Burcak Sari

This study examines how inflationary macroeconomic shocks erode the efficacy of classical working capital metrics in emerging-market service firms, and whether the relationship between aggressive inventory and receivable management and corporate liquidity survival is non-linear. Grounded in the trade-off theory of working capital and the precautionary-liquidity perspective, we theorize that inflation shocks compress working capital efficiency, that aggressive working capital maneuvering exhibits an inverted U relationship with liquidity survival, and that inflation moderates the inventory receivable liquidity nexus. Drawing on an unbalanced panel of 318 listed service firms across several emerging economies over the period 2008 2023 (4,214 firm-year observations), we employ a dynamic panel estimator the two step System Generalized Method of Moments (System GMM) to address the persistence of liquidity, unobserved heterogeneity, and the endogeneity of working capital policy. The results confirm a significant negative effect of inflation shocks on working capital efficiency, a significant inverted-U relationship between working capital aggressiveness and liquidity survival (turning point identified), and a significant moderating role of inflation that shifts the optimum toward more conservative policy. Diagnostic tests (AR(2), Hansen) support the validity of the specification. The study advances working capital theory in high-inflation regimes and offers actionable guidance for treasury and finance executives in emerging markets.

This qualitative study investigates the administrative barriers, system-readiness conditions, and fraudprevention realities of deploying distributed ledger technology (DLT) for bank reconciliation within hotel accounting ecosystems. While the technical promise of blockchain-based reconciliation immutable records, continuous matching, and cryptographic audit trails is widely asserted, the organizational realities of its deployment in the hospitality sector remain poorly understood. Grounded in the internal-control framework and routinization perspectives on technology adoption, this research adopts an exploratory multi-case design encompassing semi-structured interviews with finance directors, internal auditors, IT leaders, and external advisors across hotel operators at varying stages of DLT adoption, triangulated with documentary evidence. Thematic analysis surfaced two conditioning themes administrative barriers and system readiness a core reconciliation mechanism, and two outcome themes capturing fraud and embezzlement mitigation and revenue security through cash-leakage control. The findings reveal that automated, real-time reconciliation reduces the manual touchpoints through which asset misappropriation and cash leakage typically occur, shortens detection latency, and strengthens segregation of duties, while its efficacy is strongly conditioned by data-integration maturity, banking-API connectivity, and the resolution of governance and regulatory ambiguity. The study contributes an empirically grounded account of DLTenabled internal control and offers actionable guidance for hospitality finance leaders.

This study disentangles the behavioral mechanisms that shape retail investors' inclination to allocate capital toward sustainable finance products green bonds and ESG rated mutual funds within emerging capital markets. Integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior with behavioral finance perspectives on cognitive bias, we theorize that objective financial literacy promotes sustainable allocation while cognitive biases herding and overconfidence impede it, and that risk perception mediates the literacy pathway. Drawing on a sample of 612 active retail investors across emerging market exchanges, we employ Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to estimate the direct and mediated paths. The findings indicate that objective financial literacy is positively associated with sustainable allocation intention (β = 0.371, p < .001), whereas herding bias (β =-.268, p < .001) and overconfidence bias (β =-.224, p < .001) are negatively associated with it. Risk perception significantly predicts allocation intention (β = 0.312, p < .001) and significantly mediates the financial literacy pathway (indirect β = 0.142, 95% CI [0.094, 0.196]). The measurement and structural models exhibit excellent fit. The study advances behavioral finance theorizing in the under researched emerging market and sustainable finance context and offers actionable guidance for regulators, asset managers, and investor education programs.

This study examines whether the multi dimensional behaviors of responsible leadership translate into macro level financial resilience by expanding an enterprise's external borrowing capacity and mitigating bankruptcy threats during periods of systemic economic uncertainty. Integrating Stakeholder Theory with Agency Theory, we theorize that ethical governance functions as the proximal organizational mechanism through which responsible leadership signals lower default risk to capital providers, thereby enlarging debt capacity and financial flexibility. Drawing on a multi source sample of 438 senior executives and credit risk officers across publicly listed firms in cyclical and defensive industries, we employ a two step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) procedure incorporating Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and latent moderated mediation analysis. The findings indicate that responsible leadership exerts a significant positive effect on ethical governance quality (β = 0.512, p < .001), which in turn significantly expands debt capacity and financial flexibility (β = 0.401, p < .001) and reduces bankruptcy threat (β =-.358, p < .001). Economic uncertainty significantly strengthens the indirect pathway (index of moderated mediation = 0.131, 95% CI [0.072, 0.198]), such that the protective role of ethical governance intensifies precisely when systemic shocks are most severe. The study advances stakeholder agency theorizing and offers actionable guidance for boards, CFOs, and credit rating stakeholders navigating turbulent capital markets.

This study models the micro-macro interface by examining how macroeconomic contractions transmit through the workforce to firm value, and whether corporate sustainability commitments function as an internal stabilizing mechanism that buffers this transmission. Integrating Conservation of Resources theory with Social Exchange Theory and signaling logic, we theorize that economic contraction depresses employee engagement, that engagement in turn sustains market valuation as measured by Tobin's Q, and that credible environmental and social commitments attenuate the erosive effect of economic anxiety on engagement. Drawing on a two wave, multi source sample of 461 employees and senior managers across publicly listed firms, matched with archival valuation data, we employ a two step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) procedure incorporating Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and latent moderated mediation analysis. The findings indicate that economic contraction significantly reduces employee engagement (β = .443, p < .001), that engagement significantly elevates Tobin's Q (β = .389, p < .001), and that the indirect erosion of firm value through engagement is significant. Corporate sustainability commitments significantly buffer the first stage pathway (index of moderated mediation = 0.118, 95% CI [0.063, 0.179]), such that the protective effect intensifies precisely when economic anxiety is most acute. The study advances micro foundational theorizing of firm value and offers actionable guidance for executives navigating recessions.

This study bridges micro level technological deployment dynamics and macro level corporate financial policy by examining how the intensity of generative artificial intelligence integration reshapes free cash flow (FCF) management and optimal liquidity buffers within early adopter firms. Anchored in the Resource Based View (RBV) and the dynamic capabilities perspective, we theorize that the internal velocity of GenAI deployment functions as a higher order organizational capability that enhances working capital forecasting precision, thereby attenuating precautionary cash hoarding tendencies and recalibrating optimal liquidity buffers. Drawing on a two wave, multi source sample of 412 senior finance and operations executives across technology intensive services and advanced manufacturing firms, we employ a two step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) procedure incorporating Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and latent moderated mediation analysis. The findings indicate that GenAI deployment intensity exerts a significant positive effect on forecasting accuracy (β = 0.487, p < .001), which in turn mediates a significant reduction in excess liquidity buffers. Environmental dynamism significantly moderates the indirect pathway, such that the cash optimizing effect strengthens under heightened uncertainty (index of moderated mediation = 0.142, 95% CI [0.081, 0.210]). The study contributes a micro foundational account of technology enabled financial agility and offers actionable guidance for chief financial officers recalibrating liquidity policy in an algorithmically intermediated environment.

Circular supply chain networks (CSCNs) reconfigure the flow of materials, capital, and risk among interdependent firms, yet the interaction between environmental fiscal policy and the credit risk borne by network participants remains poorly understood. This paper develops a dynamic hybrid framework in which a carbon intensity indexed green tax incentive scheme, declining over time, alters firm level cash flows, default intensities, and the propagation of credit risk across a supply chain network. We embed a time varying incentive control into a reduced form default model and couple it with an Eisenberg Noe clearing mechanism to capture contagion among circular network actors. Solving the associated Hamilton Jacobi Bellman problem, we characterize the optimal incentive path and derive semi closed form relationships linking incentive intensity to credit spreads and the probability of default (PD). Calibrated numerical experiments show that dynamic, intensity linked incentives compress credit spreads for high-circularity firms while attenuating systemic contagion, but that poorly timed incentive withdrawal a "green fiscal cliff" can amplify default clustering even when the fiscal budget is held fixed. Comparative statics identify the conditions under which green tax policy is credit stabilizing versus destabilizing. The findings inform the joint design of environmental fiscal policy and prudential credit assessment in transitioning economies.

The European Union's Digital Product Passport (DPP) mandate, established under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 and operationalized first through the Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, imposes a large, asymmetric, and durable increase in the fixed cost of participating in the European product market. This paper develops the first integrated framework in which the mandate operates simultaneously as a fixed compliance cost in a Melitz heterogeneous firms model, a potential trigger of Porter type innovation offsets, a source of new tasks in an Acemoglu Autor task based labor model, and a driver of job creation and destruction in a Mortensen Pissarides search and matching environment. We derive five signed, testable hypotheses and show that the mandate's aggregate macroeconomic sign hinges on whether the Porter offset clears a low but non trivial threshold, while its distributional consequences consolidation toward large firms, a shift in import supply toward large foreign incumbents, and a mismatch driven transitional unemployment cost are unambiguous across the parameter space. A calibrated simulation quantifies these mechanisms, and a heterogeneity robust staggered difference in differences design is specified to identify the effects as the sector by sector phase in generates data.