Conservation finance embraces a series of innovative financing mechanisms aimed at raising and managing capital to be used for the conservation of biodiversity. The climate emergency and the pursuit of sustainable development underline the criticality of financial support for achieving this goal. Funding for the protection of biodiversity, in fact, has long been disbursed by governments in a residual form, only after they have dealt with social needs and political challenges. To date, the main challenge of conservation finance is to identify solutions that not only generate new revenue for biodiversity, but also effectively manage and allocate existing funding to provide a mix of social and community benefits as well. The paper, therefore, aims to act as a wake-up call, urging academics working in economics and finance to turn their attention to resolving the financial problems faced by conservation. Through a comparative bibliometric analysis, the study aims to outline the structure of scientific research on the topic of conservation finance, to understand the state of the art, and to identify open questions and new research trends. The results of the study show that the topic of conservation finance is currently a prerogative of scholars and journals of ecology, biology and environmental sciences. Finance scholars pay very little attention to the topic and yet there are many opportunities/needs for future research. The results are of interest to researchers in banking and finance, policy-makers and managers.

Purpose: Consumer credit as a proportion of household debt has grown considerably during the last 20 years across many developed countries. A fairly extensive literature from the field of empirical psychology has provided evidence that personality factors and attitudes may influence individuals’ debt financing decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of attitude to credit and three main research questions are addressed. Is there any relationship between attitude and use of consumer credit? Are there any differences between the attitudes of credit users and non‐users that can be associated with motivations for using consumer credit? Does attitude towards credit affect preferences for the financing of consumption?Design/methodology/approach: The authors provide answers based on the results of an original survey of the use of consumer credit conducted on a wide sample of Italian households, which allowed the authors to asses the respondents’ attitudes towards credit and to examine them with respect to credit decisions, controlling for several socio‐economic variables.Findings: The findings indicate that the influence of attitude on consumer credit decisions cannot be ruled out. Attitude toward credit appears to play an important role and is significantly related to motivations for using credit and to the method of choice for financing consumption.Originality/value: This study improves on most existing research on these topics in the particularly large size and scope of the sample, and also because several studies from the psychological field lack a thorough assessment of household economic conditions and expectations.

Purpose: This work aims to explore the effects of (equity and non-equity) strategic alliances between banks and FinTechs on FinTechs' online visibility. Design/methodology/approach: For a sample of 124 Italian FinTechs, the authors measured online visibility through their website ranking (Google PageRank) and website traffic (Google Trends). Consistent to the historical depth of these measures, the authors separately investigated the effect of equity and non-equity (contractual) agreements on online visibility by means of ordinal logistic regressions and diff-in-diff analysis. Findings: Strategic alliances with banks enhance FinTechs' online visibility. Although both equity and contractual agreements positively influence the popularity of FinTechs' website achieved through the activity of internal and external online content creators (websites ranking), only equity agreements are effective in attracting Internet users (website traffic). Practical implications: When deciding to interact with banks, FinTechs' managers should consider that equity agreements may be a powerful strategic choice for enlarging the customer base and boosting visibility of FinTechs. Social implications: Fostering strategic alliances between banks and FinTechs contributes to FinTechs' growth, generating virtuous mechanisms of innovation, financial inclusion and better allocative efficiency of the financial system. Originality/value: This work expands marketing knowledge and literature regarding online visibility determinants, by investigating the benefits of strategic alliances and cooperation in the market, while providing an empirical strategy replicable by future marketing studies.

Advanced therapies are the frontier of medical research and have a relevant therapeutic potential and a profound social value. Despite this, their funding is hindered by many heterogeneous factors that obstruct their translation and survival on the market, even when approved and effective. Using an extensive bibliometric and systematic review of 174 articles published between 2001 and 2023, this study aims to identify the factors hindering the financing of advanced therapies and suggest future research lines to overcome the biomedical and economic "valleys of death". This study is the first review focused on advanced therapies from a financial perspective, and it contributes to advancing scientific knowledge in several ways. First, it highlights that finance academics paid little attention to the topic and most of their contributions are now outdated; therefore, there is the need to explore the new opportunities and solutions offered by financial innovation and the application of new technologies to financial activity. Second, it asks for an interdisciplinary approach to exploring advanced therapies' barriers from a holistic and process perspective and exploiting the social value generated by the development of innovative therapies. Finally, it analyzes the obstacles and value destroyed by the absence of an organic and coordinated process of public intervention, underscoring the imperative for further research to explore new public-private financial models and risk-sharing schemes and extend evaluation models by integrating financial and social value logic.