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This study examines the influence of access to finance and social capital on the improvement of the corporate performance of non-listed firms of Southeast Asian countries. Furthermore, this paper also explores the mediating role of firms' access to finance between the association of social capital and the improvement of corporate performance.

This study utilizes the Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey from 2015 to 2017. Specifically, the survey was administered by the World Bank. Data were analyzed using structural modeling in Smart-PLS.

The findings show that firms' access to finance and social capital significantly influences the improvement of corporate performance. Additionally, the study’s analysis further reports the mediating role of firms' access to finance between the association of social capital and the improvement of corporate performance.

This study has implications for governments, regulators and policymakers for enhancing access to finance and social capital, and improving corporate performance.

This paper establishes the importance of firms' access to finance and social capital for improving firms' overall performance in the broader context of Southeast Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to use univariate statistical analysis to investigate barriers to raising bank finance faced by UK small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), specifically the impact of personal characteristics (ethnicity, gender and education).

A conceptual model was developed and the results of a telephone survey of 400 SMEs conducted (before the “credit crunch”) by the Barclays Bank small business research team were analysed. The survey was based on a large stratified random sample drawn from the Bank's entire SME population.

It was found that education made little difference to sources of finance, except that those educated to A‐level more frequently used friends and family and remortgaged their homes. However, graduates had the least difficulties raising finance. Though statistically insignificant, women respondents found it easier to raise finance than men. The survey confirmed that – and this finding was statistically significant – ethnic minority businesses, particularly black owner‐managers, had the greatest problem raising finance and hence relied upon “bootstrapping” as a financing strategy.

The study makes an important contribution to filling a research gap, given the critical need of policy‐makers to understand differentials between different types of owner‐managers. It brings new insights into its field – access to finance – and with respect, especially, to marginalised groups.

The paper adopts a different approach than many prior studies, with a large sample and robust analysis, to explore a critical need‐to‐know area in a new way – both for policy‐makers and academics in the field of SME finance.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are vital for economic growth in developing countries. Yet, little research has explored the link between Islamic principles and MSME performance, especially in Uganda. This study aims to investigate the relationship between Islamic financial principles and MSMEs’ performance in Makindye Division Kampala – Uganda.

This study used a correlational research design involving 86 respondents from 30 MSMEs between January and May 2023. Data collected through questionnaires was analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences, examining three independent variables: ethicality, Halal investment and prohibition of riba, in relation to MSME performance.

The results revealed significant relationships between these variables and MSME performance. Prohibition of riba (r = 0.296, n = 86, p = 0.006), Halal investments (r = 0.308, n = 86, p = 0.004) and ethical principles (r = 0.283, n = 86, p = 0.008) all exhibited a statistically significant relationship. Regression analysis with R = 0.405, R² = 0.164 and adjusted R² = 0.134 indicated that all hypothesized variables were significant predictors of MSME performance. Based on findings, this study rejected the null hypothesis, confirming a moderately positive and significant relationship between Islamic financial principles and MSME performance.

This study underscores the importance of active involvement from key stakeholders such as the Uganda Halal Bureau, Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, Islamic financial institutions and government agencies in integrating robust support mechanisms for MSMEs into their strategic frameworks. Such efforts could enhance Uganda’s economic landscape, aligning with the experiences of Malaysia and Indonesia in leveraging Islamic principles for economic growth.

This study aims to analyse the existing literature on the utilisation of financial technology (FinTech) in the Islamic social finance (ISF) sector, focusing on tools, applications and benefits. From this study, it is to provide insights for literature or for practitioners on how FinTech can be used in ISF, such as using blockchain (tools) in waqf (application) that can help to enhance transparency and trust (benefits) with donors. It is important to explore new available tools or applications in ISF markets so that such effort can benefit the industry in promoting its growth.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out using Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) which has been based on quality evaluation criteria, beginning with 41,945 entries in Scopus, 25,386 entries in the Web of Science and 1,590 entries in the Google Scholar databases and ending with 35 articles from data abstraction and analysis, all of which focus on tools, applications and benefits of FinTech in ISF sector.

This review yielded three primary themes and eleven sub-themes addressing FinTech, namely applications (four sub-themes: crowdfunding, blockchain, banking service and peer-to-peer (P2P), tools (three sub-themes: waqf, zakat and sadaqah), as well as benefits (four sub-themes: transparency, innovation, inclusiveness and efficiency).

This study emphasises on innovative application of FinTech used in ISF industry which focuses on applications, tools and benefits of FinTech to the industry. However, the findings indicate that there is plenty of room for future investigation. The current work outlines several methodological issues and concerns as well as provides recommendations for future research. Various challenges associated with FinTech applications include inadequate regulations, complex permit application procedures, misuse of FinTech for terrorist financing, the existence of fraudulent FinTech companies and consumer disputes in the FinTech sector concerning ISF. There are few in-depth studies on the possible use of FinTech models in ISF, compared to studies focusing on upcoming challenges. This study also highlights the methodological limitations in previous research efforts, which can be used to improve future studies in this area. To offer a more comprehensive analysis, additional search keywords and engines that have not been included in this study could be used in future investigations with different methodologies.

For practitioners, the paper has significant managerial consequences. The analysis provides insights into real-life opportunities, limits and solutions for improving performance management by looking at FinTech applications from a larger and more diverse perspective. The practitioners, especially the State Islamic Religious Council, can recognise the benefits of using FinTech technology in ISF (waqf, zakat and sadaqah), namely under their jurisdiction.

This systematic literature assessment identifies critical knowledge gaps that must be addressed such as the applications of FinTech that are still ambiguous, with certain applications not completely embraced in the ISF industry. This study uses SLR technique to categorise literature, identify gaps in current studies and provide recommendations for the research issue (Paul and Criado, 2020), instead of using the other previous methodology such as content analysis or qualitative review. Hence, FinTech is considered an innovative or new approach in ISF industry.

The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of accounting disclosures and corporate governance on stock returns for firms listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange (PEX) during the period from 2014 to 2022.

Data from the quarterly reports published to the Palestine Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2022 were used in this analysis. The study makes use of secondary financial data from 52 firms in the insurance, banking, investments, services and manufacturing industries. The study used three-panel regression techniques to assess the research’s assumptions.

Our findings suggest that investors and stakeholders do not take accounting disclosures and corporate governance into consideration when evaluating stocks since they have a large and detrimental influence on stock returns. Our findings suggest that firms with financing restrictions would more clearly experience the negative effects of accounting disclosures and corporate governance on stock returns.

This study has some limitations, including the fact that it only looked at one context and one Middle Eastern country and that its method of obtaining primary data relied primarily on disclosures, corporate governance, financial reports and secondary data. In addition to the fact that there is data that we were not able to collect due to complete confidentiality and non-disclosure. The main limitation is that the sample size of this study is small due to the limited number of listed firms on the (PEX).

This paper provides some significant managerial implications for policymakers, regulators and investors. The regulatory agencies, authorities, businesses and investors can benefit from the management implications of this study. Accounting disclosure activities and corporate governance could have benefits. These procedures still need to be effectively incorporated into stock valuations. Government agencies should require businesses to reveal more complex information while lowering the percentage of indirect data they provide.

This study provides significant insights and implications for regulatory authorities, decision-makers and investors. This study contributes to the literature by evaluating the link between accounting disclosures and corporate governance and stock returns and determining if this relationship is subject to financing restrictions using a database of Palestinian firms registered on the (PEX). Governance indicators and accounting disclosures have a significant increase in the application of governance elements in companies listed on the (PEX) during the study period, which indicates that accounting disclosures and corporate governance have a strong impact on stock returns.

This paper studies the impact of societal trust on the conservative financing policy puzzle, aiming to cover a gap in the relationship between cultural values and the conservative financing policy.

We use a sample of 14,509 privately held medium-sized manufacturing firms from 26 European countries between 2015 and 2020 and rely on logistic regression methods controlling for firm-specific and macroeconomic factors.

We show that societal trust decreases the odds of being a zero-leverage or almost zero-leverage firm. Also, the probability of being a conservatively financed firm increases for older and more profitable firms and decreases with tangibility. In more trustworthy national environments, firms are less averse to debt as a source of financing. Our results are robust to the specific measure of trust, estimation methods, sampling procedures, and annual financial constraint status. Moreover, we show that the effect is noticed both in the long-term debt and the short-term debt with a lower economic impact in the latter situation and that increased societal trust attenuates (reinforces) the effect of being a financially constrained (unconstrained) firm on the odds of adopting a conservative financing policy.

Societal trust strategically impacts debt financing policy and could help foster firms’ growth, particularly for those facing heavier financial constraints.

Novel evidence on the impact of societal trust on the conservative financing policy, for privately held medium-sized European firms.

Although facilities management (FM) has been advocated in the construction industry to address the issues of facilities in buildings, their adoption is still plagued with barriers. The factors affecting FM practices need detailed investigation. However, few studies have been conducted on the factors affecting FM practices in developing countries such as South Africa. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting effective FM practices in public buildings in South Africa.

To achieve this aim, a quantitative survey was carried out using questionnaire to gather relevant data in the study area. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and principal component (factor) analysis. The study was conducted on 39 facilities managers in the Department of Public Works in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

The descriptive analysis revealed that availability of funds, occupants’ knowledge of FM, absence of policy guiding FM practice, state of deterioration of facilities and design concepts and scope were significant challenges affecting effective FM practices in public buildings in South Africa. The result of the principal component analysis of the factors affecting FM practices were grouped into organisational factors, structural/design errors and end users’ elements.

As it is widely understood that “money” plays a significant role in the performance of any activity or function, administrators/governments of public facilities should strive to plan and make appropriate finances accessible to facilities managers. Participation of facilities managers in the planning stage can also help reduce design flaws and their maintenance implications. In addition, adequate training for professionals can improve FM awareness and productivity.

The paper reveals the structural framework of the factors that can influence the effective facilities management practices in public buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential link between Sweden’s high reliance on equity capital financing among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its recognition as the most innovative economy in Europe according to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). This paper examines the idea that the high levels of trust within Swedish society can explain why private equity financing is more prevalent among Swedish SMEs.

To test these ideas, the authors use data from the Survey on Access to Finance for Enterprises to measure the private equity reliance of firms. The authors also use the EIS to measure the innovation capacity of nations and various aspects of SMEs’ innovation activities. Finally, societal levels of trust are measured through the World Value Survey.

First, the authors find that European countries with a higher proportion of SMEs relying on equity financing tend to be ranked as more innovative by the EIS. Second, the authors find that the correlation between a nation’s share of SMEs relying on equity financing and their level of innovation activities is marginally stronger for product innovations than for business process innovations. Third, the authors find that countries with higher levels of trust tend to have higher equity capital reliance among SMEs.

This study builds upon previous research on equity capital and SMEs’ innovation activity while introducing new insights into the relationship between societal trust and equity financing.

Literature has pointed that conventional financial development theories have inconclusive role on motivating new businesses. New ventures often consider the conventional system that passes through risk and provides fixed-interest lending as a burden. Comparatively, Islamic finance contributes using participative and equitable substitute for startups and has a potential in promoting new businesses. This study aims to investigate the holistic financial development index quadratic effect on entrepreneurship and include the moderating role of Islamic financing at national level.

Islamic banks of 21 nations constitute the unbalanced panel data. Financial development and entrepreneurship indices were developed using factor analysis and panel median regression to estimate the nonlinear financial market development effects and Islamic financing moderation model.

The results indicated that low financial market development is entrepreneurship deterring because of interest burden effect, which could be eased with a proportional increase in the Islamic financing, which is participative. The moderating effect has led to the categorization of the sample countries into entrepreneurship promoting and entrepreneurship discouraging with respect to the current incidence of financial market development and Islamic financing, which can help policymakers in understanding the entrepreneurship promoting combination of financial development and Islamic financing.

Central banks and Shari’ah advisory councils can adopt Islamic financing transition in the national financial inclusion policy for new business facilitation.

This study is instrumental in exploring the assessment of introducing Islamic financing while developing the financial sector on multidimensional entrepreneurship.