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Evaluation and measurement (E&M) remains a critical and debated topic among communication scholars and practice. Substantial research and professional efforts have been devoted to discussing what should be measured and which methods should be applied. Most of the E&M models seem to carry a positivist imprint. But, in real-life, organizations could not have clear aims, enough resources, or adequate informative systems to support E&M. Moreover, several contextual factors could affect the implementation of E&M management processes. The communication literature rarely highlights these factors. To fulfill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to theorize the contextual factors relevant to the management of the evaluation process.

A scoping literature review was carried out exploring the role of contextual factors and impact of contextual factors on E&M management processes. More specifically, the review examines the contribution provided by program evaluation and performance measurement (PM) fields of research.

The paper provides a scoping review of program evaluation and PM approaches. Additionally, it explains how both streams of thought argued the importance of contextual factors, such as organizational, relational, cultural and communicative factors, for the success of any evaluation processes. The study underlined that the main evaluation models used in the field of communication have overlooked these studies and put on evidence the role of contextual factors in effectively executing communication E&M.

The paper enriches the dominant rationale concerning the E&M management processes by incorporating literature on: program evaluation; and PM. The analysis could provide useful insights also from a professional perspective, by helping practitioners for a contextual assessment of strategic communication programs and activities.

In a globalized economic system, the role of agrifood production is to ensure at the same time both the population's livelihood and environmental resource conservation. The present study aims at expanding the debate on the potentials of the fair-trade in terms of environmental sustainability.

The research presents a methodology divided into three phases: (1) the identification of the water footprint values associated with the production of bananas, cocoa and coffee imported from developing countries to Italy; (2) the calculation of the virtual water volumes used to produce the crops imported from developing countries to Italy through fair-trade; (3) the analysis of the economic water productivity, obtained by the fair-trade premium, for bananas, cocoa and coffee.

The results of this study identified and measured the amount of virtual water flows and water savings or losses deriving from the fair-trade of bananas, cocoa and coffee. The average virtual water flow related to the fair-trade imports in Italy amounts to 7.27 million m³ for bananas, 22,275 m³ for cocoa and 14,334 m³ for coffee. The research findings also highlight that fair-trade and the related premium ensures at the same time the achievement of social and institutional purposes but also the remuneration of virtual water used within the life cycle of the imported crops.

Previous scientific literature showed that fair-trade premium has commonly been used to finance environmental protection. No study has evaluated the environmental impacts associated with fair-trade, nor the monetary value associated with the natural resources exploited to produce crops to be exported. This empirical paper fills a literature gap in terms of identification, measurement and evaluation of virtual water flows along the supply chain processes of some fair-traded crops, also providing, through the economic water productivity approach, a useful tool for decision-makers.

This paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SRL) on the topic of value investing (VI) in the international studies. The purpose of this study is twofold: to highlight the strategic approaches followed in recent contributions in the field of finance connected to the main approaches of the pioneering authors (Graham and Dodd, 1934; Fisher, 1958; Fama and French, 1992; Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny, 1994) who have investigated VI; and to analyse whether scholars follow a qualitative approach in studying VI that enables companies to achieve greater competitive advantage..

From a SLR of peer-reviewed papers covering the period 2007-2017, 45 papers were identified and analysed to present a better understanding of the adopted approaches and methodologies compared to the pioneering contributions on the topic.

This search found that 24 out of 45 papers specifically analyse VI. In particular, this work highlights 20 out of 24 papers that directly or indirectly, follow the approaches of “Graham and Dodd” or “Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny”/“Fama and French”, and 4 out of 24 that do not follow one of the main approaches identified. After the descriptive findings of the review, this paper highlights that none of the contributions takes into account qualitative analysis of a company to define whether the firm itself does or does not have a sustainable competitive advantage.

This paper suggests to international investors who intend to invest in one or more markets to revise the basic principles of VI, while also considering qualitative elements related to strategic aspects and behavioural finance. In particular, this study suggests that the investor introduce a qualitative analysis to allocate equity in value firms with a lasting competitive advantage.

This study contributes to advance the knowledge of VI from a theoretical point of view. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study that systematises the international literature on this topic by highlighting the main contributions written in the period 2007-2017, analysing the development of the pioneering strategic approaches and examining their method of assessing firms.

Focusing on the Agri-Food and Beverage sector, the paper investigates the direct effect of worldwide mandatory non-financial disclosure on several financial dimensions as well as its moderating effects on the relationship between sustainability and financial performance.

The authors performed fixed-effect regressions on a sample of 180 global listed companies, considering a period of eight years. The authors also tested the moderating effects of non-financial disclosure regulation on the relationship between sustainability and financial performance.

The authors found a positive direct impact of mandatory non-financial disclosure on Operating Return on Asset, Return on Equity and Return on Sales. The analysis also highlighted the negative moderating effects of non-financial reporting regulation on the relationship between sustainability issues and financial performance. As for the Cost of Debt, the authors found mixed results.

This study considers a short-term perspective focusing on a limited sample composed of companies playing a key role in the global agri-food system.

The paper identifies which financial performance dimensions are positively or negatively affected by mandatory non-financial disclosure. Accordingly, managers can rearrange corporate activities to deal with further reporting normative requirements concurrently preserving financial performances and fostering corporate sustainability.

This study recommends fostering mandatory non-financial disclosure to increase corporate transparency fostering the sustainability transition of the Agri-Food and Beverage industry.

The paper highlights global mandatory non-financial disclosure effects on financial performance considering a sector that is cross-cutting impactful on plural sustainability issues.

This paper aims to investigate whether being sustainable is also profitable for agri-food companies in the short-term.

The study analysed the impacts of sustainability multiple issues on one-year lagged return on assets, developing a longitudinal analysis focused on best and worst companies' samples for a timeframe of ten years. Notably, we performed OLS regressions on unbalanced panels data collecting overall 1,760 annual observations from 318 companies. Moreover, we examined the moderating effects of slack resources on the relationship between sustainability and the short-term firms' profitability.

The results show that the best sustainable companies usually improve future profitability. Conversely, the worst ones should prioritize efforts in specific initiatives (i.e. responsible products, eco-innovation, management and governance commitment to sustainability), which positively affect their profitability and compensate possible short-term financial losses due to CSR strategy execution and sustainable production/supply chain management. Finally, the study found mixed results regarding the moderating effects of slack resources on the scrutinized relationships.

The paper highlights the key environmental, social and governance aspects to be addressed for consolidating and enhancing the virtuous relationship between non-financial and financial performance, distinguishing between best and worst sustainability performers.

This study is among the first that decomposed sustainability in multiple micro aspects (i.e. sustainable strategy, products and processes) investigating the effects of each of them on the short-term agri-food firms' profitability.

This paper aims to provide new evidence on firm-specific determinants and effects of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) in the food industry.

The current study is designed to empirically answer dual related research questions. First, we investigate the extent to which effective corporate governance (CG) mechanisms foster CSER. Second, we analyse the impact of CSER engagement on corporate financial performance (CFP). Consistent with the research design, to avoid sample selection bias, the authors employed Heckman two-step model (1979) to a worldwide sample of 324 food firms between 2011 and 2017.

The findings of the study reveal that effective board characteristics foster CSER engagement. Furthermore, CSER engagement is a positive predictor of improved profitability and also reduces the cost of debt (COD).

This article has elements of originality regarding the research questions, the context and the method. First, the authors demonstrate that CSER is a “missing link” between CG and CFP in the food industry. The authors’ contribution complements the debate on CSER and CFP through the stakeholder theory, the resource-based view and the innovation management perspective. They disentangle the effect of CG from the impact of social and environmental responsibility after correcting for endogeneity bias. The implications of the study contribute to a win-win scenario for companies investing in CG that result in higher CSER engagement, better profits and lower cost of capital.

This study aims to examine the relationships between organizational learning capabilities, open innovation and firm performance (FP) in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the emerging economies.

Data collected from 384 manufacturing SMEs operating across the seven emirates of the UAE were statistically analyzed using SmartPLS 3 to examine the hypotheses of this study.

The results show that organizational learning capabilities positively influences both inbound and outbound dimensions of open innovation (OI). Inbound open innovation (IP) practice positively impacted both market effectiveness and profitability, while outbound open innovation (OP) practice only affected profitability. Findings further confirmed the mediating role of IP practice on the relationships of organizational learning capabilities with market effectiveness and profitability. In contrast, OP practice did not mediate the relationships of organizational learning capabilities with market effectiveness and profitability.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this is among the first study contributing to the extant innovation literature in terms of investigations into the significant and complex interrelations of organizational learning capabilities, OI and FP in a single study, demonstrating various theoretical implications in the context of manufacturing SMEs in emerging countries. Overall, the findings of this study confirmed that the owners/managers of the UAE’s manufacturing SMEs need to be acquainted with the need of creating a working environment fostering organizational learning processes and capabilities to enhance IP and OP activities, thereby improving their market effectiveness and profitability.

This paper investigates the relationship between commitment to ESG practices and firm performance using a synthetic index based on ESG disclosure and ESG performance scores.

Using the Mazziotta-Pareto aggregation method, we develop a novel synthetic index of ESG engagement based on ESG rating and disclosure. This index is employed in a dynamic panel regression, implemented using the Arellano-Bond estimator, to explain profitability in a sample of 146 listed Canadian firms over the period spanning from 2014 to 2021.

ESG practices may either foster or hinder firm performance. In particular, a synergy emerges between the social and environmental dimensions of ESG practices, shedding light on the relevance of high standards in terms of environmental and social activities.

The study emphasizes the significance of acknowledging the various facets of ESG engagement and the necessity of transcending the current constraints of accessible ESG data and ratings. Synthetic indices combining different types of ESG information may contribute to mitigating the problems created by strategic disclosure on the part of firms, which typically results in undesirable practices such as greenwashing and social washing.

This is the first study that applies the Mazziotta-Pareto method to develop a synthetic index of ESG engagement, tackling each pillar separately. Moreover, when investigating the effect of ESG engagement on profitability, we allow for cross-pillar synergies and/or trade-offs.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and fintech have emerged as critical megatrends in the banking industry. This study aims to examine the impact of financial technology on the relationship between CSR and banks' financial stability. Specifically, it investigates the moderating effect of fintech on the association between CSR and the financial stability of conventional banks operating in Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey from 2010 to 2021.

To achieve the authors’ objective, the authors apply Baron and Kenny's three-link model, tested with fixed and random effects regression models.

The results reveal that the development of fintech decreases banks' financial stability, whereas it promotes banks' involvement in CSR strategies. Furthermore, the findings indicate that fintech plays a moderating role in the relationship between CSR and financial stability. It positively moderates the impact of CSR on financial stability. The robustness analysis highlights the mutual reinforcement of fintech and CSR dimensions in improving the financial stability of banks. Thus, by fostering community and product responsibility, fintech could enhance the financial stability of banks.

Finally, the authors recommend that banks focus more on developing technological and environmentally friendly financial products.

This study contributes significantly by providing valuable insights for managers and policymakers seeking to improve banks' financial stability through the simultaneous adoption of new financial technology products and the strong commitment to CSR practices.