Currently, the topic of sustainability is increasingly discussed, including in lending activities in commercial banks about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects. The positive influence of economic aspects on sustainability is generally accepted, but the influence of ESG aspects on sustainability still has no consensus. These opinions address ESG-oriented credit products and lending activities. This paper has two aims related to research questions. The first aim is to identify the factors that play a role in sustainable lending in commercial banks through the value chain concept; the second aim is to elucidate the relationship between factors that play a role in sustainable lending. To achieve this goal, a systematic literature review (SLR) of 1,073 articles from various scientific journals was conducted. There are 18 articles relevant to the banking industry related to credit (bank lending) that are selected and become references for knowing the determinant factors in sustainable lending. Based on the systematic review, there are 8 value chain articles, 9 ESG performance articles, and 1 economic performance article related to sustainable lending. A total of 15 articles show the potential and positive influence of sustainability, consisting of 7 value chain articles regarding the potential to encourage sustainability and 8 ESG performance articles regarding a positive relationship with sustainability. The review revealed that a value chain and ESG performance are the two dominant factors in sustainable lending. The review also found the influence of ESG aspects on sustainability; some argue that there is a positive influence or the opposite, and some argue that they do not see the influence. This review has not been able to explain the causal relationship between these two factors and sustainable lending, so further research is also required.

Digital technology has been raising the competition between banks and other financial service providers, and encourages banks to undergo digital transformation and introduce innovation in their products and services. However, the high investment required cannot be ignored when undergoing the digital transformation. A few research studies have examined the digital transformation effects on bank’s financial performance. This research aims to examine the digital transformation’s effect on bank profitability, specifically on banks with digital business models. Using digital banks’ profitability as the object is the novelty of this study, whereas previous research on bank profitability focused solely on traditional banks. This research utilizes the Panel of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and the panel data from 2016 to February 2023 of the digital business model bank population in Indonesia, which consists of seven banks. The result of the analysis indicates the U-shape relationship between digital transformation and bank profitability, as the digital transformation significantly supports the bank’s profitability in the long run, while it causes profitability deterioration in the short run due to the huge IT investment. This study recommends that banks need to consider the cost of IT investment as well as the required time and optimum strategy in undergoing the digital transformation and achieving targeted profitability.

Agro-forest management policy is one of the most trending issues in Indonesia under the dynamics circumstances of regional autonomy. Regional autonomy has been recognized in the formal governance system of the Republic Indonesia through Regional Governance Law 5/1972 and Village Governance Law 5/1979. A strong political reform following deep economic crisis in 1998 has forced Indonesian President Suharto to step down, and the new government has to accommodate political reform agendas, included a broader regional autonomy, which has been implemented under a Regional Governance Law 22/1999, then replaced by Law 32/2004 and Law 23/2014. The existing Regional Governance Law has shifted almost all authorities in forest management from the regency to the province, and associated with the new established Law 11/2020 on job creation, a single license of multi-purpose forest utilization was introduced, including agroforestry, that will potentially reduce deforestation and improve the community welfare. This study evaluates key elements of local development goals, risks and barriers, as well as basic capitals for agro-forest management in Tebo Regency, Jambi Province, using an Interpretive Structural Modelling approach. Overall, this study concludes that weak coordination, low quality of human capital, inappropriate communication with stakeholders, and lack of financial resources are the greatest challenges to the implementation of agro-forest management, particularly agroforestry, as a part of social forestry schemes.

Changes in customer behaviors after the COVID-19 pandemic have encouraged the transformation of banking systems. Neobanks have emerged as an innovation and entered the banking system to compete with traditional banks by offering new customer experiences. Neobanks transform traditional banking products and services which are delivered through physical interactions into those delivered via digital channels. This paper analyzes traditional banks that have transformed into neobanks, specifically their efficiency after digital transformation. Efficiency was measured using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), as it is highly accurate in estimating efficiency scores. This study also used a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation of the Panel ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag), as this approach is useful for analyzing the relationship between variables in panel data, to investigate digital transformation as a determinant of neobanks’ efficiency and examine the existence of short-term and long-term relationships between digital transformation and efficiency. We found that the efficiency of neobanks increases after digital transformation. Furthermore, it can be concluded that digital transformation is a determinant of efficiency and that there is long-term relationship between digital transformation and efficiency. In the short term, digital transformation has a significant negative correlation with efficiency, but in the long term, it has a significant positive relationship; this is because the cost of digital transformation initially decreases the profit efficiency, but afterwards, it increases the efficiency.

Banks have enormous potential to support the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in accordance with their function as financial intermediaries through sustainable lending. However, the average national financing growth for the sustainable business activity category over the past four years is still 12%. The aim of this research is to identify the conditions of sustainable lending at state-owned conventional banks and analyze the influence of the value chain, economic performance, and ESG performance on sustainable lending. The research was conducted at state-owned commercial banks in Indonesia. The research utilized structural equation modeling (SEM). The SEM results of this study describe value chain, ESG performance (environmental, social, and governance), and economic performance and have direct and positive influences on sustainable lending, of which ESG performance has the biggest influence. As per each individual aspect, social orientation makes the biggest contribution toward sustainable lending.

Penelitian ini dilakukan di Kota Tasikmalaya sebagai kota hasil pemekaran tahun 2001 dan berkembang sebagai pusat pertumbuhan ekonomi di wilayah Priangan Timur Provinsi Jawa Barat. Penelitian bertujuan menganalisis perkembangan struktur perekonomian wilayah dan sektor unggulan yang menjadi daya saing perekonomian wilayah Kota Tasikmalaya dibandingkan daerah sekitarnya (hinterland). Penelitian menggunakan analisis tipologi Klassen, Indeks Diversitas Entropi (IDE), dan Location Quotient (LQ). Penelitian menunjukkan bahwa berdasarkan hasil analisis tipologi Klassen, Kota Tasikmalaya termasuk klasifikasi daerah berkembang cepat, dibandingkan wilayah hinterland-nya Kabupaten Tasikmalaya, Kabupaten Garut, Kabupaten Ciamis, Kota Banjar, dan Kabupaten Pangandaran, masuk dalam klasifikasi daerah relatif tertinggal. Analisis IDE menunjukkan sektor-sektor perekonomian Kota Tasikmalaya lebih berkembang dibandingkan daerah hinterland-nya. Terlihat rata-rata indeks diversitas entropi Kota Tasikmalaya (0,85) lebih besar dibandingkan rata-rata nilai entropi wilayah sekitarnya (hinterland), yaitu Kabupaten Tasikmalaya (0,71), Kabupaten Garut (0,67), Kabupaten Ciamis (0,81), Kota Banjar (0,83), dan Kabupaten Pangandaran (0,74). Besarnya nilai entropi menunjukkan perekonomian wilayah Kota Tasikmalaya lebih maju dan berkembang. Sedangkan dari hasil analisis LQ menunjukkan rata-rata LQ Kota Tasikmalaya (12,80) lebih besar dibandingkan rata-rata LQ wilayah hinterland-nya, yaitu Kabupaten Tasikmalaya (9,73), Kabupaten Garut (9,25), Kabupaten Ciamis (11,23), Kota Banjar (10,91), dan Kabupaten Pangandaran (10,20). Sektor-sektor unggulan yang menjadi sektor basis ekonomi Kota Tasikmalaya adalah bangunan, perdagangan, hotel dan restoran, pengangkutan dan komunikasi, keuangan, persewaan dan jasa keuangan, serta jasa-jasa.