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Purpose This study aims to inspect the impact of US climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on the economic growth of Asian countries with the moderating role of crude oil price (COP) changes. Design/methodology/approach The Im-Pesaran Sin and Fisher-type tests are used for stationarity check, while Kao and Pedroni tests are used for cointegration analysis. The Hausman test is applied for model selection, where pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag (PMG/ARDL) has been selected and applied. Besides, the fully modified ordinary least squares is also used for robustness analysis. Additionally, the literature review and descriptive statistics have been used. Findings The main findings disclosed that US CPU negatively impacted the economic growth of Asian economies with high significance in the long run whereas insignificant in the short run. The results further concluded that COP positively affected economic growth both in the short and long run. Furthermore, the results also revealed that COP significantly and positively moderates the relationship between CPU and COP in the long and short run. Originality/value The study is the first of its kind to examine the impact of the US CPU on the economic growth of Asian economies. Second, it further revealed the moderating role of COP between US CPU and economic growth. Third, a large panel of data from Asian countries has been considered. Fourth, the study adds to the current literature by using the PMG/ARDL model to determine the impact of US CPU on economic growth. Additionally, this study focuses on the US CPU because it is a developed country playing a significant role in energy and climate issues, and has been very uncertain.

PurposeThis study is aimed to examine the effects of the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. It further aimed to investigate the moderating role of institutional quality on the impacts of EPU on CO2 emissions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply the two-step system-generalized method of moments (GMM) for 112 emerging economies and low-income developing countries (hereafter, developing countries) for the period 2000–2019.FindingsThe findings reveal that the effects of EPU on CO2 emissions are positive. Specifically, a percent increase in EPU results in a 0.047% increase in CO2 emissions in developing countries. However, the effects of institutional quality on CO2 emissions are negative, certifying that strong institutional quality reduces emissions. Also, the results confirm that the positive effect of EPU on CO2 emissions is weaker in countries with relatively strong institutional quality.Practical implicationsPolicymakers should be more vigilant while designing and implementing economic policies. Also, the government should support firms investing in environment-friendly innovations during high EPU. Besides, developing countries should improve institutional quality to mitigate the effect of EPU on CO2 emissions.Originality/valueThis study is the first in its kind to examine the impacts of EPU on CO2 emissions in developing countries. It also provides a different viewpoint on the EPU–CO2 relationship and reinterprets it through the moderating role of institutional quality.

The authors examine the impacts of quality of institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure on overall and intra-Africa trade covering 44 African countries and their 173 trade partners for the periods 2000-2014. Aggregate indicators are derived for the quality of economic institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure using principal component analysis. The findings disclose that intra-Africa and overall Africa's trade robustly determined by the quality of institutions, border and transport efficiency, physical and communication infrastructure. The estimates also indicate that the marginal effect of the quality of institutions, physical and communication infrastructure on trade flow appears to be increasing in GDP per capita. In contrast, the marginal effect of border and transport efficiency on trade decreases in GDP per capita. The authors compute simulation of improving each indicator to the best performer in the sample. Their findings are robust to estimation method conducted to account for potential endogeneity.

Purpose In the modern virtual workplace, an organization's ability to complete projects successfully is essential to its future sustainability. Identifying the factors that contribute to successful project outcomes is crucial in project management research. This study seeks to examine how shared leadership affects the quality of teamwork and the success of information system development projects. It also explores how project complexity affects the success of information system development (ISD) projects in the context of virtual project teams, which are usually made up of knowledge workers with a lot of experience. Design/methodology/approach Data collected from 509 virtual ISD project team members in Pakistan were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping to assess the effects of shared leadership on teamwork quality and project success. The study also assessed the mediation role of teamwork and the moderation effect of project complexity on the mediation effect of teamwork quality between shared leadership and project success relationship. Findings The study found a positive correlation between shared leadership, teamwork quality, and project success. This study also revealed that teamwork quality mediates the association between shared leadership and project success. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that teamwork quality and project complexity moderate-mediate the relationship between shared leadership and project success. Practical implications Shared leadership enhances project success in virtual teams by improving teamwork. It requires investment in team development and collaboration initiatives, which ultimately lead to project success. Originality/value The findings complement previous research with new insights on behavioral dimensions of shared leadership and their effects on outcomes on the level of the individual. To date, no prior study has employed this nascent methodology to investigate the relationship between shared leadership and project success.

PurposeThis study examines the effects of COVID-19 on trade, production and environmental quality and provides policy implications on green recovery.Design/methodology/approachThe two-step Heckman method is applied to estimate the structural gravity specification of trade. Besides, the two-step system GMM model is used to estimate the effects of COVID-19 on production and environmental quality. Additionally, descriptive analysis and literature review have been used.FindingsThe findings disclose that COVID-19 adversely affected the trade performance of the countries. The results further imply that the regional trade agreements (RTAs) can play a key mediating role in the post-COVID-19 trade recovery. Besides, the impact of COVID-19 on the output is substantially negative. However, the effect of COVID-19 on environmental quality is significantly positive.Originality/valueIt is the first study of its kind to examine the effects of COVID-19 on trade, production and CO2 emissions covering panel countries. Second, it provides a detailed analysis of firms planning to engage in the export sector. Moreover, it offers policy suggestions to consider environmental quality and green recovery. Besides, it examines the mediating role of RTAs in the relationship between trade and the pandemic.

This study examines the impacts of institutional quality and business environment on Chinese foreign direct investment (F.D.I.) flow to Africa. We derive aggregate indicators of institutional quality and business environment using economic and governance institutions, doing business, transport efficiency indicators conducting a principal component analysis. We employ Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (P.P.M.L.) procedure to estimate the gravity model of F.D.I. flow as it can solve zero-valued observations and heterogeneity problems. Our findings disclose that institutional quality and business environment indicators are significant motivators of Chinese F.D.I. flow to Africa. Our findings are robust and similar after we account for endogeneity concerns using an I.V. estimator. Based on our results, we conclude that improvement in the business environment and the institutional quality of African countries is key to spurring Chinese F.D.I. flow to Africa.

Environmental degradation has severely affected the natural cycle of ecosystem. It’s high time now and humans should execute strategies effectively to protect the further degradation. Initially, we need to understand the ways that might affect the environment. Thus, existing research is designed to explore the nonlinear association between financial development (FD) and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in the context of low-income countries by employing the yearly data of 1990–2016. The panel smooth transition regression model (PSTR) is applied, and the result confirmed that the nexus between the two variables are nonlinear. Moreover, it also shows that at a low regime, FD increases the CO2 emissions but as the economy of low-income states progress to the high regime, the association between the two variables becomes negative and significant. The study also confirms that FD can reduce CO2 emissions once it reaches a certain threshold point. Based on these findings, new insights are provided for the policymakers, and several policies are suggested to improve the environmental quality in low-income countries.

Social media influencers strategically design the auditory and visual features of short videos to enhance consumer engagement. Among these, auditory emotional arousal and visual variation play crucial roles, yet their interactive effects remain underexplored. Drawing on multichannel integration theory, this study applies multimodal machine learning to analyze 12,842 short videos from Douyin, integrating text analysis, sound recognition, and image processing. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between auditory emotional arousal and consumer engagement, where moderate arousal maximizes interaction while excessively high or low arousal reduces engagement. Visual variation, however, exhibits a positive linear effect, with greater variation driving higher engagement. Notably, audiovisual congruence significantly enhances engagement, as high alignment between arousal and visual variation optimizes consumer information processing. These findings advance short video marketing research by uncovering the multisensory interplay in consumer engagement. They also provide practical guidance for influencers in optimizing voice and visual design strategies to enhance content effectiveness.

While there is a consensus on the expanding importance of the China-Africa economic relationship, there is much more debate on how to portray the relationship. Thus, this study is aimed to examine the impacts of the China-Africa trade and Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) on the growth of African countries controlling the mediating role of institutional quality. The two-step system Generalized method of moments (GMM) model is applied using robust data for the period of 2003-2017. Drawing on complementary theoretical perspectives, this study took into account the conditional effect of China-Africa trade and Chinese FDI subject to the institutional quality of African countries and the interdependence of China-Africa trade and Chinese FDI to African countries. The benign impacts of the China-Africa trade and Chinese FDI on economic growth to African countries remain contingent upon appropriate policy action to improve the institutional quality of African countries and the synergies between the China-Africa trade and Chinese FDI to African countries.

This study explores the impact of streamer expression certainty on consumer purchase behavior in live-stream e-commerce and its underlying mechanisms. Based on an empirical analysis of 3842 product live-stream data from the Douyin platform and an experimental study, the results show that streamer expression certainty has a significant inverted U-shaped relationship with consumer purchase behavior. Moderate expression certainty enhances consumers’ purchase intention, while excessively high or low expression certainty weakens its effect. Furthermore, perceived competence and perceived warmth mediate this process. Moderate expression certainty enhances consumers’ perceptions of the streamer’s professionalism and sincerity, thereby promoting purchase behavior. However, overly high expression certainty may reduce perceived warmth, leading to decreased consumer trust. This study further reveals the key role of language style in live-stream e-commerce and provides practical insights for optimizing streamers’ language strategies and improving live-stream effectiveness. The study’s limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.