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This study aims to assess if the voluntary reporting of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a widely used non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) measure, has effects on information asymmetry and value relevance and how the adjustments to GAAP earnings made to derive it contribute to these effects. This study focuses on firms from two countries with contrasting institutional settings, Canada and France.

Relying on multivariate analyses and using Heckman’s procedure to address the sample self-selection issue, this study first estimates the likelihood of a firm to report adjusted EBITDA. Then, this study examines if adjusted EBITDA, as well as the adjustments made to GAAP earnings to derive adjusted EBITDA (adjustments), affect a firm’s information asymmetry and its value. These adjustments are essentially GAAP-grounded items that are discarded by management to derive non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA. The dependent variables are share price volatility, as a proxy for information asymmetry, alongside market-to-book and stock market return as indicators of value.

In terms of the used sample, results suggest that Canadian firms are much more likely to report adjusted EBITDA than French firms. Chief executive officer (CEO) attributes (CEO power) appears to increase such likelihood. Moreover, for both Canadian and French firms, adjusted EBITDA is associated with reduced stock market volatility, an indication of lower information asymmetry, as well as higher market-to-book and returns, suggesting value relevance. The results also indicate that investors view the adjustments to GAAP earnings made by management to derive adjusted EBITDA as not value relevant (similar to noise). The GAAP-grounded elements that management discard to derive adjusted EBITDA actually increase information asymmetry.

This study adds to prior research on the interface between a CEO attributes and governance and non-GAAP reporting. This study also provides evidence that, despite very different institutional settings, non-GAAP reporting conveys relevant information to capital markets’ participants in both France and Canada. Hence, a country’s institutional setting may have a differential impact on the disclosure choice but not on the resulting value relevance of such disclosure. Finally, this study extends the non-GAAP literature by examining the value relevance of a widely used yet under-researched measure, adjusted EBITDA.

Successful adoption of building information modelling (BIM) by early adopters is crucial for its effective diffusion. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework of understanding that supports contextualized understanding of BIM adoption decisions in a BIM infant industry. The framework bridges the gap in current knowledge in terms of the absence of such a framework, which has hindered the structured understanding of the BIM decision of an adopter, curtailing the appropriate strategizing of their BIM adoption.

The study focuses on a BIM infant industry, where early adopters begin using BIM, allowing insights into this crucial initial stage of adoption. Identifying affordances as a versatile concept that could effectively represent not only what an adopter perceives and expects from BIM implementation, but also, what the adopter, in fact, can achieve from it, an affordance-led framework of understanding (AFU) was developed to comprehensively capture varying dynamics of BIM decision process. The study took a qualitative retroductive approach to theory with semi-structured interviews to gather necessary data from a sample of BIM adopters purposively selected to maximize the breadth and depth of data.

The study concludes by identifying and defining pertinent affordances as a new concept and a compulsory state for BIM adoption. Findings further demonstrate that existing theories can be linked to the AFU to strategically direct the affordances dynamics towards the pertinent state.

The AFU enables a deeper contextualizable view of innovation adoption that was absent in existing innovation studies. It significantly enhances the precision of strategizing BIM adoption compared to previous approaches, enabling adopters to plan and implement BIM in a manner that aligns well with their expectations and specific conditions.

This study, rooted in affordance-actualization theory and communication theory, aims to critically examine how ChatGPT influences users’ transition from new adopters to loyal advocates within the context of travel decision-making. It incorporates constructs including communication quality, personalization, anthropomorphism, cognitive and emotional trust (ET), loyalty and intention to adopt into a comprehensive model.

This study used quantitative methods to analyze data from 477 respondents, collected online through a self-administered questionnaire by Embrain, a leading market research company in South Korea. Lavaan package within R studio was used for evaluating the measurement model through confirmatory factor analysis and using structural equation modeling to examine the proposed hypotheses.

The findings reveal a pivotal need for enhancing ChatGPT’s communication quality, particularly in terms of accuracy, currency and understandability. Personalization emerges as a key driver for cognitive trust, while anthropomorphism significantly impacts ET. Interestingly, the study unveils that in the context of travel recommendations, users’ trust in ChatGPT predominantly operates at the cognitive level, significantly impacting loyalty and subsequent adoption intentions.

The findings of this research provide valuable insights for improving Generative AI (GenAI) technology and management practices in travel recommendations.

As one of the few empirical research papers in the burgeoning field of GenAI, this study proposes a highly explanatory model for the process from affordance to actualization in the context of using ChatGPT for travel recommendations.

This paper finds the returns from soil conservation practices and examines whether the welfare implications of adopting the conservation practices are heterogeneous across the farming groups in Indian agriculture.

The study uses an endogenous switching regression (ESR) method on the data collected from the 77th round of National Sample Survey (2019–21) to quantify the returns from adopting soil conservation practices.

It finds that farmers adopting soil health conservation practices would have reduced their crop yield by 13% if they did not implement them. Similarly, smallholders who have not adopted soil health management practices would have increased crop yield by 16% if they had adopted the practices. The authors also observed that the returns from adopting soil health management practices vary across farming groups, where marginal and large farms tend to gain higher yields. Finally, the authors find that regardless of farm size, smallholders who did not adopt soil health management practices would benefit from adopting these with increased crop yields of 29%–31%.

More data could have been better for drawing policy implications, since the number of soil card users are relatively less.

This research work uses nationally representative data, which is first in nature on this very aspect.

A novel facet of the construction industry's (CI) digital transformation relates to the rise of smart contracts, and the contribution of blockchain technology in this domain appears to be nascent but rapidly gaining traction. Although the benefits of digitalisation for technologically less enthusiastic CI are irrefutable, the adoption of smart contracts has been found to be low pertaining to industry professionals' behavioural factors stimulated by technological perception. The challenge undertook by this study, therefore, is to develop a knowledge framework for blockchain-enabled smart contract adoption in the CI.

From a methodological perspective, this study employed a qualitative approach that involved semi-structured interviews with ten (10) highly experienced CI practitioners involved in digital innovations for data collection. Directed content analysis was performed using NVivo 12 software, which enabled the creation of preliminary open codes. Subsequently, these open codes were grouped into similar categories to develop axial codes. Finally, the study presented final themes along with their corresponding descriptions.

Notably, research findings expanded the current body of knowledge on perceived attributes and their measurement items to determine the perception of innovation adoption in CI, where a total of nine (9) perceived attributes were associated with thirty-two (32) measurement items.

The measurement items were seen as having an extensive impact on the CI professionals' decision to adopt blockchain-enabled smart contracts. With ensuing implications, this study represents one of the first to present a knowledge framework exclusively customised for blockchain-enabled smart contracts, laying the groundwork for effective technological adoption by CI professionals.

This study aims to examine the blockchain landscape in supply chain management by drawing insights from academic and industry literature. It identifies the key drivers, categorizes the products involved and highlights the business values achieved by early adopters of blockchain technology within the supply chain domain. Additionally, it explores fingerprinting techniques to establish a robust connection between physical products and the blockchain ledger.

The authors combined the interpretive sensemaking systematic literature review to offer insights into how organizations interpreted their business challenges and adopted blockchain technology in their specific supply chain context; content analysis (using Leximancer automated text mining software) for concept mapping visualization, facilitating the identification of key themes, trends and relationships, and qualitative thematic analysis (NVivo) for data organization, coding and enhancing the depth and efficiency of analysis.

The findings highlight the transformative potential of blockchain technology and offer valuable insights into its implementation in optimizing supply chain operations. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of product provenance information to consumers, with blockchain technology offering certainty and increasing customer loyalty toward brands that prioritize transparency.

This research has several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, there is a possibility that some relevant investigations may have been missed or omitted, which could impact the findings. In addition, the limited availability of literature on blockchain adoption in supply chains may restrict the scope of the conclusions. The evolving nature of blockchain adoption in supply chains also poses a limitation. As the technology is in its infancy, the authors expect that a rapidly emerging body of literature will provide more extensive evidence-based general conclusions in the future. Another limitation is the lack of information contrasting academic and industry research, which could have provided more balanced insights into the technology’s advancement. The authors attributed this limitation to the narrow collaborations between academia and industry in the field of blockchain for supply chain management.

Practitioners recognize the potential of blockchain in addressing industry-specific challenges, such as ensuring transparency and data provenance. Understanding the benefits achieved by early adopters can serve as a starting point for companies considering blockchain adoption. Blockchain technology can verify product origin, enable truthful certifications and comply with established standards, reinforcing trust among stakeholders and customers. Thus, implementing blockchain solutions can enhance brand reputation and consumer confidence by ensuring product authenticity and quality. Based on the results, companies can align their strategies and initiatives with their needs and expectations.

In essence, the integration of blockchain technology within supply chain provenance initiatives not only influences economic aspects but also brings substantial social impacts by reinforcing consumer trust, encouraging sustainable and ethical practices, combating product counterfeiting, empowering stakeholders and contributing to a more responsible, transparent and progressive socioeconomic environment.

This study consolidates current knowledge on blockchain’s capacity and identifies the specific drivers and business values associated with early blockchain adoption in supply chain provenance. Furthermore, it underscores the critical role of product fingerprinting techniques in supporting blockchain for supply chain provenance, facilitating more robust and efficient supply chain operations.

The basic purpose of this study is to increase the installation rate of mobile games and their life cycle. Little research has been conducted into the competitive market of mobile games and word-of-mouth (WOM), advertisement and quality simultaneously. In this paper, the authors aim to assist developers with a better understanding of how to invest in the game industry.

The primitive modeling has been made based on the Bass diffusion model and its extensions using features related to the game industry. Modeling and simulation have been performed using the system dynamics method.

The results show that if game developers only focus on advertising at the introduction of the game to the market, and neglect quality features, uninstall rate of adopters increases and the game life cycle decreases. And if developers only focus on the quality improvement of the game, and ignore advertisement, they couldn't create enough WOM and thus game installation wouldn't grow enough to create revenue. Furthermore, as long as the pleasure of the game is high for its adopters, developers shouldn't give up on investing in advertising to create even higher WOM. And also in communities with higher levels of variety-seeking among game players, quality is important at the start and advertisement is vital in the following steps of the game life cycle. And if the contact rate among people is high, developers could focus on quality more than the advertisement.

Even though WOM in mobile game installation is crucial, fewer studies have been done in this area and they only address the problem using qualitative or statistical methods. The quantitative system dynamics approach based on the Bass diffusion model, used in this research, fixes the shortcomings of the previous studies. Moreover, due to serious competition in the mobile game industry, only those developers can remain in the market who can predict the future trend of the game market. Furthermore, game development is a creative process and its key factors include engaging the gamers and monetizing.

This study aims to investigate the equity market reaction to sustainability disclosure measures derived from firms' inaugural sustainability reports following the implementation of mandatory sustainability reporting in Singapore.

This study explores the equity market reaction to first-time sustainability reports of mandatory adopters and compares the reactions between voluntary and mandatory adopters. To mitigate any imbalanced distribution effects, entropy balancing techniques are employed.

The author observes a significant equity market reaction when mandatory adopters adhere to a reporting framework and release sustainability reports as standalone documents. Additionally, the study indicates that government regulation amplifies the equity market reaction for companies that include a board statement within their sustainability reports and present them as standalone publications.

The lack of quantitative information disclosed in the first-time sustainability reports may restrict the generalizability of the findings.

The findings provide valuable insights for organizations and managers to evaluate the market's response to sustainability disclosures and improve communication effectiveness with investors. Furthermore, the study has direct policy implications for global standard-setting organizations in sustainability reporting. The findings support the notion that investors value market-led and investor-focused sustainability disclosures.

The study contributes to the limited body of research that examines the capital market effects of mandatory sustainability disclosures. To the author’s knowledge, this is among a few studies to directly investigate the equity market reaction to mandatory sustainability disclosures at the firm level.

This paper aims to assess the determinants of food certificate adoption and analyse the impacts of food certificates on e-commerce income among small online agri-food sellers in Indonesia.

The authors used data from an online survey of 228 small-online agri-food sellers in East Java, Indonesia. This study aims to focus on two food certificates: a mandatory Halal (Islamic dietary law) certificate and the P-IRT certificate, a food safety certificate for home-based businesses. A maximum simulated likelihood (MSL) estimator was employed to account for selection bias and endogeneity.

The study highlights the continued importance of certification in agri-food markets, including e-commerce and the need to consider the degree of substitutability and resource allocation between multiple food certificates. It finds that online agri-food sellers adopting the Halal certificate earn two to three times higher compared to non-adopters. Conversely, the gross income per month from e-commerce sales is 78% lower among those adopting the P-IRT certificate. Moreover, access to regulatory information sources motivates the likelihood of adopting food certificates. In contrast, the business size, marketing channels, contractual relationship and management capabilities are insignificant factors for the adoption of any of the Halal and P-IRT certificate combinations.

Results from this research might be specific to the context of the focus study area, thereby reducing their generalisability. In addition to gathering representative samples, future research should also capture more complex dimensions of food certificates. These include the cost of acquiring food certificates, online sellers' perceptions of food certificate adoption, and emerging topics such as group certification and the use of technology.

To the authors' knowledge, this research is one of the first studies investigating the adoption of food certificates within the e-commerce setting. This study also contributes to the small number of studies looking at multiple certificate adoption and food certificate issues from the retailers' perspectives

This study aims to investigate the effects of IFRS convergence on market liquidity and to analyze the firm-level heterogeneity in liquidity effects based on reporting incentive, firm size, ownership structure and firm leverage.

The empirical analysis is based on firm-fixed effect regression using several proxies of market liquidity as dependent variables. The sample consists of 337 firms listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who shifted to IFRS from the financial year 2016–2017.

The empirical findings indicate that IFRS convergence has contributed to the significant increase in market liquidity in a weaker enforcement country, i.e. India. Additionally, when the study performs the heterogeneity test of IFRS impact, the results indicate the presence of significant cross-sectional differences in such liquidity effects across firms. Thus, altogether the findings suggest that both accounting convergence and firm-level factors are likely to be the mechanism underlying the observed improvement in market liquidity.

In the current literature, there is an ongoing debate about whether the observed post-IFRS effects are driven by the change in accounting standard per se or by other related factors. Therefore, by studying the liquidity effects of IFRS convergence in India, this study provides evidence regarding the sources of the documented IFRS effects. Moreover, the study indicates the significance of firm-level factors in determining the observed liquidity outcomes around IFRS adoption, which is unique to the literature.