The nexus between foreign direct investment, natural resource endowment, and their impact on sustained economic growth, is contentious. This study investigates the resource curse hypothesis and the effects of FDI on economic growth in Kazakhstan. The study covers the period from 1990 to 2022 and employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and Toda-Yamamoto causality methods. The Bounds cointegration results reveal the existence of long-term equilibria between per capita GDP and the predictors. The findings reveal a significant impact of oil rents on economic growth, contradicting the resource curse hypothesis and suggesting a resource boon instead. In stark contrast, the impact of FDI on Kazakhstan’s economic growth is found to be insignificant, despite the presence of a causal nexus. Furthermore, economic freedom and export diversification have a positive significant impact on economic growth, while inflation exhibits a negative but significant impact. Although governance has a direct impact on GDP per capita, it is deemed insignificant, as the negative average governance index implies poor governance. Expectedly, the result establishes a causal effect between export diversification, economic freedom, governance, oil rents, and economic growth. This underscores the fundamental role played by the interplay of diversification, economic freedom, governance, and oil rents in fostering sustainable economic growth. In addition, economic freedom stimulates gross fixed capital formation, indicating that it enhances domestic investment. Notably, the findings refute the crowding-out effect of FDI on domestic investment in Kazakhstan. Consequently, to escape the resource curse and the Dutch disease syndrome, the study advocates for enhancing good governance capabilities in Kazakhstan. Thus, we recommend that good governance could reconcile the twin goals of economic diversification and deriving benefits from oil resources, ultimately transforming oil wealth into a boon in Kazakhstan.

This study investigated the use of digital story strategy in teaching Islamic education on achievement and how it affects the development of moral thinking. The quasi-experimental design was implemented as a methodology and the sample included of (60) students from the fourth grade from Abdul Rahman bin Awf School in Abha. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences at the significance level (α ≤ 0.05) between the average responses of students in the two groups in the test. The experimental group performed better than the control group. The findings also showed that there are statistically significant differences at the significance level (α ≤ 0.05) between the average responses of students in the two groups (experimental and control) in the moral thinking scale and favour of the experimental group.

Climate change is forcing countries to take strategic measures to reduce the negative impact on future generations. In this context, sustainable finance has played a key role in sustainable development since the establishment of environmental, social and governance principles. The underlying market has developed rapidly since its inception, with green bonds being the most prominent instrument. This article aims to study the impact of green bond issues on the abnormal stock returns of stocks listed on the main Euronext indices. The sample includes 58 issues carried out between 2014 and 2022 by 21 different firms listed on the AEX (Netherlands), BEL 20 (Belgium), CAC 40 (France), ISEQ 20 (Ireland), OBX (Norway) and PSI (Portugal) indices. The methodology follows the procedures of the event study using the market model. The results show significant positive stock price reaction on the issue date. After the abnormal losses just before the issues, suggesting the reserves of this consolidating market, abnormal gains persisted for over a week, providing evidence against the weak efficiency Euronext’s financial markets. The findings are useful for policy makers and entrepreneurs to promote innovative initiatives that encourage the financing and development of environmentally sustainable infrastructures.

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.

Electric cars are manufactured to address environmental problems, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and nullify climate change. Their production aligns with sustainability objectives by encouraging cleaner transportation options, promoting energy efficiency, and contributing to a transition towards eco-friendly mobility in an answer to global environmental challenges. In Jordan, similar to any international market, car dealers and traders import electric cars. However, the prevailing perceptions and attitudes of Jordanian consumers need strong consideration. Nevertheless, there is still uncertainty and a need for more trust in electric vehicles among Jordanian consumers. Therefore, this research aims to ascertain whether electric cars have a lasting positive perception among Jordanians through an inductive research approach. Employing thematic qualitative analysis, this research is supported by the diffusion of innovation theory. Notably, the research findings provided robust insights, further leading to reinforcing the idea about the pervasive attitudes of Jordanian consumers. Thus, this research concludes that there still needs to be more confidence regarding electric vehicles among most consumers in Jordan. Furthermore, this research offers practical and theoretical contributions to Jordan’s policymakers and electric vehicle companies.

This research, with a qualitative approach, is based on a literature review and a press analysis related to mergers, acquisitions and dissolutions of Higher Education Institutions in South America. Our findings evidence a gap in the academic literature for analyzing and understanding these processes. The literature on the subject is scarce; however, the press has recorded them in a constant way. While in the past this phenomenon was mainly among public universities, currently it is a fundamentally private trend. The main reasons to carry out this process by Higher Education Institutions are those related to geographic expansion or positioning (for merger processes), absorption and concentration of institutions by groups of interest (for merger processes, acquisition) and, the crisis resulting from the financial-administrative management of the institutions, as well as the non-compliance with national and international quality standards designed by accreditation agencies and institutions (for dissolution processes). On the contrary of some literature results, in any of the processes the search for prestige or reputation by the institutions was detected as a reason.