This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the determinants of FinTech Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending. The issue is significant because P2P lending platforms have attracted borrowers with little to no access to the credit facilities offered by conventional banks during the pandemic. Although many banks and financial institutions have offered online loan application services during the COVID-19 pandemic, few have developed verification of loan applications submitted online. The results of this study show that the COVID-19 has brought a drastic change in the key determinants of P2P lending. The results imply that FinTech P2P lending has become the most viable alternative credit option available to borrowers. The findings are significant and likely to be of interest to borrowers, investors, practitioners, academics, and policymakers because they highlight the usefulness of P2P lending platforms and their potential to augment or replace lending provided by traditional or conventional banking institutions.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine and explain the complex interrelationships which influence the performance of politically connected firms to create value for their providers of finance and other stakeholders. In doing so, it examines the interrelationships between efficiency and delivering on corporate performance of a firm with political ties.Design/methodology/approach: The authors gathered the literature from the Scopus website. They reviewed the literature of 58 manuscripts about the efficiency and performance of politically connected firms.Findings: The research finds that the better quality of efficiency of politically connected firms is positively related to the corporate performance of politically connected firms. The authors’ theoretical findings corroborate the political theory, agency theory, stakeholder theory, resource dependency theory and stewardship theory. These theories prove that political connections have an impact on firm performance as a politician reinforces the efficacy. To better understand the effect of political connections on solid performance due to efficiency, this study classifies various efficiencies and links them with political ties.Research limitations/implications: Several avenues of research are suggested to examine further the interrelationships identified.Practical implications: The authors’ conceptual findings are valuable for institutional investors, policymakers and stakeholders. To sum up, all theoretical shreds of evidence prove that politically connected firms can enhance performance via efficiency.Originality/value: The paper conceptualizes the efficiency and performance interrelationships of politically connected firms. The extant literature comparison allows an assessment of the extent to which different efficiency contexts lead to differences in performance.

This study explores the impact of FinTech firms adhering to manufacturing efficiency practices compared with their counterparts during the fourth industrial revolution. The purpose is to provide empirical evidence of FinTech firms' operating efficiency and see corporate efficiency impacts market performance. The data has been collected from Bloomberg of all FinTech and non-FinTech companies in the United States for 1,712 company-year observations from 2010 until 2019. The results reveal manufacturing Efficiency of FinTech firms directly relates to their market performance. Besides, our regression analyses indicate that non-FinTech companies display inferior efficiency practices, leading to lower market performance than FinTech firms. The study’s outcomes are important as they highlighted the efficiency of the FinTech and non-FinTech companies, offering insights to a wide range of stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers, regulators, financial report users, investors, environmental unions, employees, clients, and society.

Purpose: TheJournal of Accounting in Emerging Economies(JAEE), established in 2011, aims to publish research on contemporary accounting issues in emerging economies. This study used the bibliometric and scientometric approaches to provide deeper insights into the journal performance, prominent topics, author's contributions and citation structure. Content analysis was conducted to provide insights on the major themes addressed inJAEE.Design/methodology/approach: This study analyses data from the Scopus database, Google Scholar and Journal website. The total number of documents analysed are 190. This study employs VOSviewer and RStudio to conduct the analysis which is categorised into four major parts: General performance indicators, citation structure, network analysis and content analysis.Findings: SinceJAEEcommenced publication in 2011 and indexed in the Scopus in 2018, it achieved a 14.47% annual growth rate in document publication. It is encouraging to note that 88.4% of published documents were cited. In terms of total publication, the top contributing country is Malaysia; the USA is the primary contributor in citations. Five key themes emerged from the content analysis namely, international standards and earnings quality; audit quality and IFRS practices in emerging economies; corporate governance; financial reporting and earnings management; corruption and accounting disclosure; and ownership structure and firm performance.Originality/value: This study offers a comprehensive assessment to the journal stakeholders about the past and current journal performance besides future trends and perspectives. Additionally,JAEEreaders can gain insight into the nature of academic contributions inJAEEfrom 299 authors of 273 affiliated institutions in 67 countries.

This study investigates the moderating role of environmental disclosures on the market performance of 48 Fintech and 140 non-Fintech firms during the pandemic using data from 2011 to 2022. Ordinary least squares and correlations were used for data analysis. The study’s first finding revealed that Fintech firms had a better environmental performance (78.4%) than non-Fintech firms during the pandemic. The study’s second finding indicated that environmental disclosures are crucial for shareholders and contributed almost 10.2% to the Fintech firms’ market performance during the pandemic. This study’s contribution is significant in enhancing the understanding of the shareholders’ sensitivity towards sustainability disclosures during financial crisis. The findings of this study are essential for policymakers, start-up entrepreneurs, and shareholders.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has adversely impacted the globally interconnected economy and brought the tourism sector to a temporary standstill. As such, this study aimed to investigate the spillover effect of industrial sectors by emphasizing the tourism sector. The study data was gathered from China and The United States (US) between 2019 and 2020 (pandemic period) using the Multivariate Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic-Dynamic Conditional Correlation (MGARCH-DCC) and Wavelet Coherence Transform (CWT) techniques to analyse the investment holding period. Country-wise, the sectoral return volatility in China was significantly higher than the US counterpart. Additionally, the intra-sector correlation analyses demonstrated that Chinese sectors successfully mitigated the intra-sector correction in the last quarter of 2019. A short-term holding period was also suggested for investors in China while a long-term counterpart was recommended for investors in the US. Regarding the Chinese and US industrial sectors in the first quarter of 2020, it was mutually concluded that both country stocks reflected high volatility. The tourism sector was also negatively affected throughout the pandemic period (between 2019 and 2020). Essentially, this study offered practical contributions to investors, mutual fund holders, and brokers.