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AbstractInternationalization makes possible the competitive development of firms. This study proposes a methodology for the selection of international markets that identifies the most favourable international destinations for the paper and paperboard export industry in Colombia. For this purpose, a set of 23 factors divided into 5 categories are defined through literature: costs, trade barriers, logistics, environment and culture, and economy. This comprehensive model is applied to a set of 15 exporting firms and a combination of the multi-criteria models Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) is used for its development. The results indicate that the priority factors when choosing an international market are import costs (0.1974), transit time (0.1392), transport frequency (0.1174) and international transport costs (0.0971). Also, considering these priorities, the most viable markets for companies in this sector are Netherlands (0.9894), the United Kingdom (0.9740), Belgium (0.9409) and Germany (0.9351). The results obtained represent the identification of new possible alternative markets for Colombian companies in the paper sector to expand their international reach and develop in significantly more attractive and convenient markets according to their priorities. Also, this article contributes significantly to the development of methodologies for international markets exploration.

ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the role of the indigenous construct lokasamgraha in the context of social entrepreneurship. We identified lokasamgraha through content analysis of the Bhagavad Gita, employing the methodological approaches proposed by Bhawuk (2010). Using the lens of paradox theory, we investigated commonly accepted tensions in social enterprises. We developed a framework to explain how lokasamgraha can assist social enterprises in managing tensions and achieving the triple bottom-line. Furthermore, we validated this framework by citing a lokasamgraha-based social enterprise in India. Finally, before concluding, we discussed the implications and future research directions.

In this phenomenological study, the author proposes a spiritual triple bottom line framework (STBL) to develop and measure the three bottom lines: individual prosperity, impact on people, and impact on the planet through the lens of spirituality. The results are presented as an interpretation of the individual's perceptions of spirituality and their spiritual experiences. The result comprises three themes of spirituality and its nomological linkage i.e., inner sustainability with a triple-bottom-line framework (external sustainability). The themes are: the source of spirituality, the process of experiencing spirituality, and the outcome of being spiritual.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide the theoretical insights with regard to the green purchasing intention–behavior gap and the role played by social media influences in abating this gap. This paper takes into consideration a wider aspect with regard to the antecedents of behavioral intention through personal and social identities in place of the antecedents presented in the theory of planned behavior and social-identity theory. Furthermore, as the theories lack an explanation of how to reduce the intention–behavior gap, this paper also argues the source credibility model (SCM) in explaining the impact that social media influences can have on the behavioral gap. Design/methodology/approach – Hypothetical deductive method is proposed for this concept paper under the positivism research paradigm. Findings – Not applicable as this is a concept paper. However, the paper discusses the theoretical and managerial implications. Research limitations/implications – This is a concept paper. Yes this paper discusses the theoretical, managerial, and social/ecological implications. Practical implications – This paper highlights the relevance of consumers' personal and social identities when consumers make purchasing decisions regarding green products. How managers can make marketing strategies, based on credibility model, involving social media influences as product endorsers and ambassadors, as well as the policy makers to design products, earmark consumer behavior and to conduct marketing campaigns in time to come. Social implications – As to how policies can be designed and adopted for bio-based economies where sustainability and circularity are given priority and to increase the attention of businesses moving toward sustainable practices. Originality/value – Original thought developed based on research, theoretical and market gaps.

ABSTRACTPredictive maintenance strategies are becoming increasingly more important with the increased needs for automation and digitalization within pulp and paper manufacturing sector.Hence, this study contributes to examine the most efficient pre-processing approaches for predicting sensory data trends based on Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) neural networks. To validate the model, the data from two paper pulp presses with several pre-processing methods are utilized for predicting the units’ conditions. The results of validation criteria show that pre-processing data using a LOWESS in combination with the Elimination of discrepant data filter achieves more stable results, the prediction error decreases, and the predicted values are easier to interpret. The model can anticipate future values with MAPE, RMSE and MAE of 1.2, 0.27 and 0.30 respectively. The errors are below the significance level. Moreover, it is identified that the best hyperparameters found for each paper pulp press must be different.

Vietnam’s pulp and paper industry has contributed significantly to socio-economic growth but is also one of the industries with a very high risk of environmental pollution. Stems from the goal of economic growth coupled with environmental protection operations in Vietnam, this study examines the factors affecting the implementation of environmental management accounting (EMA) in manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam’s pulp and paper industries. The data used in the study were collected through survey questionnaires in the form of face-to-face interviews or sent by e-mail or post to survey respondents at 290 manufacturing enterprises pulp and paper in provinces and cities of Vietnam. Survey subjects are managers (directors, deputy directors, chief accountants) and accountants who have knowledge of EMA in these enterprises. The survey results were obtained from 250 valid survey questionnaires used in this study. This study uses Cronbach’s alpha analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and linear regression analysis using SPSS 20 statistical software. The results show that coercive pressure, normative pressure, awareness of the benefits of applying EMA, environmental strategy, managers’ perception, and qualifications of accountants have a positive impact on EMA implementation. In which, coercive pressure has the strongest impact, and awareness of the benefits of applying EMA has the weakest impact on EMA implementation in these enterprises.

Purpose – The paper describes patterns of study on innovation in the regional economic resilience literature regarding methods and findings. Design/methodology/approach – This study is a descriptive one and it uses, as a method, the scoping review based on Scopus and Web of Science databases. Forty-eight theoretical-empirical papers were thematically coded, and analyses were conducted using R packages and MaxQDA. Findings – Innovation has been used narrowly in the regional resilience literature, considering the variables, the types of shocks and the analyzed loci. From the sampled papers, this study suggests that, depending on the operationalization, the addressed relationship can be positive or negative, which still needs further investigation. In addition, the study identified two lines of research. The first, characterized by quantitative research, secondary sources and multivariate analyses, focuses on testing predictive regional resilience models based on innovation-related variables. The second, characterized by qualitative or multi-method approaches, is more concerned with explaining the knowledge accumulation and the learning capacity related to regional innovation. Research limitations/implications – The paper’s findings show a restricted view of the innovation–resilience relationship. Although this study does not present a meta-analysis, it reveals gaps for future research. Some suggestions can be highlighted, such as (1) expanding knowledge about innovation as a predictor of resilience, (2) the theoretical development of this relationship to guide empirical investigations and (3) studies that consider the meso or micro level, approaching the role of actors in fostering innovation in the regional resilience process. Originality/value – This paper fulfills an identified need to investigate how innovation has been operationalized in regional resilience empirical research.

Every enterprise seeks to determine as accurately as possible the cost of the products or services it produces. The allocation of indirect costs causes considerable difficulties in this process. In the search for the most accurate alternatives for allocating indirect costs, the Activity Based Costing (ABC) method has become more popular in recent decades and is increasingly used by companies. The ABC method has many advantages, but it also has disadvantages, which have led to further development of the method by proposing newer versions. These include Fuzzy Activity Based Costing (FABC), which reduces the risk of uncertainty in data collection conditions and inaccurate cost allocation. However, while the literature provides a theoretical model of the FABC approach, there is very little research focused on sector-specific companies. Given that the issue of indirect cost allocation is particularly relevant for manufacturing companies, this paper explores the possibilities of applying the FABC method in manufacturing companies, using the example of a paper and cardboard manufacturing company. The aim of the research: after revealing the principles of ABC and FABC implementation, to improve the indirect cost allocation process in a paper and cardboard manufacturing company using the FABC method. The methods used for the study were document analysis, observation, conversation, interview, and fuzzy set analysis. The results showed that the FABC method has lower cost drivers for some activities and higher cost drivers for others than the ABC method. The improvement path developed for the allocation of indirect costs using the FABC approach could serve as a good model for its implementation in other manufacturing sectors.

Purpose: Doing a bibliometric analysis of the papers on Total Quality Management published in Algerian Scientific Journals Platform (ASJP). Methodology/Approach: Following Bibliometric analysis approach that reaches the export of scientific papers from ASJP during 2005-2022 and using Bibiloshiny based on the R language (RStudio). Findings: The study highlighted the prominent authors, universities, and journals, identifying both opportunities and research advancements in TQM research and urging scientific collaboration. TQM practices in different sectors remain a current and relevant research topic, however, the analysis outlined some conceptual structure gaps within particular areas. The outputs provide insights and suggestions for scholars and practitioners in the field of TQM. Research Limitation/Implication: The study examines only papers published in ASJP until 2022. Findings could be useful for TQM stakeholders in emerging countries. Practitioners benefit from experiments to deal with the TQM method. Originality/Value of paper: In Algerian context, the study’s substantive contribution denotes that Industrial and Health care Areas constitute knowledge and empirical gaps in the TQM field; for future, researchers should exploit key words used by prominent authors; the TQM performance and higher education are the most explored topics as Motor themes; organisational culture as emerging theme had grown interest need exploration; total quality or continuous improvement themes are important for the TQM research require further works.

Our multidisciplinary review paper aims to explore the research paradigms of unethical behavior from different academic perspectives. By doing this, our paper contributes to a better understanding of unethical behavior by drawing knowledge from alternative understandings of such behavior. More specifically, our multidisciplinary inquiry aims to summarize the main findings documented by scholars from different disciplines that conducted independent research on the topic using unique perspectives and ideas associated with the field. As such, in order to gain a better understanding of how unethical behavior is examined through a range of different disciplines and areas of research we assessed the highly cited papers found at the intersection of various categories and research areas such as management, business economics, and psychology, ethics, engineering, and environmental sciences and ecology, public environmental occupational health. Having the goal to offer the most representative research on the topic, we based our review on the highly cited papers examining unethical behavior from the Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science (WoS), the world`s leading scientific citation search and analytical information platform. The results show that the highly cited papers analyzed cluster around two major research themes as antecedents and factors increasing/enabling unethical behavior (e.g. propensity of moral disengagement, psychological entitlement, self-serving justifications, job insecurity, air pollution, polluted social contexts, creativity, favorable attitudes of upper-class toward greed, etc.) and factors deterring or limiting it (e.g. religion, ethical leadership). Given our multidisciplinary review, our study helps provide alternative understandings and important insights on the research of unethical behavior to serve for novel investigations in both practice and theory.

Research work carried out in any institution could be meaningfully administered, and the outputs generated rendered more rewarding for its key stakeholders, if a set of critical success factors (CSFs) are outlined ex-ante. When CSFs are neither clearly identified nor practised in a vital sector such as commercial agriculture, difficulties arise with timely monitoring and evaluation, and tallying the achievements with intended Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – particularly the goal of ‘zero hunger’. This article proposes a Key Performance Index (KPI index) that takes into account CSFs that would aid in evaluating the success of research linked with commercial agriculture development. How such an index is used to facilitate monitoring of scarce resource utilisation and internal processes of research institutes, and thereby support evidence-based decision-making to sustain a conducive research culture is explored with a special focus on underutilised performance drivers (e.g., societal development and environmental sustainability) in line with agriculture research.

Sustainable agricultural production is essential for an adequate food supply to feed the global population. One facet of efforts in making the agricultural sector more sustainable is the dramatic increase in organic farming (OF). With its current popularity, people across the globe are increasingly interested in the sustainable performance of organic production. However, accurate and timely information is scarce and there is a lacuna of knowledge among organic farmers about Sustainability Assessment (SA). Many promising SA measurement tools have been developed for the organic farming sector. However, improved procedures and a broader common knowledge are still necessary. In response, this paper provides a comprehensive comparison and scientific underpinning of the prominent tools for assessing farm sustainability to provide support for monitoring sustainable development in OF practices. This comparison can contribute to the adoption of suitable SA tools, and, thereby, the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development goals by 2030.

AbstractSolid waste management has become one of the critical environmental concerns in developing countries. Information and communications technology have revolutionized traditional organizational management processes, increased efficiency, and significantly reduced paper use. The recruitment process in higher education institutes (HEIs) includes job applications and certificates of degree, and previous job-related documents. Such recruitment policies are causing paper waste and need the attention of policymakers. This study aims to provide empirical evidence for a policy shift that can have a broader impact on the environment. The current study aims to contribute to the existing research by considering the traditional recruitment approaches of public sector HEIs in Pakistan as a source of solid waste. The study highlights the previously disregarded aspect of the research on solid waste and explores the traditional practices of government-owned HEIs that lead to excessive amounts of paper waste. A mixed-methods approach is performed to confirm this hypothesis. We observed newspaper advertisements and then floated a questionnaire among employees of the HEIs. Findings confirm that traditional recruitment is one of the primary antecedents of paper waste generation. Results suggest that technology-driven recruitment reduces paper waste and leads to sustainable development.

Cellulose is an organic component that is widely found in wood fibers. Cellulose is the main component in the pulp/paper industry. As in wood, the raw material for pulp contains cellulose fibers. Cellulose is often used and processed to produce various types in the paper industry. Pulp is the primary material for different paper products, ranging from factories’ boards to daily necessities such as paper, tissue, tea bags, and magazines. Meanwhile, paper is a new change in literature and language that has played a significant role in the history of the development of human civilization. The pulp and paper industry in Indonesia provides a reasonably good contribution to the Indonesian economy. Several pulp & paper companies are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The results of previous studies indicate that several pulp & paper companies are in a stage of financial difficulty. This study aims to prove empirically that the Z-score as a measure of the company's economic challenges affects stock prices. The results showed that the Z-score affected stock prices. From several ratios that make up the Z-score, it is known that the ratio of working capital to total assets, market value of equity to book value of debt, and sales to total assets have a significant effect on stock prices.

Non-profit Organizations (NPOs) have a wide range of social missions and impacts. This organization is supported by volunteers and needs to survive amidst competition and move in a sustainable direction. They see the necessity to be involved in the many stages of creating value for an organization. One of the underlying phenomena of value creation is the tacit knowledge-sharing process. However, academic research and scientific publications on tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) in non-profit organizations in Indonesia are still minimal and even rare. This paper aims to explore how tacit knowledge (TK) sharing occurred among volunteers in Non-Profit Organizations and drivers of TK sharing (TKS), including individual and organizational factors. This study explores the abovementioned topics through in-depth interviews with volunteers utilizing open-ended questions to acquire deep insights into the TKS issue. Thematic analysis has been carried out using data coding to extract themes. The findings revealed that various drivers for the smooth transfer of TK have been identified based on individual and organizational elements. These findings will be beneficial to academics and practitioners looking for accurate data on the enabling aspects of TKS based on two factors (individual and organizational). Moreover, the use of knowledge sharing in NPOs would be filling a gap in the literature on the topic.

The tobacco industry has made a gradual move from developed countries to developing countries to expand its market. As part of this trend, tobacco companies in India invest a substantial amount of money in marketing activities. Although the government of India has gradually been increasing restrictions on marketing and sales of tobacco products, the creative and evolving marketing practices of tobacco companies have ensured that such measures have little effect. In this perspective paper, a critical evaluation of marketing practices used by the tobacco industry in India suggests that pro-tobacco marketing is a major hurdle towards bringing effective tobacco control policies and their successful implementation. It is demonstrated that the big tobacco companies in India backed by immense resources have been capable of countering the various legislative provisions for tobacco control in India through creative and manipulative marketing practices.

Purpose: This study aimed at implementing lean six sigma to evaluate the productivity and manufacturing waste in the production line of a paper company Methodology/Approach: The study is a case study in nature. The method illustrates how lean six sigma (LSS) is used to evaluate the existing production process in a paper production company with focus on productivity and manufacturing waste. The study considered a real-time problem of customer’s dissatisfaction. The gathered data is based on machine functionality (up time, down time and cycle time); materials and labour flow at every process stages of the production line. The optimization of the production process was based on lean tools like value stream mapping, process cycle efficiency, Kaizen, 5S and pareto chart Findings: Based on lean six sigma application, it was discovered that the present production performance was below standard and more manufacturing wastes were generated. The present productivity and manufacturing wastes are reported as low process cycle efficiency (23.4 %), low takt time (4.11 sec), high lead time (43200sec), high number of products not conforming to six sigma values, high down time (32.64 %) and excess labour flow (33). After the implementation of the lean six sigma tools for certain period of time, there are lots of improvements in the production line in terms of all the parameters considered. Research Limitation/ Implications: The study has demonstrated an application of lean six sigma in the case of solving real-time problems of productivity and manufacturing wastes which have a direct implication on customer’s satisfaction. The lesson learned and implications presented can still be further modeled using some lean based software for validity Originality/Value: The study has contributed to the body of knowledge in the field of LSS with focus to process based manufacturing, unlike most literature in the field concentrate more on discrete based manufacturing.

Industrialisation in its true sense began in India only after her independence in 1947. It has been a long journey since then. Initially, for about four and half decades since 1947, based on the Import-substitution strategy, Indian industry functioned in a highly regulated and protected environment dominated by the public sector. However, a paradigm shift occurred in India’s industrialisation strategy in the early 1990s as a new policy regime aimed at opening up and deregulation of Indian industry was adopted to facilitate the growth of competition. While the Indian industry has been functioning according to this policy regime for the last three decades, new issues have started to emerge. The paper attempts to unravel the cause and consequence of the process of industrialisation that has unfolded in India over the last seven decades and tries to analyse the challenges confronting the Indian industry at present and suggest the policy initiatives that could tackle them.

Street vending has persisted for centuries and pervasive across the globe since it plays a remarkable role in fulfilling customer needs in the context of the informal economy. In the contemporary business context, authorities have not paid sufficient attention towards street vendors. The paper addresses the specific features of street vending in the context of Sri Lanka, various challenges faced by street vendors and possible courses of action for the empowerment of street vendors. Accordingly, location issue with lack of infrastructure, less support from the government, insecurity and unstable conditions, slow growth, lack of financing opportunities and less support from banks were identified as major challenges faced by street vendors in Sri Lanka. Proper location and infrastructure development, assurance of security including a specific insurance scheme and financial assistance are proposed to empower street vendors to enhance their performance.

The Business Model Conference 2021, held at Aalborg University’s Copenhagen campus in early October, provided the members of the academic community with a great opportunity to discuss the latest research, innovative teaching methods, and best practices in business models research. Following the cancellation of the Business Model Conference 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, the 2021 edition represented a new beginning and restored the familiar sense of community feeling experienced before the pandemic.

Purpose: Islamic, as well as modern literature, on the issue of halal/haram (permissible and prohibited), primarily circulates around the product’s ingredient aspect, categorizing a particular object specifically into one of the mentioned dichotomist heads. On contrary to the usual individualistic consumer/product-centric approach, this paper discusses several macros, systems-level models, which follow the top-bottom approach. Methodology: A discourse, through conceptual framework analysis, this paper discusses the concept of halal and haram, to understand the nature and antecedents to the concepts as narrated in the revealed texts of Quran and Hadith. Findings: It is proposed that although the terms of halal and haram are elaborated extensively in literature, there are several gaps in the understanding of the concept at the systems level. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive understanding through conceptual framework of halal/haram using the conceptual analysis method, which grounds into Islamic literature to trace the phenomenon’s major concepts and dimensions at various systems levels, such as society and environment. Conclusion: The research would enrich the understanding of how the Creator has created filters to provide the believers the best to consume and balances the cosmic systems through commandments to individuals, compliances to which supplement and support the Islamic lifestyle and Islamic social structure and sustained global development.

The present paper starts from the analysis of the degree of education in higher education in Romania in recent years and the highlighting of the gaps between the Member States of the European Union, with an emphasis on the existing imbalances between the different areas of the country. Thus, if the European Commission defined as desirable a "European Education Area" in which by 2030 at least 45% of young people aged between 25 and 34 will have graduated from a university education program, in Romania the latest data indicate a level below 23% and slightly decreasing in recent years, compared to the European average of 41.2%. The last population census from the end of 2021 indicates for the North-East Region a proportion of only 14.6% of the population aged 20 and over who have completed higher education in the total population of this age group, being the last region in the country, but also from the EU. The dynamics between the last two censuses confirm the lowest increase in this indicator for the poorest region, with +21.4% compared to the Romanian average of +25%. Within the region, Bacău county, with an average of 13.2% at the last census, has the lowest dynamics not only in the region but also in the country, with an increase of only 11.1% of this proportion.

Using the stewardship theory and theory of fear of failure as the underlying theory, the study focuses on investigating CEO characteristics and disability employment of listed firms in India. The study employed descriptive statistics and feasible generalised least square (FGLS) assumption to analyze data from 80 Indian listed firms with 800 firm-year observations from 2010 to 2019. We find that CEO age and CEO tenure have a strong and positive correlation. The first findings show that ageing CEOs are insignificant to exhibit any levels of disability employment in India. This study suggests that ageing CEOs do not see disability employment as a welfare cost or employment that can lead to a consequential profit. The second findings show that firms with long-tenured CEOs exhibit a higher level of disability employment. This outcome does not conflict with the assumption that the CEO has a sense of responsibility to achieve what is right and protect the firm’s assets. Lastly, the study shows that female CEOs exhibit higher levels of disability employment in India. The study is limited to firms with data on people with disabilities. Using the Indian stock market as the only study source may affect the study’s generalisation. Also, small firms that employ disabled persons are not on the stock market and may potentially undermine the study’s scope. Examining CEO characteristics (CEO age, CEO tenure and CEO gender) on disability employment deepens disability studies in emerging markets.

Purpose: The reason of this research article is presents some principles establish in creative writing and publishing the article in any journal. Paper publishing is a very tough job and time-consuming process mostly in Pakistan. Even within Pakistan, there are a lot of journals we have, who making difficult to decide what appropriate venue is for one’s research and creative writing. Luckily, many of the obstacles along the writing and publishing path can be avoided by following some simple guidelines and practices. Methodology: The methodology of the research paper is supported on literature review and articles. Essential issues and barriers of publishing a research paper in any journal and conference is the aim of this study. By using examples of technology based learning and by explaining from literature review the manuscript acquired an interdisciplinary stance. Findings: findings of the study were made the understanding how to solve problems in creative writing and publishing problems of educational research in Pakistan. (a) Lake knowledge of important parts of a research paper. (b) Lake knowledge of how to describe data in data analyses. (c) Some may have weak critical thinking or brainstorming skills. (d) Some are not able to craft an impeccable research paper which lands in either of the HEC approved journals or in any international journal. (e) Few Researcher try to seek help from some external sources which may appear to offer them cheap research papers but in the end, may eventually rob them of a lot of money and will deliver them deplorable research papers.

Food quality and human health influences contemporary life. Today more than ever, quality products to be safe in terms of food to meet the needs and innocuity became major values for all producers, processors, distributors, especially for food consumers who are becoming more aware that their health depends on the quality of the food they consume. The paper recently a case study in a Romanian company in the dairy industry and the manufacture of dairy products, and all commercial operations the object of transaction milk and milk products, a small company that combines managed but we consider traditionalism ( the products we offer to the market ) modernism ( European requirements, quick marketing, producer - client relationship etc). This paper analyzes the emergence and development aspects of the company, implementing and upgrading production technology, issues related to the introduction of quality management, promotion and sale of products, customer relations, etc. We believe that SC HELVETICA MILK SRL, the constant concern of food safety, raw material procurement stage till marketing - customer satisfaction by offering quality products and thereby ensure customer loyalty. In conclusion, we believe the company is a successful example of business succces Romanian food industry.

The term internationalization has been mainly used to show the expansion of economic activities of firms outside of their home country where they aim at capturing a bigger market. The Central and Eastern Europe region has gone through a process of market transition over the past few decades, yet the business internationalization process has played an important role in the states’ economies. The aim of this paper is to analyze the firm internationalization process in the new member states and the Western Balkans countries and gain a better understanding of the process and its course over time. Due to different geopolitical circumstances, the Western Balkan countries did not attract as many investors as much as the EU member states in CEE did that have had a constant flow of investments once they were members of the EU.

The foreign reserves sufficiency is important to maintain macroeconomic stability. The main objective of this paper is to model the behaviour of the central bank in accumulating the foreign reserves in the case of Indonesia. Unlike the previous empirical studies, this paper disaggregates the components of foreign reserves into foreign currency, securities, gold, and special drawing rights. This paper relies on the Almost Ideal Demand System combined with the Error Correction Model. The estimation result for monthly data over the period 2010(1)-2020(12) reveals that the own-price coefficients are negative and statistically significant which is consistent with the standard theory of demand. While the foreign currency-securities pairwise is substitutive, the foreign currency-gold and the foreign currency-special drawing rights pairwise are complementary or even independent. However, the wealth effect is inelastic except for securities reserves. These results imply that the central bank of Indonesia can re-balance its reserves. The securities holding which have the highest proportion of foreign reserve scan be switched to foreign currency, gold, and/or special drawing rights. The rebalancing measures would remain having an optimal level of foreign reserves holding in terms of its opportunity cost. Therefore, the monetary authority can conduct a further macroeconomic stabilisation without substantially losing the returns.

This paper investigates the dynamics of market synchronicity and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in Africa. It seeks to determine whether or not IFRS is an augmentor or inhibitor of market synchronicity in Africa. This study is not only a foundational study that unfolds the dynamics of market synchronicity and IFRS adoption in Africa but also extends the scope of synchronicity from firm-level assessment to country-level market synchronicity. It is one of the few studies which have shifted the literature on synchronicity from one largely limited to firm-level synchronicity to country-level synchronicity through analyses of cross-border market synchronisation. It employs Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) and Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) to investigate the market synchronicity-IFRS nexus. The study uses monthly data from March 2005 to November 2021 in five African markets: Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa generating 1005 observations in an 18-year data span. The paper reveals a significant negative consequence of IFRS on market synchronicity. Thus, IFRS exhibits an inhibition role in market synchronicity (reduces synchronicity) and improves price informativeness. A decreasing pattern was also observed immediately after IFRS was adopted by the stock markets and persisted for about five years. It implies that the price informativeness of stock markets through IFRS makes them good candidates for intra-Africa portfolio diversification due to reduced investors’ risk exposure to market synchronicity.

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the thematic content of research addressing the relation between board of directors (BoD) and business transformation (BT) to obtain better understanding of status and to derive future areas of study. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews literature through a bibliometric analysis based on co-occurrence of articles published in Web of Science Core Collection ™ (WoS) between 1990 and 2022, identifying key concepts, setting network of relations and identifying the strategic importance of clusters of concepts. Findings and implications are discussed, future lines of research are presented and limitations are noted. Findings – Thematic research on boards addressing transformation shifted from the analysis of individuals' traits to an organizational approach with majority of research centered on the role of boards under different theories and the consequences of strategic changes on firm's performance. Further research is around gender diversity, sustainability and the moderating role of ownership structure and business culture. Research limitations/implications – Some limitations are also noted. This analysis considered articles indexed by WoS for Q1+Q2 publications as source of literature, while including others such as Scopus would increase knowledge base. Also, to identify main streams of research, the authors considered keywords with cumulative occurrence spanning from 30% to 40% while increasing this percentage would add terms that might improve precision to the connections among keywords. Other techniques could have been used such as co-citation or bibliographic coupling, although the authors find these as better suited to investigate the basic structure behind the foundational knowledge of the topic while the authors’ intention was to understand the positioning of study fields regarding the degree of research progress. Practical implications – This paper presents some practical implications for future researchers. Those who wish to leverage previous evidence to address new research questions might look into principal themes covering BoD dynamics and composition to exert CG, and the relation between strategic decisions and performance measured by different variables. Those who wish to position their research as new findings to shed light on dilemmas, might find opportunities in the fields of climate change-sustainability, R&D for growth and innovation under the perspective of intangible assets. Originality/value – This paper, is the first to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to identify research clusters for the intersection of boards and transformation and to determine their stage of development. 研究目的 – 本文旨在分析探討董事會與業務轉型之間的關係的學術研究的專題內容，以能對有關課題的研究狀況有更深入的了解，並擬從分析中取得未來可供研究的範疇。 研究設計/方法/理念 – 本文透過科學計量分析法來進行文獻探討。方法乃基於在1990年至2022年期間在Web of Science Core Collection 刊載的學術論文的共現分析而進行; 透過這個研究方法，研究人員建立了聯繫的網絡，並確認了各個概念群組的策略重要性。在本文中，研究結果和研究結果帶來的啟示會被討論，未來的研究領域和方針也會得到說明，研究的局限也會被認定和記錄下來。 研究結果 – 探討董事會而又涉及業務轉型的專題研究，由當初集中探討董事個人的特質、轉移到現在研究整體的組織理念和處事取向，而就後者來說，大部份的研究都集中於在不同的理論框架裡董事會所扮演的角色，以及因策略上的改變而為公司的業績帶來的影響。進一步的學術研究都是圍繞著性別多元化、可持續性、所有權結構所扮演的緩和角色和商業文化的研究。 研究的原創性/價值 – 盡我們所知，本文乃為首篇學術論文，去鑑定關於董事會與業務轉型之間的關聯的研究集群，也是首篇學術論文，去確定這些研究集群的發展階段。

Purpose – The gap that this research attempts to fill is to analyse the explanatory factor “industry” when assessing the reputation of a corporate group. In other words, this research attempts to demonstrate the impact of the “industrial halo” on the assessment of corporate reputation, given that, to date, the academic literature has not considered industry as an explanatory variable in the assessment of the reputation of private companies. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 43 Spanish companies was used to analyse the relationship between the reputation of firms as measured by the Merco Empresas index, and the industries to which they belong, after controlling for company performance, size, turnover, public recognition of their leadership, and corporate responsibility. This involved conducting a cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between the variables for each year in the time period from 2005 to 2016. The available data were taken from the firms' annual financial reports and websites, as well as from the Merco. Findings – The paper shows the existence of industrial halos that account for the corporate reputation of businesses in Spain. It is also shown that industrial halos are not permanent over time, and that they tend to occur in years of crisis. Research limitations/implications – It would have been desirable for this study to have had sufficient data to include other industries, but this was not possible. As for possible extensions, in addition to expanding the period considered, other analytical techniques, such as panel data models, could be applied to allow comparison with the results obtained here. Practical and social implications – The results of this study have some practical implications. Firstly, firms that publish corporate reputation rankings should be aware of the distortion that the industrial halo can produce, especially in times of uncertainty, and seek to correct for it in their measurements. And secondly, corporate groups themselves should assume that the reputation of the industry affects their individual reputation, and consequently, they should see the other companies in the industry not only as competitors but also as “reputational allies”. They should therefore make collective efforts to improve in this respect, especially in the face of reputational crises. Originality/value – This paper provides a better understanding of the relationship between the reputation of a company and the industry to which it belongs, and of its permanence over time. This relationship has been little studied in the Spanish market to date. 研究目的 – 本研究擬分析當企業集團的信譽被評估時的解釋性因素-行業,以填補現時的研究缺口。具體來說,研究人員鑒於學術文獻至今仍未於評估私營企業的信譽時、把行業當作是一個解釋變量來看待,故擬進行研究、以顯示行業光環在評估企業信譽時所產生的影響。 研究設計/方法/理念 – 研究使用的樣本為43間西班牙公司。研究人員分析以Merco Empresas 指數來測量的公司信譽與公司所屬行業之間的關係。有關的分析調控了公司的業績、規模、營業額、企業責任、以及企業領導能力的公眾認可程度所帶來的影響。研究人員對有關變量間的關係進行橫向分析 分析於2005年至2016年期間年度性地進行。現有數據取自有關公司的年度財務報表和其網站,也有取自Merco的。 研究結果 – 研究結果表明了可解釋西班牙企業信譽的行業光環是存在的。研究結果亦顯示、行業光環不是永恆的,而且,行業光環往往會在營運極其困難的年度內出現。 研究的原創性/價值 – 本文讓我們更深入瞭解公司信譽與公司所屬行業之間的關係,以及其在時間上的永恆性。就這相關的關係而言,探討西班牙市場的研究至今為數不多。

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the antecedents and postcedents of customer satisfaction, including utilitarian, social and emotional factors, in a fair trade (FT) coffee consumption context. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a broad range of 177 consumers of FT coffee in Spain, the data analysis used structural equation modeling (SEM) with SPSS/AMOS 26.0 software. Findings – This paper supports that both customer social value and quality affect perceived value (PV). PV in turn has effects on customer satisfaction and the latter influences loyalty. Conversely, both customer emotional value and customer expectations were not confirmed as antecedents of PV. Research limitations/implications – The consumer satisfaction analysis conducted differs substantially from those of conventionally traded coffee, as social and emotional factors were considered along with utilitarian factors. Practical implications – Practitioners, retailers and relevant institutions should design strategies to manage efficiently channel efforts to improve the consumer satisfaction and its loyalty. Originality/value – This paper contributes to a substantial improvement in the understanding of consumer satisfaction and its consequences, in FT coffee consumption contexts. A new integrated theoretical model on customer satisfaction has been provided, which includes social and emotional perception factors, along with cognitive perception (quality and expectations) factors. 研究目的 – 研究旨在確認在公平貿易咖啡消費的課題上，顧客滿意的誘因及其後因，這包括實用的因素，社會的因素和情感的因素。 研究設計/方法/理念 – 研究之數據廣泛來自在西班牙177名公平貿易咖啡消費者; 分析則以結構方程模型，並以SPSS Amos 26軟件來進行。 研究結果 – 研究結果證實，顧客社會價值和質量是會影響認知價值的;認知價值繼而影響顧客滿意度，而顧客滿意度又進而影響他們的忠誠。相反的，顧客情緒價值或他們的期望、均未能證實是認知價值的先決條件。 研究的局限/啟示 – 本研究所進行的消費者滿意度分析，與其它以傳統方法銷售的咖啡之相關研究有很大的分別，這是因為本研究除了考慮實用的因素外，還納入了社會因素和情感因素。 實務方面的啟示 – 從業人員、零售商和有關的機構應制訂適切的策略，以能有效地管理各個管道，來提升消費者的滿意度和忠誠。 研究的原創性 – 本研究的貢獻在於它幫助我們在公平貿易咖啡消費的課題上，對消費者滿意及其效果有更深入的認識。研究亦提供了一個探討顧客滿意度的嶄新、綜合的理論模型，而這個理論模型，除了涵蓋知覺認知 (質量和期望) 的因素外，還納入了社會的和情感的知覺因素。

The paper tracks challenges to litigating (direct and indirect) imports of military equipment to Russia and Russia’s subsequent international humanitarian law of armed conflicts (IHL) violations committed in indiscriminate attacks in Ukraine. It asks whether arms export control is capable of preventing or mitigating the results of indiscriminate attacks in Ukraine. It is assumed that IHL compliance can be complemented by preventing military equipment from being delivered to recipients when there is a risk of serious IHL violations being committed with that equipment. By comparing arms transfers from Iran with other controversial arms exports, the paper examines if increased protection for IHL ensued by arms export control laws can remedy deficiencies in arms transfer decisions that do not account for IHL. If an answer is negative, corporate due diligence will perform a complementary role in respecting IHL when state authorisation for arms transfer fails to account for IHL.

Both social media marketing and the digital activity of Instagram influencers have transformed the virtual landscape of book promotion. In other words, the growth of the #bookstagram community has given the entire publishing industry the opportunity to interact with potential readers and, by extension, increase product visibility through the social media platform Instagram. With this in mind, the present study aims to deepen the importance of promotion techniques within bookstagram and, moreover, to portray the modern methods implemented as central pillars in 21st century marketing strategies. Therefore, the paper investigates the broad spectrum of online approaches accessible to book influencers in the field of social media marketing through qualitative research, with in-depth interviews as the research method. As promotion can be achieved through a number of valuable techniques, the research focuses on highlighting the bookstagram tour, but also other equally effective strategies in terms of expanding the target audience and maximizing interactions. Moreover, there is the approach of types of posts, the involvement of awards or even touching on divergent topics of the books. Thus, by examining the phenomenon present in social media – influencer marketing and their methods of attracting consumer attention, the paper helps to build on the literature and offers new insights for both publishers and influencers. In particular, the research contributes to the evolving information on influencer marketing and highlights the importance of incorporating social media into marketing strategies to keep the online landscape current and dynamic.

The Greek economic crisis produced severe economic and social outcomes. A massive rescue package was conditional on implementing a Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies agreed upon between the Greek government and the EU, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. The extremely austere fiscal consolidation and the structural reforms accompanying the Greek Economic Adjustment Programmes reduced the country’s GDP. Implementing the austerity policies on the Greek National Health System, which was already facing structural problems, reduced the quality and availability of public health care services. This paper investigates the impact of the GDP change on public healthcare expenditures (HCE) from 2000 to 2018. The empirical analysis reveals a statistically significant positive correlation between the GDP per capita and public healthcare expenditure (HCE) from 2000 to 2014 while the effect of GDP on HCE after the 2015 remains unchanged. This paper contributes to the field’s literature since it determines the impact of GDP on public HCE, specifically matched with empirical results to derive conclusive answers.

Research on creative organizations often questions how artistic practices can be squared within the rational decision-making of economic thinking. This paper examines how the relational language, or conversation, between artistic and economic rationales unfolds for creative entrepreneurs. Through ethnographic work with a designer-entrepreneur, this paper presents a fine-grained analysis of the conversation the designer cultivates between artistic and economic rationales through work practices. We contribute to the literature about artistic and economic rationales at work, and more specifically to the concept of conversation. First, we show that high levels of conversing make way for low levels of conversing and vice versa. In the studio, the designer’s engagement with either rationale varies as the creative process progresses. Second, on a more global dynamic, we demonstrate the conversation is continuous. It relies on its variations, which ensure the balance between rationales in the long run. We also contribute to the field of creative entrepreneurship research. We identify here one type of creative entrepreneur, with what we call a ‘small is beautiful’ attitude. Far from the mythical figure of the entrepreneur, this unconventional entrepreneur aims for sustainable use of creative resources rather than growth at all costs.

Motivation: The relationship between ESG factors and sustainability is a widely debated topic in the literature, but to our knowledge, there is a gap concerning the investigation of links between groups formed with ESG and other sustainability concepts, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), green economy, circular economy, digitalization, technology, industry 4.0, and industry 5.0. Idea: The objective of this study is to identify the interest of researchers, their visibility, as well as the trends among publications, regarding the ESG factors in relation to other concepts within the realm of sustainability, like CSR, green economy, circular economy, digitalization, technology, industry 4.0, and industry 5.0. Data: The selected sample for the research includes 1430 papers screened from the Web of Science database. Tools: The aim of this study is achieved by conducting a bibliometric analysis, using VOSviewer and PowerBI. Findings: The findings of this study include the interconnectivity of selected concepts, the co-occurrence of authors’ keywords, the number of publications over time, as well as the paper types, the publishing activity by journal, the most productive authors, the co-authorship, their affiliation, the papers’ length, references, and citations trend, the most cited papers, the publishing activity by country and the collaboration patterns between countries. Contribution: This analysis supports the identification of potential gaps in current ESG-related research and points toward new areas of investigation. It also contributes to the advancement of ESG research and to the achievement of sustainable development goals.

Using Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2020 as a research sample, this paper examines the relationship between negative media coverage and corporate ESG performance using a two-way fixed-effects model. It is found that, first, negative media coverage can effectively promote corporate ESG performance. Second, the mediation mechanism study shows that negative media coverage positively promotes corporate ESG performance by increasing the degree of corporate financing constraints and information asymmetry and prompting corporations to change their ESG governance level. Third, the results of the heterogeneity test find that the positive relationship between negative media coverage and corporate ESG performance is more pronounced among firms without executives with overseas backgrounds, and the positive relationship between the two is more significant after the promulgation of China’s Code of Governance for Listed Companies in 2018. Fourth, further discussion revealed that negative media coverage has the strongest promotion effect on the performance of corporate environmental governance, followed by social governance performance, and lastly, corporate governance performance. The research in this paper contributes to an in-depth understanding of the impact of negative media coverage on corporate ESG performance and provides empirical evidence to facilitate policy formulation related to the role of media monitoring and to fully utilize the media’s role in corporate ESG governance.

The latest effort in delivering computing resources as a service to managers and consumers represents a shift away from computing as a product that is purchased, to computing as a service that is delivered to users over the internet from large-scale data centers. However, with the advent of the cloud-based IoT and artificial intelligence (AI), which are advancing customer experience automations in many application areas, such as recommender systems (RS), a need has arisen for various modifications to support the IoT devices that are at the center of the automation world, including recent language models like ChatGPT and Bard and technologies like nanotechnology. This paper introduces the marketing community to a recent computing development: IoT-driven fog computing (FC). Although numerous research studies have been published on FC “smart” applications, none hitherto have been conducted on fog-based smart marketing domains such as recommender systems. FC is considered a novel computational system, which can mitigate latency and improve bandwidth utilization for autonomous consumer behavior applications requiring real-time data-driven decision making. This paper provides a conceptual framework for studying the effects of fog computing on consumer behavior, with the goal of stimulating future research by using, as an example, the intersection of FC and RS. Indeed, our conceptualization of the “fog-based recommender systems” opens many novel and challenging avenues for academic research, some of which are highlighted in the later part of this paper.

Since 2012, researchers have explored various factors influencing Bitcoin prices. Up until the end of July 2023, more than 9100 research papers on cryptocurrencies were published and indexed in the Web of Science Clarivate platform. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of publications on Bitcoin prices. This study aims to uncover significant themes within these research articles, focusing on cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin specifically. The research employs latent Dirichlet allocation to identify key topics from the unstructured abstracts. To determine the optimal number of topics, perplexity and topic coherence metrics are calculated. Additionally, the abstracts are processed using BERT-transformers and Word2Vec and their potential to predict Bitcoin prices is assessed. Based on the results, while the research helps in understanding cryptocurrencies, the potential of academic publications to influence Bitcoin prices is not significant, demonstrating a weak connection. In other words, the movements of Bitcoin prices are not influenced by the scientific writing in this specific field. The primary topics emerging from the analysis are the blockchain, market dynamics, transactions, pricing trends, network security, and the mining process. These findings suggest that future research should pay closer attention to issues like the energy demands and environmental impacts of mining, anti-money laundering measures, and behavioral aspects related to cryptocurrencies.

Purpose – This paper aims to address the question: What is the distribution of value (in pounds) created in a sample of domestic takeovers in the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2020 among acquirer and target stockholders? Design/methodology/approach – The author employs a traditional event study methodology to calculate the percentage excess returns of companies on the announcement date. These returns are then converted into pound-denominated excess returns using the companies' market capitalizations. This allows the author to estimate the synergies of the mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and how they are allocated between acquirers and targets. This innovative transformation from percentage to pound excess returns establishes a new ratio methodology for addressing the paper's objective. Findings – This paper reveals that in UK takeovers, 40 percent of the synergies in pounds are allocated to the stockholders of acquiring companies, while 60 percent go to the stockholders of target companies. In other words, acquirers retain a significant portion—more than half—of the synergies generated in these domestic deals. This original finding is statistically significant at the one percent level and strongly contradicts the hypothesis that acquirers, at best, merely break even. Originality/value – The evidence that UK takeovers distribute value gains nearly equally between domestic deal parties challenges the enduring conventional insight in the M&A literature. This conventional wisdom suggests that the value created by business combinations is entirely distributed to target company stockholders. Consequently, this reexamination may have broader implications, offering an alternative perspective on the motives behind business combinations. This perspective differs from the “managerial hubris hypothesis,” which aligns with the prevailing conventional insight but receives limited support in the original finding reported here.