The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of corporate governance practices on the performance of listed firms from countries like India and the Gulf countries. This research study relies on secondary data collected from annual reports of 100 companies covering 8 years, from 2010 to 2017, using manual content analysis. Fifty non-financial listed companies from each emerging market were selected; the selection is based on the market capitalization. Findings from countries’ dummy indicate that Indian companies perform better in corporate governance practices than Gulf countries. Moreover, corporate governance practices negatively impact Indian and Gulf countries’ firms’ performance measured by return on assets (ROA), except for governance effectiveness (GE) that has a positive impact. In contrast, corporate governance measured by board structure (BS) is negatively affected by the performance of Indian and Gulf countries’ listed companies measured by Tobin’s Q (TQ), whereas transparency and disclosure (TD), leverage (LEV) and GE have a positive impact. The results have implications for managers and policyholders to understand the corporate governance practices and their relationships with performance. Based on the best knowledge of the authors, this is one of the first studies that addresses the comparison between India and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

In a digitalized business, blockchain technology, fintech, AI, and IT governance are crucial for reducing risks and aligning with organizational goals. IT governance ensures smooth and efficient adoption of fintech solutions and AI. Blockchain introduces trust and security through smart contracts, enhancing sustainability performance. Thus, in today’s rapidly evolving digital environment, the integration of these technologies has become critical to organizational resilience in the long-term. The present study aims to explore how the integrated role of IT governance, fintech, and blockchain technologies can enhance sustainability practices to mitigate organizational risks. The study utilized a questionnaire survey to assess the impact of IT governance, fintech, and blockchain technologies on sustainability performance in Oman. The sample included commercial, industrial, and service companies, including banks. A non-probability sampling approach, including convenience and snowball sampling, was used. Software tools such as SPSS and Smart PLS were used to estimate quantitative data analysis and structural modeling results. The study concludes that IT governance dimensions alone have an insignificant impact on sustainability. Importantly, the integrated effect of IT governance (alignment, policies, and committees) improves sustainability. The results also report that IT governance significantly enhances fintech adoption, but it has an insignificant influence on blockchain adoption in organizations. The results reveal that the respondents perceive that sustainability is positively and significantly improved by IT governance strategic alignment and the steering committee. The study offers a unique perspective on the impact of blockchain, IT governance, and fintech technologies on sustainability, filling existing literature gaps and urging policymakers to achieve the Omani Vision 2040.

Internet is becoming a part of our lifestyle; however, the usage rate and application of the Internet are disparate in different parts of the world. In many emerging countries, the Internet is yet to penetrate ordinary households. The present study focuses on how IoT adoption impacts the banks’ customer relationship management (CRM) in an emerging market context. Furthermore, the moderating roles of gender, age, and bank ownership type on the relationship between the adoption of IoT and CRM have also been tested. Cost, convenience, social context, and privacy were studied as the predicting variables of IoT adoption, while IoT adoption was investigated as the antecedent of CRM. The CRM variable has been operationalized as a second-order latent construct consisting of three first-order latent variables: responsiveness, satisfaction, and assurance. A cross-sectional, non-probability-based survey was conducted from 467 bank customers of three public and three private sector banks in Aligarh city of India. Two CFA models were run to ensure reliability, validity, and model fit. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) on AMOS software, while PROCESS Macro v4.0 by Hayes (2009) was used to test the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between IoT adoption and CRM. The results indicate that cost, convenience, social context, and privacy are positively influencing IoT adoption, which in turn positively affects CRM. Gender and age were found to have a negative moderation effect on the path between IoT adoption and CRM, while bank ownership type positively moderated this link.