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The purpose of this study is to identify segments in the Gen Z population (born between 1996 and 2010) in Europe, the USA and Australia, based on brand- and lifestyle-related variables and perceptions about their online activities. This study explores how these segments differ and provide insights into cross-country similarities and differences.

An online survey was conducted with 4,304 participants, and cluster analysis and analysis of variance were used to identify and profile Gen Z segments in each of three geographical areas.

Five segments in Europe and four segments in the USA and in Australia were identified. Segments differ in terms of the importance they attach to exclusivity, inclusivity and sustainability of brands, how Gen Z members perceive money issues and stand in life and how they perceive their online activities. Similar segments are found in the three geographical areas.

This study proposes a conceptual and analytical approach for exploring intra-cohort diversity. Future research can apply this approach to different generational cohorts and use it to study intra-cohort diversity in other parts of the world.

This study provides input for marketing practitioners to create better focused and more effective campaigns.

Cross-country generational cohort research is scarce, and especially intra-cohort diversity is under-researched. This study offers a deep and fine-grained insight into the diversity of the Gen Z cohort across three geographical areas, based on representative samples in these areas.

Human resource analytics (HRA) has developed as a new business trend and challenge, stressing the strategic relevance of human resource management (HRM) to senior management executives. HRA is a process that uses statistical techniques, to link HR practices to organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to carry out recent development in HRA, bibliometric analysis and content analysis to present a comprehensive account of HRA to fill the gap in the evolution and status of its research.

The study is based on the recent advances in HRA in terms of it evolution and advancement by analyzing and drawing conclusions 480 articles retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database from 2003 to March 2022. The methodology is divided into four steps: data collection, analysis, visualization and interpretation. The study performed a rigorous bibliometric assessment of HRA using the bibliometric R-package and VOS viewer.

The findings based on the literature survey, and bibliometric analysis, reveal the path-breaking articles, the prominent authors, most contributing institutions and countries that have contributed to the HRA scholarship. The results show that the number of publications has significantly increased from 2015 onwards, reaching a maximum of 101 journals in 2021. The USA, China, India, Canada and the United Kingdom were the most productive countries in terms of the total number of publications. Human Resource Management Journal, Human Resource Management, International Journal of Manpower, and Journal of Organizational Effectiveness-People and Performance are the top four academic outlets in the field of HRA. Additionally, the study identifies four clusters of HRA research and the knowledge gaps in HRA scholarship.

The present study is based on the articles retrieved from the WoS. The study underpins HRA research to understand the trends and presents a structured account. However, the study is not free from limitations. It is recommended that future research could be undertaken by combining WoS and Scopus databases to have a more detailed and comprehensive view. This study indicates that the field is still in its infancy stage. Hence, there is a need for more arduous research on the topic to help develop a better understanding of this field.

The findings of knowledge clusters will drive future researchers to augment the field. The evolution of the four clusters and their subsequent development will fill the gaps in the literature. This study enriches the HRA literature and the findings of this study may assist academicians, researchers and managers in furthering their research in the identified research clusters

This study aims to investigate the effect of income and asset diversification on earnings management using discretionary loan loss provisions (LLP) in banks, and the role of risk level in mediating this effect.

A sample of banks operating in Middle East and North Africa countries was used to test the mediation model of Baron and Kenny (1986) with different measures of diversification and risk.

The results show that bank income and asset diversification have unique and combined effects on earnings management. The results also support the idea that a risk-mediating effect contributes to explaining this relationship among banks. Specifically, bank diversification strategies positively affect LLP-based earnings management by increasing bank risk. This result is relevant for conventional banks. However, only a direct and positive effect of diversification strategies on LLP-based earnings management can be observed in Islamic banks, and the indirect effect is not supported.

This study extends previous research by examining the unique and combined effects of income and asset diversification strategies on earnings management in the banking sector. Specifically, it provides new evidence that diversification strategies increase LLP-based earnings management, both directly and indirectly, through bank risk.

The struggle for racial justice has always faced significant challenges and controversies across interpersonal, intergroup and structural levels. As racism continues to evolve and adapt to new social, political and technological developments, researchers, activists and practitioners grapple with complex and intersecting issues. This chapter discusses some of the ongoing challenges anti-racist endeavours face today. It engages with contemporary global issues, such as international migration, globalisation and the digital revolution that have implications on the fight against racism. The chapter covers topics such as the recent backlashes against anti-racism, the emergence of the ‘colour-blind’ ideology and the challenges anti-racism faces in the realm of technological advance and digital spaces. Additionally, this chapter explores the discourse of decolonisation as a radical approach to anti-racism. It concludes with a critical discussion of the idea that mainstreaming and expanding anti-racism to include racial majorities may enhance its effectiveness.

This study aims to propose and develop a new digital collaborative supply chain (CSC) model completely based on the emerging Industry 4.0 technologies. The digital model aims to support the main factors likely to affect CSC. This proposed model combines the most well-known digital tools such as blockchain technology, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing (CC).

Motivated by its effective solution to enhance trust, traceability, transparency and minimize costs and risks, the combination of the most well-known digital tools such as blockchain technology, IoT and CC to develop a new digital CSC model is addressed in this research. This study first investigates and conducts a deep review analysis that explores how Industry 4.0 technologies can enable collaboration mechanisms. Second, based on an analysis of literature review, the main factors likely to affect CSC have been identified and analysed. Finally, the authors combine digital tools to support the identified factors to enhance transparency, traceability and trust by proposing a new digital CSC model. This proposed model will be used as a referential guide to encourage and motivate SC actors to collaborate in digital CSC.

This work provides many important contributions to theory and practice. First, role and impacts of the most well-known digital tools such as blockchain technology, IoT and CC for digitizing CSC have separately presented and developed. Second, the authors conceptualized a framework by developing a new digital CSC model. This conceptual digital model can be used as a referential guide for all SC actors in order to motivate them to collaborate in a modern, intelligent, secure and reliable SC. It can also support all factors affecting CSC.

The originality of this study is first investigating separately the roles and impacts of each digital tool on CSC performance. Second, the authors combine the most well-known digital tools such as blockchain technology, IoT and CC in order to develop an efficient, smart, modern and new digital CSC model. In this combination, CC is used as platform as a service enabling to link and connect the blockchain and IoT to support the main factors affecting CSC. Unlike to digital CSC model with only one digital tool, the proposed model is more realistic since depending on the information to be shared with other actors, the most appropriate tool will be automatically detected and used. This solution offers a large choice to SC actors for real time data and information sharing. In addition, the proposed model will largely enhance traceability, transparency and trust in CSC.

This study examines how professional service firms' communication effectiveness (affiliative communications style, social dialogue and information provision), social cognitive capital and rapport established between an auditor and SME client are instrumental in influencing the latter's evaluation of the technical quality of an audit.

The study combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to create a cross-sectional survey covering four geographic regions in an emerging economy – Thailand. The authors examine the hypotheses by employing social interaction theory.

A study of 744 SME executives plus post-survey interviews with three audit partners revealed that an affiliative communications style and information provision are positively associated with the rapport developed between financial auditor and client, and that rapport, in turn, had a strong association with client perceptions of audit quality. In addition, affiliative communication style, information provision and social cognitive capital had a direct (positive) association with perceptions of audit quality. The effects of communication effectiveness and social cognitive capital varied, depending on whether or not the SME client possessed formal accounting qualifications.

The study contributes to the literature on the business-to-business professional services, and accounting in particular, by explicating the important roles of communication effectiveness, rapport, and social cognitive capital in the relationship between an auditor and a client. Moreover, the paper reveals that the differences in educational background of clients result in differential impacts of communication effectiveness and social cognitive capital on rapport and perceptions of audit quality.

The present work aimed to present the perception of Tunisian professionals towards companies engaged in social responsibility practices and describe the tax evasion strategies of socially responsible Tunisian companies following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (COVID-19) shock.

A survey was sent to 119 Tunisian tax administration auditors. Data analysis methods principal component analysis (PCA) and regression analysis were used. The data were collected through a questionnaire after the general containment of Tunisia from September 2020 to February 2021. These quantitative data were analysed using processing software (STATA).

Professionals of the tax authorities, particularly those in charge of the audit mission, aim for corporate profitability from the perspective of stakeholders that seek to integrate ethics and social responsibility into companies and consider employee morale a top priority. The results show that highly ethical and socially responsible professionals are far from practising aggressive strategies. Thus, an auditor from the tax administration is far from engaging in social responsibility to justify fraudulent acts. During the COVID-19 period, the role of these professionals was to prevent and detect fraud in the tax sector to fight corruption and investigate taxes based on sound regulations.

The results are consistent with optimal taxation theory, which postulates that a tax system should be chosen to maximise a social welfare function subject to a set of constraints. Professionals seek to make taxation much simpler for taxpayers by providing advice and consultation to manage tax obligations. The minimisation of tax or the play of tax values requires expertise in the field to respect legal constraints. Therefore, these professionals play a crucial role in tax collection, as the professionals' advice and suggestions can influence taxpayers' decision-making.

In recent years, academic researchers, policy makers and the public have become increasingly interested in corporate tax evasion behaviour. At the same time, companies are under increasing pressure to integrate CSR into the companies' decision-making processes, which has led to increased academic interest in CSR. Opportunistic tax minimisation reduces state resources and funds needed for government programmes to improve the social welfare of the entire community. This study represents an overriding concern not only for legal and tax authorities and companies, but also for shareholders and stakeholders.

The authors' study contributes to the existing literature by determining the state of play on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices amongst Tunisian tax authorities' professionals. In Tunisia, an executive of the tax authorities in charge of the verification mission is required to verify the proper application of the accounting and tax legislation in force, follow up on tax control operations on declared taxes and validate the sincerity of the accounts. This study focussed on the tax evasion of companies engaged in social responsibility practices according to the judgements of Tunisian tax authorities' auditors during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to provide further insights into the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and companies’ credit ratings, while also exploring the role of corporate governance as a moderating factor. The hypotheses for this relationship are rooted in both legitimacy and stakeholder theories.

Using a sample of French non-financial listed firms from 2007 to 2020, this paper uses the ordered probit model introduced by Greene (2000). The issue of endogeneity has also been addressed.

The study reveals that CSR practices positively impact companies’ credit ratings by enhancing solvency and financial performance. Specifically, firms that prioritize CSR, particularly in the social and environmental dimensions (such as community relations, diversity, employee relations, environmental performance and product characteristics), tend to have higher credit ratings and a reduced risk of default. This suggests that credit rating agencies likely incorporate CSR performance when assigning credit ratings. Furthermore, the quality of corporate governance acts as a moderator, strengthening the relationship between CSR and credit ratings. The findings remain robust even after accounting for key firm attributes and addressing potential endogeneity between CSR and credit ratings.

This research provides valuable guidance for policymakers, corporate managers, investors and other stakeholders, as it offers insights into the influence of CSR activities on risk premiums and financing costs. For financial institutions, expanding credit decisions to encompass non-financial factors such as CSR can result in more accurate predictions of firm credit quality compared to relying solely on financial indicators.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study stands out as the first to systematically examine the relationship between CSR and credit ratings within the French context. Moreover, it distinguishes itself by investigating the moderating influence of corporate governance on this relationship, setting it apart from prior research.

This chapter analyzes the link between the digital divide, infrastructure regulation, and disaster planning and relief through a case study of the flood in San Jose, California triggered by the Anderson dam’s overtopping in February 2017 and an examination of communication failures during the 2018 wildfire in Paradise, California. This chapter theorizes that regulatory decisions construct social and disaster vulnerability. Rooted in the Whole Community approach to disaster planning and relief espoused by the United Nations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this chapter calls for leadership to end the digital divide. It highlights the imperative of understanding community information needs and argues for linking strategies to close the digital divide with infrastructure and emergency planning. As the Internet’s integration into society increases, the digital divide diminishes access to societal resources including disaster aid, and exacerbates wildfire, flood, pandemic, and other risks. To mitigate climate change, climate-induced disaster, protect access to social services and the economy, and safeguard democracy, it argues for digital inclusion strategies as a centerpiece of community-centered infrastructure regulation and disaster relief.