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Healthcare provision is costly, and patient expectations are increasing. Lean implemented within healthcare settings is one possible solution for dealing with this issue, with much of the current research in this respect mostly focused on developed countries. The research examines the applicability of lean in the healthcare sector of a developing country, specifically Oman.

Interviews were conducted with 32 individuals representing four public sector hospitals, along with two major hospital suppliers and the Ministry of Health. The readiness of lean thinking was assessed against seven criteria. Data were then analyzed thematically.

The authors found that Oman's healthcare sector is strong on leadership support, understanding value and customer groups, ability to undertake an end-to-end process view and engaging in the required training for lean. Interviewees showed awareness of the challenges, including aligning lean with the strategic agenda of healthcare settings, aligning measurement and reward systems to lean thinking and matching demand and capacity levels. The authors conclude that Oman's healthcare sector is ready for widespread application of lean, and if executed successfully, will generate strong strategic and operational outcomes.

This paper provides evidence of the applicability of lean in a very different context to the one that has been generally reported in the literature. The authors propose that lean thinking can be applied in countries and regions with similar cultural contexts such as the Middle East.

This study aims to test whether over-investment is associated with environmental, social and governance (ESG) variation (i.e. inequality) across its dimensions, which, if so, would imply the prioritization of the interests of some stakeholders over those of others.

Drawing on a global sample of 29,428 observations across nine sectors and 41 countries between 2003 and 2019, the authors executed a country-industry-year fixed-effects regression analysis. In the robustness tests, this study also used the entropy balancing and propensity score matching approaches.

The authors found that while firm over-investment increases social pillar inequality, it reduces environmental pillar inequality. Further analysis revealed that the over-investment strategy decreases (increases) ESG inequality in low (high) environmental and social performers. This outcome could be of relevance to internal governance mechanisms and policymaking as ESG inequality might raise legitimacy concerns and hamper the long-term sustainability of firms.

The outcome of the study could be of relevance to internal governance mechanisms as well as policymaking. Considering financial constraints, firms should maintain a balanced strategy between firm investment and addressing stakeholder interests. Otherwise, over-investment might reduce environmental and social engagement in some dimensions, which could prompt criticisms and legitimacy concerns about firms and some stakeholders.

Past research has intensively focused on whether ESG – rather than ESG inequality – is associated with investment (in)efficiency. In addition, it has mostly formulated the causality running from ESG to firm investment, and hence, the literature lacks heterogeneity in this respect. Nevertheless, the authors believe that the potential effect of firm investment on ESG is of critical importance and has implications for determining whether over-investment causes variations across ESG engagement. Thus, the authors addressed this gap in the literature by investigating the relationship between over-investment and ESG inequality.

This paper aims to assess the nexus between green human resource management (GHRM) practices, green culture, environmental responsibility and environmental performance (EP).

Using a supervisor-subordinated nested design and multi-time data collection approach through convenience sampling, the authors obtained 330 responses from 15 hotels operating in the metropolitan cities of Pakistan.

The study results indicate the prominence of GHRM practices toward enhancing hotels’ EP. The authors also found green culture and environmental responsibility as potential mediators in the direct association between GHRM and EP. In addition, the findings suggest that the GHRM and environmental association can be deeper when individuals exhibit green values and showcase green responsibility about their environment. Taken together, the findings of the present study found support for all direct and indirect hypothesized relationships hence, forwarding notable implications for theory and practice.

This paper forwards both theoretical and practical implications. Drawing upon ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) theory, this paper asserts that GHRM practices shall be used to improve EP through green values and environmental responsibility. The authors specifically suggest that pro-environment personnel practices can nourish green culture and a pro-environment sense of responsibility that facilitates in robust pro-environment results.

The study advances and addresses gaps found in prior studies to help support organizational scholars, practitioners and pro-environment enthusiasts to understand the interplay of GHRM, culture, responsibility and EP.

This study aims to explore the antecedents of donors’ attitudes toward fundraising campaigns to fight COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the pandemic crisis. This manuscript identified how moderating effects of ethical dimensions can strengthen the relationship between trust in charity and charity projects with their attitude to raise funds to mitigate pandemic repercussions.

This study follows a quantitative approach by administering survey instruments to collect the data from the sample of respondents. A total of 391 responses were obtained adopting snowball sampling and analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) to derive meaningful results for path analysis.

The findings of this study indicate that certain insights need to be considered to trigger the donors’ attitude toward raising or participating in charity-oriented campaigns, especially during pandemic situations. For instance, organizing more transformable processes in charity projects and establishing more trust factors among donors is highly essential in charity activities. Similarly, promoting ethical dimensions of the donors toward supporting the vulnerable more effectively and encouraging them to participate or organize philanthropic activities certainly benefit and support this noble cause.

This study will help the government and nonprofit organizations in devising their campaigns for raising funds. The findings of this study suggest that ethics is an important consideration and driver for donors in philanthropy-serving organizations and individuals.

This research contributes to the literature on donation and philanthropic studies focusing on fundraising campaigns attitudes during COVID-19. This study contributes influential factors and attitudes of individuals and organizations toward charity and philanthropic service.

Building upon institutional pressures on firms to deal with corruption, this study aims to investigate the association between a firm's engagement with anti-corruption disclosure quality (ACD_Q) and earnings management (EM). Also, this study examines the moderating role of audit quality in the association between ACD_Q and EM.

The authors constructed an ACD_Q index based on the 2010 UK Bribery Act and taking into account a wide range of rules on corruption and bribery, including those of the OECD, World Bank, UNCTAD, UNGC, UNCAC and GRI. Generalized method of moments and panel regression were used to examine the association between ACD_Q and EM.

Using a sample of 2,695 firm‐year observations of the UK’s FTSE-350 from 2008 to 2018, this study finds ACD_Q is negatively associated with EM. In addition, this negative relationship is contingent on audit committee independence and audit committee expertise. This finding is supported by additional robustness and sensitivity analysis.

The empirical evidence reiterates the crucial need for more concerted efforts to ensure corporate engagement in anti-corruption practices with a view to reducing earnings manipulations.

This study contributes to the limited evidence that investigates how ACD Q influences EM in the UK after the introduction of the UK Bribery Act in 2010. Furthermore, by considering the period from 2008 to 2019, this study investigates the potential moderating role of UK corporate governance reforms in EM reduction. In particular, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study assesses for the first time the moderating effect of audit committee mechanisms on the ACD Q and EM nexus.

This paper aims to empirically analyse specific characteristics of an audit committee that could be associated with the likelihood of corporate fraud/scandal/sanctions.

The sample includes all firms that were investigated by the Financial Reporting Council through the audit enforcement procedure from 2014 to 2019, and two matched no-scandal firms. It uses logistic binary regression analysis to examine the hypotheses.

Results based on the logit regression suggest that audit member tenure and audit committee meeting frequency both have positive associations to the likelihood of corporate scandal. Complementing this result, the authors find negative but insignificant relationships amongst audit committee female chair, audit committee female members percentage, audit committee qualified accountants members, audit committee attendance, number of shares held by audit committee members, audit committee remuneration, board tenure and the likelihood of corporate scandal across the sample.

The results should help regulatory policymakers make decisions, which could be crucial to future corporate governance. Additionally, these results should be useful to investors who use corporate governance as criteria for investment decisions.

The authors extend, as well as contribute to the growing literature on the audit committee, and therefore, wider corporate governance literature and provide originality in that it is the first, to the knowledge, to consider two characteristics (i.e. remuneration and gender) in a UK context of corporate scandal. Also, the results imply that the structure and diversity of the audit committee affect corporate fraud/scandal/sanctions.