Search results

Following Agenda 2030, the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into banking strategies has become essential for promoting global sustainability and responsible financial practices. This study aims to examine how the financial characteristics of banks influence their efforts towards achieving the SDGs.

A fixed-effect panel regression is used to analyse a sample of 646 publicly listed banks across 61 countries, observed from 2018 to 2023. The data are sourced from the Refinitiv Eikon database, with the dependent variable pertaining to the SDGs calculated as a composite score.

Empirical results show that larger and less profitable banks reach better performance in terms of contribution to the SDGs. Instead, the level of leverage does not appear to be a significant influential factor in fostering the support of the SDGs.

Theoretically, this work enriches the academic literature on SDG performance and confirms the relevance of stakeholder theory. Managerially, this study provides valuable insights for banks integrating the SDGs into their business models and for policymakers identifying strategies to encourage sustainable practices.

This study intends to test the relationship between banks’ board diversity, detected with age and gender characteristics, and banks’ social performance. The resource dependence theory posits that board diversity is a strategic tool able to enrich the board of directors by expanding skills and the number of links with stakeholders, which have a strategic role in achieving a competitive advantage and sustainable goals, especially in the banking sector.

The research hypotheses are tested using a sample of 46 European banks observed from 2009 to 2017. The gender and age diversity data of bank board members are hand-collected from banks’ social reports.

The empirical results show that bank social performance is positively influenced by board gender and age diversity. Thus, the human capital determined by a higher bank’s board diversity constitutes an essential resource for adopting more sustainable business models.

This paper analyses the association between board diversity and social performance, providing empirical evidence for the European banking sector in the period after the 2008 global financial crisis. The banking literature provides scarce evidence on the topic; however, the empirical results claim the strategic importance of the appointment of directors to the banks’ boards to balance corporate strategy with social and environmental issues generating a positive impact on sustainable growth.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are increasingly prominent in the current agendas of firms, regulatory agencies and consumers worldwide. It is vital for banks to understand how consumers perceive CSR activities, as such activities strengthen their brand equity building. This study examines the relationship between financial consumers’ perceptions of banks’ CSR initiatives and brand equity, identifying a mediating influence of consumer trust and satisfaction.

The survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to Italian banking consumers (941 valid responses). The research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.

Our analysis reveals that consumers’ perceptions of banks’ CSR initiatives directly affect brand equity. Moreover, trust and satisfaction positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ perceptions of CSR initiatives and brand equity in the Italian banking industry.

These findings advance understanding by making a novel contribution to the literature; they also have managerial implications. In terms of literature advancement, we provide new evidence related to a context with specific features, namely Italy. From a managerial perspective, this study highlights the importance of informing Italian customers about and promoting awareness of sustainable activities. In turn, client perceptions affect the banks’ value.

Graphs are widely used in the banking and finance domain to support consumers’ decision-making process, but subjects differ in their ability to understand them. This study aims to detect the determinants of the ability to read and process financial information conveyed in the graphical format, i.e. financial graph literacy (FGL) and the relationship between FGL and subjects’ actual financial behavior (FB).

Data are collected by administering a structured questionnaire to the Italian adult population (n = 502). The survey includes different sections aimed at collecting information about sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables, financial literacy and FB. The econometric analyses are developed using OLS and Poisson regressions.

The results show that gender, geographical area, education, marital status and income are crucial determinants of FGL. Moreover, the analysis reveals that an increase in the FGL indicator is associated with a higher propensity for individuals to purchase banking or financial products or actively manage financial resources; results are robust, even controlling for financial knowledge.

Although previous research investigates the impact of graphs in financial decision-making, no studies measure the ability of consumers to read and interpret financial information conveyed in the graphical format. This study is the first to investigate the determinants of FGL and link it to actual FB. Implications for policymakers, regulatory and supervisory authorities and financial intermediaries are discussed.

This study aims to systematically review the literature on digital consumers’ decision-making in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector and proposes an integrative framework.

By combining databases such as Web of Science and Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO), we identified, analyzed and synthesized 53 peer-reviewed empirical articles that explore the connection between digital solutions in the BFSI sector and various phases and constructs of the consumer decision-making process. We examined the dependent variables (DVs) used to operationalize consumer decision-making, performed a thematic analysis of the papers and proposed an integrative framework.

The reviewed articles have garnered more attention from marketing researchers than from BFSI or artificial intelligence scholars, often employing traditional behavioral and experimental methodologies that have several limitations. We identified 38 DVs used to operationalize consumer decision-making, with the most frequently recurring constructs being “Intention to use,” “Utilization,” “Satisfaction,” “Perceived usefulness” and “Trust.” We propose an integrative framework that groups these DVs into three main clusters: subjects’ perceptions, user experience and adoption/usage choice. This systematic literature review highlights the increasing importance of emotion in recent decades and underscores the difficulty of establishing a framework where relationships between variables are direct and unidirectional, as traditional economic theories assume.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the DVs and the research methods used to study the impact of recent digital solutions on consumer decision-making in the BFSI sector. Further, a framework is proposed that can offer a new perspective for consumer research.

The question being assessed is whether changes in the degree of global geopolitical risk (GPR), as defined by the framework developed by Iacoviello (2018), can be used to improve allocative efficiency, thereby increasing investment returns on oil commodities.

Using the linear and nonlinear model, this paper analyzes the impact of GPR on returns of oil prices (BRENT, WTI and Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), as well as the short- and long-run relationship between GPR and oil prices.

The results of the impulse response function indicates that oil prices do not respond to shocks in GPR. The results of the Granger causality test show that oil returns are not caused by GPR. The regression analysis and autoregressive distributed lag results show that there is no significant impact of GPR on the returns of oil.

This is unique among the literature in that it identifies and isolates the relationship between GPR and oil market pricing. Insight into the lag in market response and the degree to which GPR can be used to estimate oil prices using curvilinear models are derived from the analysis.

Examines Attilio da Empoli’s contributions in the field of public finance. This scholar was endowed with particular scientific qualities which allowed him to give original contributions to the theory of public finance, in particular in the field of oblique and backward tax shifting. The other main topics of da Empoli’s critical reflection concern tax shifting in relation to cost conditions, the shifting of a general income tax and the methodological aspects of the joint analysis of the tax and expenditure sides.

In this paper we provide estimates of the short-run elasticity of substitution between male and female workers, using data from Italian provinces for the period 1993–2006. Our identification strategy relies on a natural experiment. In 2000, the Italian Parliament passed a law to abolish compulsory military service. The reform was implemented through a gradual reduction in the number of draftees; compulsory drafting was eventually terminated in 2004. We use data on the (planned) maximum number of draftees at the national level (as stated in the annual budgetary law), interacted with sex-ratios at births at the provincial level, as instruments for (relative) female labor supply. Our results suggest that young males and females (who are those mainly affected by the reform) are imperfect substitutes, with an implied elasticity of substitution ranging between 1.0 and 1.4. Our results have important implications for the evaluation of policies aimed at increasing female labor market participation.

This chapter explores the essential importance of diversity in human resource management (HRM), emphasizing the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI). It highlights how AI can help organizations manage diversity more effectively by offering personalized training and development programs, identifying skill gaps, and reducing unconscious bias in recruitment and performance evaluations. This chapter also discusses the ethical considerations and potential challenges of AI, using the Italian National School of Administration (SNA) as a case study. Ultimately, it underscores the importance of leveraging AI responsibly to create inclusive and equitable workplaces that celebrate diversity.