Cross-industry and cross-country evidence from the ESG–firm value literature indicates no consensus on the ESG performance impact on corporate financial performance. Stemming from the ongoing debate over whether ESG principles enhance or hinder value creation, this study investigates the effect of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on firm value through three proxies: Tobin’s Q (TQ), Price to Book ratio (PB), and Price to Earnings ratio (PE). Using a cross-country and cross-sectoral comparative approach, the study employs static and dynamic panel regression analyses, along with principal component analysis, to test the hypothesized relationships across nine MENA region countries and ten sectors between 2017 and 2022. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine ESG’s impact on TQ, PB, and PE while offering a comparative analysis in the MENA region. Empirical results reveal a significantly positive relationship between ESG scores and firm value using TQ and PB ratios, but this relationship is insignificant with the PE ratio. This study contributes to the ESG and financial decision-making literature, providing insights for investors on portfolio optimization and sustainable investing. The findings offer recommendations that further benefit businesses, policymakers, and decision-makers in enhancing their understanding of ESG implications.

This is the first study to use a quantitative approach in examining the impact of internet banking implementation as a green banking practice on bank profitability in Egypt. Moreover, it is the first global study to differentiate the impact between basic and advanced transactional internet banking on bank profitability. A total of 20 banks operating in Egypt were sampled over two time periods: 2009–2018 and 2014–2018. Random effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression analysis and nonparametric analysis were used. Findings indicate that advanced transactional internet banking, as a green banking practice that contributes to the Egyptian sustainable development strategy (SDS), significantly impacts bank profitability after three or more years of implementation. This study’s results are consistent with the findings of other comparable research conducted in developed markets. The findings of this study provide practical implications for managers and policymakers.

This is a pioneering study that undertakes a comparative analysis assessing the annual intermediation efficiency of public versus private banks in Egypt. Moreover, liquidity risk is a major threat facing banks in their efforts to sustain financial stability. Thus, this study is the first to model the determinants of liquidity risk in public and private banks in Egypt while examining the impact of banks’ intermediation efficiencies on their liquidity risk levels. The study employs advanced nonparametric econometric approaches on a sample of Egyptian public and private banks from 2014 to 2022. The data envelopment analysis is used in estimating banks’ intermediation efficiency scores, while the quantile regression analysis is applied to examine the impact of bank intermediation efficiency on liquidity risk under different liquidity risk quantiles. The findings indicate that public banks show consistent superiority in terms of their financial intermediation efficiency levels compared to private banks. Moreover, the paper findings demonstrate the negative significant relationship between bank intermediation efficiency and liquidity risk while highlighting the higher significant positive impact of intermediation efficiency on reducing the liquidity risk of banks that are characterized by undertaking high liquidity risk levels. Furthermore, contrary to general assumptions, this study’s findings demonstrate that the significance of micro- and macro-level determinants of a bank’s liquidity risk is dependent on its prevailing liquidity risk level. Hence, the positive impact of equity capital, asset concentration, size, and growth in gross domestic product and the negative effect of asset quality on bank liquidity risk vary under banks’ different liquidity risk quantiles.

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating on firm value through the three valuation channels of dividends, free cash flow to firm and cost of equity in the context of Egyptian firms listed on S&P/EGX ESG index. The study conducts static and dynamic regression analyses for the three firm value determinants models to test for the hypothesised relationships in all the examined firms from 2010 till 2022. Empirical results from the statistical analyses highlight that there is a significant positive relationship between ESG rating and dividend payout. In addition, ESG rating has a significant negative impact on free cash flow to firm and cost of equity. Findings offer valuable guidance to practitioners and regulatory bodies in emerging economies, particularly in Egypt, by providing empirical evidence on the potential advantages of firm alignment to ESG practices with increased firm value. Such insights can pave the way for enhanced ESG adoption and sustainability practices, ultimately contributing to the overall improvement of businesses and the environment. The study is the first in the context of Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa region to test for the impact of ESG on the collective three valuation channels of dividends, free cash flow to firm and cost of equity, while providing a comparative analysis between the three firm value determinants in the same context.

Purpose: This paper aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the impact of market uncertainty on the degree of accuracy and bias of analysts' earnings forecasts versus four model-based earnings forecasts.Design/methodology/approach: The study employs panel regression analysis on a sample of Egyptian listed companies from 2005 to 2022 to examine the impact of market uncertainty on the accuracy and bias of each type of earnings forecast.Findings: The empirical analysis reveals that market uncertainty significantly affects analysts’ earnings forecast accuracy and bias, while model-based earnings forecasts are less affected. Furthermore, the Earnings Persistence and Residual Income model-based earnings were found to be superior in terms of exhibiting the least susceptibility to the impact of market uncertainty on their forecast accuracy and biasness levels, respectively.Practical implications: The findings have important implications for stakeholders within the financial realm, including investors, financial analysts, corporate executives and portfolio managers. They emphasize the importance of considering market uncertainty when formulating earnings forecasts, while concurrently highlighting the potential benefits of using alternative forecasting methods.Originality/value: To our knowledge, the influence of market uncertainty on analysts' earnings forecast accuracy and bias in the MENA region, particularly in the Egyptian market, remains unexplored in existing research. Additionally, this paper contributes to the existing literature by pinpointing the forecasting method, specifically distinguishing between analysts-based and model-based approaches, whose predictive quality is less adversely impacted by market uncertainty in an emerging market.

This paper examines the impact of fintech on the profitability and credit risk of 20 banks in Egypt for the period from 2017 to 2021. ROA and ROE are used to measure profitability in addition to Z-score as a measure of credit risk. Moreover, new fintech indicators are employed in this study, as measured by the growth in fintech funding volume, growth in the number of fintech startups, and growth in the number of fintech funding deals. Fintech has demonstrated its impact on the profitability and level of credit risk in banks in different countries. Nevertheless, to the authors’ knowledge, the impact of fintech startups on the profitability and credit risk level of the banking industry has not been examined before in Egypt. Since Egypt's fintech sector has recently experienced rapid growth, it becomes inevitable to examine its impact on one of the vital industries in the Egyptian economy - banking industry. Our findings support the significant impact of the examined fintech measures on bank profitability, but not on bank credit risk.