The article examines the long-term crime gap across Asia, a region experiencing rapid economic growth and fragile development institutions. The article distinguishes between time-invariant structural forces that call for cross-country variation and time-varying dynamic forces that change at the country level. Written with panel data from 38 Asian nations from 2012 and 2023, the article applies four econometric specifications—Pooled OLS, Fixed Effects, Multilevel Tobit, and System-GMM—to quantify the impacts of corruption, political stability, income inequality, and urban transformation on perceptions-based Crime Index. The evaluation concludes that structural causes, led by corruption, are principal reasons for cross-national crime gaps, especially in poor- and middle-income markets. However, income inequality and political instability have significant impacts on the time-series variation of crime in nations, primarily high-income nations. The findings suggest that crime-control efforts may not be applicable in all contexts. The study confirms the use of a dual-track methodology: institutional construction and anti-corruption in underdeveloped nations, and the reduction of socioeconomic inequality in high-income nations—the provision of a policy-determining framework aiding evidence-informed policymaking in Asia.

Digitization plays a significant role in shaping modern business operations. The notion of digitalization is also included in Thailand’s recent national economic development policy, known as Thailand 4.0. Under the policy, rooted in the industry 4.0 concept, the country promotes economic growth with innovation and creativity and tries to move towards the digital economy. This paper presents an empirical study examining the business adaptation of local family firms facing opportunities and business challenges caused by the Thailand 4.0 policy and the digitalization motivation. It delivers empirical evidence on entrepreneurship development in local Thai cross-border freight family businesses trying to change to innovative firms. The researchers employed a qualitative research approach to investigate five purposively selected firms from Nakhon Phanom province of the North-East region of Thailand. The research data was collected using documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with the owner-managers of the selected firms. Study results are delivered under two themes: developing innovative family entrepreneurship and digitalization in local cross-border freight firms. The results show that digitalization is adopted to improve three primary areas for strategic improvement in the transportation industry, including inventory, transport, and location strategies. Family power and control are founded to positively support the family business transformation towards industry 4.0 via business digitalization. Trained employees to gain sufficient knowledge related to digital transformation is also essential. The paper also identifies areas requiring further improvements, including systematic support from public authorities and reliable technology to help widen and sustain domestic and international business partnership networks.

This study examines the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) alongside crucial socioeconomic indicators—government, education, and income levels—on juvenile crime in Thailand’s 77 provinces in response to prominent empirical limitations on digital variables in emerging criminological models. Using an unbalanced provincial panel dataset covering 2020 to 2024, analysis is done using a two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (System GMM) estimation approach that effectively captures endogeneity, criminal behaviour persistence, and heterogeneity in Thailand’s provinces. Empirical evidence shows that there are considerable positive relationships between adolescent delinquency and the use of the internet (0.116, p < 0.01), thereby confirming fears about risks related to more adolescent online use. Higher levels of school achievement have been shown to effectively inhibit criminal behaviour (−18.95, p < 0.01). In addition, better governance by institutional openness is positively related to incidence rates for juvenile crime (3.366, p < 0.01), conceivably indicating higher detection rates and reportability over higher crime rates. This study is the first to use Thailand’s province-level data employing System GMM to contribute to digital criminology. This explains the complex dual purpose of digital infrastructure as both an avenue for facilitating illegal conduct and preventing it. Therefore, research supports interventionist approaches focusing on overall digital literacy efforts and education investments as an essential mechanism for reducing juvenile delinquency.