Mohammad Dulal Miah

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the theoretically ambiguous relationship between financial constraints and green innovation. The resource-based view holds that financial frictions impede green innovation by restricting investment in costly, risky technologies (“less is less”), whereas the induced innovation hypothesis argues that these constraints can spur creativity and adaptive problem solving, thereby enhancing green innovation (“less is more”). Design/methodology/approach: This study uses the ordinary least squares (OLS) method to analyze 2,750 firms across 44 countries for the 2005–2021 period. In addition, propensity score matching, firm fixed effects, change regression and lead-dependent variable techniques are applied to address potential endogeneity concerns. Findings: Results show that financial constraints reduce firms’ green innovation, supporting the “less is less” hypothesis. The effect is more pronounced among firms in countries with higher economic development, weak national governance and lax environmental policy enforcement. Reduced environmental expenditure and poor workforce wellbeing channel the effect. Institutional ownership and strong corporate governance reduce the adverse impact of financial constraints on green innovation. Practical implications: This study suggests how financial constraints hinder green innovation. Specifically, the conditions under which financial constraints undermine corporate responses to climate change are clarified. Originality/value: Cross-country empirical evidence of the impact of financial constraints on green innovation is scarce. This study provides valuable insights by presenting comprehensive, cross-country empirical evidence. In addition, moderation analysis offers new insights into how various factors shape the relationship between financial constraints and environmental innovation.

Purpose: Corporate greenwashing has become a topic of discussion among various stakeholders due to the increasing trend of greenwashing practices. This paper aims to investigate the effect of co-opted boards on corporate greenwashing within US firms. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a sample of 570 firms from 2013 to 2022, this study uses an unbalanced panel of 5,585 firm-year observations. The data are analyzed applying ordinary least squares (OLS) and industry-fixed effect models. To address potential endogeneity concerns, the authors use entropy balancing and propensity score matching (PSM) techniques. Findings: The authors find that firms with a higher proportion of co-opted directors exhibit increased greenwashing practices, supporting the “dark side” hypothesis of co-opted boards. Furthermore, they demonstrate that the impact of board co-option on greenwashing is more pronounced in profitable firms and those facing higher environmental, social and governance (ESG) controversies and less significant in firms with strong governance. Practical implications: The findings have important managerial and theoretical implications. Firms should scrutinize the appointment of co-opted directors to reduce corporate greenwashing. In addition, firms can attempt to improve internal governance to mitigate these adverse effects. Social implications: The findings of this research have important social implications. Greenwashing facilitated by co-opted boards is likely to erode public trust and create widespread suspicion about the credibility of environmental social and governance (ESG) reporting. This undermines genuine efforts toward corporate sustainability, making it difficult for stakeholders to distinguish between authentic environmental commitment and mere symbolic gestures. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of board co-option on corporate greenwashing, thereby contributing to the broader literature on business ethics. Moreover, their analysis identifies firm-specific characteristics that aggravate the negative effect of co-opted boards on greenwashing as well as how to mitigate the effect.

Purpose: Geopolitical risk (GPR) has skyrocketed globally and become a key concern for policymakers, regulatory authorities and corporate strategists. Trade wars, political tensions, regional conflicts and terrorist attacks are key components of GPR, which can significantly elevate a firm’s audit risk. Given this backdrop, we investigate the relationship between firm-level GPR and audit outcomes in the US. Design/methodology/approach: Our data consists of 20,517 firm-year observations collected for the period 2000–2021. The data are analysed applying firm-fixed effects that address endogeneity by controlling for unobserved, time-invariant characteristics specific to each firm. We further employ two identification tests, Lewbel’s (2012) method and propensity score matching, to address potential endogeneity concerns and conduct several sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of our findings. Findings: Our analysis reveals an unfavourable impact of GPR on audit outcomes, indicating that firms with high GPR tend to incur higher audit fees, experience longer audit delays, face more financial restatements, are more likely to receive going-concern opinions and experience greater internal control issues. We further show that such unfavourable impacts are more pronounced for clients that experience high information asymmetry, are located far from the auditors, exhibit weak governance oversight and lack industry-specific audit specialists. Likewise, our additional tests reveal that the adverse impacts of GPR on audit outcomes are more prevalent in firms with lower gender diversity, fewer financially expert directors and firms that experience higher economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Finally, we find that firms with greater GPR face a higher likelihood of lawsuits. Practical implications: Our findings have important policy implications. For example, regulators could encourage disclosures on GPR to enhance transparency for auditors, investors and other stakeholders. They might also promote stronger corporate governance, improved information environments and greater audit committee expertise and diversity, especially in high-risk geopolitical contexts. Additionally, directors and auditors should collaborate to address geopolitical threats by strengthening internal risk management systems and reducing information asymmetry. Originality/value: To our knowledge, no prior study examines the impact of firms’ GPR on audit outcomes. Our study is the first to comprehensively analyse the heterogeneous influence of GPR on important audit outcomes such as audit fees, audit report delays, financial restatements, going concern opinions and internal control. Hence, our study addresses a critical gap in the literature.

The article aims to examine the impact of banks’ FinTech adoption on environmental performance in the context of Oman. In doing so, we collected data from eight local commercial banks for the period 2015–23. We utilized text-mining techniques to extract data from the annual reports of respective banks to develop an index for FinTech adoption and environmental performance. A graphic presentation shows that FinTech adoption and environmental performance among Omani banks have increased over the study period. Our univariate regression analysis shows that the degree of FinTech adoption has a positive and statistically significant impact on the bank’s environmental performance. However, the results from multivariate regression show a positive impact of FinTech on environmental performance, but the impact is not statistically significant. This anomaly can be attributed to the small sample size and low FinTech adoption of some banks, especially at the beginning of the sample period.

Access to adequate finance can significantly impact the well‐being of refugees. Lack of access to funds can lead to poor living conditions, limited access to education and health care and a lack of economic opportunities. While the refugee finance gap is particularly acute in low‐ and middle‐income countries, refugees in both advanced and emerging countries are affected due to the lack of regulations and relevant financial products. There is a lack of awareness of the financial needs of refugees among financial institutions. Therefore, we adopt a qualitative research design and propose a conceptual Qard Hassan‐based crowdfunding model to reduce the global refugee finance gap. Our conceptual model is unique and can provide greater flexibility and adaptability for refugee finance. The model could be adapted to different contexts and regions. We also make policy contributions, as our proposed crowdfunding model can help to ensure that the funding is provided in a way that is tailored to the specific needs of the refugee community in various locations.

Purpose: The ownership structure in Japanese firms has experienced a significant change recently, fueled primarily by regulatory changes. This has important repercussions on corporate performance and risk. This paper examines the impact of insider ownership on the default risk of Japanese firms.Design/methodology/approach: We collected data from the Nikkei Corporate Governance Evaluation System (CGES) database for the period 2004–2019. Our final dataset yields 36,116 firm-year observations. We apply a firm fixed effect model for baseline regression. Endogeneity was checked by applying propensity score matching (PSM) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) techniques. Furthermore, the robustness of baseline regression results was checked using alternative estimation techniques.Findings: Results show a significant positive influence of insider ownership on default risk. Furthermore, ROA volatility and stock price volatility appear to be the major channels through which insider ownership affects a firm’s default risk. We further document that external monitoring mechanisms, including traditional main bank ties, institutional ownership and analyst coverage, are the key risk-mitigating factors.Research limitations/implications: Our research deals with Japanese firms only. Future research may attempt to analyze the cases of emerging economies. Furthermore, future research might examine the ownership-default risk relationship for financial institutions to see if this relationship differs between financial and nonfinancial firms.Practical implications: Insider ownership enhances the probability of default. Hence, policymakers may consider instituting a ceiling for insider ownership in Japanese firms. Moreover, we highlight various risk-mediating channels that would help policymakers adopt guidelines for mitigating corporate risk.Originality/value: Our study is the first to investigate the effect of insider ownership on default risk in Japanese settings. Prior studies identified various determinants that affect firms’ default risk. Our study contributes to this stream of literature by examining the impact of insider ownership on default risk and extending the limited literature related to insider ownership.

The paper examines the impact of banks environmental performance on their financial and market performance. We collect data from 56 gulf cooperative council (GCC) banks for the period 2010–2019. We apply ordinary least square (OLS), fixed effect, and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation techniques and show that GCC banks' environmental performance negatively affects their accounting performance. The results, however, exhibit no significant impact of banks' environmental performance on market performance. Moreover, conventional banks have better environmental performance than their Islamic counterparts. Our results are consistent across different estimation techniques after controlling for endogeneity issues. The findings of the study are novel and offer important policy implications for management, regulatory authority, and environmental activists.