This study revisits the energy-growth nexus by incorporating the effect of clean energy, CO₂ emissions and technological innovation within the research background of Norway and New Zealand over the period from 1971 to 2010. The result of the autoregressive distributed lag model indicates that there is long-run equilibrium among clean energy, economic growth, CO₂ emissions and technological innovation for both countries. The result of the Granger causality test suggests that the use of clean energy does assuage CO₂ emissions at the expense of economic growth. As the majority of countries are supposed to participate in the pace of environmental protection, examining Norway and New Zealand provides readers an insight of the double edge effect of clean energy on CO₂ emissions and economic growth. It is worth to mention that the endogenous growth theory plays an effective role in the energy-growth nexus. To optimize the benefits of clean energy use, Norway and New Zealand should pay attention to their research and development processes.

Open innovation has become a popular approach, especially since 2003, as people began purposively managing, evolving and harnessing knowledge flows across organizational boundaries but through increasing connections with systemic knowledge nodes relevant to the innovation process. The creation and appropriation of such knowledge has evolved rapidly with digitalization and the proliferation of broadband networks. Individuals, firms and organizations now connect and coordinate to support innovations openly across innovation systems. This paper proposes an open systems model with institutional underpinnings to not only quicken knowledge flows and expand the networks to a wider range of socioeconomic agents, but also for their inclusive participation in shaping the processes of achieving sustainable development through environmental greening and egalitarian balancing of society. In doing so, using examples, the paper focuses on developments since Schumpeter’s ground-breaking exposition of innovation to explain how individuals, firms, farms and organizations can participate actively in open innovation networks to connect productively with the critical knowledge nodes in society.

This study aims to conceptualise and document the historical evolution of microfinance in Bangladesh using the life cycle theory (LCT). Based on the LCT nomenclature, the microfinance sector in Bangladesh shows characteristics broadly consistent with the saturation phase (2006–2015) – which potentially has adverse impacts on both microfinance clients and institutions. The maturity phase (1996–2005) of microfinance has corresponded with competition and several innovations (financial and non-financial). However, the saturation phase sees increasing presence of uncoordinated microfinance institutions and expansion of multiple borrowing, as well as commercialisation and ‘mission drift’, which constitute important challenges for the regulatory authority and management of microfinance institutions.