Search results

This paper aims to the relationship between environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and the investment performance of mutual funds with significant exposure to the technology sector. It aims to explore whether ESG-aligned funds deliver superior financial performance, particularly in terms of risk-adjusted returns and if these funds demonstrate better market timing abilities compared to their lower-rated counterparts.

The analysis covers a 10-year period from January 2013 to December 2022, focusing on Eurozone-based mutual funds with more than 40% of their assets under management (AUM) invested in technology firms. The sample includes 912 funds, categorized by their ESG ratings (AAA to CCC), using MSCI ratings as the classification metric. The performance evaluation uses risk-adjusted measures such as the Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio and Jensen’s alpha, along with an assessment of market timing capabilities based on an extended four-factor model.

The results show that mutual funds with higher ESG ratings consistently outperform their lower-rated peers in both absolute and risk-adjusted returns. These funds also exhibit superior market timing abilities. ESG-aligned funds not only provide a favorable risk-return profile but also enhance the appeal of responsible investment strategies, particularly within the volatile and innovation-driven technology sector. The study reinforces the notion that ESG factors contribute positively to long-term value creation for investors.

The findings are valuable for investors and policymakers aiming to incorporate ESG factors into investment strategies, especially in sectors characterized by rapid technological advancements. The superior performance of ESG-compliant funds highlights the importance of sustainable investing and its potential to align financial returns with broader environmental and social goals.

This study adds to the growing body of literature on ESG investing by specifically focusing on tech-heavy mutual funds in the Eurozone. It offers new insights into how ESG ratings at the fund level, rather than at the firm level, influence investment performance and market timing within the high-growth, high-risk technology sector.

The blue and green firms are notable contributors to sustainable development. Similar to other businesses in circular economies, blue and green firms also face financing constraints. This paper aims to assess whether blue and green lending help in optimizing the interest rate spreads and the likelihood of default.

This analysis is based on an unbalanced panel of banks from 20 eurozone countries for eleven years between 2012 and 2022. The key indicators of banking include interest rate spread and a market-based probability of default. The paper assesses how these indicators are influenced by exposure to green and blue firms after controlling for several exogenous factors.

The results show a positive relationship between green and blue lending and spread, while there is a negative link with the probability of default. This confirms that the blue and green exposure positively supports the credit portfolio both in terms of profitability and risk management.

The banking system is among the key contributors to corporate finance and to enable continuous access to sustainable finance, the banking firms must be incentivized. While many studies analyze the impact of green lending, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the very few that extend this analysis to blue economy firms.

This study aims to investigate experimentally and numerically the thermal analysis of a wavy diverging-converging corrugated enclosure, partitioned into two parts under the effect of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection. The left part was filled with Al₂O₃/C₂H₆O₂ nanofluid, while the right part was Al₂O₃/C₂H₆O₂ saturated by a porous medium, featuring a corrugated cylinder at the center. This system is relevant to many engineering applications. Key factors affecting thermal performance, such as nanofluid volume fraction, Darcy number, Hartmann number, inclination angle of MHD and Rayleigh number, were analyzed. This study evaluated the impact of these parameters on stream function, average Nusselt number and isothermal lines under three heat source scenarios: heating the corrugated cylinder, heating the magnetic source and heating the nanofluid, porous media and corrugated walls.

The main governing equations for the nanofluid flow are mass, momentum and heat transfer, while the porous media are modeled using the Darcy–Brinkmann model. These governing equations are transformed into a dimensionless form and solved numerically using COMSOL 6.0 based on the finite-element method. Dynamic viscosity, density and thermal conductivity equations are used to calculate the properties of the nanofluid at different volume concentrations.

The results showed that increasing the Rayleigh number (Ra) and Darcy number (Da) increased the Nusselt number by 55%, indicating enhanced heat transfer. A vertical magnetic source (γ = 90°) further improved thermal performance. Conversely, thermal performance decreased with increasing Hartmann number (Ha). The highest Nusselt number was observed when the heat source was applied to the corrugated cylinder, followed by the right side with nanofluid–porous contact and was lowest for the left side with nanofluid contact. Experimental data demonstrated that the presence of a magnetic field can significantly increase the temperature, thereby enhancing heat transfer by natural convection, particularly when the heat source is applied in the region of nanofluid–porous contact.

The primary originality of this work lies in the use of a novel design featuring a diverging-converging structure with a wavy wall. In addition, it uses two types of fluids simultaneously, dividing the enclosure into two sections: the right side contains nanofluid mixed with a porous medium, while the left side is filled with nanofluid only. The system also includes a corrugated cylinder at its center with four undulations. The position of the heat source significantly influences heat dissipation. Therefore, three different positions were examined: heating the cylinder at a constant temperature, heating the left side of the enclosure and heating the right side.

This paper aims to examine the connection between digital payments, ownership structure, and bank performance in Jordan, as well as investigate the moderating role of the independent director in the said relationship.

The study uses data from 12 Amman stock exchange-listed commercial banks, covering the period from 2010 to 2023. This paper employs econometric analysis of panel data, including ordinary least squares (OLS) regression as the primary approach, as well as the generalised method of moments, the two-stage least square (2SLS), and the dynamic model to deal with causality and endogeneity issues in the proposed equations. This ensures that the results are valid.

The results indicate that digital payments and ownership structure have a significant positive connection with bank performance. Additionally, the independent director variable appears to play a substantial and positive moderating role in the link between ownership structure (e.g. institutional ownership) and bank performance. These results strengthen and support the claims of agency theory and the information systems success model.

Overall, this research helps stakeholders, bankers, managers, investors, customers, and policymakers, identify the influence of digital payment and ownership structure on bank performance in developing economies such as that of Jordan.

This investigation offers a unique understanding by illuminating how digital payment and ownership structure affect bank performance in a developing country such as Jordan. Additionally, it opens avenues for future research to delve into this literature domain in North African and Middle Eastern nations, with a particular focus on Jordan. This investigation is among the initial explorations in Jordan that aim to elucidate these relationships. On the theoretical level, it adds to the agency theory and IS model. It provides new insights into the dynamics of industry banking in developing nations (i.e. Jordan).

This study aims to explore the effects of internal financial technology (FinTech) integration within Jordanian banks on their performance metrics, specifically focusing on profitability, risk-taking and stock returns.

Using panel data analysis, this study investigates the financial performance of 13 listed commercial banks in Jordan over a decade, from 2010 to 2019, to examine the hypothesized impacts of bank FinTech developments. In addition, several robustness tests addressing potential issues of endogeneity and autocorrelation are conducted to enhance the reliability of the results.

The results reveal that the bank FinTech development significantly enhances bank profitability and inversely affects risk-taking levels, indicating a substantial and positive impact on financial performance and stability. However, the results suggest no significant evidence of the effect of bank FinTech development on stock return.

The findings advocate for Jordanian commercial banks to continue and expand their investment in FinTech innovations, highlighting the crucial role these technologies play in enhancing financial performance and reducing bank risks. Additionally, these findings suggest that regulatory bodies and policymakers should develop and enhance institutional and regulatory environments to support and guide the FinTech evolution within the banking sector.

This study sheds light on the relatively under-researched area of internal bank FinTech. It provides critical insights into how FinTech integration within banks contributes to their profitability and stability, offering another perspective that enriches the FinTech literature. This contribution is essential for devising future strategies, developing theoretical frameworks and informing policy decisions in the FinTech domain.

The corrosion of cupronickel and copper alloys in marine and chloride environments presents significant challenges in the chemical and petrochemical industries. This paper aims to investigate the corrosion inhibition of cupronickel alloy (Cu-10Ni) in a sodium chloride medium using expired amlodipine as a corrosion inhibitor. The use of this drug in its expired form could reduce the costs of corrosion and help mitigate the accumulation of pharmaceutical waste.

The inhibitory action was evaluated using a weight loss method, potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The effect of temperature on the inhibition performance was also studied.

The results of these experiments demonstrated that the drug amlodipine effectively inhibited the corrosion of cupronickel alloy in chloride solutions. The corrosion rate of cupronickel was found to decrease with increasing inhibitor concentration and to increase with rising temperature. A maximum inhibition efficiency of 91.92 was achieved with an inhibitor concentration of 0.025 g/L at 298 K. Adsorption of the inhibitor followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Polarization studies indicated that the expired drug acted as a mixed inhibitor. SEM and AFM analyses confirmed that the surface morphology of cupronickel specimens was significantly improved in the presence of the inhibitor.

Amlodipine can be conveniently used to mitigate problems with the corrosion of copper alloys in chloride environments.

Amlodipine is evaluated as a novel and effective corrosion inhibitor for cupronickel alloy in neutral chloride environments.

Thermal energy storage systems use thermal energy to elevate the temperature of a storage substance, enabling the release of energy during a discharge cycle. The storage or retrieval of energy occurs through the heating or cooling of either a liquid or a solid, without undergoing a phase change, within a sensible heat storage system. In a sensible packed bed thermal energy storage system, the structure comprises porous media that form the packed solid material, while fluid occupies the voids. Thus, a cavity, partially filled with a fluid layer and partially with a saturated porous layer, has become important in the investigation of natural convection heat transfer, carrying significant relevance within thermal energy storage systems. Motivated by these insights, the current investigation delves into the convection heat transfer driven by buoyancy and entropy generation within a partially porous cavity that is differentially heated, vertically layered and filled with a hybrid nanofluid.

The investigation encompasses two distinct scenarios. In the first instance, the porous layer is positioned next to the heated wall, while the opposite region consists of a fluid layer. In the second case, the layers switch places, with the fluid layer adjacent to the heated wall. The system of equations for fluid and porous media, along with appropriate initial and boundary conditions, is addressed using the finite difference method. The Tiwari–Das model is used in this investigation, and the viscosity and thermal conductivity are determined using correlations specific to spherical nanoparticles.

Comprehensive numerical simulations have been performed, considering controlling factors such as the Darcy number, nanoparticle volume fraction, Rayleigh number, bottom slit position and Hartmann number. The visual representation of the numerical findings includes streamlines, isotherms and entropy lines, as well as plots illustrating average entropy generation and the average Nusselt number. These representations aim to provide insight into the influence of these parameters across a spectrum of scenarios.

The computational outcomes indicate that with an increase in the Darcy number, the addition of 2.5% magnetite nanoparticles to the GO nanofluid results in an enhanced heat transfer rate, showing increases of 0.567% in Case 1 and 3.894% in Case 2. Compared with Case 2, Case 1 exhibits a 59.90% enhancement in heat transfer within the enclosure. Positioning the porous layer next to the partially cooled wall significantly boosts the average total entropy production, showing a substantial increase of 11.36% at an elevated Rayleigh number value. Positioning the hot slit near the bottom wall leads to a reduction in total entropy generation by 33.20% compared to its placement at the center and by 33.32% in comparison to its proximity to the top wall.

This study aims to test mutual fund superiority, comparing the performance of 646 Islamic mutual funds with 475 ethical funds and conventional proxies.

This study uses statistical methods including paired t-statistics of independent samples, one-way Bonferroni test–analysis of variance–F-statistic for testing means equality, the chi-squared test for median equality and regression models corrected for heteroscedasticity. These methods are used to identify superiority of mutual funds and to validate the significance of the results.

The findings confirm the superiority of conventional funds over ethical funds and ethical funds over Islamic funds. Both ethical and Islamic funds, however, outperform conventional proxies during some recessionary periods. Moreover, stronger performance is recorded for Islamic funds in Europe and North America regions and across age and asset allocation categories, but limited support for reversal fund size, composition focus and reversed price effect.

These findings should assist investors when deciding to invest and motivate Islamic and ethical funds to improve their portfolio formation and asset allocation strategies set by their professional managers.

The originality of this study is in its comprehensive approach in that it compares the performance of funds after accounting for such characteristics as fund objectives, size, age, asset allocation, geographical investment focus, fund composition focus, share price levels and the effect of global crises. This study approach is not only original and productive in documenting Islamic funds’ performance for the past three decades (1990–2022) but can also update the literature on these characteristics collectively and individually.

The aim of this paper is to determine whether the efficiency of banks’ human capital (HC) has moderating effects on the relationship between asset diversification and bank performance over the 2008–2020 period.

Our study considers generalized least squares estimation in fixed effects panel.

Results show that banks with higher levels of HC and higher degree of diversification reduce bank profitability and efficiency. The results also depict that the financial stability-reducing effects of Income diversification decrease as bank HC efficiency increases. At the same time, the effects of income and asset diversity on financial stability change depending on the performance aspect.

Previous research on banks’ performance is concentrated on asset diversification. This article broadens to the HC, Asset diversification and the moderating effects of the profitability, stability and efficiency of French Banks.

The aim of this paper is to understand the importance of consumer loyalty in the specific context of Hotel Family Business. This study proposes a conceptual model to examine how perceived service quality and corporate social responsibility (SCR) influence guest satisfaction and loyalty, and also how they relate to corporate image, perceived value and price.

Through the structural equation model (SEM), a research model was proposed to examine SQ and CSR affect satisfaction and loyalty to the Douro Family Hotel and also, how they interact with corporate image, perceived value and price. The main purpose is to analyse the drivers of guest loyalty and its importance for the development and sustainability of family hotels in Douro (Portugal).

The results of the study indicate that CSR and SQ perceived by the guest have a direct and positive effect on guest satisfaction and loyalty to Douro family hotels. These variables are also determinants of the perceived value, corporate image and price.

The sample is restricted and obtained by the convenience technique, but with sufficient size for the application of the structural equations model. However, the results obtained cannot be generalised to all hotels or contexts, as they only reflect information on family hotels in the Douro.

Family businesses are a substantial share of the European economy, from the industrial sector to the services industry, including also hospitality. In Portugal, family businesses likewise play a key role, both in terms of wealth creation and job creation.

These findings provide knowledge to family hotels on how they should implement a CSR policy that promotes service quality, corporate image and guest satisfaction, and therefore their loyalty and the competitiveness of the family hotel business.