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This study explores the impact of metaverse knowledge on freelancer engagement and performance within the gig economy, drawing upon the theoretical framework of social cognitive theory. The authors investigate the mediating role of freelancer engagement in the relationship between metaverse knowledge and performance, further examining the moderating influence of freelancer experience on these relationships.

Using a convenient sampling technique, data was collected through questionnaire from 301 freelancers working on various virtual platforms in Pakistan using a five-point Likert scale. Smart PLS 4.0 was used to analyze the data.

The findings reveal positive direct effect of metaverse knowledge on both freelancer engagement and performance. In addition, freelancer engagement significantly mediates the relationship between metaverse knowledge and performance. Furthermore, the findings affirm that the freelancers experience serves as a moderating factor in the relationship between metaverse knowledge, engagement and performance by indicating positive impact.

This study contributes a novel perspective to the gig economy literature by elucidating the underlying mechanisms through which metaverse knowledge drives freelancer performance via engagement. By examining the unique role of the metaverse in the gig context, the study offers valuable theoretical and practical implications for both scholars and practitioners seeking to understand and enhance freelancer engagement and performance in this evolving digital landscape.

This study social based on cognitive theory (SCT), aims to better understand how transformational leadership affects team-level knowledge sharing and absorptive ability in the construction industry. It also examines the moderating influence of the AI-based virtual assistant on the indirect relationship between transformational leadership and team innovation through knowledge sharing and absorptive ability at the team level.

This study used a simple random sample approach to gather data from several small and medium-sized construction firms in Anhui Province, China. A total of 407 respondents, including 89 site engineers and 321 team members, provided their responses on a five-point Likert scale questionnaire.

The findings showed that AI-based virtual assistants significantly moderated the direct and indirect association between transformational leadership and knowledge sharing, and subsequently with team innovation. Unexpectedly, the findings showed that AI-based virtual assistant did not moderate the direct relationship between transformational leadership and team-level absorptive capacity.

This study adds a fresh perspective to the literature on construction management by examining team innovation driven by transformational leadership through an underlying mechanism. It is unique in that it uses the team adaptation theory to investigate the understudied relationship between transformational leadership and team innovation in the construction industry.

The study investigates the impact of competition and concentration on bank risk-taking behavior and stability in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region.

Data from 100 banks from 2013 to 2021 was analyzed using dynamic and static measures by using dynamic system GMM.

Results showed that higher competition reduces stability, while concentration in the banking sector produces stability and reduces risk-taking behavior. The findings suggest that regulatory agencies should take different actions based on the degree of banking market concentration to enhance banking sector stability in the SAARC area.

The research helps regulators and decision-makers establish capital requirements at levels that would prevent banks from increasing their risk-taking in order to boost profits and, therefore, reduces hazardous practices that might increase the risk.

The research helps establish capital requirements to prevent banks from increasing risk-taking to boost profits and avoid hazardous practices that could increase nonperforming loans and bank failure risks.

This study aims to analyze chief executive officer (CEO) duality in corporate governance by using Scopus data. It explores CEO duality research trends across diverse corporate governance contexts and disciplines, shaping the future research agenda, and proposing recommendations for further investigations in this area.

This analysis is conducted through VOSviewer software and Biblioshiny by extracting the bibliometric network from the output files of the Scopus bibliographic database.

Research on CEO duality centers on keywords such as corporate governance, agency theory, board of directors, board size and firm performance. Word tree maps uncover various research areas and gaps. Top authors are Elsyed K. & Rashid K, with the University of Utara Malaysia as the leading organization. Main disciplines are “Business Management and Accounting” followed by “Economics.” “Corporate Governance: An International Review” tops the journals with 1,120 citations. Quantitative methods using secondary data dominate (94%), mostly from nonfinancial industries (96%). Theoretical lenses include agency theory, stewardship theory, stakeholder theory, resource dependence theory and institutional theory. Firm performance is the most researched aspect (38% of studies) concerning CEO duality.

Bibliometric and systematic analysis offer researchers a general overview and in-depth insights into current CEO duality research trends, influential articles and keywords in corporate governance. This study’s findings benefit research institutions, professional bibliometric users and funding agencies alike.

By visualizing bibliometric networks and conducting systematic analysis of top-cited articles, this study not only advances the academic understanding of CEO duality in corporate governance but also provides actionable recommendations for researchers, practitioners and policymakers to enhance governance practices and contribute to the field’s evolving body of knowledge.

The burgeoning literature on climate-related finance suggests that climate change influences financial markets. Building on this foundation, the present study aims to investigate the time-varying predictive power of news related to physical and transition climate risks for financial instability across the financial systems of the US, EU, and the ASEAN+3 countries (comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan, and South Korea), from January 2003 to August 2022, on a monthly basis.

In this study, we use the VAR-based Granger-causality test in the presence of instabilities introduced by Rossi and Wang (2019), and combine it with the innovative rolling and recursive bootstrap time-varying Granger-causality approach of Shi et al. (2020). These methods were chosen for their capacity to effectively capture the dynamic influence of climate risk-related news on financial instability over time, offering an advantage over traditional constant parameter regressions and standard Granger causality methods. Additionally, we make use of the Media Climate Change Concerns indices recently developed by Ardia et al. (2022), coupled with regional financial stress indices.

Our findings indicate that the predictive power of climate change news for financial instability is substantial but varies over time. This influence becomes especially pronounced during periods that align with specific local and global events. In the US and EU, the predictive power is influenced by a combination of global and local macroeconomic, political, health, and climate-related factors. In contrast, ASEAN+3 financial systems show a stronger response to regional and local events, with comparatively less sensitivity to global events.

The results of this study are noteworthy for investors, highlighting increased market instability during periods with prevalent climate change news. Investors can adjust their strategies to mitigate risks and respond to macro-events that trigger climate news-related market instability, while considering regional sensitivities. Similarly, these findings are significant for policymakers, emphasizing the need to consider the influence of climate news on financial markets when designing regulatory frameworks. This could involve enacting measures to stabilize the financial system during periods of significant climate news. Policymakers might consider developing macroprudential regulations to bolster financial institutions’ resilience against climate change news effects.

This study pioneers the exploration of how climate change news affects financial system stability at the macro level. It extends beyond traditional research, typically focusing on direct effects of climate change in banking and asset markets, by examining broader implications of climate risk-related news for financial system instability. Furthermore, this study enhances our understanding of the predictors of global financial stability by examining the financial systems of the US, the EU, and ASEAN+3. It specifically investigates the impact of climate change news, a topic not extensively explored in previous research focusing mainly on macro-factors such as financial liberalization and business cycles.

The relationship with internal and external actors on the part of higher education institutions (HEIs) is a fundamental factor for them to fully exercise their role in sustainable development and the evolution of individuals, organizations and society as a whole. In this sense, this study aims to analyze the literature about stakeholder management in HEIs and to provide guidelines to support managers of HEIs to enhance stakeholder management practices.

This research was conducted through a bibliometric analysis followed by a content analysis to propose the guidelines to support HEIs’ managers in improving stakeholder management practices.

The guidelines were proposed for each of the following seven areas: engagement and governance; innovation and knowledge management; education for sustainable development; responsible research, innovation and collaborative partnerships; organisational change management; social responsibility; and performance management and sustainability report.

Although the topic addressed has gained traction in the academic community, the literature fails to provide guidelines to support managers of HEIs enhance stakeholder management practices. From a theoretical standpoint, the increasing recognition of the importance of stakeholder engagement reflects a paradigm shift in understanding sustainability and social responsibility in HEIs. On a practical level, managers can use the guidelines to promote effective dialogue, increase stakeholder engagement and collaborative partnerships.

Manufacturing capability is a crucial component of every nation’s economy and pharmaceuticals are frequently a significant part of the manufacturing sector. Pharmaceutical supply chains are essential to health-care systems, contributing to living quality and shorter hospital stays. This study aims to examine the role of multiple integrations on business performance (BP) through supply chain flexibility (SCF) and supply chain agility (SCA).

Data was collected from 198 supply chain professionals in the pharmaceutical sector of the developing economy of Pakistan. The sample was collected based on a nonprobability purposive sampling approach. A five-point Likert-scale survey was used and analyzed with the PLS-SEM technique using SmartPLS 4.

This study found that process integration (PI) does not affect SCA, whereas relationship integration and measurement integration positively affect SCA. SCA positively impacts BP. In contrast, all integrations significantly influenced supply flexibility and BP except for PI. Finally, SCF significantly mediates the relationship between all integrations and BP.

This study examined the relationships of multiple integrations on BP, directly and indirectly, through SCF and agility. The theory of dynamic capabilities has been applied and extended to increase the comprehensiveness of the findings. A developing economy’s pharmaceutical industry supply chain was examined, producing empirical evidence of the results.

Open social innovation has become a critical practice for firms competing in volatile markets. Simultaneously, the rise of digital technologies has opened opportunities across sectors, making digital transformation a key driver of corporate change. This study examines the impact of internal and external factors, such as social capital, absorptive capacity and government support, in facilitating open social innovation and digital transformation activities, which may ultimately enhance business performance.

Data were collected through a questionnaire survey distributed to management members across various enterprises in a wide range of industries in Vietnam. A total of 289 valid responses were obtained, and the research hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

First, open social innovation positively influences digital transformation, with absorptive capacity mediating this relationship. Second, social capital directly affects open social innovation and indirectly impacts digital transformation through open social innovation. Third, digital transformation directly enhances business performance, while absorptive capacity indirectly influences business performance through digital transformation. Finally, government support directly impacts business performance and indirectly influences digital transformation via open social innovation.

By integrating social capital theory and the resource-based view, this research significantly advances the understanding of the complex relationships among government support, social capital, open social innovation, digital transformation, absorptive capacity and business performance.

This study investigates the role of market concentration and efficiency in banking system stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We empirically test the hypothesis that market concentration and efficiency are significant determinants of bank performance and stability during the time of crises, using a sample of 575 banks in 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The main sources of bank data are the BankScope and BankFocus (Bureau van Dijk) databases, World Bank development indicators, and official websites of banks in MENA countries. This study combined descriptive and analytical approaches. We utilize a panel dataset and adopt panel data econometric techniques such as fixed/random effects and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator.

The results reveal that market concentration negatively affects bank profitability, whereas improved efficiency further enhances bank performance and contributes to the banking sector’s overall stability. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that during the COVID-19 pandemic, bank stability strongly depended on the level of market concentration, but not on bank efficiency. However, more efficient banks are more profitable and stable if the banking institutions are Islamic. Similarly, Islamic banks with the same level of efficiency demonstrated better overall financial performance during the pandemic than their conventional peers did.

The main limitation is related to the period of COVID-19 pandemic that was covered in this paper (2020–2021). Therefore, further investigation of the COVID-19 effects on bank profitability and risk will require an extended period of the pandemic crisis, including 2022.

This study provides information that will enable bank managers and policymakers in MENA countries to assess the growing impact of market concentration and efficiency on the banking sector stability. It also helps them in formulating suitable strategies to mitigate the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our recommendations are useful guides for policymakers and regulators in countries where Islamic and conventional banking systems co-exist and compete, based on different business models and risk management practices.

The authors contribute to the banking stability literature by investigating the role of market concentration and efficiency as the main determinants of bank performance and stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is the first to analyze banking sector stability in the MENA region, using both individual and risk-adjusted aggregated performance measures.