Research in International Business and Finance最新文献

This study analyses the effects of financial literacy and digital financial capabilities in shaping entrepreneurs’ preferences for ethical financial intermediaries and sustainable investment decisions. Exploiting novel survey data on Italian micro-enterprises, we find that more financially literate business owners have higher preferences for intermediaries with a strong ethical stance, are more likely to make investments inspired by environmental and social criteria and have a higher awareness of sustainable financial products. Moreover, digital financial competencies are found to play a significant role in enhancing preferences for ethical intermediaries and sustainable investment decisions. Finally, we show that the beneficial effect of financial literacy is mostly direct, while the indirect effect operating through higher digital financial abilities, despite being statistically significant, impacts firms’ sustainable financing and investing decisions only to a lower extent.

Disclosing corporate innovation information plays a crucial role in investors’ decision-making. It is important to regulate the consistency between a company’s words and actions to ensure that their narrative innovation disclosures accurately reflect their innovation activities. This study utilizes data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2022 and explores the governance role of analyst coverage on corporate innovation inconsistency from a flexible governance perspective. The research finds that analyst tracking promotes a company’s innovation inconsistency of “saying less and doing more” through the information effect and suppresses “saying more and doing less” through the monitoring effect. Further, analysts who work harder, have higher education levels, are more motivated, and demonstrate greater independence and objectivity significantly impact companies’ innovation inconsistency. This study is of great theoretical and practical significance for understanding innovation inconsistency in companies, as well as the role of analysts in the capital market.

Internet finance, which can be accessed and delivered through internet technology, has become increasingly important in financial markets. This study examines how internet finance affects the extensive and intensive margins of firm exports. We find that internet finance increases both the extensive and intensive margins of firm exports, with the results varying according to firm type. Specifically, internet finance (i) enhances the extensive margin for high-tech firms more than for low- and medium-tech firms; (ii) improves the extensive margin for large firms rather than for small firms; and (iii) benefits the intensive and extensive margins for high government subsidies firms more than for low government subsidies. Moreover, internet finance promotes exports by alleviating financial constraints and reducing the fixed costs of firm exports.

In this bibliometric study, the significant transformations in the financial sector brought about by automation and technological advancements from 1984 to 2022 are explored. A total of 863 articles is analyzed, and a consistent upward trajectory in research focused on fast trading technologies and algorithmic strategies is identified. The key findings reveal that the research is grouped into five thematic clusters, ranging from algorithmic trading and machine learning to systemic risks associated with high-frequency trading and the impacts of algorithmic trading on market quality. This study encapsulates the evolving landscape of financial markets, emphasizing emerging trends in cryptocurrencies and machine learning, which will continue to shape future research directions. In conclusion, five macroareas and ten specific future research areas are proposed.

In this paper, we investigate whether dividend payout is associated with corporate transparency (i.e., CSR reporting and assurance) and whether CSR mechanisms (i.e., CSR committee and executive CSR compensation) moderate this relationship. The data covering the period between 2002 and 2019 was retrieved from the Thomson Reuters Eikon and country, industry, and year fixed-effects logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the relationships. The results underline that CSR reporting and assurance are positively associated with dividend payout and CSR committee and executive CSR compensation moderate this relationship significantly. Further analyses indicate that the dividend payout and CSR reporting and assurance relationship is robust to endogeneity concerns, regional samples, and economic downturn periods. In addition, we find that different CSR mechanisms have differential moderating roles in Anglo-Saxon and non-Anglo-Saxon countries; while CSR committee functions a better-moderating role in non-Anglo-Saxon countries, executive CSR compensation performs a better-moderating role in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Contemporary literature does not offer evidence on the causal relationship of default risk and investor sentiments for FinTech sector. We bridge this gap by assessing the dynamic co-movement between Distance-to-Default of leading global FinTech firms and three uncertainty indices namely Twitter Market Uncertainty Index-ENG, Twitter Economic Uncertainty Index-ENG, and US daily news-based Economic Policy. The sample period is from 07 April 2016–30 June 2021. The estimations are performed using Wavelet based analytical framework. The results reveal high dynamic co-movement of Twitter based uncertainty indices with Distance-to-Default of FinTech firms. However, there is very little co-movement between economic policy uncertainty and FinTech firms’ stability. The novelty of this work lies in the utilization of National University of Singapore’s Distance-to-Default measure, which is available in daily frequency and capable of performing dynamic data analysis. Our results offer maiden evidence of linkage of default risk and news based uncertainty indices.

This paper investigates the impact of multinational banks (MNBs) implementing socially sustainable practices on financial inclusion in developing countries. We argue that the specific characteristics of the MNBs, when combined with socially sustainable practices, contribute to building trust and reducing risks in developing countries where they operate. This positive externality causes improvements for the underprivileged in three dimensions of financial inclusion: their demand for bank accounts, their propensity to save, and their access to credit. A sample of 152 multinational banks in 32 developing countries and 37,952 individuals proves the positive effect of sustainable practices.

The relationship between academic finance research and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) has gained increasing attention over recent years. This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of the interplay between the UN SDGs and scholarly output in financial journals from 2010 to 2022. Utilizing a framework that combines fuzzy matching, bibliometric analysis, and topic modelling techniques, the research traces the evolution of finance research and its alignment with the UN SDGs. Our findings indicate that academic finance research is unevenly spread across the SDG’s. Key areas around the natural world, sustainability and climate change are underresearched. The implications of our study are significant for both academic scholars and policymakers, suggesting a need for strategic redirection in research priorities to better support global sustainability initiatives in the future.

This paper investigates dynamic returns and volatility spillovers between spot and futures markets in a dual financial system. It further analyses the shock transmission of both volume trading and open interest in the futures market. Empirical results suggest that both spot and futures indices are net transmitters of return spillovers to the volume and open interest of the futures market, whereas the futures volume is the only net transmitter of volatility spillovers to all other variables. This is consistent with the Information Arrival Hypothesis theory. The empirical analysis also evidences the presence of a dynamic interdependence between both Islamic and conventional spot market volatilities and the futures market. In particular, the returns and volatility spillover are bidirectional and ricocheting-off transmission in nature. Specifically, such interdependence is stronger in the case of the Islamic spot index than the conventional spot index and during financial shocks.

Utilizing China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data in 2017, this study examines the influence of financial literacy on household commercial insurance engagement. Empirical findings reveal that higher financial literacy correlates with increased likelihood and expenditure on commercial insurance. Education level and trust in commercial insurance also significantly enhance market participation. The study also discovers that financial literacy interacts with entrepreneurship, positively affecting family insurance purchasing behaviors. Particularly, financial literacy more significantly promotes insurance purchases in less educated families and communities with lower purchasing rates. In conclusion, our research not only contributes to enriching the study on the real effects of financial literacy, but also provides policy guidelines for governments on enhancing household participation in commercial insurance markets.