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We investigate the time-varying dynamics of the precious metal markets. We employ a mixed data sampling technique to identify the impact of macroeconomic and financial drivers from G7 and BRICS countries on the daily volatility and pairwise correlation of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. We find that the U.S. and Chinese economies especially influence the precious metal markets, but in opposite directions. Besides, the stock markets and trade balance of both G7 and BRICS countries as well as the consumer confidence of G7 countries are the key drivers for the volatility of precious metals. The most influential drivers for correlation are stock markets, money supply, and the inflation rate. Surprisingly, the economic policy uncertainty does not affect the dynamics as much as expected. Lastly, the global financial crisis 2008 affected the direction of most of the macroeconomic and financial drivers.

In recent years, research findings and pronouncements by international organisations have recognised the usefulness and timeliness of advancing public policies to promote sustainable building. However, in many parts of the world, governmental measures have limited their scope mainly to energy efficiency in housing use. In the same vein, some experiences in different countries have revealed the need to study further governmental or stimulation drivers that can boost sustainability in building, renovation, and dwellings. This paper aims to contribute to the design of public policies that promote sustainable building. Our paper seeks to identify specific drivers that can help governments boost sustainability in building, renovation, and dwellings through a multi-stakeholder survey. Our findings show the specific drivers to be of three types: fiscal, financial, and government interventions. It is the respondents’ opinion that public policies can help promote sustainable housing. Financial drivers are the most highly rated, followed by fiscal drivers and then government interventions.

Background: Internet, as everybody knows, has a lot of advantages and possibilities. One of these possibilities for companies is changing their business to electronic commerce (e-commerce). Almost all companies might need this type of business to sustain in future and compete with others. Most of the traditional businesses decide to change their business to e-commerce to have more profits in the future. However, this kind of commercial (e-commerce) may have its own risks and difficulties. Therefore, financial drivers can help companies to start or change previous business to e-commerce better and more easily. Purpose: The aim of this study is to demonstrate the importance of financial drivers for business to business (B2B) companies when they are starting an e-commerce. Since financial drivers might motivate the companies to start with e-commerce. Design/Methodology/Approach: A qualitative method and two case studies in the plastic industry are used. There are six interviews with a company named Alpha and two with a company named Beta. The researcher chooses the semi-structured interview for this study. The data are collected from mentioned interviews and secondary data. Findings: The finding of this study is divided into two parts. A) The necessity of companies to start an e-commerce, B) The importance of the financial drivers for B2B companies. This study shows that the financial driver has a significant effect to start an e-commerce. The advantages of selling products through e-commerce are as follows: increasing sales and revenues, decreasing transaction costs, improving liquidity problems, introducing the company brand and reaching products in 24/7. Practical implications: The result of this study has several implications for B2B companies such as management motivation to start an e-commerce. This study introduces financial drivers as an important key to motivate management to start with e-commerce.