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The paper evaluates the impacts of the transformation of agri-food sector under the influence of foreign capital and the CSR implication in sector having into consideration the TNCs actions. The main aim of the paper is to provide a synoptic and integrative analysis of the implication of TNCs in agri-food sector by highlight the challenges, constraints and limits. The results outline the general framework of the main transformation of agri-food sector under the influence of foreign capital and present ways in which the CSR could be applied in agri-food sector for reducing discrepancies and poverty.

Financial inclusion is strongly differentiated by age groups and countries and the pandemic has highlighted the increased gaps and inequalities but also the weaknesses of the system, in terms of flexibility, access and facilities of the customer-bank relationship and also from the perspective of the financial education of young generations and vulnerable people, active in the labor market. Based on the available data provided by the Global Findex database, and some findings after more than one year of COVID-19 crisis we outlined the main aspects of financial digitization, by categories of people and countries. At the same time, we identified the challenges and problems during the pandemic that significantly adjusted the consumption pattern of citizens and increased the need for on-line access for financial transactions. Starting from the analysis of the inequality of access to financial instruments in the last years, from the informational asymmetry in financial education and the challenges of the pandemic period, we underlined the main coordinates of changing the model of sustainable financial inclusion—based on five pillars—access, education, support tools, CSR and resilience. The research results highlight the need for convergence in providing opportunities to consider financial inclusion as a public good and an active tool to increase consumers’ satisfaction and the quality of life of individuals.

The association between carbon emissions and international trade has been examined thoroughly; however, consumption-based carbon emissions, which is adjusted for international trade, have not been studied extensively. Therefore, the present study assesses the asymmetric impact of trade (import and export) and economic growth in consumption-based carbon emissions (CCO2) using the MINT nations (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) as a case study. We applied the Nonlinear ARDL to assess this connection using dataset between 1990 and 2018. The outcomes from the BDS test affirmed the use of nonlinear techniques. Furthermore, the NARDL bounds test confirmed long-run association between CCO2 and exports, imports and economic growth. The outcomes from the NARDL long and short-run estimates disclosed that positive (negative) shocks in imports increase (decrease) CCO2 emissions in all the MINT nations. Moreover, positive (negative) shocks in exports decrease (increase) CCO2 emissions in all the MINT nations. As expected, a positive shock in economic growth triggers CCO2 emissions while a negative shift does not have significant impact on CCO2 emissions in the MINT nations. Furthermore, we applied the Gradual shift causality test and the outcomes disclose that imports and economic growth can predict CCO2 emissions in the MINT nations. The study outcomes have significant policy recommendations for policymakers in the MINT nations.

Financial inclusion is an increasingly intense issue that is of concern to the credit institutions and the public authorities. It has become topical and gained new value during this period of Covid-19 crisis. Although financial exclusion cuts across demographic categories, but certain categories of financial consumers such as women, young people, people with disabilities and those residing in rural areas have a low presence in the financial services sector. Previous studies attribute the incidence of financial exclusion of some segment of the society to low income, low level of financial education or difficult access to financial products and services generated by poor development of physical infrastructure. Is this true in the case of ASEAN region? A quantitative research approach was adopted in this study, while relying on the secondary data of the World Bank spanning 2011-2017, the UN Women ASEAN Gender Outlook report (2020 -2021), and enriched by scholarly works. The article focuses on the dimensions of the phenomenon of financial inclusion in ASEAN countries, with emphasis on the gender gap financial inclusion. The analysis of the extracted data reveals multiple differences among the countries in the region, a fact that can be explained by the different levels of financial technology development and the governmental interventions implemented to improve financial inclusion. On the strength of the findings, this paper argues that digitalization and financial innovation can also be solutions through which new consumers can be attracted to the financial system, but with these solutions come new challenges related to the protection of personal data and cyber security. For this reason, we believe that increasing financial inclusion must be approached at several levels and must involve joint efforts by public authorities, credit institutions and other categories of stakeholders.

The pandemic is seen as an opportunity to further advance in business ethics. Prof. Freeman called academics to contribute to developing more ethical business models. Businesses have been revising their missions towards more ethical business models as the pandemic has changed attitudes to life. Society expects that companies will serve human beings rather than solely maximization of profit to their stakeholders. This research is motivated by analyzing the importance of teaching business ethics. This research has looked into the directions of business education in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. The article intends to highlight the potential of CSR education in overcoming the pandemic crisis and increasing the wellbeing of society. This desk research underlines the standpoint of universities whether they should teach business ethics or CSR at the business faculties, and analyzes the educational programs of the business faculties to find out their attitude towards teaching of CSR/ethics.

The challenges generated by climate change have led to a greater involvement of companies in promoting the principles of sustainable development, one of the tools used being social responsibility programs. International organizations have launched various initiatives or principles to support companies in this complex process of transition to the green economy. The authors focused their analysis on the involvement of stock exchanges in the process of promotion of corporate social responsibility. The objective of this chapter is to identify the main tools used by stock exchanges in order to model the behavior of listed companies. In particular, the activity of the Bucharest Stock Exchange was analyzed. Even if it is an emerging market, the efforts made by this stock exchange and the results obtained can be used as a benchmark by stock exchanges in the region.

In most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), agricultural production and trade use conventional labor-intensive practices, which result in lower agricultural productivity, food insufficiency, hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Due to its potential benefits for multiple stakeholders, precision agriculture (PA) could transform the patterns of agricultural production and trade by contributing to the improvement of food security across the continent. Being a disruptive technology, the PA has a strong capacity to tackle the surmountable challenges of low agricultural productivity, food insecurity, and rural poverty. In this chapter, the authors address ten components of precision agriculture, including global positioning system (GPS), satellite imagery (SI), monitoring control systems (MCS), artificial plant growing techniques (APGT), soilless cultivation systems (SCS), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), variable rate technology (VRT), and telematics systems (TS). The adoption of these components in the agricultural sector and trade in food products in the SSA will boost agricultural output, increase food exports, and directly strengthen the actualization of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. The authors suggest leveraging the PA for mitigating challenges to agricultural trade and food security in the continent.

Across the globe, the issues of loss of biodiversity, industrial pollution, prolifreation of non-degradable plastics wastes, unhealthy mining activities, and climate change have imposed a new behavioural lifestyle on the individuals and the businesses in the society—a situation which academics and policymakers have tagged sustainabile behaviour. Scholars from the developed countries have written extensively on this important phenonomeon from multidisciplinary lenses. However, academic research on the sustainable behaviours of consumers are recently emerging in the Eastern Europe and Sub-Sharan Africa. This chapter critically discusses the trends in sustainable behaviour of consumers in Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Using a desk research technique, a qualitative research method as well as an interpretivist research paradigm, the authors provides a rich analytical tool for understanding the trends in sustainable behaviour of consumers from conceptual, theoretical and empirical studies in the two regions. In contextualising the trends, the paper found that in Eastern Europe and SSA the challenges of sustainability have forced human beings to adopt and adapt to green orientations and sustainable lifestyles called the sustainable behaviours. There have emerged in both contexts sustainable behaviour of consumers in the forms of green consumers, sustainable marketers, sustainable crop producers, sustainable agriculturists, green advocates, green policymakers, green politicians, conservationists, responsible investors or socially responsible investors, sustainable tourists and host of others. And the policy makers with support from hotels and green advocates, are influencing and reinventing consumers behaviour through campaigns and sensitisation initiatives aimed at reducing wasteful consumption, wasteful spending, irresponsible lifestyles, and habits.

Information availability, firm performance, idiosyncratic volatility and bankruptcy-risk vary across the Corporate Life Cycle (CLC) stages. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether CLC stages explain firm&rsquo, s propensity to engage in both accrual base and real earning management practices in the context of China. Panel data of 3250 non-financial Chinese listed firms spanning from 2009 to 2018 is used to investigate the proposed relationship. CLC stages were captured through Dickinson&rsquo, s model, while earnings management is measured by employing both techniques, i.e., accruals-base earnings management and real earnings management. The data were analyzed through Panel data fixed-effects and random-effects techniques. Results reveal that, when compared to shakeout phase, managers&rsquo, response to use both earnings management practices is significantly higher during introduction and decline phases, and lower during growth and mature stages of CLC. It suggests that introductory and later-staged firms distort their factual financial information from creditors to obtain loans without strict debt covenants. Our results are robust to alternate measures and specifications. The core contribution of this research is to add a fresh perspective to the CLC research by uncovering its imperative role in influencing the earning management behavior of corporate managers.

Purpose&mdash, This research discusses emerging trends in financial inclusion, barriers and factors influencing mobile banking as an innovative solution for increasing financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with a specific focus on Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach&mdash, Using a qualitative meta-synthesis (QMS), an interpretivist research paradigm, authors provide an analytical tool for understanding the subject of inquiry by integrating findings from previous studies and relevant data from the reports of the Central Bank of Nigeria on emerging trends in financial inclusion. Findings&mdash, Three major factors emerged as drivers of mobile banking in Nigeria: (a) the ease of using mobile devices for personal banking transactions including prompt information about users&rsquo, financial transactions (savings and withdrawals) immediately through SMS (short message service) alert (easy management of my account), (b) the security/safety concerns of theft and cyber fraud, (c) social influence of friends, relatives, policy makers and social trends. Implications&mdash, In contextualizing mobile banking in SSA and in Nigeria in particular, this paper contributes to exploring the growth in the use of mobile banking by linking it with the &ldquo, value in use&rdquo, (VIU) perspective. This approach of the service dominant logic involves three sub-constructs (experience, personalization, and relationship), which all validate and support the proposed assertion that mobile banking is adopted by users because of utility expectancy (perceived usefulness), effort expectancy (perceived ease of use), and social influence expectancy (opinions of friends/relatives). Originality/value&mdash, This research, although qualitative in nature, validates information technology (IT) adoption theories/perspectives and enriches the &ldquo, approach.

The financial market is in a process of metamorphosis, the international crises being determining factors in the reconfiguration process. In addition, the stakeholders attitude reshapes the different components of the financial markets. Financial consumers have become a force that requires financial institutions to adopt honest and ethical behavior. Portfolio investors also sanction, by specific methods, the inappropriate behavior of companies towards the environment or local communities or encourage listed companies that carry out corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. The stock exchanges and the authorities that supervise and regulate the segments of the financial market are promoters of CSR, both through the power of the example and through specific programs. In this dynamic context, the article aims to carry out an analysis regarding the contribution of financial market actors on promoting the principles of sustainable development and the principles of Global Compact in national economies. The article focuses on the process of financial education in several European countries. The authors identified and analyzed five financial education platforms in selected European countries. The analysis of the statistical data reveals a low interest of financial consumers, especially from the countries from the former communist bloc.

The scope of this research is to explore the relations between energy poverty, quality of life and renewable energy. First, an analysis of concept evolution, economic and social implications and the difficulties in assessing energy poverty was conducted by analyzing the data from Eurostat regarding electricity prices for households and arrears on utility bills between 2009 and 2018 and the solutions for combating energy poverty from the EU. In the next part, a cross-country analysis regarding Granger causality between indicators representing all three dimensions was conducted. The period of the analysis was between 2010 and 2019 for the 28 EU member states. In the final part of the article, the situation of Romania was analyzed. The phenomenon of energy poverty is not marginal but is underestimated and superficially approached. Starting from the dominant discussions on the concepts and tools practiced at international level, this article makes a proposal for a working model for various regions in Romania, taking in consideration the financial potential of the geographic areas and the possibilities of accessing unconventional energies by local communities. Through a case study based on the analysis of relevant energy resource statistics, the article identifies main shortcomings and opportunities for Romania and proposes concrete recommendations of sustainable public policies on the elimination of energy poverty. In some geographic areas where this was not possible, we propose how to diminish the effects of this social phenomenon. Our proposals for the case study focus on supporting populations in areas where access to energy sources is difficult and there is a lack of energy infrastructure, the government programs being an alternative to access green (renewable) energies. Even if this may seem expensive to some specialists in the economy, access to energy sources of any kind brings social advantages by improving quality of life-in this case, a real victory in the fight against energy poverty.

Sustainable development is desired not only for public institutions but also for private companies that have realized the importance of sustainable management of limited resources available to mankind. The activity of large transnational corporations is not guided only by the principle of profit maximization, but also by corporate social responsibility (CSR). This chapter focuses on CSR programs run by agri-food companies taking into account the particularities of their activity and the importance of the consumers` behavior to improve the activity of companies in the CSR area. On the one hand, making profits is a desideratum of any company, but on the other hand, companies in the agri-food sector must also ensure the observance of the food safety principles and consumer protection. This is also demonstrated by the major implications of the scandals generated by food contamination with various bacteria or chemicals. Consumer force shapes the activity of these companies, and intense competition leads the managers of these companies to run various CSR programs that eventually lead to increased visibility of the firm and to improving economic indicators. The objective of the chapter is to establish the specificities of the agri-food sector companies. These companies have a high responsibility taking into account the impact of food consumption on the health of the population in the short, medium, and long term and the consequences of this situation on the investments that had to be made in the health sector. The final consumer is a force that sanctions the inappropriate behavior of food producers, but he/she must have a good food education in order to be able to remodel the activity of agri-food companies.

The main aim of the paper is to assess the impact of fix capital, energy use and domestic material consumption in changing the inland Romanian economic paradigm, from an economic perspective, using the intensive form of the Cobb-Douglas function. In order to identify various connections of economic growth, sustainable development, energy usage has determined the application of the vector error correction (VEC) model and the implied error correction term (ECT). This method was chosen based on the premise that it has a high degree of applicability and it can be used in order to revile significant aspects terms of indicator significance and displays. The results obtained during the research confirm that both in Romania and at EU-28 level there are determinant and significant elements shaping a proactive economic policy.

The weather is an important factor that affects the businesses, because the climate change determined the intensification of natural phenomenon, sudden temperature changes or large amounts of rainfall or snowfall. The traditional instruments offered by insurance industry are not suitable for these new challenges determined by climate change. A new market was born, and new tools for weather risk management appeared. The weather derivatives are traded on OTC market and on stock exchange. The article is focused on the use of the weather derivatives by the companies from tourism industry. Taking in account the success of weather derivatives traded on Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, the authors of this paper analysed the possibilities of tourism industry’s companies from other parts of the world to cover risks arising from weather.

Food safety represents a current topic, with significant implications and diverse approaches within the specialized literature. In the context of globalization and integration of agricultural markets, the necessity of guaranteeing food safety is imperative for the functionality of contemporary agricultural systems. The radical transformation of the national agricultural systems as a result of the influences imposed by the convergence with the requirements and directions of the European agricultural model entails a significant change for the markets of agri-food products, affecting the food trade, its structure and, implicitly, food safety. In this context, the main objective of the present paper is to examine food safety in Romania using an econometric approach to the phenomenon. Nine fundamental variables are considered, for which the causal relationship between food safety and the exogenous variables taken into analysis is tested. The time frame for data availability for all the variables is 1990-2011. The obtained results highlight the transformations of paradigm of the national agricultural model from the perspective of the dimensions regarding food safety, confirming results from previous studies.

The authors have analyzed two major determinants of sustainable development: quality management and social responsibility. The sustainable development is a concept used not only by researchers in domains like economics or ecology, but also by managers of different types of organizations that try to transpose this concept in real life. Many organizations like corporations, public institutions or small and medium enterprises promote the goals of sustainable development in their activity through various instruments like social responsibility's programs or the use of different standards. So, the aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between quality management, social responsibility and sustainable development.

Climate change affects negatively, in a large extent, the activity of economic agents. Gradually, the companies and the public institutions have realized the need of adaptation to new climatic conditions, which led to the adoption of environmentally friendly behaviour and promotion of social responsible strategies. This article demonstrates the importance of the role played private investors and public authorities that made green investments, mainly in infrastructure, but they also create legal and institutional framework to encourage direct and portfolio investors in this field.

This paper presents a heuristic methodology for estimating the possible variation of the liquid biofuel potential of a region, an appraisal made for a future period of time. The determination of the liquid biofuel potential has been made up either on the account of an average (constant) yield of the energetic crops that were used, or on the account of a yield that varies depending on a known trend, which can be estimated through a certain method. The proposed methodology uses the variation of the yield of energetic crops over time in order to simulate a variation of the biofuel potential for a future ten year time period. This new approach to the problem of determining the liquid biofuel potential of a certain land area can be useful for investors, as it allows making a more realistic analysis of the investment risk and of the possibilities of recovering the investment. On the other hand, the presented methodology can be useful to the governmental administration in order to elaborate strategies and policies to ensure the necessity of fuels and liquid biofuels for transportation, in a certain area. Unlike current methods, which approach the problem of determining the liquid biofuel potential in a deterministic way, by using econometric methods, the proposed methodology uses heuristic reasoning schemes in order to reduce the great number of factors that actually influence the biofuel potential and which usually have unknown values.