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This paper is motivated by the gap between the extensive academic discussion of industrial resilience and the limited resilience observed in response to large disruptions. Its purpose is to investigate the relationship between the industrial resilience of manufacturing and service operations and the resilience of the supporting financial, legal and political systems. This research identifies the impact of high or low levels of resilience in these supporting systems on the ability of industrial operations to perform as required in disrupted environments.

The authors combine a multi-disciplinary literature review with empirical data from four exploratory case studies. First, the authors review the literature on resilience in the fields of operations management, finance, law and political science to bring the terminology and concepts of these fields closer together. This review also defines the independent variables of the study: financial, legal and political resilience. Second, the authors use the framework from the literature to analyse data from four case studies of operations in difference contexts and sectors.

Industrial resilience is interdisciplinary, nuanced and complex. High levels of industrial resilience require high levels of financial, legal and political resilience. However, the activities required to improve the resilience of these supporting systems are often outside the locus of control of operations managers. Multiple perspectives on resilience must be coordinated to strengthen the response of industrial operations to large disruptions.

As a conceptual and exploratory study, this paper does not utilise quantitative data or in-depth case studies. The authors demonstrate the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective on industrial resilience and provide a theoretical framework that can serve as a foundation to further studies of resilience. The review of the literature provides a glossary of definitions of resilience that improves clarity in this disparate field.

Managers can apply the findings of this work to start cross-functional discussions in their firms that recognise the multiple dimensions of industrial resilience and improve the resilience of the supporting systems. The exploratory case studies provide concrete guidance for how managers in the fields of humanitarian and development operations, healthcare and manufacturing can improve industrial resilience by considering the interaction with the supporting financial, legal and political systems.

This study is the first to provide detailed conceptual discussion and empirical evidence for the interdisciplinary nature of industrial resilience in the context of public sector and non-governmental organisations. Combining evidence from different contexts and sectors demonstrates the broad industrial value of this work.

This chapter introduces the concept of financial market and highlights the role of e-payment systems in the financial market by focusing on the keywords of financial innovation, e-payment and sustainability.

The aim of this paper is to propose a basis upon which accounting reporting can be developed to reflect real values and the real economy. It aims to address the environmental considerations discussed in the UN debate (Bebbington and Unerman, 2020) and the concern for a “better life-world”, which is the theme of this special issue.

Addressing the task involves the application of the philosophy of pragmatic constructivism (which explains how people can relate to their reality in ways that lead to successful action) and the philosophical concept of the “good life” (which establishes the values to be pursued through action and so defines action success). Also, it outlines the necessary characteristics of measurement frameworks if they are to be effective in the development and control of human practices to achieve desired values.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for guiding the measurement of how a sustainable good life has improved and/or deteriorated as a result of organisational activities. It outlines a system of concepts on basic and instrumental values for analysing the condition of maintaining a sustainable good life in real terms. This is related to the financial results and societal regulations to analyse and adjust controls according to the real economic goals. Also, it provides a system of value measurands to produce valid information about the development of a sustainable good life. The measurand makes accounting reporting reflect the conditions of the good life that constitute the real economy instead of merely the financial economy driven by shareholder capitalism. Providing tools to analyse whether the existing practices of business and social regulations promote or counteract the real economic goals of producing a sustainable good life means the measurement system proposed makes the invisible hand of the market visible.

The mechanism proposed to enable accounting reporting to reflect real values and the real economy is a new conceptual framework that will allow accounting to more fully realise its potential to contribute to a “better world”. In aiming to serve a sustainable good life, accounting reporting will inherently foster ethical social practices.

This paper aims to assess the impact of digital financial innovation on financial system development in Common Market for eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). This paper evaluates the dynamic relationship between digital financial innovation measures and financial system development using time series data from COMESA countries for the period 1997–2019.

A dynamic autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) was adopted and the mean group (MG), pooled mean group (PMG) and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) of the model were estimated to evaluate the short- and long-run impact. In addition, the dynamic generalized method of moments (DGMM) was adopted for a robustness check. The Hausman test results show PMG to be the most consistent and efficient estimator, while the coefficient of lagged dependent variable of different GMM is less than the fixed effect coefficient, and, as such, suggests system GMM is the most suitable estimator. Data for the study were sourced from World Bank Development Indicator (WDI, 2020), World Governance Indicator (WGI, 2020) and World Bank Global Financial Development Database (GFD, 2020).

The result shows that digital financial innovation significantly impacts financial system development in the long run. As such, the evidence revealed that automated teller machines (ATMs), point of sale (POS), mobile payments (MP) and mobile banking are significant and contribute positively to financial system development in the long run, while mobile money (MM) and Internet banking (INB) are insignificant but exhibit positive and inverse relationship with financial development respectively. Further investigation revealed that institutional quality and a stable macroeconomic environment including their interactive term are significantly imperative in predicting financial system development in the COMESA region.

Researchers recommend a cohesive and conscious policy that would checkmate the divergence in the short run and suggest a common regional innovative financial strategy that could be pursued to incentivize technology transfer needed to promote financial system development in the long run. More so, plausible product and process innovations may be adapted to complement innovative institutions in the different components of the COMESA financial system.

Digital financial innovation services if well managed increase the inherent benefits in financial system development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper presents new background information on digital financial innovation that may stimulate the development of the financial system, particularly in the COMESA region. It also exposes the relevance of digital financial innovation, institutional quality and stable macroeconomic environment as well as their interactive effect on COMESA financial system development.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the political economy of financial development in Ethiopia, specifically, to test the empirical relevance of the interest group theory of financial development in the context of Ethiopia.

The autoregressive distributive lag model to co-integration is applied to Ethiopia’s time series data from 1990 to 2020 to identify the long- and short-run effects of the political regime characteristics on financial development of the country.

The findings reveal that the degree of democracy in the political system (a proxy for narrow elites) was found to have a significant positive effect on financial development in the long run but has negatively affected financial development in the short run. Similarly, the political regime durability indicator shows a positive and statistically significant effect both in the long run and short run. The macroeconomic policy indicators which are used as control variables in this study reveal significant effects on the financial development of Ethiopia. Generally, the finding supports the interest group theory of financial development.

This paper is the original work on the effect of political regime characteristics on financial development in Ethiopia. Thus, it brings substantial value to studying determinants of financial development as it goes beyond the conventional determinants by considering the role of political power in the process of financial development.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the mediating role of local government delivery system (here after delivery system) in the relationship between local governance (hereafter, governance) and financial distress of local governments in Uganda.

This study is correlational and cross-sectional. It uses a questionnaire survey on a sample of 109 local governments (districts) of Uganda. The data are analysed using SPSS, partial least squares structural equation modelling and Jose’s MedGraph.

Results indicate that government delivery system mediates the relationship between governance and financial distress. Delivery system in terms of capacity development and community participation causes positive variances in local government’s financial distress. Also, governance in terms of political clientelism significantly contributes to financial distress more than oversight mechanisms and audit quality. The study finds that delivery system causes more variance in financial distress than governance.

This study applies the new public management and network governance theory and tests the efficacy of delivery system and governance on financial distress in one-go and succeeded in explaining financial distress of local government using Uganda as the setting; the authors join previous scholars that root for multi-theoretical approaches. Also, this study’s design has allowed for the consideration of more than simply the main effects of governance and delivery systems by exploring the mediating role of delivery systems in the link between governance and financial distress. As such, the authors may now have a more accurate and detailed description of the relationships between governance, delivery system and local government financial distress.

This study aims to investigate the claim that there is no coherent and homogeneous body of concepts and practices that can be classified as “Islamic accounting”.

The study focuses specifically on Islamic accounting and uses a qualitative historical documentary analysis methodology to study an original manuscript from the 14th century.

The analysis of the manuscript argues that religious accounting can be seen as a value-based system for achieving social good and that in the context of Islamic accounting, it can be conceptualised as a coherent body of ideas and practices.

Firstly, the study conceptualises Islamic accounting as a homogeneous discipline with its own knowledge, concepts and practices. Secondly, it contributes to current accounting literature by examining an ancient manuscript from the 14th century, which serves as a foundation for understanding the Islamic accounting system within the context of accounting, religion and spirituality. The paper further contributes by arguing that this conceptualisation of religious accounting as a value-based approach enables its practitioners to evaluate their own accountabilities in delivering on socioeconomic objectives related to inter-human/environmental, social and financial transactions within the context of religious accounting practices.

Cryptocurrency arose, and grew in popularity, following the financial crisis of 2008 built upon a promise of decentralizing money and payments. An examination of the history of money and banking in the United States demonstrates that stable money benefits from strict controls and commitments by a centralized government through chartering restrictions and a broad safety net, rather than decentralization. In addition, financial crises happen when the government allows money creation to occur outside of official channels. The US central bank is then forced into a policy of supporting a range of money-like assets in order to maintain a grip on monetary policy and some semblance of financial stability.

In addition, this chapter argues that cryptocurrency as a form of shadow money shares many of the problematic attributes of both the privately issued bank notes that created instability during the “free banking” era and the “shadow banking” activities that contributed to the 2008 crisis. In this sense, rather than being a novel and disruptive idea, cryptocurrency replicates many of the systemically destabilizing aspects of privately issued money and money-like instruments.

This chapter proposes that, rather than allowing a new, digital “free banking” era to emerge, there are better alternatives. Specifically, it argues that the Federal Reserve (Fed) should use its tools to improve public payment systems, enact robust utility-like regulations for private digital currencies and limit the likelihood of bubbles using prudential measures.