP) and GORDON were used for the cost of equity capital. To measure social sustainability and environmental sustainability, the procedure suggested by Arianpoor and Salehi (2020) was used.

Underleveraged firms have had a lower total risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, while overleveraged firms have not had a higher risk during this time. In overleveraged firms, using systematic risk has a negative impact on social sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic. In overleveraged firms, using total risk and systematic risk has a significant negative impact on environmental sustainability in the pandemic. Besides, overleveraged firms have a lower cost of equity capital (IndEP) during COVID-19.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no similar study has so far examined the joint impact of COVID-19 and corporate risk on social and environmental sustainability and also the joint impact of COVID-19 and capital structure on the cost of equity. This study contributes to the related literature by providing corporations with insightful post-pandemic directions on capital structure decisions and social and environmental activities. Furthermore, this research and the relevant findings can help understand and develop social responsibility in Iran as a developing country.

The purpose of this study is to examine the behaviour of retail investors while making an investment decision and how it gets affected by the behavioural biases of the investors using a moderated-mediation framework.

A mixed method approach has been used to fulfil the objectives of the study. In the first study, a qualitative analysis of the interviews with 15 retail investors was conducted. As part of the quantitative study, a total of 201 responses from Indian retail investors were collected using systematic sampling and analysed using structural equation modelling and Process Macro.

The results indicate that anchoring bias, availability bias, herding bias, switching cost, sunk cost, regret avoidance and perceived threat have a significant effect on retail investors’ investing intention. The attitude of the investors towards investing decisions mediates the effects of behavioural bias and the status quo on investment intention. The results of the moderated-mediation analysis indicate that mediating effect of attitude varied at the low and high-risk aversion of investors.

The findings of this study will help regulators and retail investors to understand the critical behavioural biases which affect the investors’ investing intention.

The paper contributes to the literature on investors’ behaviour, status quo bias theory (SQB) and behavioural bias. This study uniquely proposes a moderated-mediation framework to understand the effects of biases on retail investors’ investment intention.

This study aims to investigate the influence of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and geopolitical risk (GPR) on the relationship between internal cash flow and external financing in an emerging market, Saudi Arabia. It also examines the role of asset tangibility and financial crisis in establishing this relationship.

The sample was taken from non-financial sector companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange between 2002 and 2019. The data were analyzed using panel data regression analysis, including ordinary least squares and fixed effects model. The author addresses potential endogeneity through the generalized method of moments.

This study found that both EPU and GPR reduce the sensitivity of external financing to internal cash flow. This implies that firms depend more on internally generated funds during periods of increased EPU and GPR. Besides, this study found that the influence of EPU and GPR on the sensitivity of external financing to internal cash flow is more (less) negative for more tangible firms (during the financial crisis period). This result implies that Saudi firms boasting a higher level of tangibility are more flexible when it comes to seeking external financing. However, the presence of uncertainty during the crisis period makes the external financing costly, and therefore, firms will be less likely to raise funds from external sources.

This study has important implications for managers, policymakers and regulators. First, the paper findings provide insights for corporate decision-makers in helping them to focus on internal funds to finance their investment during uncertain times. Second, the findings help managers to understand the role of asset tangibility in raising external funding when firms face financial constraints due to uncertainty. Third, this study also helps corporates to focus on internal funds to finance their investment during the crisis period because EPU and GPR increase the cost of external finance. Finally, the results provide guidelines for policymakers and regulators to make appropriate policy measures to increase the easy availability of external finance during periods of increased EPU and GPR.

This paper is the first to shed light on the impact of internal funds on external financing while paying close attention to the role of EPU and GPR.

Economic costs and benefits are at the core while taking decision to adopt digitalization in the supply chain. The present chapter provides an in-depth exploration of the economic dimensions of digital supply chain management (DSCM) adoption in a firm. Drawing from a diverse source of literature, this chapter discusses the effect of economic outlook on DSCM adoption, the economic benefits of DSCM adoption and costs associated with it, and economic analysis and evaluation methodologies. The chapter also shares the case studies illustrating the real-world implications of economic considerations within DSCM initiatives. The chapter highlights how changing international socioeconomic and political dynamics can influence businesses across the globe. By analyzing the impacts of evolving market trends, changing consumer preferences, and geopolitical tensions, organizations can considerably forecast the possible impacts of these macroeconomic forces adeptly. The chapter also undertakes discussion on the economic cost and benefits associated with DSCM adoption. The economic analysis helps understand that the expected benefits outweigh economic costs, substantiating the economic viability of DSCM projects. The chapter concludes by discussing the examples of some real-world companies, highlighting how organizations have successfully applied economic analyses to their DSCM initiatives. This also highlights as to how showcasing how detailed economic assessments can justify substantial investments, deliver operational efficiencies, and reshape industries.

Introduction: The government has taken many initiatives for the overall growth of India after liberalisation and remarkably performed to make India an emerging economy. Due to changes in macroeconomic conditions, investment in companys’ shares includes the possibility of bearing high risk, which cannot be eliminated but, to some extent, minimised. The persistence of risks motivates investors to invest in different available options of investment. Gearing measures, a company’s financial leverage, represent the risk afforded within the company’s capital structure.

Purpose: The research aims to identify the risk-return analysis of financial geared stocks of Nifty 50 companies in India, which have debt equity ratios of more than 1.

Methodology: Convenience and cluster sampling techniques were used to identify companies with debt equity ratios of more than 1. The considered time period is 2010–2019.

Findings: This research found capital structure ratios, debt equity ratio, and total debt ratio. The total equity ratio does not have any visible effect on any of the dependent variables, i.e., Return on equity (ROE), Return on Assets (ROA), Earnings per share (EPS), Return on capital employed (ROCE). It explains the impact of high-levered firms’ performance on profitability and functioning. The study highlights that highly geared companies do not significantly impact the ROA, proving Modigliani and Miller’s (1958) irrelevant theory.

This study aims to examine whether auditors who specialize in research and development (R&D) activities help reduce managers’ opportunistic adjustment of R&D expenditure for real earnings management (REM).

Using a sample of US firms during the 2001–2017 period, the authors identify auditors’ R&D specialization as their prior experience of auditing R&D expenses spent by each client’s peers. The authors measure R&D-based REM as the negative deviation from the predicted level of R&D expenditure.

The authors find that clients of R&D specialist auditors are less likely to engage in REM through a discretionary reduction of R&D expenditure. This effect is more pronounced when clients face higher competition, have larger investment opportunities and entail higher audit risks.

This study shows that auditors’ specialized knowledge can facilitate stronger monitoring of clients’ real decisions, providing implications for auditors’ knowledge acquisition and transfer in specific types of transactions.

This study contributes to the literature by documenting the governance role played by R&D specialist auditors in clients’ real economic decisions. Moreover, the study identifies R&D as a distinct area of auditor specialization.

This study compares the motives of holding cash between developed (Australian) and developing (Malaysian) financial markets.

For the period 2006–2020, the t-test, fixed-effect and generalised method of moment (GMM) model have been applied to a sample of 1878 (1,165 Australian and 713 Malaysian) firms.

The empirical results reveal that firms in developed financial markets hold higher cash compared to the developing financial markets. The findings confirm that motives to hold cash differ between developed and developing financial markets. The GMM findings further show that cash holdings (CH) in Australia are higher due to higher ratios of cash flow, research and development (R&D) and return on assets (ROA), and lower due to larger dividend payments. In the Malaysian market, however, cash flows and R&D are ineffectual, ROA falls and dividend payments rise CH.

The study helps managers, practitioners and investors understand that firms' distinct economic, institutional, accounting and financial environments are important. To attain the desired outcomes, they must thus comprehend and consider these considerations while developing suitable liquidity strategies.

To the authors' best knowledge, this is the initial research demonstrating how varied cash motives and their ramifications are in developed and developing financial markets. Therefore, this study identifies the importance that CH motives varied among financial markets and that findings from a particular market cannot be generalised to other markets because of the market and financial structural variations.