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AbstractIn this article we investigate the determining factors of bank monitoring in small business lending. Unlike previous studies that rely on proxies of a bank's monitoring effort, we use a large and unique data set that includes the number of monitoring contacts per year between a European bank and a large number of small firms from 2009 to 2012. Our main results highlight that the frequency of a bank's monitoring effort is negatively related to the firm's reputation and the strength of the bank–firm relationship, and positively related to the bank–borrower proximity and the borrower's credit risk level.

AbstractThis paper responds to the need for a deeper empirical investigation of the impact of corporate social responsibility pillars on the financial performance of banks. To address this question, this study first analyzes the factors that encourage banks to be more environmentally friendly and then investigates the relationship between a bank's environmental engagement and its risk. Using a sample of 142 banks from 35 countries covering the period from 2011 to 2015, we document the positive impact of effective corporate governance mechanisms on banks' environmental engagement. Moreover, by using the Heckman's two‐stage model for the treatment of sample selection bias, we find that banks that are more sensitive to environmental issues also exhibit less risk. Stakeholder theory and the conflict resolution hypothesis are useful frameworks to overcome the trade‐off between economy and ecology in the banking industry.

Over the last decade, socially responsible investments (SRIs) have become paramount to both professionals and academics. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-8, practitioners have become much more involved in new financial models that integrate returns and positive social and environmental impacts. The authors argue that previous irresponsible financial models are anachronistic, and propose a new relationship between stakeholder and shareholder. Starting from the mainstreaming of SRI, this book recovers the social function of banks and the innovative role of crowdfunding and venture capital models. The book offers a unified perspective for firm and funder, making it a timely and invaluable read for scholars and practitioners interested in sustainable development and social impact finance.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of being located in a science park (SP) on the level of a firm's intellectual capital (IC) performance.


Design/methodology/approach
– Using a sample of 183 Italian firms (i.e. 61 tenant and 122 non-tenant firms), and through the GLS technique, the authors regress the firms' IC performance across various explicative variables including a dummy that discriminates tenant and non-tenant firms.


Findings
– Consistently with expectations, the results show that the location of a firm in a SP leads to improved IC performance. Moreover, the authors find that some other firm characteristics, such as size, age, and leverage, are important predictors of its IC-based performance.


Research limitations/implications
– The sample is small and the impact on performance might be biased by factors related to the regional context (e.g. level of industrialization, quality of education, and science system).


Practical implications
– Implications for policy makers: support the growth of firms in SPs especially in those industries full of firms with scarce performance in IC. Implications for SP managers: they could "sell" (in terms of marketing) to both entrepreneurs to attract and policy makers this result. Implications for institutional investors: they should look at SPs with greater interest to find high-quality firms and improve their screening activity.


Originality/value
– This paper aims to extend literature about factors explaining the level of a firm's IC performance and the current understanding of the impact of SPs at firm level.