<p>This study examined the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance of 117 companies across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar from 2021 to 2022 (totaling 234 observations) from the institutional theory perspective using a mixed methods approach. The research is structured in two stages: First, we analyzed ESG scores from ESG Refinitiv data to measure ESG performance based on 186 comparable metrics across 10 categories; second, we conducted a directed content analysis of sustainability reports that utilized 27 ESG disclosure indicators from the GCC Exchanges Committee's unified guidance. Integrating quantitative ESG scores with qualitative content analysis enables a deeper understanding of how companies in these Gulf countries respond to institutional pressures within their unique socio-political contexts. Our findings revealed that while ESG performance has generally improved across the three countries, the extent and nature of these improvements vary significantly. The UAE demonstrates the most substantial progress, particularly in environmental performance, driven by robust institutional frameworks and alignment with global sustainability standards. Saudi Arabia shows moderate improvements, reflecting the influence of Vision 2030 and ongoing reforms. In contrast, Qatar lags, especially in governance and social performance, due to weaker regulatory frameworks and slower internalization of sustainability norms. We found that the effectiveness of ESG improvements are closely tied to the strength of institutional frameworks, the intensity of external pressures, and the degree of internalization of sustainability norms in each country. It underscores the role of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures in driving corporate disclosure practices. It highlights the complexities of sustainability reporting across sectors and national contexts in the GCC region. The research contributes to understanding how institutional pressures shape corporate sustainability practices in the Gulf region, offering valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars interested in the dynamics of ESG and sustainability in emerging markets.</p>

In this study, we address the dynamics of connectedness between the green bond market and conventional financial markets during crisis periods and uncertainty factors influencing it. Recently, most researchers have focused on the impact of uncertainties on green bond, green finance, and conventional bond markets, and only a few of them on the impact of uncertainties on the connectedness of financial markets. Moreover, this phenomenon is underexplored during crisis periods. In response to this, we assessed the change in the connectedness between green bond and conventional financial markets, as well as the impact of uncertainties on connectedness during the Russian-Ukrainian war. The Diebold and Yilmaz's (2012, 2014) spillover index was used to assess the connectedness between green bond and conventional financial markets. Dynamic model averaging (DMA), proposed by Koop and Korobilis (2012), was applied to assess the impact of uncertainties on the connectedness. The study revealed that the total spillover index increased significantly during the Russian-Ukrainian war. Moreover, the green bond market was a receiver of shocks during the pre-war period, but a transmitter during the war period. This may indicate that it has become a less predictable and more sensitive market. Total spillover was positively affected by Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) and Twitter-Based Economic Uncertainty (TEU) indices, and negatively by Geopolitical Risk (GPR) and Volatility (VIX) indices. Uncertainties increased with the start of the war. The GPR index peaked the most. All uncertainty indices had a greater impact on total spillover during the war. The greater impact can be explained by increased market sensitivity, rising levels of financial stress, shifts in investor behavior, and the accelerated dissemination of information during times of crisis. The findings provide implications for portfolio managers in terms of risk management and portfolio decisions at a global level.

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) plays a key role in increasing transparency and reducing information asymmetry in the EU fund management industry. This study examined the impact of corporate environmental commitment and controversies on portfolio selection within the SFDR fund categories, particularly Article 8 and 9 funds. It explored whether sustainable fund managers prioritize companies with green innovation and cleaner production while avoiding controversial sectors and companies involved in ESG controversies. Using quantile estimation, this study finds mixed results in the factors that may explain variations (both positive and negative) in the frequency that corporations are included in EU sustainable fund categories. Our findings highlight the significance of resource use and the controversial sectors for Article 8 funds, and asymmetric relationships in the environmental innovation, resource use, and controversial sectors depending on the quantile analyzed for Article 9 funds. These mixed results demonstrate that the decision-making process of fund managers regarding the inclusion or exclusion of assets in EU sustainable fund portfolios involves not only variables related to Principal Adverse Impacts but also other factors, making the process significantly more complex.

The shift toward environmentally sustainable finance has placed increased pressure on banks, especially in emerging economies, to align operations with global climate goals. Jordan's banking sector faces unique institutional, regulatory, and societal expectations, creating a timely need to investigate the mechanisms driving and resulting from the adoption of green banking. This study empirically investigates the drivers and outcomes of adopting green banking innovations within Jordan's financial institutions. Focused on key factors such as regulatory pressure, corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientation, operational efficiency, global green trends, and market demand for green products, the research examines how these elements influence the integration and effectiveness of green banking practices. Data were collected from senior executives and managers across various banks in Jordan, with 217 validated responses utilized for analysis. Smart partial least squares software for hypothesis testing was applied. The findings reveal that regulatory pressures, CSR orientation, and global green trends significantly promote the adoption of green banking innovations. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that green banking practices significantly enhance operational efficiency and contribute to environmental sustainability. The study underscores the importance of a strategic commitment to environmental principles in the banking sector, emphasizing how such commitments facilitate operational improvements and support broader sustainability goals. This research contributes to an understanding of how banks in emerging economies, like Jordanian banks, can adopt sustainable practices and enjoy financial and environmental benefits. The study implications are that regulators and banks must enhance their green policies and practices to ensure sustainability in the financial sector.

This study addresses the growing global imperative of aligning corporate strategies with environmental sustainability by examining the role of green innovation in fostering sustainable performance. While firms are increasingly pressured to adopt eco-innovative practices, the mechanisms that connect such innovation to actual sustainability outcomes remain insufficiently understood. In response to this issue, this study explores the mediating role of sustainability orientation in the relationship between two distinct dimensions of green innovation, namely green product innovation and green process innovation, and their impact on sustainable performance within the context of industrial clusters. A conceptual model is tested using a sample of 189 industrial firms in the Valencian Community, Spain, a region recognised for its manufacturing tradition and cluster-based economic organisation. Using advanced mediation analysis techniques, the study evaluates three core hypotheses: (H1) green innovation in two dimensions has a direct positive effect on sustainable performance, (H2) sustainability orientation mediates this relationship, and (H3) this mediating effect can be differentiated by its cluster membership. The results indicate that green innovation, both in products and processes, positively impacts firms' sustainable performance. Moreover, the findings reveal that sustainability orientation is a key mediator in this relationship, though this effect is only significant for firms within a cluster. This underscores the importance of collaboration and shared access to knowledge in such environments, fostering more effective green initiatives as sustainable strategies. Ultimately, these findings highlight the importance of a genuine strategic orientation towards sustainability to maximise the long-term benefits of green innovation.

<p>A more precise and rigorous assessment of the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in business necessitates evaluating various firm characteristics. This study, focused on the ESG impact on enterprise credit risk, employed logistic models that incorporated the ESG rating index alongside other financial-related factors, including organizational structure, risk, and performance. The data were selected from all related listing companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. The results affirmed that (1) the risk of default decreased with improved ESG performance; (2) the return on assets, asset turnover ratio, leverage ratio, and operating income growth rate were the main financial factors affecting the default probability of enterprises; and (3) including ESG variables in the prediction model significantly improved the prediction accuracy of the model. The potential policy implications are presented in three perspectives. Businesses should prioritize developing good governance, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting the environment. Second, investors should integrate ESG ratings when making investment strategies. Third, the regulatory authorities are recommended to rapidly harmonize the ESG rating criteria and gradually develop the enterprise ESG information disclosure framework.</p>

<p>Due to the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental concerns, renewable energy has become increasingly popular. Even so, the economic competitiveness and cost of energy in renewable systems remain a challenge. Optimization of renewable energy systems from an economic standpoint is important not only from the point of view of researchers but also industry owners, stakeholders, and governments. Solar collectors are one of the most optimized and developed renewable energy systems. However, due to the high degree of nonlinearity and many unknowns associated with these systems, optimizing them is an extremely time-consuming and expensive process. This study presents an economically optimal design platform for solar power plants with a fast response time using machine learning techniques. Compared with traditional mathematical optimization, the speed of economic optimization with the help of the machine learning method increased by up to 1100 times. A total of seven continuous variables and three discrete variables were selected for optimization of the parabolic trough solar collector. The objective functions were to optimize the exergy efficiency and the heat cost. As part of the environmental assessment, the cost of carbon dioxide emission was calculated based on the system's exergy and energy efficiencies. According to the sensitivity analysis, the mass flow of working fluid and the initial temperature of the fluid play the most significant roles. A simulated solar collector in Calgary was optimized in order to evaluate the applicability of the proposed platform.</p>

<abstract> <p>Sustainable development is a key issue of global concern, and countries around the world are striving to promote green development. From the perspective of financial asset allocation motivation, this paper explores the impact of financial asset allocation on green innovation based on the data of A-share listed non-financial companies from 2011 to 2021. First, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the proportion of financial asset allocation and the green innovation of physical enterprises, that is, as the proportion of financial asset allocation increases, the green innovation output of enterprises first increases and then decreases. After robustness testing, the conclusion still holds. Second, further testing of the intermediary mechanism shows that the moderate holding of short-term financial assets by real enterprises can increase the output of green innovation by alleviating financing constraints, which is manifested as the "reservoir" effect. The "crowding out" effect plays a leading role when overallocation of financial assets reduces liquidity supply and capital expenditure, which in turn reduces green innovation output. Third, in the test of financial asset allocation preference, it is found that the short-term financial assets held by enterprises mainly play a "reservoir" effect, that is, they tend to be "preventive" motives. Holding long-term financial assets mainly exerts a "crowding out" effect, that is, tends to "seek profits" motives. Finally, there are differences in the impact of financial asset allocation on green innovation output among enterprises with different property rights, different monetary policies and different social responsibilities.</p> </abstract>

<abstract> <p>In this research, we aim to examine the moderating effect of environmental commitment on the relationships between organizational compliance culture and green culture on environmental behavior, under the theoretical stream of the Resource Based Theory (RBT) of the firm, and the Value-Belief-Norm theory (VBN). The research used a quantitative research approach, with a non-experimental transactional design. The sample consisted of 148 Mexican companies with a corporate value system that has implemented environmental sustainability practices, most of them incorporating the GRI guidelines, the SDGs and the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact into their strategies, policies, procedures, and initiatives. This study contributes to the literature in the field of environmental sustainability, with a first theoretical PLS-SEM model that studies moderating and control variables, through organizational compliance on environmental behavior. Our proposed PLS model is a complex hierarchical component model that brings together and simultaneously maps a higher-order construct combined with three lower-order constructs, with moderation effects, multi-group analysis and predictive performance assessment. The major research findings are both the positive impacts between the proposed higher-order construct, organizational compliance culture, and green culture, on environmental behavior, and the moderating effect of environmental commitment on the relationship between green culture and environmental behavior. The insights obtained enhance the understanding of the factors that determine the environmental behavior through organizational compliance culture and green culture, with the moderating effect of environmental commitment, and help senior management in making strategic decisions to align their environmental objectives in compliance with the 2030 agenda in the area of environmental sustainability. This study highlights the need for companies to strengthen the role of environmental commitment to improve the environmental sustainability and it mentions practical implications both for managers of organizations that are responsible for meeting the objectives of sustainable development, specifically in the environmental field, and for policymakers and authorities that guide environmental policies.</p> </abstract>

<abstract> <p>With the aim of effectively preventing and controlling systemic risk, by stimulating the advancement of the green bond market, it is significant and imperative to help investors and policymakers adopt more effective measures, which will ensure them to maximize profit. We construct VAR, DCC-GARCH and Copula-CoVaR models, and study the spillover effect between the green bond market and traditional bond market from the three perspectives of mean spillover, volatility spillover and extreme risk spillover using the data on daily closing prices of green bond market and traditional bond market indices. The research findings of this paper are as follows: (1) There are three spillover effects of mean value, volatility and extreme risk among the green bond market, corporate bond market, enterprise bond market and conventional bond market. (2) From the perspective of mean spillover between markets, only the mean spillover between the conventional bond market and the green bond market is bidirectional, and there is the profoundest impact of spillover from the green bond market to the conventional bond market. (3) As far as the volatility spillover between markets is concerned, the volatility spillover between the three traditional bond market and the green bond markets are all positive. The volatility spillover between the conventional bond market and the green bond market is the largest, which is particularly obvious in the first half of 2018 and the first half of 2020. (4) In terms of inter-market extreme risk spillover, the risk spillover between the green bond market and the traditional bond market is positive. The green bond market contributes more to the risk spillover of the enterprise bond market, and it has a time-varying risk spillover effect on the traditional bond market.</p> </abstract>