The dilemma of firms in developing economies was the crux of this study. In probing whether the adoption of organization-wide green strategy would enhance the product quality and the firm’s financial lifeline, while also improving the environment, we developed a mediation model. The specific objectives were to ascertain the direct effect of green strategy on both environmental and financial performance and its total effect on both environmental and financial performance through product quality. With data collated and analyzed from 648 respondents, using the Hayes mediation approach, results show that while environmental performance is strongly predicted by green strategy and product quality (as a mediator), financial performance is also positively predicted, but by a smaller effect. The import of the findings of this study is that the adoption of green strategy mediated by product quality improves both environmental and financial performance, implying that firms can remain financially viable while adopting product-focused green strategy.

This study examines self-efficacy and subjective norms (moral obligation, empathy, and perceived social support) as moderators of the effect networking competence has on social entrepreneurial intentions. Using Nigeria as a study area, a survey was conducted on 541 budding entrepreneurs, which were students with a high entrepreneurial propensity. With the use of Andrew Hayes’s PROCESS macro, a simultaneous regression analysis was performed to establish the interaction effect of the selected moderators. The results show a positive main effect of networking competence on social entrepreneurial intentions, statistically significant interaction effects of empathy and perceived social support, no interaction effect of moral obligation, and a poor self-efficacy fit. This study extends theories of entrepreneurial intentions and the mediation (additive) models of Mair & Noboa, Krueger, and Hockerts. Suggestions are that other studies should be carried out using self-efficacy among actual early-level entrepreneurs, with a likelihood that results could explain what role self-efficacy could have in predicting social entrepreneurial intentions.

The need for improved institutional interventions aimed at increasing access to financial services by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been emphasized. Complimenting these efforts, this study proposes that building social networks capable of informing requisite financial behaviors would facilitate the financial inclusion of SMEs co-existing in business clusters. This study aimed to empirically test the moderating influence of collective action, bonding, trust, and bridging on the effect of financial behavior on financial inclusion. Using a sample of 311 owners/managers of small and medium scale businesses in sub-urban clusters in South-Eastern Nigeria, the hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. Results show a positive main effect of financial behavior on financial inclusion (βf = 0.162; t (304) = 1.503; p < 0.05). Also, collective action (βfca = 0.201; t (304) = 6.906; p < 0.05) and bridging (βfbr = 0.201; t (304) = 6.906; p < 0.05) had positive moderating effects, bonding (βfb = 0.032; t (304) = 1.423; p > 0.05) and trust (βft = 0.014; t (304) = 0.9609; p > 0.05) were statistically insignificant. For policy implications, social virtues such as bridging and collective action are more veritable tools for financial inclusion than the personal virtues of trust and bonding and should be factored into economic and social intervention being deployed by institutions interested in meeting the banking/financial needs of businesses.

A James Gaskin Excel Macro Analysis is performed to determine the reliability of our scales, and a 3-way parallel mediation using the Andrew Hayes’ PROCESS model is applied to test the formulated hypotheses. Results show that hedging has a direct effect on firms’ survival; firms’ size and age individually do not strongly influence these effects, but a combination of the two does. We, therefore, concluded that while the hedging-survival effect exists on all forms of hedging, the practice of hedging is consequential for firms on the premise of their ages and numbers of employees.

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