The mediating effect of sustainability strategy between sustainability committees and business performance: can persistent assessment condition this effect?

Purpose This study aims to analyse the role of persistence in the assessments carried out by sustainability agencies in the interaction between sustainability committee characteristics, sustainability strategies and performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors accessed a sample of European sustainable multinational and transnational companies (EMNs) for the period 2008–2017 from RobecoSAM universe. Using a set of simultaneous equation models, the authors test the effect of the sustainability committee on sustainability performance considering the sustainability strategy as a mediating element. Moreover, the authors analysed if the persistent assessment of sustainability agencies conditions the previous interaction. Findings Persistence of the sustainability assessment performed by an external agency is necessary to support the sustainability strategy and the sustainability committee, legitimating an organization in its institutional context. Practical implications This study provides practitioners with relevant insights into the identification of the sustainability strategy followed by an EMN and the effects associated with it can be useful for social and economic agents in decision-making processes. Social implications A persistent assessment could be a signal over time of the evolution of organizations, reinforcing the monitoring mechanisms. It is a stimulus to EMNs as they obtain both an indicator of their levels of performance and public recognition. Originality/value The lack of similarity in the levels of sustainable performance observed among companies can be explained by the persistence, which is an omitted variable in previous studies.

The FCFA Currency: An Eminently Linguistic Issue

In a situation of illiteracy at a rate of 54%, with over 80% of the population not speaking French (ANSD, 2013), it is very difficult to carry out effective development policies in Senegal without taking into account the language issue. From this point of view, the FCFA currency, which is expressed in French, poses a lot of problems for the African populations of the franc zone. The debate around this currency has so far been more focused on financial or fiduciary aspects than on the fundamental mechanisms that help to better understand the environment in which economic agents operate. Beyond its linguistic symbolism steeped in history, the FCFA creates cognitive problems that make it difficult for African populations to use it. We will try in this article to show, by an analytical approach, that the denomination of a currency involves the interaction of several fields of investigation. These are economic, historical, sociological, political, and above all, linguistic. From this angle, there is reason to be interested in the Academy of African Languages (ACALAN) in the resolution of this unit of measurement.

Potential factors in determining cross-border price spillovers in the pork sector: Evidence from net pork-importing countries

Although food self-sufficiency is regarded as a potent strategy to secure food supply in the policy circle, the efficacy of policy measures, especially in terms of their quantitative effects, is still not fully understood. We analysed the relationships between international and local prices of pork between January 2001 and December 2018 for 10 net pork-importing countries. The primary outcome obtained in our research is that high self-sufficiency and a small trade volume of pig meat commodities could impair price volatility transmission from the global market. This result does not suggest that a protectionist regime should be established to stabilise the national food supply. It presents useful information to balance the benefit from highly efficient resource allocation and the market steadiness gained from higher self-sufficiency in food, considering the maximisation of the expected utility of economic agents.

Mapping the Literature on Financial Behavior: a Bibliometric Analysis Using the VOSviewer Program

Objective of the article is to study the current state of researches of financial behaviour. The article is conceptual and based on the use of the methodology of the bibliometric analysis. The analysis is based on the data retrieval functionalities of Scopus and Web of Science platforms. Is used the toolkit of the VOSviewer program, network visualization of keywords in scientific publications. Findings: The number of publications that directly study the nature and features of the financial behavior formation of various economic agents is insignificant, but is constantly growing. An important role in this process is played by digitalization processes of financial services, which have an important impact on the models transformation of both financial behavior of economic agents, and changes in the model of the financial services provision to customers by financial institutions.

Modelling Business in Healthcare

The appeal for new business models is at high level nowadays in all market sectors involving all economic agents. Dealing with classical, non-responsive, bureaucratic structures, traditional organizational arrangements impose delays on management, ineffective control features, and, more critical, limitations to innovate. In this chapter, the authors analyze the proposition for new business models with the consideration of two huge pressuring motivations: to innovate in the healthcare sector and adopt emerging technologies. Both dimensions brought opportune facts for business models development and application, but, with an immense and uncontrolled dynamicity, also produced a confused, turbulent scenario where the academic and scientific knowledge, always demanded, was not developed and communicated efficiently. To address this imperfect scenario, the authors present their reflections around perspectives on building and applying business models supported by emerging technologies for the healthcare sector, offering a background to foster these discussions in further studies and decision-making contexts.

Triple vectorial analysis of financial development impact on economic growth: evidence from the Middle East and Central Asia

PurposeThis paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the financial development in the Middle East and Central Asia (MECA) and examines its impact on its economic growth.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a Panel Data Regression Analysis on a sample of 21 countries in MECA for the period 2008–2018.FindingsUsing the financial development indices and subindices retrieved from IMF, the study finds that the whole region has a below average index compared to other developing regions. However, this hides a great deal of variation across MECA countries. Surprisingly, financial development does not necessarily contribute to economic growth. It seems that some developing countries are still not predisposed to benefit from financial development due to several obstacles.Practical implicationsThe authors recommend policymakers and regulators in MECA to promote financial stability and keep inflation in check so that economic agents can reap the fruits of financial development and foster economic growth. Policymakers should also stimulate competition in the financial sector, build skillful human capital, attract foreign direct investments, strengthen supervision and forensic audit and more importantly reinforce the independence of central banks.Originality/valueThe authors mitigate the shortcomings of single indicators as proxies for financial development by using the IMF Financial Development index that captures the depth, access and efficiency of both financial institutions and financial markets. The authors employ lower-middle-, upper-middle and high-income country groups to test the magnitude of income level on the relationship between financial development and economic growth.

Shall I Show My Emotions? The Effects of Facial Expressions in the Ultimatum Game

Over the past fifteen years, research has demonstrated the central role of interpersonal emotions in communicating intentions, goals and desires. These emotions can be conveyed through facial expressions during specific social interactions, such as in the context of coordination between economic agents, where information inferred from them can influence certain decision-making processes. We investigated whether four facial expressions (happiness, neutral, angry and disgusted) can affect decision-making in the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this economic game, one player (proposer) plays the first move and proposes how to allocate a given amount of money in an anonymous one-shot interaction. If the other player (responder) accepts the proposal, each player receives the allocated amount of money; if he/she rejects the offer, both players receive nothing. During the task, participants acted as the responder (Experiment 1) or the proposer (Experiment 2) while seeing the opponent’s facial expression. For the responders, the results show that the decision was mainly driven by the fairness of the offer, with a small main effect of emotion. No interaction effect was found between emotion and offer. For the proposers, the results show that participants modulated their offers on the basis of the responders’ expressed emotions. The most generous/fair offers were proposed to happy responders. Less generous/fair offers were proposed to neutral responders. Finally, the least generous/fair offers were proposed to angry and disgusted responders.

Social movements in a time of pandemic: The case of Tech4Covid19 in Portugal

The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on Portuguese society and raised the need for new technological projects to help frontline professionals in the fight against coronavirus and its effects on the local population and economic agents. It is in this context that the Tech4Covid19 movement was founded by Portuguese technological startups. This initiative brings together more than 5000 volunteers and offers technological solutions in the areas of health, education, and local economy. This study aims to understand and explore the organizational model and dynamics of Tech4Covid19 through the adoption of qualitative methods based on primary and secondary sources that have allowed the movement to be explored from multiple perspectives. The findings reveal that Tech4Covid internally promotes the development of its own projects, but also accepts projects proposed by external entities that are aligned with the principles and values of the movement. The organization of the movement is supported by autonomous self-managed teams regarding each project, and there is a coordination group responsible for the aggregate management of the various initiatives and for establishing communication with partners, the media, and social networks.

On the issue of the development of mechanisms for the implementation of business models of complex processing of mineral resources

The importance of implementing the concept of integrated processing of mineral resources is understood by both the state and the scientific and business communities. However, the practical implementation of the concept has not yet been properly reflected in economic activity, which is determined by a number of factors, one of which is the lack of elaboration of the issue of business models and mechanisms for their implementation in modern conditions of economic development. The economic system today is characterized by many different forms and types of manifestation of entrepreneurial activity by economic entities. Determining the optimal, balanced interaction of all economic agents of the system, providing a solution to the problem of complex processing of mineral resources, is considered in this article from the point of view of analyzing the possibilities of implementing business models corresponding to the specifics of entrepreneurial activity in the regional economic system based on an algorithm developed during previous studies, on the one hand, and existing technologies for processing mineral raw materials on the other. As an example for the analysis, the Khibinsky deposit of apatite-nepheline ores of the Murmansk region was selected, which in distinguished by a variety of valuable components and a complex material composition. The result of the work was the clarification of the proposed concepts of business activity management in the Murmansk region in the form of a description of possible business models for building a mining and processing complex; the development of a mechanism for its operation based on a network interaction agreement, as a new format of contractual relations in the mining and chemical industry, which differs from standard civil contracts; and an assessment of the prospects for the implementation of such production, ensuring the complexity of the use of raw materials when involved in processing, in addition to apatite, nepheline, sphene and titanium-magnetic concentrates.