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This research aims to explore the perceived usefulness of audited social information in making economic decisions, in the eyes of both Tunisian financial analysts and bankers.

The authors conduct an exploratory qualitative study using twelve semi-structured interviews: seven are carried out with financial analysts, and five are performed among bankers.

This study’s results reveal that financial analysts and bankers paid little attention to the audited social information in making investment/credit granting decisions. The authors also show that the low perceived usefulness of social audit is due to many reasons related to political, economic, regulatory, educational, cultural and cognitive factors.

This study contributes to the current literature in several ways. First, it enriches the knowledge about the perceived usefulness of social audit. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the perception of financial analysts and bankers to audited social information and its usefulness for decision-making. Second, the focus on the Tunisian context is interesting as it was marked, since the outbreak of the Jasmine Revolution, by the uncertainty and the instability of political, economic and social conditions. Third, this research goes further by exploring the most important factors affecting the perceiveness of social auditing.

Fires have the potential to destroy, resulting in the loss of property and livelihoods, as well as injury, death and repeated trauma for those who are already vulnerable. However, fire as a hazard has been treated rigidly and un-critically, a model that has influenced how it is perceived by policy makers, first responders, engineers and academics and subsequently approaches to implementing and better understanding fire prevention, mitigation, response and recovery from the impacts of fire.

This article deals with fire, arguing that its case can help imagine what liberation might mean within and for disaster studies. The study argues against dogmatic, outdated, technological and solution-focused perspectives that have constrained how fire and its effects are understood and discuss what disciplinary liberation could mean for the study of fire and its integration within DRR. The study’s approach is based on the DRR Assemblage Theory, which points to fire as an issue at a societal level.

The study explores the themes of fire and liberation through contributions and insights that have emerged through the authors' professional experience in research and practice. It offers an original and timely engagement with disaster studies through the lens of fire, an increasingly pertinent phenomenon for disaster scholars and practitioners alike.

By drawing on the example of fire as a socio-technical-environmental phenomenon, this paper contributes a novel perspective on the intellectual and practical possibilities that can emerge from disciplinary liberation.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that explores the determinants, mechanisms and consequences of reporting on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) by universities. The framework considers the relationship between reporting on the SDGs and the three main activities of universities: research, teaching and service. As universities hold a unique position in society, understanding their experiences with SDG reporting offers insights into the promotion and integration of SDGs into reporting and practice more broadly.

The paper adopts a conceptual approach and draws on existing literature to develop a framework for understanding reporting on the UN SDGs by universities. The framework considers the challenges faced by universities in providing sustainability information and examines the motivations and outcomes associated with reporting. It also explores the coordination and collaboration necessary across departments within universities and discusses the risks associated with greenwashing.

The paper highlights that reporting on the UN SDGs can enhance university engagement with stakeholders, improve their reputation, and foster innovation and transdisciplinary research ideas. However, universities encounter challenges such as limited data availability, resource constraints, lack of coordination and competing priorities. The growing scepticism surrounding reporting motives has led to increased allegations of greenwashing within the sector.

This paper contributes to the accounting literature by presenting a comprehensive framework that explores the determinants, mechanisms and consequences of reporting on the UN SDGs by universities. The framework offers insights into how reporting on SDGs can lead to embedding the SDGs in research, teaching and service activities and can be adapted to other organisational contexts. The paper also emphasises the need for further research on the mechanisms of reporting, which play a crucial role in driving long-lasting change.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to science communication literature by further highlighting the underexplored role of organizational and corporate perspectives in science communication.

The paper takes the form of a conceptual article that uses two illustrative vignettes to highlight the power of corporate science communication.

The key argument is that corporate science communication is a compound ideology that results from merging the hegemonic corporate voice with the ultimate/god-term science (see the work of Kenneth Burke) to form a mega-ideological construct and discourse. Such communication can be so powerful that vulnerable publics and powerful advocates speaking on their behalf have little to no recourse to effectively challenge such discourse. While critiques of corporate science communication in practice are not new, what the authors offer is a possible explanation as to why such discourse is so powerful and hard to combat.

The value of this paper is in the degree to which it both sets an important applied research agenda for the field and fills a critical void in the science communication literature. This conceptual article, in the form of a critical analysis, fills the void by advocating for the inclusion of organizational perspectives in science communication research because of the great potential that organizations have, via science communication, to shape societal behavior and outcomes both positively and negatively. It also coins the terms “compound ideology” and “mega-ideology” to denote that while all ideologies are powerful, ideologies can operate in concert (compound) to change their meaning and effectiveness. By exposing the hegemonic power of corporate science communication, future researchers and practitioners can use these findings as a foundation to combat misinformation and disinformation campaigns wielded by big corporate science entities and the public relations firms often hired to carry out these campaigns.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how decision-makers can enhance citizens’ sustainable disposal of e-waste through bin proximity and ad hoc communication. Specifically, the authors discuss a two-year research project that took place in Northern Italy, where the authors documented the number of products disposed of sustainably in four towns.

The project involved five main groups of stakeholders: i) four municipalities, ii) one social purpose organisation employing people with disabilities, (i.e. Andromeda), iii) one provider of bins (i.e. PubliCittà), iv) another social purpose organisation entity (i.e. Fondazione CRT) and v) the University of Portsmouth. After conducting three online pilot tests to confirm expectations of this study regarding how to enhance citizens’ sustainable disposal of e-waste, the authors have implemented the field pilot programme in a small municipality and successively in other three towns. Finally, the authors measured the impact of the programme on the actual recycling rate of citizens in the three target municipalities.

The authors found that the positioning of drop-off bins in such a way as to reduce the distance from as many households as possible, along with the use of communication that facilitates the understanding of information related to sustainable disposal schemes, can improve the sustainable behaviour of citizens. The sustainable disposal of exhausted batteries after the intervention improved by 135% on average in the three municipalities that adopted the disposal scheme (Saluggia, San Benigno Canavese and Santhiá). The disposal rate of toners and electronics increased by 204.0% and 318.75% (San Benigno Canavese) and 138.7% and 85.4% (Santhiá), respectively.

The authors believe it would be cautious to consider potential differences in terms of recycling cultures and facilities before implementing the programme in other countries.

The authors’ contribution shows decision-makers how to effectively design disposal schemes to enhance citizens' sustainable behaviour. The authors demonstrate how the thoughtful and responsible use of marketing levers can affect environmental sustainability and impact social development.

This paper has an actual impact on society by changing citizens’ behaviour, reducing harm to the environment and human well-being and supporting the inclusion of disadvantaged people in sustainability-oriented programmes.

The structured and equitable engagement of scholars with multiple stakeholders can lead to the co-creation of societal value and knowledge and improve the well-being of multiple stakeholders. The collaboration between academics and practitioners enables the definition of effective strategies by observing the actual behaviour of individuals (i.e. citizens) and offers a direct and measurable impact on society. The involvement of social purpose organisations reinforces the shared primary aim of achieving measurable social and environmental impact.

The paper frames modern slavery as a global wicked problem and aims to provide a set of international business (IB) policy recommendations for taming it. The outlined approach can also guide IB policymaking to address other kinds of wicked problems.

This is a conceptual paper that reviews existing literature on wicked problems and integrates it with an IB policy double helix framework. The paper focuseses on the role multinational enterprises (MNEs) play in moderl slavery globally, either through global value chains or within global factory modes of operation.

As a global wicked problem, modern slavery will never be solved, but it can be re-solved time and time over. Understanding the social reproduction of modern slavery can help shift the focus from labor governance and a narrow supply chain focus toward the role of transnational governance and the need to address institutional, market and organizational failures.

The paper contributes to the gap in an overarching theory of modern slavery and systematically applies the concept of wicked problems and wickedness theory to modern slavery. Drawing on an IB policy double helix framework, the paper addresses the governance nexus between modern slavery, IB and policymaking which can in turn advance IB policy research and theory.

This study aims to examine the awareness of the inhabitants regarding energy consumption in relation to comfort in Tlemcen and analyze the paths of influence and the effects of individual objective and subjective characteristic factors. This determines the factors' level of perception of the importance of energy retrofitting.

As part of an exploratory empirical study, this paper further discusses accompanied survey data from a sample of 208 properties, through a triangulation of in-depth qualitative studies and quantitative studies developed and analyzed by SPSS software (the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

Analysis of the results of the survey shows that the respondents have a level of awareness on comfort linked to energy savings but they lack guidance and recourse to specialists. The conclusion is that resident awareness is crucial and beneficial and that the key socio-demographic characteristics to determine the perception factors are related to age, occupation, household size and time lived in the house.

By exploring some of the key insights from the survey, this research improves residents' perception of the importance of energy retrofitting in the residential sector, highlighting the importance of priorities. This influences public attitudes and contributes to raising awareness in order to provide useful results for developing, in future studies, motivational strategies for these inhabitants. The present research is expected to add value to existing studies academically and methodologically and provide policy guidance to policy makers and other energy efficiency (EE) practitioners in the Maghreb region and beyond.

Green innovation, particularly in manufacturing firms, is one of the most advocated methods to curb the effects of climate change. This study aims to investigate the impact of the integration of green customers and suppliers on the green innovation performance of food manufacturing firms in Pakistan. The institutional and resource-based view theories determine the moderating role of regulatory pressure and the mediating role of green knowledge integration capability (GKIC).

Data was collected from 511 middle management-level employees of food manufacturing firms in Pakistan. The questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity. Hierarchical regression is used to test the proposed hypothesis.

A marginal improvement in integration with green customers can increase the green innovation performance (GIP) of a firm by 23.6%. Green supplier integration can improve the GIP by 14.2%, whereas the GKIC mediates the relationship between Green Customers Integration (GCI) and GIP but not for green suppliers integration (GSI). The moderating effect of regulatory pressure was significant for the relationship between GCI and GIP but insignificant for GSI.

Food manufacturing accounts for approximately 16% of global green house gases (GHG) emissions. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) cannot be achieved without a significant decrease in GHG emissions by food manufacturing companies. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate firms' green innovation performance in this sector. The findings of this study can help policymakers develop policies for achieving SDGs.

This paper aims to investigate the knowledge and experience of Zambian teaching faculties with scholarly communication and dissemination practices.

The researchers used a survey to quickly obtain information about a large sample of individuals of interest. The study population consisted of faculties from two Zambian public universities with research and publication experience. The researchers used random sampling techniques. A total of 125 valid responses were received from the selected population.

The findings show that most respondents agreed that publishing in open-access journals increased visibility and readership, had a more significant impact, facilitated collaboration and interdisciplinary research, was cost-effective and provided accessibility. Google Scholar was the most commonly used platform, followed by ResearchGate and ORCID.

This study’s limitations focus on only two Zambian public universities. This study’s practical implications include improving the universities’ open-access policies and educating faculties on the benefits of open access.

This study’s originality lies in exploring the Zambian teaching faculties’ perceptions of open access and academic social networking sites. The results of this study can help universities and researchers in Zambia to understand the importance of scholarly communication and dissemination practices and help them implement effective policies for promoting open-access publishing, institutional repositories and academic social networking sites.

The primary purpose of the research is to examine the impact of financial socialisation (FS) on the financial well-being (FWB) of unskilled internal migrant labourers, particularly focusing on the intervening roles of financial knowledge (FK) and financial behaviour (FB).

Using a cross-sectional research design, primary data from 269 unskilled internal migrant labourers were collected, applying the purposive sampling method. Using the data, the direct and mediated effects are examined through a three-path mediation model with structural equation modelling (SEM).

Direct relationship analysis of FS on FWB exhibits an insignificant relationship, and FK also does not mediate the relationship; instead, FB acts as a potent mediator in both relationships.

The study enriches existing literature as it contributes to understanding the FWB of internal migrant labour, highlighting the pivotal role of FS and FB. Further, it provides insights for policymakers to enhance FWB through targeted interventions and inclusive policies, promoting social inclusion, economic empowerment and inclusive development.

Despite the significant economic role of unskilled internal migrant labours, studies have not focused on their FWB. Hence, the study delves into their FWB through FS directly as well as indirectly using a three-path mediation model for achieving sustainable development.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2024-0044