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The construction business is widely recognised for its inherent complexity and dynamic nature, which stems from the nature of the job involved. The industry is often regarded as one of the most challenging industries globally in terms of implementing environmental, health and safety (EHS) practices. However, in the absence of EHS, the construction industry cannot be considered sustainable. Therefore, this study aims to identify the trends, knowledge gaps and implications of EHS research to enhance construction activities and knowledge.

The study adopted a science mapping approach involving bibliometric and scientometric analysis of 407 construction EHS publications from the Scopus database with the VOSviewer software. The study is based on journal articles from the Scopus database without restriction to any time range.

The main focus of construction EHS research identified in the study includes sustainability-related studies, risk-related, environmental issues, EHS management, integrated management systems studies, health and safety related and EHS in the construction process. Some emerging areas also identified include productivity, design, culture, social sustainability and machine learning. The most influential and productive publication sources, countries/regions and EHS publications with the highest impact were also determined.

Documents published in the Scopus database were considered for analysis because of the wider coverage of the database. Journal articles written in English language represent the inclusion criteria, whereas other documents were excluded from the analysis. The study also limited the search to articles with the engineering subject area.

The research findings will enlighten stakeholders and practitioners on the focal knowledge areas in the EHS research domain, which are vital for enhancing EHS in the industry.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this review-based study is the first attempt to internationally conduct a science mapping on extant literature in the EHS research domain through bibliometric and scientometric assessments.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of political connections and gender diversity on the performance of Iberian companies as a singular market and considering Portugal and Spain separately.

The authors used panel data methodology, specifically GMM system estimation model by Arellano and Bond (1991) for the period from 2015 to 2020.

Results show that the performance of listed Iberian companies is influenced by political connections, by gender diversity and that gender diversity has a mitigating effect on the effects of political connections in each country. The mitigating effect of women is evident in both Portugal and Spain, as they are more cautious and principled, which is valued by short-term investors interested in an immediate investment. However, considering the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, the results indicate that – in the long term – women's political relationships can benefit performance through a better reputation and image, which can lead to better social and economic results in the long term.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original and covers an important gap in the literature when considering political connections and women's impact on these connections as determinants of the performance of Iberian companies.

Momentum returns are considered an anomaly in the finance literature as their existence cannot be fully explained under the asset pricing paradigm. This study attempts to shed more light on this anomaly by investigating the determinants of momentum returns.

The panel data technique is applied to the sample of 40 countries worldwide from 1996 to 2018. The authors use the panel-corrected standard error (PCSE) model to estimate the coefficient of World Governance Indicators (WGI), whereas the fixed effect model is used to determine the coefficient for corporate governance indicators (CGIs). The choice of PCSE estimation methods is guided by the fact that WGI variables are subjected to serial correlation, heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence problems while CGI variables are not. Furthermore, a composite WGI index is constructed using principal component analysis (PCA).

Regression analysis shows a negative and significant relationship between WGI index and momentum returns. The negative coefficient value of WGI supports the prediction of the overreaction hypothesis, which postulates a lower behavioral bias in the market with high governance quality. Breaking down of the WGI by their six indicators reveals that four of the indicators (control over corruption, government effectiveness, stability and avoidance of violence) are negative statistically significant with momentum returns while two indicators are not significant. As for CGIs, only one (strength of investor protection) of the four tested indicators is negative and significantly related to momentum returns.

The study fills the gap in economic literature by highlighting the association between governance quality at the country (WGI) and firm level (CGI) on stock momentum returns.

Insurance companies play a significant role in every economy; hence, it is essential to investigate and understand the factors that propel their profitability. Unlike previous studies that present a linear relationship, this study provides initial evidence by exploring the non-linear impacts of the determinants of profitability amongst life insurers in South Africa.

The study uses a panel dataset of 62 life insurers in South Africa, covering 2013–2019. The generalised method of moments and the dynamic panel threshold estimation technique were used to estimate the relationship.

The empirical results from the direct relationship reveal that investment income and solvency significantly predict life insurance companies' profitability. On the other hand, underwriting risk, reinsurance and size reduce profitability. Further, the dynamic panel threshold analysis confirms non-linearities in the relationships. The results show that insurance size, investment income and solvency promote profitability beyond a threshold level, implying a propelling effect on life insurers' profitability at higher levels. Below the threshold, these factors have an adverse effect. The study further points to underwriting risk, reinsurance and leverage having a reduced effect on life insurers' profitability when they fall above the threshold level.

The findings suggest that insurers interested in boosting their profit position must commit more resources to maintain their solvency and manage their assets and returns on investment. The study further recommends that effective control of underwriting risk is critical to the profitability of the life insurance industry.

The study contributes to the literature by providing first-time evidence on the determinants of life insurance companies' profitability by way of exploring threshold effects in South Africa.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of sharia governance on organizational performance in zakat management institutions in Indonesia over the period 2017–2021.

This study examined 33 zakat management organizations in Indonesia from 2017 through 2021 for 151 observations. Gross allocation ratio and growth of ZIS collection are used as organizational performance measures. The independent variables in this study are board of director size, educational background of the board of directors, sharia supervisory board size, sharia supervisory expertise, supervisory size and management size. Also, the study uses size, age and audit opinion as control variables to help measure the relationship between sharia governance and organizational performance.

This study shows that the board of directors and supervisory size positively and significantly affect organizational performance. Then, the educational background of board of directors has a negative and significant effect on organizational performance. In Model 1, sharia supervisory board size has a positive and significant effect on organizational performance, but in Model 2, sharia supervisory board size does not. Meanwhile, sharia supervisory expertise and management board size do not affect organizational performance.

The findings in this study illustrate the importance of transparency in the zakat management organization. Transparency helps minimize conflicts of interest and information asymmetry in the zakat management organization. In addition, sharia governance mechanism helps regulators and top management to make effective policies to improve and enhance organizational performance.

Sharia governance is essential for zakat management organizations to increase accountability, credibility and public trust and support the practice of zakat management organizations.

This study discusses sharia governance and organizational performance in socioreligious organizations, especially zakat management organizations, which are still rarely carried out. Thus, this study broadens the insights of sharia governance and highlights the importance of performance appraisal in zakat management organizations.

The main goal of this paper is to study the specific characteristics of the performance of companies in the metallurgical sector, in the northern region of Portugal.

To achieve this aim, the authors have used data from 325 companies manufacturing metal products, except machinery and equipment (CAE Rev.3 25) and 27 companies that manufacture machinery and equipment (CAE Rev. 3 28). The models were estimated by using the panel data methodology for the period between 2011 and 2019. Specifically, the estimation method of the generalized method of moments system (GMM system) proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998) was used.

The results show that the main decisions on the performance of metallurgical companies in Northern Portugal depend on the dimensions of sales in the domestic market (SDM), sales in the community market (SCM), and sales in the foreign market (SFM) and also highlight that the signal and significance of the specific variables depends on how the different stakeholders understand performance.

As far as the authors know, this is the first study to comparatively analyze the two metallurgical databases in Portugal. Despite the huge difference in the size of the sample, this study’s results show that in an era of paradigm shift about what business objectives should be, stakeholders are still not environmentally aware and the social dimension is only considered by shareholders, but not yet by the manager and the general community.

With the recent increasing relevance of sustainability, multinational enterprises are faced with divergent stakeholder demands and persistently shifting priorities. This study aims to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of the sustainability performance of a gold mining subsidiary in Ghana.

Using a purposive sampling technique, the authors interviewed managers and employees of the case enterprise, officials of regulatory institutions and host community members on their perceptions of the case enterprise’s sustainability performance. The authors triangulated the opinions expressed by these stakeholders with data from annual reports. The data were analysed through the lens of stakeholder theory.

The authors found that while members of the host community and the regulatory institutions were keenly interested in the case enterprise’s social and environmental activities, they perceived their performance as unimpressive, considering the economic benefits derived from the mining operations. On the contrary, the managers and employees of the case enterprise were satisfied with their environmental compliance and social intervention programmes, even though the company’s economic position had declined. The authors submit that the variations in the sustainability performance perceptions among the stakeholders are due to the lack of a deeper understanding of the other stakeholders’ expectations.

To equitably satisfy diverse stakeholder expectations, the study highlights the role of stakeholder collaborations in understanding the expectations of more salient stakeholder groups such as community members and employees, as well as the lesser salient groups such as academics. It also demonstrates the fluidity of sustainability and its benefits in designing a consensual sustainable management strategy. This implies that managers of the case mining enterprise make the necessary efforts to meet the diverse stakeholder needs while attaining their primary objective of creating wealth for shareholders.

Compared to advanced economies, studies on sustainability performance in emerging economies are limited. Nonetheless, these limited studies leave out stakeholder perceptions, focusing more on quantitative performance indicators. Using thematic and content analyses, the authors investigate stakeholder perceptions on the sustainability performance of a case mining subsidiary operating in Ghana. The study focused on Ghana because it is ranked with South Africa as the top two producers of gold in Africa. Nonetheless, unlike South Africa, Ghana faces more sustainability challenges from the mining sector due to weak institutions in enforcing sustainability standards.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between all three dimensions of perceived strategic value of m-commerce (operational support, managerial productivity and strategic decision aids), antecedents of m-commerce (organizational readiness, external context and m-commerce competence) and m-commerce adoption. The present study will further examine a mediation model in which all three dimensions of perceived strategic value of m-commerce affect m-commerce adoption through IT investment.

An online survey questionnaire was adopted to test the validity of this research and hypotheses. Data were collected from 178 Chinese family businesses via snowball sampling.

The results show that all three dimensions of perceived strategic value of m-commerce (operational support, managerial productivity and strategic decision aids) are positively connected to m-commerce adoption. Also, it was found that IT investment partially or fully mediates the relationship between all these dimensions of perceived strategic value of m-commerce and m-commerce adoption.

This study would enhance owners' and managers' understanding of the relationship between perceived strategic value of m-commerce, IT investment, antecedents of m-commerce and m-commerce adoption, thus contributing to their future adoption.

The different dimensions and contexts within which value is co-created has generated varied views of how value is understood or formed. This study aims to examine employee-guest perceived value as important factors for the successful implementation of value co-creation (VCC).

The study employs an interpretive paradigm, using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in a qualitative design to increase understanding of employee-guest perceived value to aid the implementation of VCC at the dyadic level.

Findings highlight eight value perceptions including value for money, hotel location, physical evidence, mutual respect, appreciation, safety & security, quality & varieties of food and technological characteristics of service as important factors for the successful implementation of VCC at the dyadic level.

Generalisability of the findings is a limitation not only due to the smaller sample size but also due to industry-specific context. The study follows rigorous procedures to minimise biases, yet research limitation is acknowledged from the researcher’s participation in the research process.

The notion that actor’s assess value differently from the same service suggests that diverse service elements might be experienced differently. This study provides insights for hotel managers to recognise not only individuals’ value preferences but also service types that reflect employee-guest collective service preferences for sustainability.

This study integrates and extends extant literature by examining employees’ and guests’ individual and collective views at distinct hotel contexts to gain useful insights into value and VCC. The study proposes a framework that hospitality firms can use to address service failure and competition-related issues.

This study aims to examine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affected the attitudes and behaviors of employees in the European aviation industry amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore any moderating effect of empathetic leadership.

Based on the social identity and social exchange theories, a research model was developed and tested against empirical data collected from employees of the European aviation industry, in 2021. Structural equation modeling and regression analyses were used for testing the hypothesized causal relationships.

Perceived CSR is directly related to work engagement and indirectly associated with work engagement and job insecurity via organizational pride. The presence of an empathetic leader does not intensify the effects of perceptions of CSR on organizational pride. Work engagement, in turn, impacts organizational citizenship behavior, while no such effect of job insecurity is supported.

This study provides insight into the underlying mechanisms via which CSR affects employees during a crisis. It, also, has significant implications on human resources management within the industries severely affected by the pandemic.