The role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) cannot be ignored in today’s era of working. Its effects are studied in several sectors by various researchers. This study covers the impact of ICT on the profitability of banks. Thirty-three banks are operating in India. A sample period of 10 years (2010 to 2019) was studied. The study also provides insight into how ICT helps the banks’ profitability during and post-COVID-19. A panel data analysis is performed to estimate the results. This study found that ICT adversely impacts banks’ profitability (NIM) in India in a linear association. However, the quadratic association indicates a positive U-curved relationship between ICT and profitability. In addition, the Net of Non-Performing Assets significantly but negatively impacts the connectivity of ICT and profitability. The findings imply that banks should invest in ICT to maximize the long run. The findings have no significant implication on all stakeholders, including policymakers, shareholders, and managers, to consider implementing ICT tools as an essential factor in enhancing a bank’s profitability in the long run. In addition, the level of otherwise lowered investments in ICT cannot be a fruitful step. The current study augments the existing literature on banking by providing novel evidence on the association of ICT with profitability under the influence of NPA. This study argues for the application of ICT in banks in order to increase their profitability. ICT helps the bank maintain transparency, accountability, and even the reach of financial services increases. This situation again leads to the enhancement of the country’s economy.

The purpose of this study is to determine if the impact of transparency and disclosure (TD) levels on shareholders’ current income (dividends) is moderated by technical efficiency (te) and profitability. The study employs econometrics on panel data from 78 BSE-listed enterprises across the 2016–2020 sample period. This conclusion suggests that when TD grows, dividends tend to drop initially, but above a certain threshold level, growing TD levels lead to increased payouts. Furthermore, dividends are adversely associated with the moderating variable “te” in terms of both constant and variable return to scale. On the other hand, moderation by profitability was shown to have a substantially favourable effect on dividends. According to this study, a company’s dividend policy is influenced by its TD levels, which are controlled by its efficiency and profitability. Developing a TD index provides more information on the efficacy of the corporate governance (CG) system. The study’s distinctiveness lies in examining the relationships between transparency, disclosures, and these aspects as they relate to profitability, efficiency, and dividend distribution choices to ascertain whether the companies’ operating effectiveness and financial success matter in this circumstance. The study’s practical and policy implications relate to societal repercussions, which include encouraging more openness and responsibility in business practices, thereby increasing confidence and accountability in decisions about dividend distribution, regardless of efficiency and profitability. The study’s originality is in examining how profitability, efficiency, and dividend distribution decisions relate to transparency and disclosures to determine if companies’ operating efficiency and financial success matter in this situation.

Due to environmental concerns, electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining traction over fossil fuel-based vehicles. For electronic devices, including vehicles, copper is the key material used for building. This situation draws attention to the impact of copper prices, crude oil prices, and exchange rates on the economic viability of using EVs over fossil fuels. We use the volatility spillover effect (VSE) to determine the financial viability of these two types of vehicles in the context of environmental issues. Daily data on copper prices, crude oil, exchange rate, and the BSE100 ESG (“Bombay Stock Exchange 100 Environmental, Social and Governance”) index are taken from 1 November 2017 to 20 September 2022. Two popular multivariate GARCH (“Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity”) family models, i.e., the BEKK (“Baba–Engle–Kraft–Kroner”)-GARCH (BG) and DCC (“Dynamic Conditional Correlation”)-GARCH (DG) models, are utilized to find volatility connections between these variables. These are appropriate GARCH models to observe the volatility dependence of one market on another market. It is found that there exist volatility effects of copper and exchange rate on the S&P BSE100 ESG Equity Index Price, which we will refer to here as ESG. However, crude oil is found to be insignificant for ESG. The novelty of this study is in the use of volatility spillover to determine economic viability. The volatility effects of copper prices are positive for ESG in the short run and negative for long-term volatility. The exchange rate has a positive volatility effect on ESG in the long run. Surprisingly, we find that EVs are technologically better than fossil fuel-based vehicles as a possible sustainable energy source. We observe studies that have raised similar concerns about EVs’ lack of business sense compared to fossil fuels. However, using VSE to explore financial viability offers a fresh perspective. Based on the findings of the current study, it is recommended that policymakers and researchers revisit their support for EVs as an alternate and sustainable source of energy.

The literature abounds with studies on the impact of the growth of nations on the environment. However, studies on the financial materiality of environmental concerns are found less often. This study aims to determine the impact of environmental concerns on a nation’s GDP per capita (GDPC). In addition, the influence of developed nations and democracy is also explored. The data for 106 countries and ten years (2011–2020) are procured from World Bank’s official website. The countries with incomplete data for a balanced panel are not included. Panel data econometrics (quantile regression) is applied to analyze the data. Environmental concerns are measured with the help of environmental efficiency (EE) using data envelopment analysis (DEA). It is found that environmental efficiency (EE) negatively impacts the GDPC for low levels of GDPC. However, no association of EE with GDPC is witnessed in the case of high GDPC levels. In addition, developed nations positively moderate the EE’s impact on the GDPC when the GDPC levels are high. Moreover, democratic nations negatively moderate the EE’s impact on the GDPC when low GDPC levels exist. The main implication of the current study is that developed high GDPC countries could bear a significant chunk of the cost of EE. This way, the adverse impact of an increase in EE on the GDPC (by low GDPC counties) could be dodged, and by the efforts of developed high GDPC countries, EE could be increased significantly without adversely impacting their GDPC.

This study aims to determine the impact of revenue generation and inventory management on the circular economy (CE). Hence, this study delves into the financial implications of circular strategies, including revenue opportunities and inventory. It also aims at the profit and competitive gains enjoyed by their associations. This research utilizes secondary data of 31 automobile firms in India for the period 2012–2023. Quantile panel data econometrics were pursued in this study. Both revenue and inventory adversely influence scrape sales at lower quantiles, whereas they are insignificant for higher quantiles. Profitability and competition positively moderate the revenue-scrap sales association and inventory-scrap sales associations. These results underscore India's need to implement stringent regulations for sustainable production, effective waste management strategies, and transparent reporting of environmentally conscious practices. This indicates that both revenue and inventory are critical to CE adoption. This study augments the existing body of knowledge through its novel findings on CE.