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1 – 10 of 20María Jesús Barroso-Méndez, Maria-Luisa Pajuelo-Moreno and Dolores Gallardo-Vázquez
Previous research has explored the link between sustainability disclosure and reputation but produced contradictory results. This study aims to clarify the sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has explored the link between sustainability disclosure and reputation but produced contradictory results. This study aims to clarify the sustainability disclosure–reputation relationship through a quantitative analysis of the correlations between these variables reported in empirical research papers. The second objective was to determine how various moderators affect the sustainability disclosure–reputation link.
Design/methodology/approach
The meta-analysis was based on a systematic review of the literature covering empirical research on the corporate sustainability disclosure and reputation relationship. A total of 92 articles were meta-analyzed to compile their findings on four extrinsic moderators: company size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.
Findings
The findings confirm that a significant positive correlation exists between corporate sustainability disclosure and reputation. The moderator analysis also revealed that companies’ different characteristics can explain researchers’ divergent results.
Practical implications
The results have considerable practical relevance for organizational management. First, they can motivate managers to improve and disclose their company’s social and environmental impacts to strengthen their reputation, which in turn will help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, the findings can ensure organizations develop disclosure and reputation management strategies adapted for each firm’s size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.
Social implications
The results have considerable practical relevance for organizational management. First, they can motivate managers to improve and disclose their company’s social and environmental impacts to strengthen their reputation, which in turn will help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, the findings can ensure organizations develop disclosure and reputation management strategies adapted for each firm’s size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this meta-analysis is the first to clarify the link between disclosure and reputation, which makes a unique contribution to the field of social and environmental accounting. A larger sample of primary research was collected, and key extrinsic moderators were examined to explain prior studies’ contradictory findings.
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Despite the well-recognized importance of recycled water, the study of industry-peer pressure on recycled water is relatively new. This study investigates how organizations…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the well-recognized importance of recycled water, the study of industry-peer pressure on recycled water is relatively new. This study investigates how organizations experience and react to industry-peer pressure to set recycled water targets. Additionally, this study investigates the role of board chairs involved in sustainability committees in contributing to responses to industry-peer pressure.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Eviews 12, this study employed a pooled logistic regression model to analyze data from 1,346 firms on Taiwan and Taipei exchanges (2017–2020).
Findings
The findings revealed that frequency-based imitation drives recycled water target-setting diffusion. However, there is no direct relationship between outcome-based imitation and recycled water target-setting. Notably, outcome-based imitation drives the adoption of recycled water target-setting of firms with board-chair membership in sustainability committees.
Research limitations/implications
This study faces certain data limitations. First, this study primarily focuses on water recycling. Future research could explore other ways to reduce water usage, such as using water-efficient equipment. Second, this study gathered information solely on the presence or absence of a board chairperson on the sustainability committee. Future researchers could explore the impact of the composition of sustainability committee on recycled water target-setting. Lastly, the sample used in this study is restricted to Taiwan's corporations that existed during 2017–2020. Future researchers may consider adopting a longitudinal design in other economies to address this limitation.
Practical implications
The findings of this study offer several guidelines and implications for recycled water target-setting and the composition of sustainability committees. It responds to an urgent call for solutions to water shortages when pressure from governments and nongovernmental organizations is relatively absent. The number of industry peers that have already set recycled water targets is indispensable for motivating firms to set their own recycled water targets. In terms of insufficient water-related regulatory pressure and normative pressure, this study found evidence suggesting that the direct motivation for setting recycled water targets stems from mimetic pressures via frequency-based imitation. The evidence in this study suggests that policymakers should require companies to disclose their peers’ recycled water target information, as doing so serves as an alternative means to achieving SDG 6.3.
Social implications
Recycled water target-setting might be challenging. Water recycling practices may face strong resistance and require substantial additional resources (Zhang and Tang, 2019; Gao et al., 2019; Gu et al., 2023). Therefore, this study suggests that firms should ensure the mindfulness of board members in promoting the welfare of the natural environment when making recycled water target-setting decisions. To reap the second-mover advantage, firms must consider the conditions in which board members can more effectively play their role. Corporations may help their chairpersons in setting recycled water targets by recruiting them as members of sustainability committees. Meanwhile, chairpersons tend to activate accurate mental models when the water conservation performance of pioneering industry peers is strong enough to indicate the potential benefits of adopting recycled water target-setting. Investors’ and stakeholders’ understanding of how the composition of sustainability committees is related to recycled water target-setting may help to identify the potential drivers of firms’ water responsibility. Investors and stakeholders should distinguish firms in terms of the board chair’s membership of their sustainability committee and focus on water-use reduction outcomes in the industry. This study provides insights into circumstances whereby chairpersons help to restore the water ecosystem.
Originality/value
This study explains how frequency-based and outcome-based imitation are two prominent mechanisms underlying the industry-peer pressure concerning recycled water target-setting. Moreover, this study fills literature gaps related to the moderating roles of board-chair membership in sustainability committees concerning industry-peer pressure on recycled water target-setting.
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Nan Xu, Chunyong Tang, Chengchuan Yang and Yanzhao Lai
Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to explore the indirect effect of work/family boundary violations on teleworkers’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to explore the indirect effect of work/family boundary violations on teleworkers’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In addition, it examines the moderating role of involuntary teleworking in this context.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the diary study method, this study used 543 questionnaires collected from 122 teleworkers in China.
Findings
The findings indicate that working time demands mediate the relationship between work boundary violations and teleworker CWB, and threats to family roles mediate the relationship between family boundary violations and teleworker CWB. In addition, involuntary teleworking positively moderates the relationship between work boundary violations and working time demands, as well as the relationship between family boundary violations and threats to family roles.
Originality/value
The study makes several valuable contributions to the extant literature. First, it enhances research on the antecedents of teleworker CWB. Second, by introducing two mediating variables corresponding to two types of boundary violations, the paper provides new insights and a fresh understanding of the effects of boundary violations in teleworking situations. Third, by considering the moderating role of involuntary teleworking, this research adds to the current knowledge on the impact of discussing boundary violations solely on teleworking or traditional office days.
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Taslima Nasreen, Ron Baker and Davar Rezania
This review aims to summarize the extent to which sustainability dimensions are covered in the selected qualitative literature, the theoretical and ontological underpinnings that…
Abstract
Purpose
This review aims to summarize the extent to which sustainability dimensions are covered in the selected qualitative literature, the theoretical and ontological underpinnings that have informed sustainability research and the qualitative methodologies used in that literature.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a systematic review to examine prior empirical studies in sustainability reporting between 2000 and 2021.
Findings
This review contributes to sustainability research by identifying unexplored and underexplored areas for future studies, such as Indigenous people’s rights, employee health and safety practice, product responsibility, gender and leadership diversity. Institutional and stakeholder theories are widely used in the selected literature, whereas moral legitimacy remains underexplored. The authors suggest that ethnographic and historical research will increase the richness of academic research findings on sustainability reporting.
Research limitations/implications
This review is limited to qualitative studies only because its richness allows researchers to apply various methodological and theoretical approaches to understand engagement in sustainability reporting practice.
Originality/value
This review follows a novel approach of bringing the selected studies’ scopes, theories and methodologies together. This approach permits researchers to formulate a research question coherently using a logical framework for a research problem.
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Benson Rugalema Mwemezi, Geraldine John Kikwasi and Sarah Phoya
Although there are several established frameworks for health and safety in construction, there are inadequate health and safety conditions at informal construction sites, and no…
Abstract
Purpose
Although there are several established frameworks for health and safety in construction, there are inadequate health and safety conditions at informal construction sites, and no framework has been designed to address this problem. The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated framework for health and safety risk management (HSRM) in informal construction sites with the aim of supporting Sustainable Development Goals 3, 8 and 11 of the 2030 Agenda, which are to ensure everyone enjoys a healthy life and to create inclusive, secure, robust and sustainable cities and human settlements, respectively.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on HSRM questionnaire survey and interviews with construction workers working on informal construction sites in Tanzania. A total of 13 health and safety specialists in construction were specifically chosen to validate the proposed framework for HSRM in informal construction to determine its applicability, efficacy and adaptation.
Findings
The validation results demonstrated that all of the suggested metrics within the framework for HSRM in informal construction scored higher than the test value, proving the framework’s feasibility
Originality/value
This research adds to the body of knowledge on the issue in a never-before-seen setting. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical study in Tanzania to develop and validate a framework for HSRM in informal construction.
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Kirti Sood, Prachi Pathak and Sanjay Gupta
Investment decisions hold immense significance for investors and eventually affect their portfolio performance. Investors are advised to weigh the costs and benefits associated…
Abstract
Purpose
Investment decisions hold immense significance for investors and eventually affect their portfolio performance. Investors are advised to weigh the costs and benefits associated with every decision in order to make rational investment decisions. However, behavioral finance research reveals that investors' choices often stem from a blend of economic, psychological and sociological factors, leading to irrationality. Moreover, environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors, aligned with behavioral finance hypotheses, also sway opinions and stock prices. Hence, this study aims to identify how individual equity investors prioritize key determinants of investment decisions in the Indian stock market.
Design/methodology/approach
The current research gathered data from 391 individual equity investors through a structured questionnaire. Thereafter, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) was used to meet the purpose of the research.
Findings
Information availability, representative heuristics belonging to psychological factors and macroeconomic indicators falling under economic factors were discovered to be the three most prioritized criteria, whereas environmental issues within the realm of ESG factors, recommendations of brokers or investment consultants of sociological factors, and social issues belonging to ESG factors were found to be the least prioritized criteria, respectively.
Research limitations/implications
Only active and experienced individual equity investors were surveyed in this study. Furthermore, with a sample size of 391 participants, the study was confined to individual equity investors in one nation, India.
Practical implications
This research has implications for individual investors, institutional investors, market regulators, corporations, financial advisors, portfolio managers, policymakers and society as a whole.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, no real attempt has been made to comprehend how active and experienced individual investors prioritize critical determinants of investment decisions by taking economic, psychological, sociological and ESG factors collectively under consideration.
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An efficient e-waste management system is developed, aided by deep learning techniques. Here, a smart bin system using Internet of things (IoT) sensors is generated. The sensors…
Abstract
Purpose
An efficient e-waste management system is developed, aided by deep learning techniques. Here, a smart bin system using Internet of things (IoT) sensors is generated. The sensors detect the level of waste in the dustbin. The data collected by the IoT sensor is stored in the blockchain. Here, an adaptive deep Markov random field (ADMRF) method is implemented to determine the weight of the wastes. The performance of the ADMRF is boosted by optimizing its parameters with the help of the improved corona virus herd immunity optimization algorithm (ICVHIOA). Here, the main objective of the developed ADMRF-based waste weight prediction is to minimize the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) rate at the time of testing. If the weight of the bins is more than 80%, then an alert message will be sent to the waste collector directly. Optimal route selection is carried out using the developed ICVHIOA for efficient collection of wastes from the smart bin. Here, the main objectives of the optimal route selection are to reduce the distance and time to minimize the operational cost and the environmental impacts. The collected waste is then considered for recycling. The performance of the implemented IoT and blockchain-based smart dustbin is evaluated by comparing it with other existing smart dustbins for e-waste management.
Design/methodology/approach
The developed e-waste management system is used to collect the waste and to avoid certain diseases caused by the dumped waste. Disposal and recycling of the e-waste is necessary to decrease pollution and to manufacture new products from the waste.
Findings
The RMSE of the implemented framework was 33.65% better than convolutional neural network (CNN), 27.12% increased than recurrent neural network (RNN), 22.27% advanced than Resnet and 9.99% superior to long short-term memory (LSTM).
Originality/value
The proposed E-waste management system has given an enhanced performance rate in weight prediction and also in optimal route selection when compared with other conventional methods.
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Ting Cui, Shenlong Tang and Siti Hasnah Hassan
Despite the enormous benefits, smart homes (SHs) are still not widely adopted by residents in China. Furthermore, research on the intention to use SHs has overlooked the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the enormous benefits, smart homes (SHs) are still not widely adopted by residents in China. Furthermore, research on the intention to use SHs has overlooked the role of family factors. Thus, this study aims to propose a new research model to examine the impact of family factors on the usage intention (UI) of SHs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected 265 valid data from potential users of SHs in China using a convenience sampling method. The PLS-SEM method was applied to test the research model and related hypotheses.
Findings
The empirical results confirm the mediating role of optimism (OP) in perceived family support (PFS)/perceived family trust (PFT) and attitude (AT). Unsurprisingly, the results validated the relationship between perceived usefulness (PU), attitude (AT) and UI of SHs through TAM theory. Besides, this study also identified the moderating effect of perceived risk (PR) between AT and UI.
Practical implications
To improve SH adoption, practitioners should focus on family factors and utilize family influence to promote the spread of smart home reputation. Besides, SH practitioners should enhance user trust and reduce perceived risks through technological upgrades and security measures.
Originality/value
Based on the Social Impact Theory and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study is an empirical attempt to explore the impact of family factors on the intention to use SHs, expanding the research on smart home adoption.
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This article adds to the existing literature by identifying persistent sociocultural norms that influence organizational culture as facilitators of gendered microaggressions…
Abstract
Purpose
This article adds to the existing literature by identifying persistent sociocultural norms that influence organizational culture as facilitators of gendered microaggressions experienced by women in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from 25 women employees in the Indian banking and finance sector following an unstructured interview. Grounded theory was utilized to establish that organizational culture, which in turn is reinforced by gender microaggressions, contributes to its prevalence.
Findings
Gender microaggressions manifest in the form of Alienation, Opportunity Denial, Invisible Restrictions and Sexual Innuendos. The relationship between organizational culture and gender microaggressions is cyclical, reinforcing and strengthening each other.
Originality/value
This is the first study on gender microaggressions to be conducted in the banking and finance sector.
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Rajesh Kumar Mog and Mithu Anjali Gayan
The purpose of this study is to understand the role and impact of gender on reading habits. It is an attempt to explore the probable reason why or why not gender differences take…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand the role and impact of gender on reading habits. It is an attempt to explore the probable reason why or why not gender differences take place concerning reading time, reading purpose, reading resources and digital devices among undergraduate students in the digital environment.
Design/methodology/approach
For this study, the researcher used a survey-based approach. To accomplish the study’s goals, a meticulously designed questionnaire has been disseminated among undergraduate students in selected colleges located in the western district of Tripura, a northeastern state in India.
Findings
The study found that female respondents have a slightly higher level of liking for reading than males. For both genders, the major purpose of reading is to enhance their knowledge unvaryingly. Furthermore, it has been observed that female respondents read electronic and print reading material more frequently compared to their male counterparts. Female respondents read fiction more frequently than males in print form. Both genders have more ease in reading print resources than digital resources. Among all digital devices, respondents are most competent at using mobile devices and prefer them for digital reading.
Research limitations/implications
As part of the pilot study, investigators surveyed a limited sample population, where the participation of students was further lower because of the unavailability of students.
Originality/value
The gender-based level of competency with digital devices is studied as a variable among the adult population to measure its correlation with reading habits.
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