Probing environmental sustainability pathways in G7 economies: the role of energy transition, technological innovation, and demographic mobility.

Global warming remains the most devastating environmental issue embattling the global economies, with significant contributions emanating from CO2 emissions. The continued rise in the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions serves as a compelling force which constitutes the core of discussion at the recent COP26 prompting nations to commit to the net-zero emission target. The current research presents the first empirical investigation on the roles of technological advancement, demographic mobility, and energy transition in G7 pathways to environmental sustainability captured by CO2 emissions per capita (PCCO2) from 2000 to 2019. The study considers the additional impacts of structural change and resource abundance. The empirical backings are subjected to pre-estimation tests consisting of cross-sectional dependence, second-generation stationarity, and panel cointegration tests. The model estimation is based on cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag, dynamic common correlated effects mean group, and augmented mean group for the main analysis and robustness checks. The findings reveal the existence of EKC based on the direct and indirect effects of the components of economic growth. The indicators of demographic mobility differ in the direction of influence on PCCO2. For instance, while rural population growth negatively influences PCCO2 in the short-run alone, urban population growth increases PCCO2 in the short-run and long-run periods. Nonrenewable energy, information computer technology (ICT) imports, and mobile cellular subscriptions serve as positive predictors of PCCO2, while ICT exports and renewable energy moderate the surge in PCCO2. Policy implications that enhance environmental sustainability are suggested following the empirical verifications.

Role of country risks and renewable energy consumption on environmental quality: Evidence from MINT countries.

This study focuses on uncovering the effect of country risks and renewable energy consumption on environmental quality. In this context, the study examines Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey (MINT) nations; takes economic growth, trade openness, and urbanization into account; includes data from 1990 to 2018; applies cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) as the main model while common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) and augmented mean group (AMG) for robustness checks. The empirical results show that (i) economic growth, political risk, urbanization, and trade openness contribute to an increase in ecological footprint; (ii) economic and financial risks as well as renewable energy use have a positive influence on environmental quality; (iii) a unidirectional causality exists from economic risk, financial risk, political risk, economic growth, urbanization, and trade openness to the ecological footprint: (iv) the validity of the EKC hypothesis for the MINT economies is verified; (v) the robustness of CS-ARDL results are validated by CCEMG and AMG approaches. Based on these results, policymakers should promote a sustainable environment to lessen the ecological footprint. Additionally, governments should firmly support investments in green technology as well as economic and financial stability to boost energy efficiency and promote the adoption and usage of energy-saving products.

On the COP26 and coal's phase-out agenda: Striking a balance among the environmental, economic, and health impacts of coal consumption.

Economic and environmental policy actions are often substitutionary in their impacts, as one man's food could be another's poison. One of the critical emphases at the recent Conference of Parties 26 (COP26) is the need for coal to be phased out in the energy consumption basket of nations to achieve environmental sustainability, but this could be at the expense of the positive performance of other socio-economic fundamentals. The best bet could then be to maintain an optimal consumption level to strike a balance. Relying on this, we examine the environmental, economic, and health impacts of coal consumption in the world's highest coal-consuming countries, putting the latter's threshold level into consideration. In summary, we find that there is a trade-off between pushing for a sustainable environment through a reduction in coal consumption and achieving better growth and health status. This implies that phasing out of coal totally will have severe economic and health costs. However, based on our threshold regression model results, it is most reasonable to maintain a lower level of coal use in the overall energy mix of these countries. This will definitely yield a relatively low level of carbon, but will still assure a certain level of economic growth and health performance. As such, reducing the intensity of coal gradually and simultaneously providing a substitute that can also serve economic and health needs are encouraged.

Green Environment-Social Protection Interaction and Food Security in Africa.

Expanding food production to commensurate with population growth has often come at a cost resulting from environmental problems. Industries generate pollutants that destroy the environment and negatively affect the level of food security. These trends threaten the sustainability of food systems and undermine the capacity to meet food security needs. Against this backdrop, this study examines how the green environment influences food security in Africa. To further articulate the novelty and contributions of the research to the extant literature, the study also examines the interaction effect of the green environment and social protection on food security. The study engaged panel data consisting of 37 African countries listed in the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. The data was sourced from Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) and the World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period 2005 to 2019 and applied the system Generalised Method of Moments (SGMM). The result shows that a green environment and social protection are statistically significant and positively determine the level of food security in Africa. In addition, the result shows that a green environment and social protection interaction positively and significantly influence food security. The implication is that a 1% increase in the drive for a green environment may improve the level of food security by 0.8%. Also, increases in the level of social protection intervention may increase food security by 1.2%. The interaction between social protection and food security can increase food security by 0.96%. In summary, it is found that African countries under study have moderate social protection coverage and policy for environmental management and sustainability required to drive food security. The discussions of the findings and policy implications of the study are underscored in the paper.

Is stock market development sensitive to macroeconomic indicators? A fresh evidence using ARDL bounds testing approach.

Over the past decades, emerging stock markets have started to significantly contribute to economic growth through mobilizing long-term capital by pooling funds, facilitating savings and investments into profitable projects and improving corporate governance structure. A plethora of empirical studies is devoted to investigate the determinants of different capital markets but due to highly controversial and inconclusive findings about macroeconomic determinants, this study contributes to the body of existing literature by empirically investigating the macroeconomic forces that drive the stock market development of Pakistan from 1980 to 2019. By applying Ng-Perron and Zivot-Andrews unit root tests (to determine the integrating orders of variables) and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, our results confirm cointegration among variables and exhibit the significant positive impact of economic growth and banking sector development on stock market development and negative affect of inflation, foreign direct investment and trade openness on it in long run. At the same time, the short run results show a significant relationship of economic growth, inflation and foreign direct investment with stock market development. Our study has some important policy implications.

Lean Entrepreneurship and SME Practice in a Post COVID-19 Pandemic Era: A Conceptual Discourse from Nigeria.

This study investigates lean principles among Nigerian entrepreneurs and SME managers in the operational process in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. It offers the panacea to the challenge of social-economic shocks and their adverse effects on SMEs' business activities in Nigeria. The study adopts a conceptual approach to investigate lean entrepreneurship practice by SMEs in Nigeria. It relies on data from extant literature, using a conceptual approach to examine the social-economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic and critical environmental factors on the lean entrepreneurship practice in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study explores the influence of lean practice among SMEs and entrepreneurs in Nigeria and suggests a broad model for lean entrepreneurial practice in post-COVID-19 pandemic Nigeria. Findings highlight the broad social-economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges such as theft, host community pressure, weak legal system, and inadequate government policy support affect lean entrepreneurship practice. These factors constitute complex operational issues that would require the adoption of a more comprehensive approach to address. It also highlights crucial factors for post-COVID-19 pandemic SMEs' operational success in Nigeria due to deficits in infrastructure and regulatory efficiency for SMEs' operations to address the various challenges of business failures in Nigeria. The study suggests a lean SME and Entrepreneurial Practice model in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. It emphasises the need to refocus the active interest of the lean entrepreneur on critical business sustainability. The study recommends a critical review of the internal operational process among practicing entrepreneurial businesses and a re-modification of public policies system that governs the operational functions of entrepreneurial practices for reasonable and resilient post-COVID-19 pandemic entrepreneurship practices that can support the SMEs and economic growth in Nigeria.

Environmental performance and firm financing during COVID-19 outbreaks: Evidence from SMEs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in substantial constraints for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) worldwide. The techniques in which SMEs handle recent crises and the degree to which environmental performance is advantageous when the marketplace experiences an adverse shock is fairly untouched in the literature. To assess this probability, we examine, using data from 6,597 SMEs in 13 developing countries, the effect of firm environmental efficiency on firm financing during the COVID-19 outbreak. We consider three aspects of external financing - bank, non-bank and trade credit - and suggest that it pays for firms to show devotion to environmental obligations in a global pandemic. Our research implies that the trust between a firm and its stakeholders, if it is based on environmental performance, pays off during periods of shock and adversity.

The complementarities of big data and intellectual capital on sustainable value creation; collective intelligence approach.

It is evident in the literature that both intellectual capital and big data analytics create value to the organizations independently, but how threats, opportunities, capabilities and value creation for intellectual capital change with big data adoption is largely unexplored. This paper aims to develop an analytical framework for identifying challenges, opportunities, capabilities and value creation in the face of complementarity between big data and components of intellectual capital. The paper uses a Collective Intelligence approach as a theoretical background. Based on Structured Literature Review, the current study has developed an analytical framework for organizations to be used as a decision-making tool while making investment in big data and managing intellectual capital. Findings suggest that the scope of human capital has changed largely as now employees are expected much more than in the past with strong analytical, dynamic, technical and IT capabilities. Structural capital calls for new practices, routines and procedures to be adopted and old methods to unlearn whereas relational capital stresses the importance of network building and social media to create sustainable value for the society.