In: Nazir, Marina and Akbar, Minhas and Batool, Irem and Hussain, Ammar, Is Tourism an Accelerator of Economic Growth? An Evidence from South Asian Region (November 3, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3894334
AbstractThe corporate sector strives to improve its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to transition from short‐term to sustainable long‐term profit maximisation. This study thus explores the impact of ESG performance on the financial sustainability (FS) of a sample of the top 100 global high‐tech firms. Specifically, we employ the two‐step generalised method of moments to control for endogeneity bias and a panel data fixed effects model to control for unobserved heterogeneity. Empirical findings reveal that overall ESG performance has a statistically negative association with the FS of global high‐tech firms. Individual pillar‐wise analysis reveals that the environmental and social (governance) pillar has a negative (positive) association with the FS of the sampled firms. This result proves that each ESG pillar exerts varying effects on corporate performance indicators. Overall, the results provide empirical evidence that could help policymakers devise policies for investing optimally in ESG indicators to spur corporate FS.
This research aims to examine the mediating role of the use of the e-commerce and moderating influence of entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study data were collected via a structured questionnaire comprised of a seven-point Likert scale from practitioners serving at the top and middle-level positions in Pakistani SMEs. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied on 250 useable returned questionnaires. The results showed that the association between the use of e-commerce and firm performance is positively significant. Moreover, the use of e-commerce mediates the positive association between technological readiness, adoption cost, and firm performance. However, the moderating role of entrepreneurial competencies does not appear as significant between the use of e-commerce and manufacturing SMEs' performance. The present study is the first to explore entrepreneurial competencies as a moderator between e-commerce adoption and firm performance. The empirical outcomes of this research provide useful theoretical and practical implications for the managers and practitioners to understand the underlying factors for the successful implementation of e-commerce in the SME sector to enhance firm performance.