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In this study, we examine the relation between employee treatment and annual report readability, which is measured as a reading difficulty score.

We use regression analysis to explore the impact of employee treatment on annual report reading difficulty.

We find a significant negative relation between employee treatment and reading difficulty, which suggests that annual reports of firms with better employee treatment are easier to read and understand (i.e. more readable).

Our study contributes to a more thorough knowledge of annual report readability and our findings may be of relevance to accounting standard setters and investors.

How has COVID-19 impacted meat processors' stock returns? The authors evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions (e.g. lockdowns and COVID-19 incidences among workers) on stock market prices of meat processors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study uses an event study approach to examine the disruptions from COVID-19 through events such as plant shutdowns, the pandemic announcement, lockdown dates and the first case of COVID-19 outbreaks in meat processing plants. The dataset includes S&P 500, Google Trends, financial beta and data collected for 14 US publicly traded meat processing companies.

Results show that nationwide events (e.g. announcement of the pandemic) had no statistically significant impact on average abnormal returns of meat processing companies. Individually, however, firms experienced negative abnormal returns. COVID-19-related events in individual meat processing companies had a temporary negative abnormal return in the days prior to the event.

This study has two main contributions. First, the authors estimate the effect of COVID-19 on the returns of meat processors. Second, the authors use Google Trends to estimate the expected stock markets returns of meat processing companies. This study provides insight to investors on the behavior of industry returns from events such as outbreaks that affect human health.

The Benelux chapter has made a habit of organising meetings with a scientific and commercial accent more or less alternately. This approach has proven to be successful in the past three years. The 1986 Autumn meeting will be another display meeting. A number of papers will be presented by suppliers of materials and equipment for the hybrid and surface mounting industry. In a 300 m2 exhibition room about 25 companies will display their products. The programme of the day leaves ample opportunity for meeting colleagues and suppliers. The meeting will be held in the ‘Jaarbeurs Vergadercentrum’ in Utrecht on 16 October from 9.30–17.00. The annual ISHM‐Benelux general membership meeting will precede the lectures.

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.

Society’s relations to animals pose possible blind spots in sociological theory that may be revealed and illuminated by studying systems of human‐animal interaction. By investigating whether and how animals enter into key processes that shape self and society we may determine the ways in which animals might be included in the core subject matter of sociology. An earlier discussion of the role of animals in sociology initiated by Weber is reviewed. Issues that debate raised about the extent of linguistically‐mediated human‐animal intersubjectivity are updated. It is in principle difficult to rule out animal languages, and some animals have acquired human language. But sociology may follow a more fecund empirical route by examining successful human‐animal performances produced by enduring interspecies relationships. Following this route, this paper specifically argues that the human self should be seen to take root in the available mixed species community. To show this, the work of G.H. Mead is revisited and corrected in light of recent work on early human development, and conceptual analyses of language, the body, and the self. The formation of the self is not dependent on only linguistic exchanges; a nonverbal nonhuman other can contribute to the self‐reflective sense of being a human self. Based on this reasoning, examples of studies of humans with wild and domestic animals illustrate the potential for a human‐animal sociology.

Using the affect theory of social exchange, this study investigates the mediating role of students' affective commitment between their personality traits (extraversion and agreeableness) and academic performance.

This research employs mixed-method study, that is exploratory text analysis using 123 responses followed by a survey of 300 responses among the management students to test the proposed model.

Results reveal a direct positive association of extraversion and agreeableness with students' affective commitment towards their academic institution. Additionally, negative indirect effects of affective commitment were found between the two personality traits and academic performance.

The study highlights both positive and negative outcomes of so-called favorable personality types of extraversion and agreeableness, thereby, building a prima facie case for promoting personality diversity in management institutions.