As the global ecological and environmental problems become more and more serious, the concept of green finance and sustainable development has been advocated by more and more domestic and foreign experts, scholars and investors, and the Environmental Responsibility, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Governance (ESG) rating has gradually become a hotspot of attention. ESG is a kind of investment concept and a comprehensive assessment criterion of corporate performance for systematic evaluation of enterprises, and it has become an important indicator of the ability of measuring the sustainable development of enterprises. It has become an important indicator of corporate sustainable development capability. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between ESG ratings and cumulative abnormal returns of listed companies’ stocks under the impact of sudden risk events. The outbreak of the New Crown epidemic as an exogenous risk event provides an opportunity for this paper. This paper examines the role of firms’ ESG ratings and the three sub-dimensions of ratings on the cumulative abnormal returns of listed firms’ stocks during the New Crown Epidemic outbreak and verifies the role of ESG ratings on firms in times of crisis. The final regression results prove that under the impact of sudden exogenous risk events, listed firms’ ESG ratings have a positive effect on the cumulative abnormal stock returns during the event window. Finally, this paper provides recommendations to help firms and investors prevent and mitigate risks.

This study aims to examine the pathways through which the user experience (UX) of ChatGPT, a representative of generative artificial intelligence, affects user loyalty. Additionally, it seeks to verify whether ChatGPT’s UX varies according to a user’s need for cognition (NFC). This research proposed and examined how ChatGPT’ UX affect user engagement and loyalty and used mediation analysis using PROCESS Macro Model 6 to test the impact of UX on web-based ChatGPT loyalty. Data were collected by an online marketing research company. 200 respondents were selected from a panel of individuals who had used ChatGPT within the previous month. Prior to the survey, the study objective was explained to the respondents, who were instructed to answer questions based on their experiences with ChatGPT during the previous month. The usefulness of ChatGPT was found to have a significant impact on interactivity, engagement, and intention to reuse. Second, it was revealed that evaluations of ChatGPT may vary according to users’ cognitive needs. Users with a high NFC, who seek to solve complex problems and pursue new experiences, perceived ChatGPT’s usefulness, interactivity, engagement, and reuse intentions more positively than those with a lower NFC. These results have several academic implications. First, this study validated the role of the UX in ChatGPT. Second, it validated the role of users’ need for cognition levels in their experience with ChatGPT.

In this research, we employed multivariate statistical methods to investigate the perspectives of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) concerning the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation and their apprehensions related to EPR compliance. The EPR regulation, which places the responsibility of waste management on producers, has significant financial and administrative implications, particularly for SMEs. A sample of 114 businesses was randomly selected, and the collected data underwent comprehensive analysis. Our findings highlight that a notable proportion of businesses (44.7%) possess knowledge of the EPR regulation’s provisions, whereas only a marginal fraction (1.8%) lacks sufficient familiarity. We also explored the interplay between opinions on the EPR regulation and concerns regarding its financial and administrative implications. Our results establish a significant correlation between EPR regulation opinions and concerns, with adverse opinions prominently influencing concerns, particularly regarding financial burdens and administrative workloads. These outcomes, derived from the application of multivariate statistical techniques, provide valuable insights for enhancing the synergy between environmental regulations and business practices. EPR regulation significantly affects SMEs in terms of financial, administrative, and legal obligations, thus our study highlights that policymakers may need to consider additional support mechanisms to alleviate the regulatory burden on SMEs, fostering a more effective and sustainable implementation of the EPR regulation.

Loans are a critical transmission channel for commercial banks as well as an important revenue source. Macroeconomic factors are not within the control of commercial banks, however, select factors are observed to have a direct impact on lending behaviour in studies around the world. This study examined the relationship between macroeconomic variables and the lending behaviour of banks in South Africa for the period ranging from 2001 to 2022. Quarterly time series data was employed using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL). The empirical results of the paper revealed that there is a long-run relationship between the repurchase rate (repo rate), inflation, the real effective exchange rate (REER) and lending behaviour in South Africa. The REER and inflation were both found to have a positive relationship, whilst the repo rate had a negative relationship. In addition, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the activity rate and sovereign credit rating (SCR) changes returned insignificant results. Overall, these findings show that select macroeconomic factors do influence lending behaviour in South Africa. Furthermore, the results suggest that monetary policy decisions have a direct influential effect on lending and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has implemented their policies effectively.

Our study aims to investigate the impact of management control on the performance of Moroccan companies. Through an in-depth literature review and a survey conducted among companies from various sectors in Morocco, the crucial role played by tools such as cost accounting methods, budgetary control, and balanced scorecard in ensuring effective management were identified and highlighted. These tools enable accurate cost assessment, sound financial planning, and significant improvement in organizational performance. In light of these findings, the adoption and effective utilization of these tools as a means to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of Moroccan companies were recommended.

More and more scholars are paying attention to the economic and environmental responsibilities undertaken by firms. Firm sustainability has become a hot topic in current research. This article aims to analyze the impact of various dimensions of digital green technology innovation on firm sustainability. The “digital green technology innovation” in this research is a new variable explored based on previous research, and the five dimensions of the variable are created based on the POLE theory. This research uses authoritative Chinese databases to collect data on various dimensions of digital green technology innovation and sustainable development of companies, and uses a fixed effects model for regression analysis. The results indicate that the implementation of various dimensions of digital green technology innovation will promote the firm sustainability. Moreover, in firms with strong profitability, this performance is significantly better than in those with weak profitability.