Purpose: Our study investigates the combined effects of financial technologies (fintech) and the digital economy on sustainable development, considering geopolitical risks as a moderating factor. Origin: While sustainable development is a global imperative, the integrated roles of digital transformation and fintech remain insufficiently explored. Our research addresses this gap by analyzing their impacts on socioeconomic advancement and environmental sustainability across diverse contexts. Methodology: Employing panel data from 30 developed and developing countries between 1990 and 2023, we assess sustainable development using the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the Human Development Index (HDI). Independent variables include proxies for the digital economy (e.g., internet usage, mobile subscriptions, and high-tech exports) and fintech (e.g., digital payments, digital currency, and peer-to-peer lending). The Geopolitical Risk Index (GPRI) is used to evaluate the effect of political instability. We apply generalized least squares (GLS) and fixed-effects estimation (within) to ensure robustness. Findings: Our results indicate that digital transformation and fintech significantly foster socioeconomic development and environmental performance, even amidst geopolitical instability. Key variables such as digital payments and internet access show substantial positive impacts, providing valuable insights for policymakers aiming to enhance resilience and sustainability. Contributions: Our article offers a comprehensive evaluation of how the digital economy and fintech jointly influence sustainable development under geopolitical risks, providing a nuanced understanding for policymakers and researchers.

This paper examines whether board gender diversity conditions the association between ESG performance and dividend policy in Australian-listed firms. We employ an unbalanced panel of 127 ASX-listed companies over 2013–2023, and firm fixed-effects models with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors. The findings reveal that ESG performance is positively associated with dividends per share (DPS). Moreover, female board representation has no direct association with DPS, although it is positively associated with ESG performance. Further analysis shows that the ESG–dividend association strengthens with female representation and is concentrated in boards that have reached a critical mass of women; the marginal effect of ESG on DPS is statistically indistinguishable from zero on boards with fewer than 30% women, but positive and significant once female representation reaches about 30%, where a one-standard-deviation higher ESG score is associated with A$ 0.13 higher DPS (28% of the sample mean). This critical-mass pattern is robust to year fixed effects, winsorisation, and additional governance controls, but it is weaker under firm-clustered standard errors and specific to dividends per share rather than the payout ratio or the dividend yield. Investors and boards should therefore evaluate ESG performance and board composition jointly when assessing dividend capacity.