Digital Commons Network^™

Editorial: Covid-19, Corporate Governance, Sustainability, And The Post-Neoliberal World, Marie Dela Rama, Julie Crews

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Welcome to this special issue of Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review focusing on the impact of thecoronavirus (COVID-19) on societies and economies worldwide. The five papers in this special issue reflect the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,in its first year,on corporate governance and sustainability. What is common throughout these papers is how the pandemic has created disequilibria for many organisations. The question continues to be posed as to the new forms of organising and managing as the world reorientates or pivots in a pandemic and post-pandemic world.

Extending Micro-Credentials To Micro-Apprenticeships For The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Enhancing Vocational Education And Training In The Post-Pandemic’S ‘New Normal’, Pi-Shen Seet, Janice Jones

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

As noted in the foreword of this Special Issue, COVID-19 has accelerated the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s or Industry 4.0’s disruption to the labour market (Sally, 2021). Beyond Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by enterprises, underscoring the need for workers to continuously upskill their digital competencies in order to remain relevant (Heinonen & Strandvik, 2021). Besides digitisation, organisations have had to innovate and adopt new business models to adapt to the ‘new normal’ of surviving and growing beyond the COVID-19 pandemic (Heinonen & Strandvik, 2021). In countries that largely relied on skilled migration …

Emotional Labor And The Hospitality And Tourism Curriculum: The Development And Integration Of Emotion Skills, Julie Nyanjom, Hugh Wilkins

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Emotional labor is integral to guest-host interactions. Given that this is a competency that is desired by industry in graduates, it is important to understand how the concept presents in the Hospitality and Tourism curriculum. This exploratory qualitative study sets out to investigate how hospitality and tourism educators perceive the development of emotion skills in Hospitality and Tourism education curriculum. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with higher education hospitality and tourism educators in Australia. Findings reveal that the development of emotion skills is a taken for granted concept that is not explicitly addressed within the curriculum. Implications for practice …

Designing Call To Action: Users' Perception Of Different Charateristics, Thomas Mejtoft, Jonathan Hedlund, Helen Cripps, Ulrik Söderström, Ole Norberg

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper aims to provide guidance when designing a call to action in a digital system with the purpose to create an intended feeling and user engagement. The paper is based on a test of four different simple call to action constructions. The users clearly prefer constructions that have a high explainability and feels intuitive. Hence, the design should have a high level of transparency and show the user straight away what it demands from the user and what the result of the action is. Furthermore, the design should have a high usability to make it clear how to use …

Analysis Of The Use And Perception Of Shared Mobility: A Case Study In Western Australia, Craig Standing, Ferry Jie, Thi Le, Susan Standing, Sharon Biermann

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The sharing economy has acquired a lot of media attention in recent years, and it has had a significant impact on the transport sector. This paper investigates the existing impact and potential of various forms of shared mobility, concentrating on the case study of Wanneroo, Western Australia. We adopted bibliometric analysis and visualization tools based on nearly 700 papers collected from the Scopus database to identify research clusters on shared mobility. Based on the clusters identified, we undertook a further content analysis to clarify the factors affecting the potential of different shared mobility modes. A specially designed questionnaire was applied …

Trading Macro-Cycles Of Foreign Exchange Markets Using Hybrid Models, Joseph Z. B. Ling, Albert K. Tsui, Zhaoyong Zhang Prof

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Most existing studies on forecasting exchange rates focus on predicting next-period returns. In contrast, this study takes the novel approach of forecasting and trading the longer-term trends (macro-cycles) of exchange rates. It proposes a unique hybrid forecast model consisting of linear regression, multilayer neural network, and combination models embedded with technical trading rules and economic fundamentals to predict the macro-cycles of the selected currencies and investigate the predicative power and market timing ability of the model. The results confirm that the combination model has a significant predictive power and market timing ability, and outperforms the benchmark models in terms of …

Development And Validation Of The Holistic Cognition Scale, Andrei A. Lux, Steven L. Grover, Stephen T. Teo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper introduces a new scale to measure cognitive cultural differences, drawing on the theory of analytic versus holistic thought. Examining culture from a cognitive perspective is a challenge to traditional values-based approaches. Existing measures based on this framework are methodologically problematic and warrant renewal. This paper presents development and validation studies for a new instrument that measures analytic versus holistic cognitive tendencies at the individual level. The scale assesses four previously established dimensions: attention, causality, contradiction, and change. The present work follows well-established scale development protocols and the results show that the 16-item Holistic Cognition Scale (HCS) is a …

Fiduciary Duty Or Loyalty? Evidence From Co-Opted Boards And Corporate Misconduct, Rashid Zaman, Nader Atawnah, Ghasan A. Baghdadi, Jia Liu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We examine the effect of co-opted boards on corporate misconduct and document a significant positive relationship. Utilising a large sample of public U.S. companies from the period 2001 to 2015, we find that a one standard deviation increase in the proportion of co-opted directors on a board leads to a 4.3% rise in corporate misconduct. This outcome is robust to a series of sensitivity tests and continues to hold after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. Further analyses indicate that co-opted directors propose fewer board agenda items, exhibit lower attendance at board meetings, and receive compensation packages in excess of industry …

Uncovering Real Earnings Management: Pay Attention To Risk-Taking Behavior, Samar Alharbi, Md Al Mamun, Nader Atawnah

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We examine the impact of corporate risk-taking on firm-level real earnings management. We find that firms with higher risk-taking engage in higher real earnings management. Our results are robust to a series of robustness tests, including simultaneous least squares approach, firm fixed effect, change analysis, and pseudo difference-in-difference analysis. Additional analyses reveal that the impact of risk-taking on real earnings management is more pronounced among firms that experience prior-year loss and are run by top-echelons who are risk lovers. Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) regulation does not attenuate the positive effect of risk-taking on real earnings management. However, external monitoring by institutional …

Stock Split Rule Changes And Stock Liquidity: Evidence From Bursa Malaysia, S. Amir Tabibian, Zhaoyong Zhang, Abdollah Ah Mand

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We test the impact of stock split rule changes on liquidity behavior in Bursa Malaysia during 2004–2020. Using event study methodology, this study examines stock liquidity on and around stock split days through three subperiods of study, including the first (2004–2006), second (2007–2009), and third (2010–2020) period. We find that liquidity improvement is short-lived in the first and second periods, while it is a long-lived phenomenon in the third period. Firms in the first and second period experienced liquidity improvement only on the split announcement day, while it lasts up to a year after the Ex-date for firms in the …

A Systems Perspective In Examining Industry Clusters: Case Studies Of Clusters In Russia And India, Anton Klarin, Rifat Sharmelly, Yuliani Suseno

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article explores an examination of industry clusters from a systems perspective. We analyze Russia’s pharmaceutical clusters and India’s automobile clusters in terms of the systems concepts of holism, emergence, and open systems. We further consider the aspects of human capital investment and the availability of professional labor, infrastructure, private–public sector collaboration, support for funding and commercialization, as well as innovation corporate culture, when examining the institutional pillars supporting the development and growth of industry clusters within the national innovation ecosystems. The findings illustrate how industry clusters can be viewed from a systems perspective. We also highlight how the institutional …

Managing Risks In The Improved Model Of Rolling Mill Loading: A Case Study, Nelli V. Syreyshchikova, Danil Y. Pimenov, Elena N. Yaroslavova, Munish K. Gupta, Muhammad Aamir, Khaled Giasin

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article reflects the main sources of risks for metallurgical enterprises in Russia, presenting the implementation of an innovative approach to increasing the competitiveness of an industrial enterprise, which is a typical representative of large enterprises of the metallurgical industry, based on the development of risk-oriented thinking when loading rolling mills with orders of intersecting assortment according to a new model. To reduce the emerging risks of a new model of the loading process of rolling mills of a metallurgical enterprise, it is proposed to take into account the risks in a complex way, taking into account their interactions with …

Short-Term Capital Flows, Exchange Are Expectation And Currency Internationalization: Evidence From China, Mingming Li, Fengming Qin, Zhaoyong Zhang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper intended to employ a portfolio approach to assess the effect of exchange rate expectation on Chinese RMB internationalization and empirically test the interactive effects among short-term capital flows, RMB appreciation expectation and the internationalization process using a VAR model with monthly data ranging from February 2004 to December 2020. The results suggest that RMB exchange rate appreciation could lead to an increase in the foreign demand for RMB and RMB denominated assets, while RMB internationalization would attract more short-term capital inflow due to the reduced transaction costs. The empirical evidence from the VAR model estimation confirms the finding …

Customer Value Creation For The Emerging Market Middle Class: Perspectives From Case Studies In India, Rifat Sharmelly, Anton Klarin

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper examines the customer value creation framework and discusses the design of the key elements for product development in emerging markets. A scientometric/bibliometric scoping literature review identifies a clear gap in the current research in studying prerequisites for customer value creation in emerging market contexts. Observing experiences of Daikin and Renault in the context of India, the purpose of this paper is to identify value creation strategic choices following which comprehensive customer value offerings in products and services can be successfully created by firms across the four facets of the framework in emerging markets. Value creation strategies include having …

Impact Of Covid-19 On Cryptocurrencies: Evidence On Information Transmission Through Economic And Financial Market Sentiments, Irfan Haider Shakri, Jaime Yong, Erwei Xiang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper investigates the relationship between the COVID-19 crisis and the two leading cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, from 31 December 2019 to 18 August 2020. We also use an economic news sentiment index and financial market sentiment index to explore the possible mechanisms through which COVID-19 impacts cryptocurrency. We employ a VAR Granger Causality framework and Wavelet Coherence Analysis and find the cryptocurrency market was impacted in the early phase of the sample period through economic news and financial market sentiments, but this effect diminished after June 2020.

Exploring The Key Challenges Facing Company Secretaries In A Two-Tier Board Context, Stefan Peij, Pieter-Jan Bezemer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose:

This study aims to examine the core challenges facing company secretaries in a two-tier board context. This study focuses on the key factors contributing to these challenges and how company secretaries can effectively address them.

Design/methodology/approach:

An analysis of the narratives provided by 291 Dutch company secretaries in response to a series of open-ended questionnaire questions led to insights into the key challenges company secretaries face in their day-to-day work.

Findings:

Company secretaries perceive a myriad of factors contributing to pressures on their time, the need to work for multiple organizational bodies and the processing of information. They believe …

Non-Traditional Systemic Risk Contagion Within The Chinese Banking Industry, Tonmoy Choudhury, Simone Scagnelli, Jaime L.P. Yong, Zhaoyong Zhang Prof

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Systemic risk contagion is a key issue in the banking sector in maintaining financial system stability. This study is among the first few to use three different distance-to-risk measures to empirically assess the domestic interbank linkages and systemic contagion risk of the Chinese banking industry, by using bivariate dynamic conditional correlation GARCH model on data collected from eight prominent Chinese banks for the period 2006–2018. The results show a relatively high correlation among almost all the banks, suggesting an interconnectedness among the banks. We found evidence that the banking system is exposed to significant domestic contagion risks arising from systemic …

The Prospective Applicability Of The Strengths-Based Approach To Managing And Developing Employees In Small Businesses, Chamila Kumudunee Wijekuruppu, Alan Coetzer, Pattanee Susomrith

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose:

The strength-based approach is promulgated as a management practice that improves individual productivity and performance. This study's purpose is to explore the prospective applicability of the strengths-based approach to managing and developing employees in small businesses. The study focuses on four domains of practice: selection, training, performance evaluation and task assignment.

Design/methodology/approach:

The study employed semi-structured, face-to-face interviews to obtain data. The units of analysis were managers and employees of small businesses. Eleven managers and 19 employees were interviewed. Data analysis involved thematic analysis with the NVivo 12 software program.

Findings:

First, the small businesses used a strengths-based approach …

International Business Education: What We Know And What We Have Yet To Develop, Anton Klarin, Boris Inkizhinov, Dashi Nazarov, Elena Gorenskaia

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

International business education (IBE) scholarship is extensive and is continuously growing. Nevertheless, to date there is no systems perspective overview of the literature dedicated to this topic. Using latest advancements in scientometric analysis, this study structures and visualizes the entire IBE scholarship, which allows to identify gaps in research and propose a number of future research directions. Data extracted from 894 peer-reviewed documents made available through the Scopus database allows to map the scholarship across five identified research directions in IBE – IB, political economy environment, and education; student learning and experience; the lingua franca and communication; interrelationship of IBE …

Young Adults’ Preferences For Influenza Vaccination Campaign Messages: Implications For Covid-19 Vaccine Intervention Design And Development, Zhaohui Su, Dean Mcdonnell, Jun Wen, Ali Cheshmehzangi, Junaid Ahmad, Edmund Goh, Xiaoshan Li, Sabina Šegalo, Michael Mackert, Yu-Tao Xiang, Peiyu Wang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background Health campaign interventions, particularly those tailored to the target audience’s needs and preferences, can cost-effectively change people’s attitudes and behaviors towards better health decision-making. However, there is limited research on how to best tailor seasonal influenza vaccination campaigns for young adults. Vaccination is vital in protecting young adults and their social circles (vulnerable populations like older adults) from the influenza virus and critical in shaping these emerging adults’ vaccination habits in the long run. However, amid the prevalence of easily-accessible, attention-grabbing, and often malicious false and misinformation (e.g., COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories), it may be more challenging to develop …

Do Secondary English Teachers Have Adequate Time And Resourcing To Meet The Needs Of Struggling Literacy Learners?, Margaret K. Merga, Saiyidi Mat Roni, Anabela Malpique

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. As struggling Australian students may not typically receive additional support beyond the mainstream English classroom, more needs to be understood about the staffing and resourcing challenges that may impede secondary English teachers seeking to support these students. Data from the 2019 Supporting Struggling Secondary Literacy Learners project are explored, presenting views from N = 315 Australian secondary English teachers. Respondents disagreed that they have adequate time and resourcing to meet the needs of these students; public schools were perceived to be particularly poorly resourced. Our …

Corporate Governance And Corporate Social Responsibility Synergies: Evidence From New Zealand, Rashid Zaman, Muhammad Nadeem, Mariela Carvajal

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: This paper aims to provide exploratory evidence on corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) interfaces. Although there remains a voluminous literature on CG and CSR, very little effort has been put forward to explore the nature of this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Using interviews with Senior Executives of New Zealand Stock Exchange listed firms, this research assesses CG and CSR practices, identifies barriers for CG and CSR adoption and investigates the nature of the relationship between CG and CSR. Findings: The results indicate a moderate level of CG and CSR practices, with a lack …

Employees’ Perceptions Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Ethical Leadership: Are They Uniquely Related To Turnover Intention?, Mehran Nejati, Michael E. Brown, Azadeh Shafaei, Pi-Shen Seet

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the simultaneous effect of ethical leadership (EL) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employees’ turnover intention and examine the mediating mechanism in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a field study of 851 employees across a variety of industries. This study applied partial least squares structural equation modelling for hypothesis testing. Findings: The results show that employees’ perceptions of CSR as well as EL are both uniquely and negatively related to turnover intention. The authors also found that employees’ job satisfaction but not commitment, mediates these …

Workplace Bullying, Psychological Hardiness, And Accidents And Injuries In Nursing: A Moderated Mediation Model, Stephen T. T. Teo, Diep Nguyen, Fiona Trevelyan, Felicity Lamm, Mark Boocock

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 Teo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Workplace bullying are prevalent among the nursing workforce. Consequences of workplace bullying include psychological stress and workplace accidents and injuries. Psychological hardiness is proposed as a buffer for workplace bullying and psychological stress on workplace accidents and injuries. This study adopted the Affective Events Theory and Conservation of Resources Theory to develop and test a moderated mediated model in two field …

Sustainability And Waste Imports In China: Pollution Haven Or Resources Hunting, Bowen Li, Antonio Alleyne, Zhaoyong Zhang, Yifei Mu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Motivations behind a country’s importation of waste are categorized into the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) and the resource hunting hypothesis (RHH). The importation of wastes can lead to environmental sustainability concerns, requiring governments to intervene when the market fails to reduce the negative externalities by strengthening and implementing environmental regulations. Motivated by China’s position within a rapidly growing but environmentally damaging sector of trade, this paper has three goals: (1) to classify the primary hypothesis that governs China’s flow of traded wastes; (2) to verify the heterogeneous impact of the pollution …

Sustainability In Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review, Reza Kiani Mavi, Denise Gengatharen, Neda Kiani Mavi, Richard Hughes, Alistair J. Campbell, Ross Yates

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper aims to identify the major research concepts studied in the literature of sustainability in construction projects. Two bibliometric analysis tools—(a) BibExcel and (b) Gephi, were used to analyze the bibliometrics indices of papers and visualize their interrelations as a network, respectively. Therefore, a research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis and keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis were performed to uncover the primary research themes. The RFPN analysis clustered the studies into three major categories of evaluating sustainability, project management for sustainability, and drivers of sustainable construction. The KCON analysis revealed that while each paper had a different focus, the …

Company Financial Performance, Company Characteristics, And Environmental Disclosure: Evidence From Singapore, I. F. S. Wahyuningrum, S. Oktavilia, N. Putri, B. Solikhah, Hadrian Djajadikerta, E. Tjahjaningsih

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science A company disclosed its environmental disclosure by providing its annual report and sustainability report as a responsibility to society and the environment. This study aims to examine the factors that influence environmental disclosure, consisting of profitability, leverage, company size, industry type and company age. Legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory are used in this study. The population in this study is industrial companies listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in 2018. Purposive sampling is used as a sampling method in order to obtain 61 companies. Multiple linear analysis was used to test …

Comparison Of Weighted And Unweighted Methods Of Wealth Indices For Assessing Socio-Economic Status, Muhammad Tareq, Assim Ibrahim Abdel-Razzaq, Md Arafat Rahman, Tonmoy Choudhury

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Due to some of the limitations of monetary measures, various non-monetary approaches for assessing household wealth have been developed as alternative tools for classifying household socio-economic status. Among them, wealth indices based on household durable assets are being used. The literature revealed that two basic methods of constructing wealth indices are employed: an unweighted method, where assets are weighted equally; and a weighted method, where specific weights are assigned to assets. In the case of using the weighted method, weighting can be assigned using various techniques. The overall objective of the study is to compare the wealth indices constructed by …

Accountability’S Aa1000ap Standard: A Framework For Integrating Sustainability Into Organisations, Muhammad Bilal Farooq, Rashid Zaman, Muhammad Nadeem

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate corporate sustainability integration by evaluating corporate practices against the sustainability principles of inclusivity, materiality, responsiveness and impact outlined in AccountAbility’s AA1000 Accountability Principles (AA1000AP) standard. Design/methodology/approach: Data comprise 12 semi-structured interviews with senior managers of listed New Zealand companies. Findings are evaluated against AccountAbility’s principles of inclusivity, materiality, responsiveness and impact, which are based on a normative view of stakeholder theory. Findings: In terms of inclusivity, stakeholder engagement is primarily monologic and is directed more towards traditional stakeholder groups. However, social media, which is gaining popularity, has the potential to facilitate greater dialogic stakeholder …

High Commitment Hrm And Burnout Of Frontline Food Service Employees: A Moderated Mediation Model, Stephen T. Teo, Diep T. N. Nguyen, Azadeh Shafaei, Tim Bentley

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose:

Drawing from the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the authors’ study examines the impact of high commitment HR management (HCHRM) practices and psychological capital (PsyCap) on job autonomy and job demands in predicting burnout in frontline food service employees.

Design/methodology/approach:

A moderated mediation model was developed and tested on 257 Australian workers employed in the food service industry. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

Findings:

There was support for the mediation effect of HCHRM on burnout, via two sequential mediators: job autonomy and job demands. PsyCap was found to buffer (moderation) the effect …