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The purpose of this paper is to show the impact that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have on the evolution of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). GRI is a sustainability report disclosed by business organizations to meet the demands and interests of various stakeholders. These stakeholders’ needs have influenced GRI and its guidelines.

The methodology for this paper is library-based archival research. It is qualitatively and analytically descriptive of prior academic research and published literature on the subject.

Sustainability accounting rulemaking has evolved overtime resulting in proliferation of reporting rules. These rules have improved the extent and scope of environmental and economic performances that businesses disclose in GRI.

GRI has provided the foundation for integrated reporting (IR). Both GRI and IR have ecological and functional dimensions. Sustainability is functionally inherent in the accounting principle of materiality, when disclosed in external reporting. The ongoing concern of business assumes an organization is systemic and operates as a living entity only when it can provide sustainable performance that benefits stakeholders and society.

The paper is focused on standards in humanitarian logistics and supply chain. Standards, implemented between organisations, allow improving the interoperability of humanitarian operations. The paper aims (1) to review a state-of-the-art approach to the topic by the academic community, (2) to evaluate the current use of standards among humanitarian organisations and (3) to investigate the perceived need for further and specific standards.

To achieve the aims, the literature was reviewed; then a survey on 227 professionals from the humanitarian logistics sector was conducted.

Based on 227 responses, it is possible to conclude that most surveyed professionals recognise the need for and the importance of standardisation in humanitarian logistics, especially in areas such as procurement, distribution, medical logistics and logistics planning, which were perceived as critical areas that require standardisation.

Practitioners and scholars were targeted via social media, through mailing lists and via communication from the practitioner organisation – the Humanitarian Logistics Association (HLA). While it provided good access to different groups of respondents, the response rate is not possible to calculate.

The findings confirm the high importance of standardisation, indicating areas and functions that should be standardised first. Standardisation may improve cooperation between different humanitarian actors, allowing better service provision for beneficiaries. Thus there are also potential negative impacts, i.e. impact on localisation, which should be overcome.

Results do not have a direct social impact; however, they stimulate research and work among practitioners on standardisation, which in turn could improve cooperation between humanitarian actors, thereby enabling a better humanitarian response in emergencies.

The majority of papers on standardisation use a qualitative approach. This paper applies a survey among a large network of humanitarian practitioners, capturing their view on the topic and perception of the need for standardisation. The work is descriptive; however, it could be used as a base for further studies related to humanitarian standards.

The authors of this study, who adopted a holistic view of the international organization for standardization (ISO) 9000 series of standards, aimed to evaluate the current status of the standards within the framework of the quality movement. Specifically, the evaluation covered two dimensions, i.e. the significance of the content included in the standards and the quality of the standards’ elaboration, which encompasses such issues as, for instance, their correctness, relevance to current trends in quality management, comprehensibility, etc.

The paper is based on a review of the scientific literature, analysis of the current and all previous versions of the international standards and the results of a survey, through which data were collected from 73 quality management experts from 17 different countries. To evaluate the results, an importance-performance analysis was performed.

As the results of the research demonstrated, experts in quality management have accepted the ISO 9000 standards series. However, this positive view refers mainly to the very idea of developing quality management standards and these standard’s content structure (components included in them). Study participants assigned a low rating to the quality of the standards’ elaboration. Therefore, improving the following aspects of the standards is essential: definitions, guidelines explaining the requirements for a quality management system, self-assessment tools and guidelines concerning quality management concerning chosen forms of activity.

The research described here in has both practical and social implications. First, it delineates the direction needed to improve standardizations, whose use need not be strictly limited to quality management but can be successfully used to improve the standards in other areas of management. Therefore, the conclusions of this research directly contribute to increasing both the effectiveness and the quality of the standard organizations. The significant consequences of this research for managers are the identification of ISO 9000 components which they will find are the most useful.

The research described herein has both practical and social implications. First, it delineates the direction needed to improve standardizations, whose use need not be strictly limited to quality management. However, it can be successfully used to improve the standards in other areas of management. Therefore, the conclusions of this research directly contribute to increasing both the effectiveness and the quality of the standard organizations. The significant consequences of this research for managers are the identification of ISO 9000 components, which they will find are the most useful.

Most research treats ISO 9000 standards as a benchmark for their studies on quality management systems implemented in organizations. The standards themselves are rarely the subject of a study, and so this paper fills a gap in the research and provides insights into desired directions for standards improvement.

This paper aims to examine the multiplicity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards, explaining its nature, dynamics and implications for multinational enterprises (MNEs) and international business (IB), especially in the context of CSR and global value chain (GVC) governance.

This paper leverages insights from the literature in political science, policy, regulation, governance and IB; from the own earlier work; and from an inventory of CSR standards across a range of sectors and products.

This analysis’ more nuanced approach to CSR standard multiplicity helps distinguish the different categories of standards; uncovers the existence of different types of standard multiplicity; and highlights complex trends in their evolution over time, discussing implications for the various firms targeted by, or involved in, these initiatives, and for CSR and GVC governance research.

This paper opens many avenues for future research on CSR multiplicity and its consequences; on lead firms governing GVCs from an IB perspective; and on institutional and market complexity.

By providing overviews and classifications, this paper helps clarify CSR standards as “new regulators” and “instruments” for actors in business, society and government.

This paper contributes by filling gaps in different existing literatures concerning standard multiplicity. It also specifically adds a new perspective to the IB literature, which thus far has not fully incorporated the complexity and dynamics of CSR standard multiplicity in examining GVCs and MNE strategy and policy.

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards are amongst the most widely adopted instruments for supporting firms in becoming more accountable, firms who adopt them frequently fail to comply. In this context, the purpose of this study is to explore to what extent CSR standards are designed for accountability. In the analysis, this paper investigates design characteristics related to accountability across different standard types, namely, principle-based, reporting, certification and process standards.

This study reviews the design characteristics of 50 CSR standards in a systematic and comparative fashion. This paper combines qualitative deductive coding with exploratory quantitative analyses methods to elucidate structural variance and patterns of accountability-related design characteristics across the sample.

This study finds that the prevalence of design characteristics aimed at fostering accountability varies significantly between different types of standards. This paper identifies three factors related to the specific purpose of any given standard that explain this structural variation in design characteristics, namely, implementability, comparability and measurability.

Non-compliance limits the effectiveness and legitimacy of CSR standards. The systematic exploration of patterns and structural variation in design characteristics that promote accountability may provide valuable clues for the design of more effective CSR standards in the future.

Better understanding the role of design characteristics of CSR standards is critical to ensure they contribute to greater corporate accountability.

This study strives to expand the current understanding of the design characteristics of CSR standards beyond individual cases through a systematic exploration of accountability-related design characteristics across a larger sample.

Develop a comprehensive framework for assessing the knowledge organization systems (KOSs), including the taxonomy of Wikipedia and the ontologies of Wikidata, with a specific focus on enhancing management and retrieval with a gender nonbinary perspective.

This study employs heuristic and inspection methods to assess Wikipedia’s KOS, ensuring compliance with international standards. It evaluates the efficiency of retrieving non-masculine gender-related articles using the Catalan Wikipedian category scheme, identifying limitations. Additionally, a novel assessment of Wikidata ontologies examines their structure and coverage of gender-related properties, comparing them to Wikipedia’s taxonomy for advantages and enhancements.

This study evaluates Wikipedia’s taxonomy and Wikidata’s ontologies, establishing evaluation criteria for gender-based categorization and exploring their structural effectiveness. The evaluation process suggests that Wikidata ontologies may offer a viable solution to address Wikipedia’s categorization challenges.

The assessment of Wikipedia categories (taxonomy) based on KOS standards leads to the conclusion that there is ample room for improvement, not only in matters concerning gender identity but also in the overall KOS to enhance search and retrieval for users. These findings bear relevance for the design of tools to support information retrieval on knowledge-rich websites, as they assist users in exploring topics and concepts.

This paper aims to examine the concept of standardization beyond its traditional use in generating and implementing standards and good practice guidelines (S&GPG) by looking at existing and emerging trends.

This paper utilizes two primary approaches to categorizing S&GPG for better comprehension: categorization based on provenance as well as based on subject matter.

A significant concern related to categorizing S&GPG based on provenance or subject is the constant proliferation of standards being developed and introduced every year. This rapid growth in standards requires frequent re-categorization to keep up with the dynamic nature of this field. To tackle this problem, this paper explores emerging concepts such as ontological representation and frameworks that offer archives and records management (ARM) professionals.

Standardization refers to establishing uniform rules through mutual agreement to ensure consistency. The study of standardization goes beyond the development of individual S&GPG, encompassing their practical application in work settings. Categorizing standards alone may not fully capture their actual use. However, abstraction mechanisms like ontological representations, models and frameworks can demonstrate how these standards have been leveraged. This paper provides illustrative examples rather than an exhaustive list to showcase how these mechanisms have been applied in research projects or as practical tools.

This paper explores the emerging topic of standardization from the perspective of ontological representations and models or frameworks. In addition, it also contributes to the discussion of the 2022 version of ARMA International’s Information Governance Implementation Model and the 2020 version of the World Bank Group's Records Management Roadmap, providing unique insights into these topics.

The main objective of this study is to investigate what are the critical success factors that exist for continuous improvement (CI) methodology deployment in the Irish medical technology (MedTech) industry. The research will, in particular, seek to establish if the highly regulated nature of the global MedTech industry is an additional critical failure factor (CFF) for the deployment of CI methodology. The study involves the analysis of the benefits, challenges, CFFs and tools most utilised for the application to the deployment of CI methodologies in the Irish medical device (MD) industry.

A quantitative survey was utilised in this study. The main participants were made up of senior quality professionals working in operational excellence, quality consultants, quality directors, quality engineers, quality managers and quality supervisors working in both manufacturing and service sectors from Irish MD companies. A total of 94 participants from the Irish MedTech industry responded to the survey.

The main finding of this study is that 42% of participants perceived that a highly regulated environment was a CFF to CI, whilst 79% of respondents utilised Lean Six Sigma in their organisations, and productivity and financial factors were found to be the highest reasons for CI deployment amongst the Irish MedTech industry. The top CFFs highlighted for CI in regulated industries were fear of extra validation activity, compliance versus quality culture and a regulatory culture of being “safe”. Another relevant finding presented in this paper is that just over 48% of participants felt that CI tools are very strongly integrated into the industries quality management systems (QMSs) such as the corrective and preventative action system, non-conformance and audit systems.

All data collected in the survey came from professionals working for Irish indigenous and multinational MedTech companies. It is important to highlight that n = 94 is a low sample size, which is enough for a preliminary survey but reinforcing the limitation in terms of generalisation of the results. A further study on a wider European and global scale as well as a comparison with the highly regulated pharma industry would be informative.

The authors understand that this is the very first research focussed on the CFFs for CI in the MedTech/MD manufacturing industry with a specific focus on the highly regulated nature of the industry as a potential CFF. The results of this study represent an important first step towards a full understanding of the applicability and use of CI in the medical-device-manufacturing industries on a global scale.

This paper aims at explaining variances in the contribution of Islamic crowdfunding platforms (ICFPs) to sustainable development (SD), by adopting an institutional logic perspective (ILP). ICFPs represent a dual institutional overlap between two logics (the Western-mainstream and the Islamic logic) which have an impact on corporate social responsibility (CSR) interpretations, practices, and decisions and whose conflicts are mitigated by choosing different resolution strategies. The authors aim at showing that this choice affects SD differently.

The authors develop a conceptual typology through the following steps: (1) choice of variables and identification of corresponding variable domains, through literature review. Variables chosen are the elemental CSR dimensions related to various social and environmental corporate responsibilities to whom diverse meaning and emphasis are given under the Western-mainstream and Islamic logics. (2) Identification of three distinct ideal types of ICFPs, building on different resolution strategies to mitigate conflicts between logics; (3) development, for each ideal type, of a set of implications related to SD; (4) implementation of a first test aiming at assigning real cases to each ideal type.

The authors identify Western-mimicking (platforms adopting as resolution strategy decoupling or compartmentalizing strategies), Islamic-driven (platforms focusing on one prevailing logic) and Syncretism-inspired (platforms adopting hybridizing practices) ideal-types.

It is the first paper suggesting ILP to explain variances in crowdfunding platforms' role in addressing SD. It focuses on a specific type of CF platforms till now neglected.

The aim of this paper is to identify some of the challenges that need to be addressed to accelerate the deployment and adoption of smart health technologies for ubiquitous healthcare access. The paper also explores how internet of things (IoT) and big data technologies can be combined with smart health to provide better healthcare solutions.

The authors reviewed the literature to identify the challenges which have slowed down the deployment and adoption of smart health.

The authors discussed how IoT and big data technologies can be integrated with smart health to address some of the challenges to improve health-care availability, access and costs.

The results of this paper will help health-care designers, professionals and researchers design better health-care information systems.