Vol. 28 No. 3 (2026)

Purpose

This study analyses how the Russia–Ukraine war reshaped income inequality dynamics across 10 post-Soviet economies, focussing on whether pre-existing structural dependency conditions influenced the transmission of geopolitical shocks into domestic income distribution.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applies the fully modified ordinary least squares model to a balanced panel data set of 10 post-Soviet countries from 1998 to 2023, enabling the estimation of both overall and country-specific results.

Findings

The empirical results reveal that the Russia–Ukraine war is associated with rising income inequality in several post-Soviet countries, with the largest effect observed in Ukraine. Russia-aligned countries suffered the most due to their close ties with Russia, while Western-aligned countries were cushioned by European Union (EU) support. The interaction between the war period and economic dependency, proxied by remittance inflows, is positive and statistically significant, particularly in highly remittance-dependent economies such as Kyrgyzstan, suggesting that pre-existing dependency linkages intensified inequality pressures during the shock period. Trade openness, foreign direct investment, oil prices and inflation are associated with widening income inequality, albeit with heterogeneous country-level outcomes.

Practical implications

Results suggest that post-Soviet countries should reduce dependency on Russia by diversifying economic relations and pursuing deeper integration into the EU or establishing an adjacent regional union.

Originality/value

This study advances dependency theory by introducing the concept of shock-activated dependency, which reconceptualises dependency as a dynamic rather than static condition. It shows that dependency operates as a transmission mechanism through which geopolitical shocks are transmitted into domestic income inequality. By highlighting how remittance dependency amplifies vulnerability during crises, this study modernises dependency theory for analysing the distributional consequences of geopolitical disruptions.

Purpose

This study examines the asymmetric effects of key domestic macroeconomic shocks – inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and economic growth – on domestic gold prices in Vietnam while incorporating world gold prices as the external price anchor of the market.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses monthly time-series data over the period 2015–2024 and applies the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model.

Findings

The empirical results reveal the existence of a long-run co-integration relationship between gold prices and macroeconomic variables. Inflation and exchange rates exhibit significant asymmetric effects. Interest rates are insignificant in the short run but exert a significant negative impact in the long run, whereas economic growth is significant only in the long run and also has a negative effect. World gold prices have a positive and statistically significant impact in both the short and the long run, highlighting the leading role of the international market in shaping domestic gold prices.

Originality/value

This study differs from previous research by developing a nonlinear analytical framework that links gold prices with multiple macroeconomic factors and by extending the model to include key variables such as inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, economic growth and world gold prices. In particular, it focuses on examining asymmetric effects by comparing the responses of gold prices to positive and negative shocks, thereby clarifying the nonlinear transmission mechanism underlying gold price dynamics in the context of Vietnam.

Purpose

Corporate innovation has become an undisputed imperative for organizational success, especially for eco-aware companies in a sustainability-focused global landscape. This research aims to investigate the relationship between a chief executive officer (CEO) with reputable university education and corporate innovation in eco-aware companies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region and predicts a positive association between a CEO with reputable university education and corporate innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examines publicly listed eco-aware companies in the ASEAN region. We use regression analysis and conduct a Heckman two-stage and propensity score matching method as robustness analyses.

Findings

The findings indicate a positive association between CEOs with reputable university education and corporate innovation. Additionally, this positive association is significantly stronger in companies that exhibit superior Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk management capabilities and in those operating under higher financial leverage.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that boards should prioritize CEOs with reputable university education to signal credibility in high-leverage firms and strengthen internal ESG infrastructure to effectively translate a CEO's cognitive advantages into tangible innovation.

Originality/value

This study advances upper echelons theory by integrating signaling theory to explain how a CEO with reputable university education facilitates innovation in eco-aware ASEAN firms. We identify critical boundary conditions, revealing that this relationship is contingent on internal ESG governance and external financial leverage.

Purpose

This study investigates the context-dependent nature of the relationship between employer brand attributes and employee satisfaction across publicly visible and confidential evaluation contexts within Vietnam's financial services sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A dual-source comparative design was employed, combining digital-trace data with structured survey evidence. Study 1 analyzed 3,285 standardized Glassdoor reviews, representing a publicly visible evaluation context. Study 2 surveyed 507 employees, representing a confidential evaluation context. The study's cross-context comparison was based on a harmonized analysis of four employer-brand attributes available in both datasets: compensation and benefits, career opportunities, work–life balance and organizational culture. Employee satisfaction was used as the outcome variable. The regression models were estimated separately, and their standardized coefficients were compared descriptively.

Findings

All four attributes were positively associated with employee satisfaction in both datasets, while their relative importance differed across evaluative contexts. Organizational culture, a symbolic attribute, had the largest standardized coefficient in the publicly visible review context, whereas compensation and benefits and career opportunities occupied the leading positions in the confidential survey model.

Originality/value

Drawing on social exchange theory as an explanatory lens and impression management theory to interpret differences associated with audience exposure, the study proposes audience visibility as a plausible boundary condition. By comparing publicly visible online reviews with confidential survey responses, the study further shows that these two data environments provide complementary rather than interchangeable representations of employer evaluation.

Purpose

Social exclusion is hypothesized to motivate conspicuous consumption. However, prior evidence has remained unreconciled. Under the sociometer theory, this study proposes a model to clarify the effects of social exclusion on conspicuous consumption, with negative self-esteem as a mediating factor and consumers' concern about their social face (or face concern) as a moderating factor. We expected that consumers with strong social face concern, when experiencing social exclusion, would be more likely to have negative self-esteem, which, in turn, would motivate their conspicuous consumption as a defensive mechanism to restore self-esteem.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used survey data from 368 Vietnamese consumers and multiple regressions using the PROCESS macro Models for SPSS, developed by Hayes, to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The analysis results show a significant positive relationship between social exclusion and negative self-esteem. Negative self-esteem significantly and fully mediates the relationship between social exclusion and conspicuous consumption. Face concern also moderates the indirect influence of social exclusion on conspicuous consumption via negative self-esteem, as we expected.

Originality/value

Our study findings highlight the moderating role of face concern, as an extension of the sociometer theory, in explaining the mechanism by which social exclusion affects conspicuous consumption. The findings also offer practical implications for policymakers and practitioners to design interventions to reduce materialism and conspicuous consumption for more sustainable happiness and well-being in human society.