This study explores the advancement of ethical practices and environmental sustainability in Thai banking through an in-depth case analysis of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), the country’s first indigenous bank founded in 1907. SCB has significantly influenced ethical banking practices and sustainability initiatives. The research provides a unique comparative analysis of SCB’s ethical frameworks and sustainability policies, assessing their impact on key stakeholders, including customers, employees, the community, and the environment. Employing a qualitative case study methodology, this study utilizes secondary data from SCB’s reports and CSR documents, analyzed through thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. The findings reveal SCB’s substantial progress in aligning ethical considerations with environmental sustainability, contributing new insights into ethical decision-making processes and the balance between profit and responsibility. Recommendations are provided to enhance ethical and sustainable practices in banking, adding to the discourse on corporate responsibility, environmental stewardship, and sustainable development.

The process of internationalization and innovation (IPI) in the urban road passenger transport (URPT) sector is driven by the need to provide cities with efficient and sustainable mobility solutions. The objective of this study is to understand the perceptions of URPT employees in relation to PII, based on a comprehensive case study. By exploring how these two concepts interrelate and influence each other, the study seeks to provide valuable information that can help improve strategic planning and policy formulation in the urban transport sector. The research, based on semi-structured interviews with 20 employees, reveals significant gaps in internal communication, with only about half of the participants aware of ongoing national and international projects. Information was often limited to those directly involved, indicating a need for improved dissemination strategies. Despite these communication issues, employees positively view the company’s presence at international events and recognize the importance of involvement in European organizations, particularly for knowledge acquisition and networking. Challenges identified include inadequate internal communication and insufficient investment in international projects. However, there was strong agreement on the value of internationalization and innovation process (IIP) for both professional development and organizational growth. To enhance the company’s international presence and return on investment (ROI), the study recommends better coordination, improved information sharing, and strategic planning. These findings emphasize the critical role of effective communication and active participation in international initiatives for the sustainable growth of the organization.

Given the issues of urban-rural educational inequality and difficulties for children from poor families to succeed, this study explores the impact mechanism of internet usage on rural educational investment in China within the context of the digital divide. Using data from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), this study analyzed the educational investment decisions of 2064 rural households. Results indicate that in the Eastern region, a high level of educational investment is primarily influenced by the per capita income of the family, with social capital and internet usage also playing supportive roles. In the Northeastern region, the key factor is the diversity of internet usage, specifically using both a smartphone and a computer. In the Central region, factors such as the diversity of internet usage, subjective risk attitudes, the appropriate age of the household head, and per capita income of the family contribute to higher levels of educational investment. In the Western region, the dominant factors are the diversity of internet usage, subjective usage and per capita income of the family. These factors enhance expected returns on the high level of educational investment and boost farmers’ confidence. High internet usage rates significantly promote diverse and stable educational investment decisions, providing evidence for policymakers to bridge the urban-rural education gap.

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education has recently been encouraged and attracted much national attention. This qualitative study aimed to conduct a thematic analysis of college student STEAM open responses to provide an examination of college students’ perceptions of their STEAM experiences into the STEAM field. Based on transformative learning theory, a thematic analysis of 756 written responses to seven prompts by 108 college student participants revealed three primary themes: (1) exciting and challenging difficulties, and transdisciplinary learning in STEAM; (2) STEAM learning of gradual process, problem-oriented instruction, and creative problem solving; and (3) metacognition development in STEAM. The findings revealed that undergraduates’ STEAM perceptions provide strong support for STEAM implementation to enhance teaching effectiveness in higher education.

Small-scale businesses have long been recognized as an important part of economic development and integrating them with industrial parks is both recommended and necessary for long-term success. In line of this, the objective of this study was to investigate the role of IPs entrepreneurial ecosystem in boosting the capabilities of small businesses. Data were collected from 245 small manufacturing business owners via simple random sampling and analysed using multivariate regression analysis. Thus, the ability of small enterprises is positively impacted by the presence of a more robust and appropriate entrepreneurial ecosystem. Similarly, a firm’s resource capabilities are more impacted by the entrepreneurial ecosystem when there is a better link between academia and industry. Furthermore, entrepreneurial skills are found to play a mediating role between the entrepreneurial ecosystem and firms’ technological capabilities. Another finding revealed that managerial expertise significantly mediates entrepreneurial ecosystems and firms’ resource capabilities. This finding suggested that the policymakers, better to formulate policies that encourages small businesses to engage in the industrial parks which results in an inclusive firm’s performance.

This study aims to analyze how public debt influences economic growth in Kosovo, using quarterly data from Q1 2008 to Q4 2022 and employing the generalized method of moments (GMM). The research reveals that there is a negative relationship between public debt and economic growth when other factors such as trade openness, total investment, current account balance, and primary balance are considered. Furthermore, the findings confirm an inverted “U-shaped” relationship between public debt and economic growth, indicating that the optimal debt level is between 27.75% and 36.2% of GDP.