This study examines the influence of CEO accounting expertise and audit committee independence on audit fees, with a focus on listed firms in the Sultanate of Oman. Drawing on audit risk and corporate governance theories, the research investigates both the individual and interactive effects of these governance mechanisms on audit pricing. While previous studies have explored these relationships in developed economies, limited empirical evidence exists for emerging markets, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. This study addresses this gap by analyzing a sample of 1,313 firm-year observations from companies listed on the Muscat Stock Exchange. Using multiple linear regression models, the analysis tests the direct effects of CEO accounting expertise and audit committee independence, as well as their interaction, on audit fees. The results reveal that CEO accounting expertise is negatively associated with audit fees, suggesting that CEOs with financial knowledge reduce auditors' perceived engagement risk. In contrast, audit committee independence shows a marginally positive relationship with audit fees, indicating a demand for higher audit assurance. Importantly, the interaction between CEO expertise and audit committee independence is positively and significantly related to audit fees, implying that auditors respond to dual-layered governance strength with increased audit effort and cost. This study contributes to the literature by offering new insights into how governance dynamics influence audit pricing in an emerging market context. The findings have implications for auditors, boards, and policymakers seeking to enhance audit quality and governance effectiveness within Oman and similar institutional settings.

El declive organizacional, que podría considerarse un proceso involutivo, se ha analizado principalmente desde una perspectiva del ciclo de vida y, más recientemente, desde una perspectiva biológica. Esta investigación introduce el concepto de metástasis en la empresa familiar (EMF), que describe cómo se propagan las prácticas perjudiciales y las culturas organizacionales negativas dentro de una empresa. Los hallazgos sugieren que la EMF debilita significativamente la cultura laboral, disminuye la productividad y aumenta la rotación de personal, lo que incrementa considerablemente la probabilidad de fracaso de la empresa familiar. Entre los factores clave que contribuyen a la EMF se encuentran el liderazgo inadecuado, la falta de responsabilidad e innovación, y la comunicación deficiente.

En esta investigación se analizó el efecto de la gestión humana y la gestión del conocimiento sobre el desempeño de las pequeñas y medianas empresas en una economía emergente y ajustada al caso colombiano. Se aplicó una metodología mixta que consistió en 104 encuestas y 7 entrevistas a empresas de la región. Los resultados indican que existe un efecto positivo en términos cuantitativos cuando la empresa tiene procesos definidos para la formación, selección y evaluación de desempeño, y obtiene flujos de información del entorno, lo que le permite adoptar nuevos procesos aplicados a prototipos y nuevas tecnologías. En términos cualitativos, se encontraron particularidades en los resultados, aunque también se apoyaron con los datos cuantitativos. En conclusión, la gestión humana y la gestión del conocimiento son factores que favorecen un mejor desempeño de las pequeñas y medianas empresas colombianas.

All sectors of society have faced numerous economic, social, technological, competitive, and environmental changes in a dynamic and changing marketplace. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship of the green absorptive capacity on the environmental integrity, economic prosperity, and social equity of sustainable development in the industrial context in Mexico. The research method was a quantitative cross-sectional design, with a sample size of 108, and the data analysis used PLS-SEM. The results showed a strong and significant relationship between green absorptive capacity with environmental integrity, economic prosperity, and social equity. The results of this research support to argue how to promote sustainable development, based on the pillars of Resource-Based Theory. This study fills a research gap, and provides new theoretical arguments. The world of business is increasingly challenging and dynamic, so the results could also help to solve practical problems. KEYWORDS Green absorptive capacity, sustainable development, environmental integrity, economic prosperity, social equity.

Increasingly, researchers and policy makers across the globe explore the transformative role of entrepreneurship in the development process. What remains relatively under interrogated in this process is the issue of entrepreneurial intentions within the Caribbean region. Where entrepreneurial intentions play a pivotal role in future entrepreneurial activity, this area of research can provide useful insights for development policy and practice. Considering the above, three main objectives guide this paper. Firstly, we comparatively examine the entrepreneurial intentions drawn from adult populations across Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Secondly, we assess the relative importance of entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, and opportunity to entrepreneurial intentions. Thirdly, we also explore for possible socio[1]demographic variations (specifically based on sex, age, level of educational attainment, and type of current profession or career) in the levels of entrepreneurial intentions. To do this, we utilize available raw data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey for the Caribbean countries. We use this data set to test for the relative significance of key antecedent variables for understanding entrepreneurial intentions. Point to variability in the relationship between attitudinal factors, socio-demographic backgrounds, and entrepreneurial intentions between countries in the study. Implications for a more contextualized theorizations of entrepreneurial intentions are discussed.

Family Firms (FF) have received significant attention as organizations that distinguish themselves due to the overlap between ownership, operation and family aspects that determine strategy. While it is established that FF are more conservative with risk, and concentrate ownership within trusted circles; they remain interesting for more risky activities such as International Entrepreneurship (IE). With island environments often being overlooked, they offer distinguishing environments that can further inform the academic community as to how FF behave with regards to opportunities beyond domestic markets. Island markets are, due to small size, on the receiving end of global developments, and have alternative priorities. This study examines 250 firms located in ten islands, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Cyprus, Iceland, Fiji, Jamaica, Malta, Mauritius, and Trinidad/Tobago over the 2009-2020 period, and addresses how the island FF performs vis a vis Non-Family Firms (NFF). The study finds evidence in support of FF balancing financial and non-financial indicators.

Youth entrepreneurship is being promoted by policymakers in developing countries as a key strategy to combat high youth unemployment, reduce individual poverty, engender social mobility, and facilitate youth inclusion in the formal economy. International, regional, national, and other stakeholders have promulgated policies and programs to lend support for this strategy. This article utilized data derived from a survey of youth entrepreneurs conducted in the town of Linden, Guyana, together with agency interviews from the same community and from national agencies involved in youth entrepreneurship to fulfill its objectives. The survey and agency interviews are part of a broader mixed method study conducted by the authors aimed at understanding the factors impacting youth entrepreneurship in Guyana, a developing country in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. The importance of the survey to this study is to discern what youth entrepreneurs themselves say about their businesses and about themselves as entrepreneurs. This paper adds to the sparse literature on this phenomenon. The intent of the authors of this study is multi-faceted. This paper seeks to provide an understanding of who these young entrepreneurs are, the factors that motivate them to start their own businesses and their preparedness for such ventures. We explore and explain the support provided to youth entrepreneurs, their access to and perceptions of such support. Thirdly, we provide an understanding of how youth entrepreneurs view the successes and positives of their businesses and their intimate feelings and fears about their ventures. This paper challenges the prevailing “necessity entrepreneurship” framing of youth entrepreneurship.

The transformative effect of entrepreneurship has been well-documented. Indeed, entrepreneurship has been linked to the growth and prosperity of nations, contributing to the sustainable development of various sectors. Developments globally have seen growing attention to the transformational effect of entrepreneurship and its potential in developing and emerging contexts. However, while many experiences have been covered, those of some developing and emerging contexts have received far less attention. Among these under-covered contexts is that of Caribbean Small Island Developing states (SIDS). It is important to note that the development of entrepreneurship as a field can benefit from a broader understanding of more contexts. This special issue is an opportunity to advance understanding of and the dimensions of entrepreneurship in a largely grey area in the literature, the Caribbean Region. This maiden paper plays a strategic role in situating the papers which follow in a larger body of research and practice relating to entrepreneurship with a focus on the Commonwealth Caribbean SIDS. Perhaps more importantly, the approach is not simply to introduce the papers but more strategically to provide rich contextual material on the quality of entrepreneurship in the region, which then forms the backdrop for the remaining papers. A comprehensive over-view of entrepreneurship is offered, alongside a discussion of some of the historical and contemporary developments, while highlighting the specific character of entrepreneurship in a region that is largely shaped by forces which have in many ways rendered it peripheral to development. Even so, the approach is not pessimistic. As such the paper ends with a demonstration of how an understanding of entrepreneurship in the Caribbean can contribute to and inform the development of practice and theorising, more generally, including advancing an understanding of developments not just in entrepreneurship but in the broader field of International Business. Indeed, the experiences of under[1]covered regions such as these are useful in that they offer novel testing ground for emerging theories and assumptions and can make relevant contributions to the development of entrepreneurship as a still emerging field of research.

New ventures, which are essential in driving economic development, face a universal challenge of accessing finance and deciding on a suitable capital structure. In developing countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, studying the impact of capital structure on profitability levels of new ventures is especially critical, given that current literature has primarily focused on established firms. To fill this gap, this study examined the existing capital structure of 43 new ventures in Trinidad and Tobago, testing the effects of different financing sources on net profit margins. The findings revealed that owners’ savings and retained earnings had a positive impact on net profit margins, while short-term loans, long-term loans, and informal investor finance had no significant effect. Moreover, this study expanded upon existing theories, particularly the pecking order theory, by testing it in the context of new ventures, rather than mature firms. The implications of this study are significant to financial managers in charge of decision-making for new ventures. It suggests the importance of owners’ savings and retained earnings in financing new ventures. Moreover, the findings suggest that new ventures in Trinidad and Tobago may benefit from pursuing funding options that align with the pecking order theory. Overall, this research emphasizes the need to consider the unique financial challenges facing new ventures when making decisions regarding their capital structure.

Este estudio tiene como objetivo contribuir al análisis de acciones multiactorales para impulsar los negocios verdes y regenerativos mientras se contribuye con las metas rezagadas de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS).Se utilizó la metodología de escenarios futuros, para desarrollar narrativas y una línea de tiempo en retrospectiva desde el 2030 al presente.Se identifican los riesgos, oportunidades y posibles acciones hacia futuros sostenibles en Bolivia como principales hallazgos, aclarando a cuál de las metas de los ODS se contribuye. Luego, se destacan acciones inmediatas, a mediano y largo plazo y recomendaciones desde la perspectiva multi-actor, lo cual implica trabajar de manera coordinada a lo largo de los siguientes años rumbo a modelos de negocios que contribuyan al desarrollo sostenible y prioricen perspectivas regenerativas, al tiempo que impulsan las metas rezagadas de los ODS como externalidades de estas acciones.