Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in economic development. Little research has examined the determinants of financial distress for SMEs in emerging economies due to limited data collection. This study aims to analyzes SMEs and integrate financial variables as suggested by previous studies, along with non-financial variables ignored in previous studies, by analyzing three distressed firms, and thereby identify the factors that explain the failure of SMEs. Findings show that the correct prediction rate prior to financial failure is 78.3%. In addition, surprisingly, if firms are highly profitable, the owner uses a cash card, or the owner has less industry experience, they are more likely to experience financial distress, in contrast to previous results. Findings also show that as financial failure approaches, the distressed firm often becomes more profitable for a short period, and may even exhibit higher profitability than financially non-distressed firms. We argue that financially distressed firms have higher earnings management incentives to obtain bank financing than financially non-distressed firms. This paper concludes with managerial and practical implications for financial institutions and SMEs and offers future research directions.

Using the panel component of the General Household Survey we examined health care facility choice among Nigerians. Our analysis focused on access to, and choice of facility under different scenarios. When individuals in all socio-economic groups are presented with one facility at a time, we find that private health facilities are the most popular. However, when all the health care facilities are simultaneously made available to all socio-economic groups, the predicted probabilities from multinomial probit model show that individuals in the richest socio-economic group are twice as likely to go to a private health facility as the individuals in the poorest group. Surprisingly, all income groups choose spiritual/religious institutions ahead of public health facilities when presented with all categories of facilities. When a poor person chooses to bypass a less costly public facility and pay for care further away, such action is especially bothersome. This phenomenon of bypassing cheaper medical care for more expensive care is indicative of the tremendous task ahead of policymakers in providing accessible and quality care.

Purpose – This study aims to investigate how the board gender diversity (BDG) affects carbon performance (CP) based on total carbon emissions intensity and whether CEO duality moderates this relationship. Methodology – The sample consists of 378 non-financial entities from European Union countries, covering the period from 2017 to 2020. We employ several regression models to test the hypotheses and also check results with robustness analyses. Findings – Results show a negative association between BGD and CP, thus suggesting that the higher is the percentage of woman directors, the lesser is carbon emission. Also, we find that CEO duality moderates negatively such relationship. Research limitations/implications – By addressing limitations of the study, we make suggestions for future research in the field of environmental performance and CG literature. Originality – This study adds new insights to the current debate on the association between environmental performance and the role of CG mechanisms.

The role of auditing in preparing, recording, maintaining and presenting high-quality financial reports is very crucial. This study employed the best-worst multi-criteria method to identify and prioritize the key drivers of external auditor’s selection. Nine factors were identified as the key influencers in determining auditor’s selection. Ten experts were carefully selected to participate in the study. They were provided with an online questionnaire to complete by indicating their preferred criteria over others. A linear BWM solver was used to determine the optimal weights of each category. Audit quality emerged as a top-ranked factor that decision-makers consider in choosing external auditors. On the flip side, the least important criterion from the set of criteria was determined as audit firm size.

This study focuses on the individual investments of employees of Turkish finance sectors in capital markets. The study has two main objectives. One of these is to investigate whether or not institutional investors show “rational investor behaviors” also in relation to their individual investments. For this reason, it is aimed to reveal whether or not the institutional investor deviates from their mindset employed while they are doing their job professionally and is affected by biases when their own individual investments are in question. Another purpose of the study is to find the bias or biases among representativeness, conservatism and overconfidence biases by which Turkish institutional investors are influenced in their individual investments. For this purpose, institutional investors in Istanbul (Turkey) who could be reached by using the method of convenience sampling were directed questions on their representativeness, conservatism and overconfidence biases in their individual investment decisions, 2 hypotheses were formed for each type of bias, and these hypotheses were tested using Pearson chi-squared test. As a result of the analyses, it was observed that Turkish institutional investors were not influenced by overconfidence bias in their individual investments. On the other hand, institutional investors were found to be affected by conservatism bias. Additionally, no precise conclusion could be made regarding whether or not representativeness bias was effective on the decisions of the institutional investors about their individual investments. In the study, in general, it was concluded that the institutional investors were influenced by behavioral biases by showing normal investor behaviors under certain conditions regarding their decisions on their individual investments, rather than showing rational investor behaviors.