This study aims to investigate the impact of green finance initiatives on achieving sustainable development goals in Jordan, with a specific focus on evaluating the effectiveness of green finance strategies in promoting environmental sustainability. The research applies the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method and assesses the connection of green finance, taken as the number of banks who increase the loan activity on ecology projects, and sustainable growth, given by the records of carbon releases. Relevant control variables involved in this consideration include income level, population, trade openness, and urbanization in addition to other factors that could otherwise cause a deviation which would generate biased results. The statistical tests show that green finance positively contributes to sustainable development in Jordan, and in the short- and long-term perspectives. Green finance and sustainable development have been a tightly connected two-way causality between them according to Dik and Panchenko's test, which implies that a virtuous cycle exists here. The results give extra weight and brilliant examples of the crucial role that green finance plays in the implementation of the sustainable development goals. It is this role that mainly enables reduction of carbon emissions in the world and mitigation of the negative consequences of climate change. They touch on the main issue of shaping the suitable conditions for green investment options and to create the interest for investing in sustainable development projects. This has become part and parcel of the green finance and sustainable development literature through the manifold of envisaged adjustments to our research design, a wide array of relevant control variables considered, and fully developed elaborated econometrics. It offers a direct response to the research gap by unfolding how becoming green finances takes place. This empowers the sustainable development outcomes in Jordan.

The present research analyzes the short and long run relationship between Energy Consumption, Economic growth, and Carbon Dioxide emissions in Jordan. The study employs two (2) models: 1: Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach and 2: Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) Granger causality and impulse response function. The results reveal that energy consumption has a positive impact on carbon dioxide emissions and in turn carbon dioxide emissions have a positive link to economic growth. Further, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is tested, and it reveals that the EKC hypothesis is validated in the case of Jordan since the carbon dioxide emissions show a significant impact on economic growth in the short and long run. The study provides important results for future researchers and government policy makers.

This study investigates the mediating role of competitiveness in the relationship between FinTech adoption and banking performance in the Middle Eastern region. A quantitative research design is employed, utilizing survey data from banking professionals across multiple countries. The data is analyzed using PLS-SEM modelling. The results show a positive and statistically significant impact of FinTech integration on the competitiveness of financial institutions and the performance of banks. On the other hand, the mediation of competitiveness is involved in the process of FinTech adoption and bank efficiency, suggesting that banking institutions that can utilize FinTech advantageously have greater chances of translating the benefits of FinTech adoption into better performance. This study supports the literature by providing a practical example of the use of FinTech as a factor for competitiveness and improving the performance of banks in the Middle East. These findings have huge managerial and practical implications and can help large banks gain competitive advantage and effectively integrate FinTech platforms to achieve real improvements. The value of this research is that it fills the gap in the existing literature, i.e. the role of competition as a mediating factor. By combining studies on competitive strategy approaches with those on technological innovation theory, this study combines a complete worldview related to the performance of banks in the digital age.

Since late 2019 and throughout 2020, the global economy has been experiencing difficult times due to the outbreak of the lethal Coronavirus (COVID-19). This study looks at the financial impact of this epidemic on the global economy using Malaysian market index i.e. FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI before and during COVID-19. Measuring the financial impact of this epidemic on the Malaysia economy may help policy makers to develop measures to avert similar financial catastrophic impacts on the global economy. The study uses Sharpe optimal and naïve diversification model to solve a scenario that factors in the level of corporate social responsibility(CSR) exhibited before and during the epidemic to measure the financial impact on the stock portfolio. The results show that the emergence of COVID-19exacerbated the already weak Malaysian economy. Our findings may help the policy makers in Malaysia to develop and maintain techniques and policies that may mitigate the negative financial impact and handle similar epidemics in the future. Future studies could cover the financial impact of CSR using variable scoring and apply the portfolio model with practical and prevailing constraints.

This paper investigates the effect of investments in subsidiaries, joint ventures and affiliates (affiliate investment) on firm growth. Using both static and dynamic panel data models with a sample dataset of 2,056 firm-year observations on Vietnam’s stock market from 2008-2015, the study finds that increasing affiliate investment in prior periods had a significantly positive impact on asset growth and net income growth (but not sales growth) of the firms in subsequent periods. In addition, the study finds new empirical evidence that private-controlled firms are more efficient than government-controlled firms in terms of affiliate investment. It is also found that profitability, government ownership and foreign ownership are significant dynamics for firm growth. This research sheds light on the role of affiliate investment as a corporate diversification strategy to boost firm growth, including growth rates of multinational corporations. It also provides important implications about the determinants of different dimensions of firm growth in the context of an Asian emerging economy.