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The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on Islamic banking by examining their ethical dimension using transparency, placement of assets, guarantees and participation from Radical Affinity Index.

To this end, a sample of 20 Islamic banks from 13 countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Kuwait, Tanzania, Great Britain, Oman, Iraq, Egypt, Bangladesh and Qatar) was used.

The results are robust to ethical effects. The evidence suggests that among Islamic banks, at least some of them could improve their ethical requirements of the Sharia; they obtained lower scores than ethical banks in terms of RAI variables (transparency, placement of assets, guarantees and participation).

It is used a random sample rather than population with the limitations that entails. The variables in the index are based on ethical perspective; then, the index is applied in Islamic banking but with the ethical view limitation.

The Islamic banks have the option to increase their transparency including further information regarding the beneficiaries of the benevolent funds; moreover, it would offer a clearer view about their ethical and social commitment towards society.

Additionally, this paper broadens the scope of the literature by analysing the determinants of Islamic banking around ethical dimensions of financial entities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the evolution and characteristics of health education in schools in Spain during the dictatorship of General Franco (1939-1975).

The analysis of two kinds of sources has been performed. First, the reports from international organizations on health education in schools published in the 1950s and 1960s. Second, journals, books and official documents published by public health and education organizations in Franco’s Spain.

Health education in schools evolved in three stages under Franco’s dictatorship. In the first stage (1939-1953), Spanish schools maintained an outdated “school health” approach in the teaching programmes. In the second stage (1953-1965), the agreements with the USA in 1953 ended Spanish isolation, and the regime sought to follow the recommendations of international organizations. Efforts were made to “import” the WHO/UNESCO version of health education in schools but it failed to materialize. A programme that sought to enhance citizen participation and to acknowledge their idiosyncrasies was unlikely to prosper in a dictatorship. However, the less threatening food and nutrition education programme, encouraged by the FAO/UNICEF, did succeed. In the last stage (1965-1975), the Spanish education system entered a period of modernization in which the contents and methods of health education in schools were reformed in order to introduce the less conflictive aspects of the international recommendations.

The paper highlights the tensions between the aspirations to follow international programmes and the recommendations on health education in schools and the difficulties of implementing such schemes under a dictatorship.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of companies is influenced by the barriers and opportunities created by three factors characterising a country’s governance landscape: democracy, political stability and regulatory quality. Additionally, this study separately explains the influence of the three country governance factors on the ESG performance of companies and how they are affected by the profitability of the company.

Fixed effects multiple linear regression is performed on 6,035 firm-year observations drawn from 27 countries relating to 1,207 unique constituents of the S&P Global 1200 index for a five-year period from 2015 to 2019. Clustered standard errors robust to heteroscedasticity and serial correlation are estimated for a specification that includes Refinitiv ESG scores as the dependent variable, selected Worldwide Governance Indicators as the independent variables and several country- and firm-level controls.

The study finds that companies’ ESG performance is higher in countries with a lower level of democracy and political stability, and corporate governance performance is higher in countries with higher regulatory quality. A component-level analysis finds significant variation in the results across the different ESG pillars. Firm profitability moderates the relationship between country-level governance factors and companies’ ESG performance.

The study reveals that national governments can prompt companies to enhance their governance performance, invariably leading to greater engagement in sustainability by improving their regulatory environment and enforcement mechanisms. Thus, the implementation of regulations targeting corporate environmental and social performance is not always needed to prompt better corporate ESG performance.

This study shows that internationalised companies proactively work towards achieving sustainability in countries where the country governance landscape is ineffective and inadequate to enable it.

This study addresses the association between country-level governance and firm-level ESG performance, in contrast to firm-level corporate social responsibility disclosure that has been the focus of prior research. As disclosures can be symbolic and may not reflect actual ESG performance, the results of prior studies examining the relationship between country-level governance performance and corporate social responsibility disclosure is inappropriate to explain the factors affecting the ESG performance of companies.

This study aims to investigate the contribution of higher education institutions (HEIs) to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and propose strategies to cultivate a culture centred on the SDGs in HEIs.

The methodology used encompassed an integrative literature review, combining bibliographic analysis on how HEIs incorporate the SDGs into their practices, adopting a qualitative approach for the analysis and categorization of the results.

The multifaceted contributions of HEIs in promoting the SDGs stand out, through their roles in teaching, research, management and integration and communication between university and society.

While influencing policies at various levels, HEIs encounter challenges in the effective integration of SDGs into their strategies. This underscores the need for contextualized governance, understanding students’ perspectives on sustainability and active external collaboration in policy formulation.

There is an urgent need to integrate SDGs into academic programmes, emphasizing the importance of redesigning curricula, actively involving teachers, researchers and students, establishing partnerships and promoting research applied to SDGs.

The social relevance of the study lies in the emphasis on an SDG-centred culture, involving teaching, research, outreach, community engagement and governance practices.

The study’s uniqueness lies in identifying persistent challenges during the transition to an SDG-centred culture, necessitating multisectoral collaboration and educational programmes that integrate sustainability principles into the strategy of HEIs.