This study investigates the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on the construction sector in Southeast Asia, focusing on Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Qualitative research approach is used to analyze the implications of Chinese investments in these countries, exploring both the opportunities and challenges faced by Chinese investors. Key research questions address the resilience of the construction sector, the obstacles encountered by investors, and the influence of policy on the construction business. Through interviews with CEOs and senior managers of major construction companies and a review of relevant documents, the study uncovers the economic and geopolitical motivations behind China’s BRI strategy. The findings reveal significant insights into the benefits and drawbacks of BRI financing, providing recommendations for overcoming challenges and leveraging future opportunities in Southeast Asian construction sectors.

New technologies always have an impact on traditional theories. Finance theories are no exception to that. In this paper, we have concentrated on the traditional investment theories in finance. The study examined five investment theories, their assumptions, and their limitation from different works of literature. The study considered Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) as representative of financial technology (fintech) and tried to find out from the literature how these new technologies help to reduce the limitations of traditional theories. We have found that fintech does not have an equal impact on every conventional finance theory. Fintech outperforms all five traditional theories but on a different scale.

The digital era has transformed education, making digital literacy essential for teachers to integrate technology and enhance student outcomes effectively. This study aims to examine how school culture influences teachers’ performance through their digital literacy, focusing on junior high school teachers in Malang City, East Java, Indonesia. Employing a quantitative approach, data were collected from 214 teachers out of a 457 population using questionnaires. The analysis was conducted through AMOS for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), SPSS for descriptive statistics, and PLS-SEM for hypothesis testing. The findings reveal that school culture significantly affects teachers’ digital literacy (Ho1) and teacher performance (Ho2) with supportive and innovative environments, while rigid cultures limit creativity. Furthermore, digital literacy was found to enhance teachers’ performance (Ho3) and mediate the impact of school culture on teachers’ performance (Ho4), enhancing teachers’ effectiveness in planning, implementing, and evaluating instruction. This study highlights the critical role of school culture in shaping digital literacy and offers new insights for improving teacher practices in diverse educational settings. Moreover, the role of education policies in fostering a collaborative school culture that enhances teachers’ digital literacy and performance, leading to improved educational outcomes, plays a crucial implication.

Cyclically, the debate on Keynes’ economic policies reemerge. The economic impact of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has relaunched the discussion about the importance of Keynesian policies, the multipliers effects, and their impact on stimulating economies. This paper aims to analyze the importance and relevance of the Keynesian multiplier before the pandemic, in a period without experiencing exceptional aggregate shocks. The main focus of the research is to examine the shortcomings of the public investment multiplier, which plays a central role in Keynesian theory. Despite the undeniable relevance of the concept, the issue is to understand the extent to which the multiplier is still relevant in specific contexts. The research presents empirical evidence which suggests that the effects of public investment depend on structural characteristics of economies specifically trade liberalization, the dimension of internal markets, the question of countries having the freedom to issue their currency, and the issue of currencies being accepted as an international reserve. A sample of 35 OECD countries was used for the period 2010–2018. The Keynesian public investment multiplier was calculated for several countries and the obtained values were related to various correlations carried out to assess the relationship between public investment, national income, and specific characteristics of the economies to which the multipliers are sensitive. The results obtained contrast in terms of short-term and long-term impacts so, is at least dubious, that one can rely on Keynesian public policies to boost economies at least in the absence of substantial shocks to aggregate demand.

Private banking institutions serve the financial sector’s wealthiest clientele via a dedicated value proposition. Based on the relevant tendencies and statistics, a remarkable expansion can be outlined since the mid-1990s. The aim of this study is to elaborate the Hungarian private banking market’s development as a case study. The paper also intends to add to the literature on this unique segment of the financial market. Based on the available statistics, the analysis primarily focuses on the Hungarian private banking market’s rapid development process. This can be underpinned by the clientele’s savings, number of accounts and respective segmentation limits of the institutions. Referring to the amount of savings, a correlation analysis indicates significant co-movements with specific social and economic variables. The growth rate of the Hungarian clientele’s savings outperformed the respective indicator in Western Europe during the review time period (2007–2020). The current paper also includes a section that summarises general challenges that private banking managers need to address during the development process. Generally, the literature on private banking can still be considered scarce, whereas there is a lack of studies on the Central-Eastern European region. The analysis of the Hungarian sector’s development path can serve with relevant information to any financial expert in the field.

The global increase in organic food consumption underscores the need for in-depth research to understand the determinants of consumer purchase intentions towards organic products. Hence, this study aims to investigate the factors influencing the consumer purchase intentions towards organic food through an analysis involving 274 participants. Additionally, it also explores the mediating and moderating effects of attitudes and environmental concerns on the purchasing intentions towards organic food, providing insights in how these psychological and environmental factors influence consumer behavior. Using a quantitative method, data was gathered from the South Korean cities of Jinju and Changwon. However, analysis was performed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The research findings illustrate that subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and ethical consciousness significantly influence attitudes towards purchase intentions of organic foods. Moreover, the results indicate that attitude positively influenced consumer purchase intention towards organic food. Results reveal that attitude serves as a mediator in the relationship between subjective norms and consumer purchase intentions for organic food. Similarly, Likewise, attitude mediates the connection between perceived behavioral control and consumer purchase intention towards organic food. Additionally, the results indicate that attitude mediates the relationship between ethical consciousness and consumer purchase intention towards organic food. Furthermore, environmental concerns are found to significantly moderate the association between attitude and consumer purchase intention towards organic foods. The insights garnered from this study shed light on consumer intentions to purchase organic foods, equipping stakeholders such as marketers, retailers, and producers with valuable insights for creating effective marketing strategies aiming at promotion of these products. This research serves as a pivotal resource for developing targeted approaches to enhance the market share and consumption of organic foods.