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This study investigates customer‐value based marketing activities in emerging or new fast‐growth ventures. A contextual analysis of interview data identified seven customer‐value based marketing activities actively pursued synergistically by fast growth firms: employee branding, target marketing, marketing planning marketing/market research, product differentiation via quality, relationship marketing, and guerrilla marketing. These elements form a complex web in which each marketing activity complements the other. There are three main implications: all marketing activities are intertwined, in line with marketing theory and practice associated with large firms; most marketing activities undertaken are low cost; and establishing a winning reputation is an important objective. CEOs associate reputation with brand building via employees.

Family businesses (FB), mostly small-sized, dominate the tourism and hospitality industry (THI), especially in the rural areas. While many would have been used to the impact of demand seasonality, it is unknown how these businesses would have survived through the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as compared to non-family business (NFB) counterparts. This study aims to determine if there were differences on how family and non-family enterprises in the THI coped with government restrictions.

By subjecting the survey data from tourism enterprises to non-parametric techniques, the authors establish empirical evidence on similarities and differences of coping strategies adopted by FBs and NFBs; their required support from government and their perceptions of a post-pandemic THI.

The analysis revealed that family-owned tourism and hospitality businesses in the Philippines tended to collaborate with other businesses to manage the impact of the pandemic restrictions. Since they hired more seasonal workers prior to the restrictions, they tended to avoid hiring workers during the restricted period. NFBs, on the other hand, that were generally larger in size and more professionally managed with more regular employees, tended to streamline operations for greater efficiency.

The study relied on survey results distributed and collected online. There is an innate bias against those firms that did not have access to the survey links.

The comparative study suggests that interventions to assist firms in the THI should consider the differences in firm ownership as “one size does not fit all.”

The study provides evidence about how environmental factors impact the operations of family firms. Thus, it provides valuable insights for both the academic community and industry practitioners.

This is the first study in the Philippines that was able to capture response of family and non-family firms in the THI during the COVID-19 lockdown.

This paper aims to explore the issue of corporate governance mechanisms by including the importance of stakeholders, primary objectives of the firm and the ownership of top financial managers of listed firms in Kuwait in the survey tool. It attempts to investigate whether theory aligns with the behaviour of financial managers in practice in an emerging market case.

A survey was developed to focus primarily on the current corporate finance practices implemented by CFOs in listed companies in Kuwait. The target respondents are listed firms in the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange (KSE). The survey includes questions on topics that are closely related to capital budgeting, capital structure, cost of capital and dividend policy. For example, the survey asks the managers how they estimate their cost of equity (CAPM or other methods) and whether the impact of the weighted average cost of equity is taken into consideration in their capital structure choices.

A surprising number of firms are now widely using IRR for decision making. CAPM is also in use, whereas WACC remains the most popular method used. There is some support for the “bird‐in‐hand” dividend theory in the tax‐free environment. Firms in Kuwait do not have any particular source of capital structure choices when it comes to how best to finance their projects as is the case in the US market. Firms in Kuwait are consciously striving for maximizing profits and those managers are regarded as their most important stakeholders. This may indicate the existence of agency problems.

The limitation of this study lies in the absence of empirical investigation on how corporate finance decisions may affect firms' performance in Kuwait. Hence, empirical validation will be performed by the authors in the next stage of this research, which will form the basis for further research. Empirical validation for the impact of corporate governance on performance is needed.

This research may benefit managers and decision makers in many aspects, including having an understanding of applying popular and the most suitable corporate finance and corporate governance techniques in the management of their companies. In this research, the authors have identified the gap between practice and academia.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine comprehensively major areas of financial policies and practices and corporate governance in an emerging market case, especially in the Middle East. Kuwait provides a unique institutional setting in its taxation system. Therefore, this study will make a contribution to the general literature in this field.

This case presents the staffing problem of Manuel Garcia, president of Saint Catherine School (SCS). He needed to incentivize quality teachers to stay with the school but he faced three challenges. First, the school is located in a far flung city in Mindanao, Philippines. Second, the city is economically depressed and the parents are price-sensitive. Third, the school is dependent on tuition revenue and collections barely cover school expenditures. Manuel would have to find creative solutions and defend his decision to the teachers and the Board of Trustees.

The researchers relied on primary data to write the case although the Chairman opted that the school name and all the characters names be disguised. The researchers interviewed individually the Chairman of the Board, President, Vice Chancellor for Academics, University Registrar, Finance Director, and Human Resource Manager of the school. The researchers also interviewed faculty members as a group. The information on the exhibits were culled from reports presented by the administrative team.

The short case is a learning tool for students taking a degree in educational leadership and management. It can be used as part of an integrating module for graduate students. By this time, students would have had prior lessons in financial, trend, and ratio analysis. The case can also be used to reinforce lessons in the following courses at the undergraduate or graduate level: human resource management, data-driven decision making, financial resource management, educational policy, and even communication. Further, the case is suited for school administrators attending executive development programs. Running a school is more than managing the curriculum. There is a business side that has to be considered. This case helps teachers-turned-administrators consider the financial implications of human resource management decisions. In this instance, salaries and benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the most potent internal resources of a firm that contribute to the CSR agenda.

The study adopts a quantitative approach to analyze Malaysian companies. A scorecard is devised according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. A logit/probit model is employed to differentiate firms that are CSR‐active from their non‐active counterparts.

The results indicate that having universal accredited management systems in place differentiates CSR‐active companies from inactive companies. Also, firm size does not matter for CSR performance.

The study uses proxies to examine a firm's resources, and thus it might not have captured the implication of the resources fully. Also it identifies resources that have a bearing on the CSR level but does not investigate the conditions in which such resources can be relevant.

The results imply that firms that are intent on being CSR‐active should consider implementing the various management systems relevant for their businesses. Managers responsible for the CSR agenda might wish to highlight the fact that adherence to such systems actually contributes to the bottom line, thus minimizing resistance from decision‐makers, who might view CSR as a costly initiative.

The study provides an insight into the influence of management systems on CSR performance among firms in a developing country in Asia. This, to the best knowledge of the authors, has not been studied before.

The purpose of this paper is to review the cancellation of Australia's National Soccer League (NSL) competition and its replacement in 2004 with the corporatist A‐League which is based on the North American model of “one team one city”, no promotion and relegation, and private‐equity clubs. The authors believe that one of the aims of the A‐League and its “ground‐zero” ideology was to institute exclusion of the ethnic clubs that had formed the backbone of the NSL for 30 years.

Extensive literature search, participant‐observation, one personal interview and two group interviews were employed. People interviewed were the President of the Croatian community's Melbourne Knights Football Club, the Club Secretary of Melbourne Knights, and three leaders of Melbourne Knights’ MCF hooligan firm.

The authors observe the Football Federation Australia hiding behind the perceived scientific nature and technical veracity of budgeted accounting numbers to set the financial bar too high for the ethnic clubs to find a place in the brave new world that has been called “Modern Football”. However, capitalism creates its own discontents. Online forums and homemade fence banners are the new vehicles for dissent for the supporters of “Old Soccer”.

There is still only a small academic literature on Australian football and most of this has been written by humanities lecturers. The paper offers a business school perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how disclosure of employee issues by a large UK bank may or may not promote transparency and accountability (as assessed by the completeness of the account) toward the employee stakeholder group, and to shed light on the implications of the organisation‐society relationship for employee accountability.

The intrinsic stakeholder framework forms the basis of the qualitative, longitudinal analysis. It is adopted as the moral ground for the provision of a “complete” account of employee issues. In seeking to shed light on the organisation‐society relationship and its implications for reporting on employee issues the authors build a broader theoretical framework incorporating various social and political theories dealing with legitimacy, political economy, and language and rhetoric. Interpretive and critical approaches are employed. The analysis draws on an extensive review of published materials relating to employment in the UK retail banking industry and NatWest in particular, impacts of workplace changes occurring in the banking sector, and to the economic, social and political environment over the period of the study.

The findings indicate that what and how NatWest reported on employee issues was influenced by considerations other than transparency and employee accountability. The analysis highlights the complexity of the role of disclosures in the organisation‐society relationship and consequently the limitations of the use of a single theoretical framework to interpret disclosures.

The longitudinal analysis indicates how reporting practices are issue and context dependent and points to the limitations of theorising in corporate social reporting based on a single time frame and a limited analysis of the reported issues.

In highlighting a lack of accountability to employees, the findings have implications for the development of reporting standards on issues relevant to employees. Over time, it is hoped that development of an employee inclusive reporting framework, along with exposure of the contradictory role that reports may play in promoting accountability, will contribute toward improved employee management practices.

This study contributes to the corporate social reporting literature by extending the analysis beyond the firm focused stakeholder management perspective to considering disclosures from a moral perspective and the extent to which the complex organisation‐society relationship might work against the promotion of transparency and accountability toward stakeholders (specifically employees). In this way, through an in‐depth longitudinal analysis of disclosures from multiple perspectives, the paper contributes to theorising of the role of social disclosure in the organisation‐society relationship.

This chapter documents an innovative pedagogical application of a service-learning oriented approach, pioneered by academics at a University in the North of England (UNEUK). Referred to as directed experiential learning, the core ethos of this approach connected forms of close-to-practice research, critical reflection, and community engagement and as such brought about a radical reworking of the final year of study for an existing undergraduate program – a BA (Hons) Education Studies. Responding to a broadening professional context within UK schools, this program prepared nascent professional educators and through their studies, invited them to engage in university–community partnerships where their learning and contributions to practice were inextricably conjoined.