This paper aims to understand the local authorities’ reaction to green environment activities towards clean cities in Malaysia and how they respond to cleanliness awareness among the community. Four (4) cities, such as Melaka, Ipoh, and Muar dan Kuala Terengganu, were selected, and this study embarks on a qualitative research approach involving a semi-structured interview with top personnel from four local authorities. From the reaction point of view, some local authorities reacted positively towards the green environment and cleanliness of the city. Four (4) themes have been produced, such as awareness, which focuses on the daily routine of local authorities. Secondly, enforcement from the local government, with some warning and advice, really contributes to the changes in society’s attitude. Thirdly, support by local authority efforts, including awareness campaigns from electronic and printed media, does have a good impact. Lastly, active involvement from the local authorities regulated many communities in residential areas and had direct links with local communities and NGOs that annually organized green program activities. This study urged the Local Government Act 1976, which the local authorities are responsible for the enforcement activities such as the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) activities and so on. Local authorities, state governments, and local communities should also help monitor and maintain environmental issues towards a clean city in Malaysia.

This study aims to scrutinize specific long-term sustainability industrial indicators in Thailand as a representative of an emerging economy. The study uses a Bloomberg database comprising all Thai listed companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand from 2013 to 2023. The research employs a two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) statistics to assess the enduring impact on industrial sustainability. These results provide consistent, significant and positive relationships between asset turnover and sales with all industrial sustainability. The results additionally reveal that some other factors may moderate industrial sustainability but reveal the GDP growth rate and institutional shareholders are less likely to be corporate sustainability to all indicators. The results provide insight into valuable guidance to management teams, financial statements’ users, investors and other stakeholders on designing effective operations and investment strategies to improve sustainability.

Shared education has the potential to foster pluralistic values and improve relations between individuals from diverse ethno-linguistic backgrounds. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how shared learning experiences can promote pluralism and social equality by examining the pedagogical factors that influence their success. This study focuses on a shared English learning model implemented with 8th-grade Arab and Jewish students in homogenous Israeli cities. This qualitative study, involving observations, interviews, focus groups, and transcript analysis, engaged 42 students, two teachers, and two administrators. The findings suggest that shared education has positive social implications. It facilitated interaction between Arab and Jewish students and challenged negative stereotypes. Notably, the Jewish students’ limited Arabic language proficiency led to complex interactions, stimulating critical thinking about linguistic inequality and increasing motivation to learn Arabic. While shared education improved intergroup relations, it also encountered logistical challenges that necessitated institutional support to optimize its effectiveness.

This study investigates the impact of corporate carbon performance on financing costs, focusing on S&P 500 companies from 2015 to 2022. Utilizing a fixed-effects regression model, the research reveals a complex U-shaped nonlinear relationship between carbon intensity (CI) and cost of debt (COD). The sample comprises 2896 firm-year observations, with CI measured by the ratio of Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to annual sales. The findings indicate that companies with higher CI initially face increased COD due to heightened regulatory and operational risks. However, as CI falls below a certain threshold, further reductions in emissions can paradoxically lead to increased COD, likely due to the substantial investments required for advanced technologies. Additionally, a positive relationship between CI and cost of equity (COE) is observed, suggesting that shareholders demand higher returns from companies with greater environmental risks. These results underscore the importance of balancing short-term and long-term environmental strategies. The study highlights the need for corporate managers to communicate the long-term benefits of environmental efforts effectively to creditors and investors. Policymakers should consider these dynamics when designing regulations that incentivize lower carbon emissions.

Use of technologies and online presence is now almost inevitable in language learning. The practice of virtual exchanges (VEs) has been receiving a lot of attention among educators at all levels over the past years. This research paper sheds light on 13 VEs carried out in pre-service teacher education in the last six years and proposes its own VE design based on recommendations from the literature with the future perspective of designing a specific VE for the research. The aim of the systematic review was at first to determine the exchange and interaction set-ups and the potential gains in the terms of pre-service teachers’ skills development. Afterwards, we identified areas for improvement and proposed our design of a VE between pre-service teachers of English in Slovakia and Turkey. Some of the expected contributions of the proposed VE design are development of a linguistic and intercultural communicative competence, digital literacy, and other competences relevant for development of VEs.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the entrepreneurial mindset, social context, and entrepreneurial ambitions of university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have progressed over time in terms of starting their businesses. The research aims to investigate the evolution of the entrepreneurship mindset, considering the implementation of educational and governmental policies over the past decade to promote entrepreneurship among UAE university graduates. To collect primary data and evaluate the impact of the studied variables on the dependent variable “entrepreneurial ambitions,” a self-created questionnaire was used. The results reveal a positive correlation between personal context variables and entrepreneurial ambitions, as well as between personality traits and entrepreneurial ambitions. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the constructive effect of education, government policies, and capital availability on fostering entrepreneurial ambitions in the UAE.