Capital Investment Research Articles (Page 1)

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted household consumption worldwide. Evidence from middle-income countries remains limited. We examined changes in Iranian household expenditures before, during, and after the pandemic. We used nationally representative Household Income and Expenditure Survey data (2014-2023; 381,302 households). Expenditures were CPI-deflated, and interrupted time series regression was applied to six major categories (food, housing, transport, health, education, and other) across three phases: pre-COVID (2014-2019), during COVID (2020-2021), and post-COVID (2022-2023). Budget shares and subgroup analyses (urban-rural) were also examined. Before the pandemic, most real expenditures were declining. At the onset of COVID-19, sharp contractions were observed in transport, health, and non-essential categories, while food and housing remained relatively stable. Education showed no significant immediate decline. In the post-COVID period, food and housing increased but did not return to pre-pandemic trajectories. Health and non-essential spending remained depressed, whereas education recorded a significant but incomplete rebound. Budget shares shifted toward essentials, with food and housing rising, and education and other non-essentials declining. Urban-rural patterns were broadly consistent, although levels were higher among urban households. The pandemic caused immediate and lasting structural shifts in household spending. Reallocation toward food and housing reflects pressure on discretionary categories such as education and health. Limitations include the absence of detailed income analysis and the overlap with other macroeconomic shocks. Targeted policies are needed to protect vulnerable groups and sustain investment in human capital.

This study assessed the influence of government financial activities on Ghana's economic performance from 2000 to 2024. Four interrelated fiscal aspects, namely, the dynamics of public debt, tax revenue mobilization, government expenditure, and government employment, were used. The study employed an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, Error Correction Models (ECM), and threshold regressions to determine the short-term variations and long-run equilibrium associations. This finding shows that all the short-run effects of public debt, tax effort, capital expenditure, wage bill, inflation, and rate on GDP growth are generally weak and statistically insignificant, implying that fiscal policy shocks in the study context do not generate immediate growth effects in Ghana. Nevertheless, the error-correction calculations across all the specifications do tend to be large, negative, and statistically significant, namely between -77-0.82, suggesting that the error is very quickly corrected, with this correction taking place on average between 77-82 percent a year. This highlights the idea that the fiscal sustainability, macro-fiscal credibility accolade, and quality of spending is what binds growth in the long term. Also, persistent and effective capital investment has constructive long-term development impacts, whereas continued growth of the wage bill in absence of concomitant productivity advances dissipates fiscal room and pushes away development-energetic investments. These results suggest that the year-to-year variations of the fiscal policy become less relevant and there should be anchoring of debt within sound limits, improved domestic revenue mobilization via tax base broadening and taxing digitization, and guarding high quality capital investments against recurrent expenditure shoves, connecting wage bill control to productivity, and improving the systems of public investment to minimize implementation delays.

This study examines the spatial dynamics and determinants of agricultural poverty in Indonesia by combining descriptive spatial analysis and spatial regression modeling. Using Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA), the results reveal strong spatial clustering of agricultural poverty, particularly in provinces with weak infrastructure and limited access to markets and technology. The regression analysis shows that agricultural GDRP exerts a positive and significant effect on poverty, indicating that sectoral growth tends to benefit large enterprises rather than smallholder farmers, thereby intensifying inequality. Similarly, the Farmer’s Terms of Trade (FTT) has a positive and insignificant impact, reflecting structural distortions and unequal benefit distribution across regions. In contrast, education demonstrates a negative and significant relationship with poverty, highlighting its role as a key driver in enhancing productivity and reducing vulnerability. Meanwhile, the age of the agricultural labor force shows a positive but statistically insignificant effect, suggesting that experience alone is insufficient for poverty alleviation without adequate education and adaptive capacity. Overall, the findings underscore that agricultural poverty in Indonesia is shaped by structural and spatial factors, requiring inclusive and pro-poor development strategies that focus on human capital investment, equitable resource allocation, and rural infrastructure development to ensure that agricultural growth contributes effectively to poverty reduction.

Altruism and private investment in human capital

In the media environment where mobile internet has deeply penetrated and fragmented content consumption by the audience has become the mainstream, short dramas have achieved explosive growth thanks to their characteristic of "micro-sized content" (single episode duration ranging from 1 to 10 minutes, highly condensed narrative, and production cycle compressed to within several months). In 2024, the total online viewership exceeded 10 billion times. Their "short, simple, and fast" content production logic and multi-channel dissemination form are in stark contrast to the traditional film and long drama-based media and entertainment industry. For a long time, traditional film and television capital operations have followed a slow-paced model of "large-scale capital investment, long production and polishing period, and single copyright/box office channel recovery". This model not only has limitations such as high capital threshold and low turnover efficiency, but also faces the industry pain point of weak risk resistance. Meanwhile, the rapid development of short dramas not only strongly impacts this traditional model but also forces traditional film and television capital to actively adapt - by adjusting the investment layout of "light and heavy assets combination", optimizing the fast-paced content production process, innovating the profit mechanism of platform sharing and e-commerce linkage, and introducing data-driven precise decision-making methods to adapt to the new trend. This transformation not only injects new vitality into traditional film and television capital but also promotes the capital logic of the film and television industry to shift from "scale priority" to "efficiency priority", opening up efficient and diverse high-quality development paths for the industry in the media transformation.

This article uses the medical technology startup Theranos as a case study to analyze the reasons for its failure and the management lessons learned from venture capital investments. The study found that Theranos' core technology was immature and lacked independent verification, leadership was highly centralized and fostered a culture of fear, the board lacked professional expertise, and investors were seriously deficient in pre-investment due diligence and post-investment oversight. Furthermore, the venture capital market suffers from a star founder effect and me-too investing, exacerbating investment risks. The company's management was in a state of high centralization of power. Founder Elizabeth Holmes held absolute decision-making authority, and a fear-based corporate culture characterized by suppressing doubts and concealing problems took root internally. This rendered the risk early warning mechanism completely ineffective. Moreover, most board members were figures from the political and business circles outside the medical technology field, lacking professional technical backgrounds, which made it difficult for them to effectively judge and supervise the risks of the core business. This article proposes risk management recommendations for high-tech startups, including strengthening technical feasibility assessments, increasing post-investment governance participation, establishing periodic review and exit mechanisms, and emphasizing the importance of building a corporate culture and improving oversight to prevent similar capital-technology imbalances from recurring.

Abstract This work presents a techno-economic comparison of medical oxygen production using cryogenic air separation and pressure swing adsorption technology. Process simulations were performed with Aspen Plus and Aspen Adsorption, and cost estimation was carried out using Aspen Process Economic Analyzer. For a production capacity of 1,000 t/year, the cryogenic process required a capital investment of 15.67 million USD and annual operating costs of 5.12 million USD, yielding an annual cash flow of 4.88 million USD, a payback period of 3.21 years, a net present value of 2.84 million USD, and a return on investment of 155.9 %. The PSA unit, designed for 500 t/year, required a CAPEX of 9.07 million USD and an OPEX of 2.05 million USD/year, achieving an annual cash flow of 7.94 million USD, a payback of 1.14 years, an NPV of 21.05 million USD, and an ROI of 437.87 %. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the strong dependence of cryogenic plants on electricity prices, while PSA exhibited high resilience to cost fluctuations. Overall, PSA offers superior economic feasibility for decentralized oxygen supply, whereas cryogenic separation remains advantageous for large-scale, high-purity production.

This study investigates how knowledge utilization mediates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and organizational productivity in Ghanaian service firms. Drawing from a survey of 210 firms in Accra, we operationalize acquisition through multiple sources (e.g. regulatory, customer, competitor, product lessons) and utilization as deployment across human, structural, innovation, and customer capitals (plus decision-making). Reliability of the utilization scale is high (α = 0.912). Descriptive and nonparametric analyses confirm that firms report significant productivity improvements after knowledge acquisition, and Spearman’s correlation indicates a positive direct association between acquisition volume and productivity (ρ ≈ 0.387, p < .001). Using bootstrapped mediation modeling, we show that utilization partially mediates the acquisition → productivity path: firms that more intensively use acquired knowledge reap greater performance gains. The findings highlight that acquisition alone is insufficient — active embedding, deployment, and alignment matter most. Theoretically, this bridges the “knowledge processes” literature with firm performance models in an emerging-economy context. Practically, managers should not only seek knowledge but ensure its translation into actionable routines, decision practices, and capital investments.

Digitalization is becoming a key factor in structural transformation and a source of sustainable economic growth, defining new parameters of productivity, employment and investment. The purpose of the study is to determine the relationship between the level of digital literacy of the population, the use of information and communication technologies (hereinafter - ICT) in organizations and macroeconomic indicators in 2018-2024. The study used seven indicators, of which two characterize digital development (the level of digital literacy of the population and the use of ICT in organizations), and five reflect economic dynamics (GDP, fixed capital investment, real wage index, unemployment rate and gross value added per employee). The results of the analysis showed that the growth of digital literacy of the population has a very strong positive correlation with the main economic indicators: GDP (r = 0.934), investments in fixed assets (r = 0.909) and gross value added per employed (r = 0.947). At the same time, the use of ICT in organizations shows a weak and partially negative correlation with GDP (r = -0.205) and investment (r = -0.180), reflecting the structural gap between human and technological capital. Thus, for the period 2018-2024. Digitalization has become a stable factor of macroeconomic growth, with human capital playing a key role. To increase the effectiveness of digital transformation, it is necessary to strengthen the integration of ICT into business processes, develop infrastructure and increase the managerial maturity of organizations.

It is widely acknowledged that physical or natural resources are not the only source of growth in a country in this era of knowledge. Human capital is considered more important to define the type and rate of economic and social growth; so, making every effort to initiate human capital development at all levels is, therefore, crucial for a developing nation like Pakistan. In this context, the goal of this study is to determine the significance of important factors in Pakistan's growth of human capital. This study utilized employment, economic growth, technology, and wages as the independent variables while dependent variable was human capital (HC). Time series data is extracted from World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period of 1990 -2020. This study used a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to obtain short- and long-term empirical estimates while study employed Variance Decomposition to find relative contribution of modeled variables in the HC. Moreover, study employed Generalized Impulse Response Function (GIRF) to examine the response in HC in predicted 10 quarters. Results of this study indicate that employment, economic growth, technology, and wages all have a long-term positive impact on HC. Moreover, variance decomposition results indicate that, employment in industry (EIND), employment in services (ES), labour force participation total (LFPT), GDP, technology (TECH), and wages (W) have relative contribution 6.054%, 5.013%, 5.797%, 1.635%, 3.707%, and 15.179% respectively in HC in the long run period. This study suggest that policy makers should keep in view employment, economic growth, technology and wages for increasing Human Capital.

This article examines the rationale and emergent effects of state-led venture capital (SVC) investments as an urban developmental tool to pursue industrial upgrading. Building on the concept of urban state venturism, the article introduces a new framework to examine how state institutions in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province in central China, became SVC investors in private firms with high growth potential. Juxtaposing published interviews by key state actors with 25 interviews with venture capital industry professionals and analysts, the Hefei case study highlights urban state venturism as a contextualized extension of Chinese state entrepreneurialism. This extension is characterized by a “high risk, high gain” approach to urban development in China that is increasingly prominent in the face of growth limitations in existing industrial pathways. The analysis complements emergent studies that accentuate the constitutive role of state entrepreneurialism in driving urban development and advances a large body of work on Chinese state actors’ use of market tools to achieve their respective political objectives.

The objective of the study is to identify opportunities to use historical experience to improve the quality of accounting, analytical and control support for the management of internal financial resources used for the reproduction of noncurrent assets. The relevance of the research is determined by the need to develop accounting and control of the use of depreciation to finance the investment processes of companies In the course of the conducted research the influence was found out regarding various approaches to establishing the essence of depreciation on the modern methodology of accounting and tax accounting. The harmonization of various depreciation concepts is aimed at stimulating the use of depreciation charges to finance investments in non-current assets that ensure the technological sovereignty of the country. The directions of improvement of depreciation policy are defined; a set of proposals has been advanced for the development of accounting and reporting, including accounting models for reflecting the facts of economic life in the off-balance sheet or management accounting system. The approaches to the formation of the depreciation policy of the company depending on the life cycle of the organization are presented. The possibility of mobilising depreciation charges for the implementation of large projects of integrated companies is substantiated. The findings of the research can be valuable for developing a management accounting system, as well as improving internal and external reporting on the effective use of depreciation to finance capital investments.

This cross-sectional study investigates how US academic medical centers used their own venture capital funds to invest in early-stage health care companies from 2014 to 2024.

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) has become essential as machine learning systems are deployed in high-stakes domains such as security, finance, and healthcare. Traditional models often act as “black boxes”, limiting trust and accountability. Traditional models often act as “black boxes”, limiting trust and accountability. However, most existing reviews treat explainability either as a technical problem or a philosophical issue, without connecting interpretability techniques to their real-world implications for security, privacy, and governance. This review fills that gap by integrating theoretical foundations with practical applications and societal perspectives. define transparency and interpretability as core concepts and introduce new economics-inspired notions of marginal transparency and marginal interpretability to highlight diminishing returns in disclosure and explanation. Methodologically, we examine model-agnostic approaches such as LIME and SHAP, alongside model-specific methods including decision trees and interpretable neural networks. We also address ante-hoc vs. post hoc strategies, local vs. global explanations, and emerging privacy-preserving techniques. To contextualize XAI’s growth, we integrate capital investment and publication trends, showing that research momentum has remained resilient despite market fluctuations. Finally, we propose a roadmap for 2025–2030, emphasizing evaluation standards, adaptive explanations, integration with Zero Trust architectures, and the development of self-explaining agents supported by global standards. By combining technical insights with societal implications, this article provides both a scholarly contribution and a practical reference for advancing trustworthy AI.

The long-term impact of entrepreneurial financing on job creation based on the roles of venture capital and angel investment

A new battlefield for later-generation successors: The effects of transgenerational succession on corporate venture capital investments

The role of CEO power intensity and patient capital investment strategies in enhancing corporate green innovation performance

Strategic coupling in global financial networks: divergent trajectories of domestic and foreign venture capital investments in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Purpose – The article aims to investigate the evolution of digitalization as a managerial and socio - economic phenomenon, from computerization and informatization to the current stage of digital transformation. It focuses on identifying the key problems and prospect s of digitalization in Ukraine in comparison with the European Union, emphasizing the integration of Ukrainian business into the European digital single market. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a combination of theoretical analysis of s cientific literature, comparative assessment of definitions and conceptual frameworks, and empirical evaluation of statistical indicators from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and Eurostat. The SWOT and TOWS analysis methods are applied to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of digitalization. Findings – The results demonstrate that Ukraine has achieved significant progress in the development of e - government services (GovTech leadership) and in building digital ecosystems. How ever, there remain critical weaknesses, including insufficient digital skills among the population, low digitalization rates of small and medium - sized enterprises, and a lack of sustainable financing models. Opportunities are connected with European integr ation, reskilling programs, and industrial digitalization, while threats are linked to cyber risks, regulatory uncertainty, and workforce migration. Practical implications – The findings highlight the necessity for policymakers and business leaders to adopt a systemic approach to digital transformation, combining infrastructure development, human capital investment, and cybersecurity reinforcement. The article provides recommendations for aligning Ukraine’s digitalization strategies with European practi ces. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the academic discussion by systematizing the evolution of concepts (computerization, informatization, digitalization), bridging theoretical frameworks with empirical data, and offering a holistic analysis o f Ukraine’s digital transformation through SWOT/TOWS methodology. It also enriches Ukrainian scholarly discourse with references to both international and national research sources.

Valorization techniques for biomass waste in energy Generation: A systematic review.