Within the literature focusing on CSR's role in development, three ‘schools of practice’ appear to be emerging: the neo‐liberal school (focused on self‐regulation by industry according to the risks and rewards of CSR activity), the state‐led school (focused on national and international regulation and co‐operation) and the ‘third way’ school (focused on the role of for profit and not‐for‐profit organizations. Yet, each of these schools of practice may be critiqued using theories applicable to the broader field of development. Namely, the neo‐liberal school fails to address the resource misallocations caused by CSR. The state‐led school fails to address the underlying politics behind government encouraged CSR. The ‘third way’ school fails to address the self‐interest involved in CSR. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

What explains the rapid expansion of programmes undertaken by donor agencies which may be labelled as 'anti-corruption programmes' in the 1990s? There are four schools of anti-corruption project practice: universalistic, state-centric, society-centric, and critical schools of practice. Yet, none can explain the expansion of anti-corruption projects. A 'complexity perspective' offers a new framework for looking at such growth. Such a complexity perspective addresses how project managers, by strategically interacting, can create emergent and evolutionary expansionary self-organisation. Throughout the 'first wave' of anti-corruption activity in the 1990s, such self-organization was largely due to World Bank sponsored national anti-corruption programmes. More broadly, the experience of the first wave of anti-corruption practice sheds light on development theory and practice-helping to explain new development practice with its stress on multi-layeredness, participation, and indigenous knowledge. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose – The penetration of foreign banks into emerging markets has been linked with financial sector deepening and expansion of credit. However, there is little research into the interaction of financial sector institutions with broader transition and development dynamics. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the presence of foreign financial institutions helped to shape a better business environment over the long-run in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use aggregate, country-level annual data for 107 developed and emerging market countries over a shifting 30-year time span (1983-2012). The authors use Prais-Winsten and System-GMM techniques on stationary variables to highlight linkages between foreign banks and the overall business environment. Where data were found to be non-stationary, the authors applied panel cointegration approaches, including Granger Causality and full-modified OLS, to research the same relationship. Findings – The results show that foreign bank entry in emerging markets has had a positive effect in the broader business environment, with the biggest effects on legal protection, competitiveness, and time to import/export. Research limitations/implications – This paper does not consider the broader effects of foreign bank entry on competition within emerging markets, an area that the authors are considering as fruitful for future research. Originality/value – The issue of financial sector impact on broader business environment issues has not been studied in the extant literature. Moreover, this study makes an important contribution for policymakers who are grappling with issues related to financial sector regulation in the post-global financial crisis world.

Principal-agent problems are largely responsible for poor corporate governance. Much work on private sector corporate governance reform seeks to address transparency, accountability and responsiveness to stakeholder interests under the new category of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Yet, these issues are not new. The public sector has been working on these issues for many years ± especially in looking at ways of reducing malfeasance and also optimizing use of resources for the bene®t of principals. Some lessons from public sector reform include promoting information dissemination, participation, and balancing powers between a corporation's executive and supervisory entities. While ®rms should not necessarily be administered like governmental bodies, there are many lessons from public sector organizational reform and institutional governance that may be applicable to large-scale public corporations.

New financial technologies (FinTech) may not represent a new era for sustainable development-at least not as currently conceived. Many of the gains espoused by the UN and other cheerleaders come from rebranding the online equivalents of traditional savings, investment and tax payment activities. Most of these claims have no supporting evidence, beyond ad hoc anecdotes and stories. The existing evidence hardly forms a reliable basis for the very specific technologies and services recommended by international organizations. We show that abstract and nebulous advice on changing countries' payments, banking, securities, and others' laws helps explain why such advice will likely have little effect on promoting financial inclusion, saving, mobile payments, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.