You are an astroneer: the effects of robotics camps on secondary school students’ perceptions and attitudes towards STEM

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration are thought to be the core skills that will enable students to be...     

Green financing for sustainable development: Insights from multiple cases of Vietnamese commercial banks

Although the public sector is seen as the main party responsible for taking action on climate change and sustainable development, private commercial banks are in a unique position to support or shift the funding focus on green investment. By employing a qualitative research approach based on six commercial banks, this paper aims to investigate the current practices of how commercial banks are contributing to advance green business initiatives. Accordingly, this research examines and identifies the facilitators and challenges in domestic and foreign commercial banks in Vietnam which support green business initiatives. In addition to addressing the recent calls for the investigation of the role of commercial banks in facilitating green finance, our study expands the emerging literature by demonstrating the current efforts of Vietnam's commercial banks in fostering green finance during the Covid-19 pandemic.     

The impact of board ethnic diversity on executive pay-to-performance sensitivity: Australian evidence

We examine how board ethnic diversity impacts executive pay-to-performance sensitivity. Using firm-year observations in Australia for the period 2007–2017, we document that board ethnic diversity leads to higher executive pay-to-performance sensitivity. The finding is robust in controlling for endogeneity using instrumental variable regression analysis, as well as using modified measures of board ethnic diversity. We also document that the impact of board ethnic diversity on executive pay-to-performance sensitivity is more pronounced for firms suffering from high agency costs and when the CEO's ethnicity is different from that of the majority of the board. This study helps to inform the debate on the issue of board ethnic diversity in Australia.     

Mood management through metaverse enhancing life satisfaction

This study aims to explore a social metaverse's positive effects as mood management on consumers' life satisfaction and usage intentions. A total of 304 survey responses from active users of a popular social metaverse platform, Zepeto, were collected with help from an online survey firm. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted using AMOS 25.0. The direct paths from social metaverse consumption as positive mood enhancement and negative mood alleviation to consumers' life satisfaction were significant, which led to greater usage intentions. Positive mood enhancement influenced usage intentions both directly and indirectly through increased life satisfaction; however, the effect of negative mood alleviation on usage intentions was fully mediated by life satisfaction. Interestingly, for the players who spend money in the social metaverse, only the path from negative mood alleviation to usage intentions mediated by life satisfaction was significant.     

An empirical investigation of tourism-led growth hypothesis in the European countries: evidence from augmented mean group estimator

Portuguese Economic Journal - Due to urbanization and the need for people to go from one country to another either for commercial purpose or tourism, it is therefore important to determine the...     

Shareholder litigation and toxic releases

We examine the environmental impact of the staggered adoption of universal demand laws by 23 U.S. states between 1989 and 2005. Universal demand laws impede derivative lawsuits and thus undermine shareholder oversight of corporate environmental performance. We find that weakened litigation rights for shareholders are positively associated with the release of toxic chemicals by firms. The effect is stronger for firms with weak governance, and environmental mismanagement by firms after the passage of the laws lead to poorer financial performance. Overall, our findings imply that derivative lawsuits by shareholders are not frivolous, as is often asserted. Rather, they act as an effective mechanism of corporate governance.