Search results

In the recent international scenario, the rise of emerging economies, in particular, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) has gained ample of attention. The global trade flows of the BRICS countries have significantly increased during the last one-and-a-half decade. The purpose of this paper is to examine the intra-BRICS and BRICS–EU trade flows.

To study the intensity of trade among BRICS countries and with EU, the Trade Intensity Index is employed for the period 2001–2015. Balassa’s revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index is computed for the assessment of comparative advantages of exports by BRICS countries in the year 2015 in the global markets. A comparative analysis of export similarity is done for India and other BRICS countries in EU.

The findings of trade intensity showed large bilateral trade flows among BRICS member. Russia has emerged as the main trading partner with EU in BRICS. For the year 2015, the comparative study of RCA at HS-two digits and HS-four digits classification highlights marginal structural changes in the export composition of these countries. The analysis revealed that Brazil and Russia have comparative advantages in natural resource-based products, while India and China possessed comparative advantages in manufactured and processed products. The export similarity index shows the presence of competition between India and China in EU.

This paper highlights the need for closer cooperation to promote intra-BRICS trade and to make structural transformations in the basket of trading products by them to have trade benefits at large.

Numerous studies are available on bilateral trade of BRICS members. However, limited studies are available to get a holistic view of intra-BRICS trade. This paper is an attempt to examine the BRICS countries trade profile both at global levels and within the group.

Sustainability has become a global need for survival in every field since the side effects of financial development have resulted in environmental devastation. Green banking (GB) has been proposed as a way to reduce the carbon footprint caused by banking operations by promoting paperless financial services through the intensive use of technology. However, the adoption level of GB technology remains unsatisfactory among customers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Therefore, using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), this study aims to comprehensively investigate the challenges affecting the intention of bank consumers in the UAE to adopt GB technology.

This study used exploratory sequential mixed-methods research. Preliminary semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten banking professionals using a purposive sampling technique to explore the challenges affecting consumers’ intention to adopt GB technology. Sequentially, the study tested various factors through a quantitative cross-sectional online survey of a sample of 332 bank customers and used the convenience sampling technique to obtain further empirical support for the research framework. Thematic content analysis using NVivo 11 was used for the qualitative data analysis. Meanwhile, partial least square structural equation modelling in Smart PLS 3.3 was used for the quantitative data analysis.

The qualitative analysis identified six new challenges affecting customers’ intention to adopt GB technology, including customer awareness, personal innovativeness, bank reputation, security and privacy, system quality and government support. The preliminary qualitative findings were confirmed mainly through quantitative data analysis, whereby customer awareness, personal innovativeness, system quality and bank reputation were found to significantly impact customers’ intention to adopt GB technology. However, the effects of security and privacy and government support were insignificant.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to propose a comprehensive model that considers individual, technological, organisational and environmental factors to address the issue of customers’ low GB technology adoption rates in the UAE. Meanwhile, this study extends the UTAUT by integrating new factors. This paper is also among the first to investigate customers’ GB technology adoption intention using a mixed-methods approach, which combines the strengths of quantitative and qualitative methods within the same study to offer better insights than a single-method approach.

This study presents a systematic literature review on green banking (GB) and sustainability from 2012 to 2024, filtering 45 out of 561 research publications.

Using NVivo and Biblioshiny, the study employed a combination of bibliometric analysis and thematic analysis, representing a novel approach in this field.

The analysis of ‘term frequency' results has indicated that the term “green banking” has gained significant attention during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by sustainability and green finance. This suggests that approximately 12.5% of the literature on GB has emerged shortly after the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis. Cluster analysis and network analysis has divided the GB articles into two major clusters and one minor cluster. Most studies cover titles such as “sustainable”, “sustainable development” and “sustainability.” However, there is a significant gap in research on the theme of GB. Aside from legitimacy and stakeholder theories, no clear theoretical frameworks have yet been published in the field of GB. Among all categories of publishers, Elsevier ranks highest for publishing journal articles on “green” topics. According to publication output by country, China leads with 17 publications, followed by Malaysia with 11, and both Australia and India with nine each.

The in-depth research on GB provides fresh insights for policymakers and academics regarding future research directions.

This study is likely the first to incorporate both bibliometric and thematic analysis to explore the growing phenomenon of GB. Furthermore, none of the existing banking literature explicitly addresses the relevant questions and themes that could benefit future researchers and policymakers.