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This study aims to explore the relationship between promoter share pledging and the company’s dividend payout policy in India. Furthermore, this study also analyses the moderating impact of family involvement in business on the association between share pledging and dividend payout.

A sample of 236 companies from the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive (BSE) 500 Index (2014–2023) has been analysed through fixed-effects panel data regression. For additional testing, robustness checks include alternative measures of dividend payout and promoter share pledging, as well as alternative methodologies such as Bayesian regression. Lastly, to address potential endogeneity, instrumental variables with a two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) methodology have been implemented.

Upholding the agency perspective, a significantly negative impact of promoter share pledging on corporate dividend payouts in India has been uncovered. Moreover, family involvement in business moderates this relationship, highlighting that the negative association between promoter share pledging and dividend payouts is more pronounced in family companies. The findings are consistent throughout the robustness testing.

The present study represents a pioneering endeavour to empirically analyse the link between promoter share pledging and dividend payouts in India. It enhances the theoretical underpinnings of the agency relationship, particularly by substantiating the existence of Type II agency conflicts between majority and minority shareholders. The findings of this research bear significant implications for investors, researchers and policymakers, particularly in light of the widespread prevalence of promoter-controlled entities in India.

Stakeholders' uncertainty about firms' value drives their urge to get information, as well as managerial disclosure choices. In this study, the authors examine whether and how an important source of uncertainty – the recent COVID-19 pandemic's effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure – is beyond managerial and stakeholders' control.

The authors develop a novel construct for daily CSR disclosure by employing computer-aided text analysis (CATA) on the press releases issued by 125 New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) listed from 28 February 2020 to 31 December 2020. To capture COVID-19 intensity, the authors use the growth rate of the population-adjusted cumulative sum of confirmed cases in New Zealand on a specific day. To examine the association between the COVID-19 outbreak and companies' CSR disclosure, the authors employed ordinary least squares (OLS) regression by clustering standard error at the firm level.

The authors find a one standard deviation increase in the COVID-19 outbreak leads to a 28% increase in such disclosures. These results remained robust to a series of sensitivity tests and continue to hold after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. In the channel analysis, the study demonstrates that the positive relationship between COVID-19 and CSR disclosure is more pronounced in the presence of a well-structured board (i.e. a large, more independent board and with a higher proportion of women on it). In further analysis, the authors find the documented relationship varies over the pandemic's life cycle and is moderated by government stringency response, peer CSR pressure and media coverage.

This paper is the first study that contributes to the scant literature examining the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on CSR disclosure. Prior research either investigates the relationship of the CSR-stock return during the COVID-19 market crisis or examines the relationship between corporate characteristics including the quality of financial information and the reactions of stock returns during COVID-19. The authors extend such studies by providing empirical evidence that managers respond to COVID-19 by increasing CSR disclosure.

Highly committed, motivated and engaged employees assure organizational success and competitiveness. The study aims to examine the association between human resource development (HRD) practices and employee engagement with organizational commitment as a mediating variable.

Data were collected from 760 employees of 13 star-rated hotels comprising 5 (five-star) and 8 (four-star). The data supported the hypothesized relationships. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the proposed model and hypotheses. Construct validity and reliability were established through confirmatory factor analysis.

The results indicate that HRD practices and affective commitment are significantly associated. HRD practices and continuance commitment were shown to be non-significantly associated. HRD practices and normative commitment were shown to be non-significantly associated. Employee engagement and organizational commitment are significantly associated. The results further show that organizational commitment mediates the association between HRD practices and employee engagement.

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research's hotel industry focus and cross sectional data.

The study's findings will serve as valuable pointers for stakeholders and policymakers of the hotel industry in the adoption, design and implementation of proactive HRD interventions to keep highly engaged and committed employees for organizational competitiveness and sustainability.

By evidencing empirically that organizational commitment mediates the nexus between HRD practices and employee engagement, the study extends the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between cash holdings, investment opportunities and financial constraint with audit fees in Iran.

In order to collect data, all manufacturing companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange are used to test the hypotheses during 2008–2015. Panel data and combined data regression model were used for data analysis. Tests were performed using R statistical software.

The results obtained from the statistical analysis of research hypotheses indicated that there is a significant relationship between cash holdings and audit fees. Furthermore, the relationship between cash holdings, financial constraints and audit fees was significant. In addition, there was no significant relationship between cash holdings, investment opportunities and audit fees.

The current study employed a unique topic in terms of a developing country, and the results may give strength to other developing nations.

This paper reviews the literature on disability inclusion (DI) in supply and demand chains of hospitality and tourism (H&T) organisations. The purpose of this study is to assess disability support and interventions within H&T organisations. Through the assessment, we identified gaps to recommend H&T scholars’ and practitioners’ knowledge of DI from new perspectives.

An integrative review was conducted to examine the published evidence on DI in H&T organisations. This study used high-ranking H&T journals from the Scopus and Web of Science databases between 2001 and 2023. In total, 101 empirical papers met the criteria for the review analysis.

DI focuses heavily on customer disabilities, with scant research on DI in H&T employment. The review emphasises the critical need for empirical research into the varied disability employment ecosystem within H&T organisations, focusing on social integration for inclusive workplaces.

This study contributes to the H&T literature, which previously overlooked the disability context in diversity. The research offers strategies for creating inclusive environments in the H&T industry for disabled consumers and producers.

This study aims to assess the use of variational quantum imaginary time evolution for solving partial differential equations using real-amplitude ansätze with full circular entangling layers. A graphical mapping technique for encoding impulse functions is also proposed.

The Smoluchowski equation, including the Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek potential energy, is solved to simulate colloidal deposition on a planar wall. The performance of different types of entangling layers and over-parameterization is evaluated.

Colloidal transport can be modelled adequately with variational quantum simulations. Full circular entangling layers with real-amplitude ansätze lead to higher-fidelity solutions. In most cases, the proposed graphical mapping technique requires only a single bit-flip with a parametric gate. Over-parameterization is necessary to satisfy certain physical boundary conditions, and higher-order time-stepping reduces norm errors.

Variational quantum simulation can solve partial differential equations using near-term quantum devices. The proposed graphical mapping technique could potentially aid quantum simulations for certain applications.

This study shows a concrete application of variational quantum simulation methods in solving practically relevant partial differential equations. It also provides insight into the performance of different types of entangling layers and over-parameterization. The proposed graphical mapping technique could be valuable for quantum simulation implementations. The findings contribute to the growing body of research on using variational quantum simulations for solving partial differential equations.

A new academic structure for senior secondary and higher education was introduced to Hong Kong in 2009/2010. This paper aims to: (1) compare the cohort from the old academic structure (Cohort 2010) and the cohort from the new academic structure (Cohort 2015) on the 14 categories of generic competencies; and (2) compare these attributes among students from different divisions in a tertiary institution in Hong Kong.

Self-Assessment of All-Round Development (SAARD) questionnaires were distributed to students who took the two-year sub-degree programmes offered by the College of Professional and Continuing Education, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2010 and 2015 on a self-administered basis. A total of 4,424 students have returned the questionnaires. Data were analyzed with t-test to compare between the two cohorts.

When comparing Cohort 2015 with Cohort 2010, significantly higher scores were observed on five areas such as global outlook and healthy lifestyle (p<0.05). Significantly lower scores were observed on the other five areas such as problem solving, critical thinking and leadership (p<0.05). Students from all divisions unanimously showed higher perceived rating on social and national responsibility but lower perceived rating on leadership (p<0.05).

The elimination of one public examination, the newly included components such as Other Learning Experiences (OLE) and the compulsory Liberal Studies were believed to contribute partially to the diverse responses of the two cohorts. The dramatic change of the curriculum has not changed the examination culture in Hong Kong which may hinder the development of generic skills among students.

This study aims to integrate social identity and leader–member exchange (LMX) theory to investigate the processes and boundary conditions around LMX–performance relationships. Through the application of two leader–follower subsamples, the authors test three main objectives. What is the effect of multi-dimensional dyad value-congruence on LMX and how does congruence on these dimensions differentially influence leader and follower perceptions of LMX? In a subsample of followers including supervisor-rated performance, the authors develop a model that examines how individual values moderate the effect of dyad contact on supervisor-rated job performance mediated by follower LMX.

The participants for this study include graduate and undergraduate social work students who were taking part in a one-year work placement within a social work organization as well as their immediate supervisors. Across a four-month period, participants filled out measures of their supervisor contact, work values and LMX. Supervisor-rated performance was also included.

Findings from the dyadic subsample show that growth value congruence is a predictor of follower-rated LMX, with value congruence across all values having no effect on leader-rated LMX. Within a subsample of followers, findings suggest that follower-rated LMX mediates the relationship between dyad contact and supervisor-rated job performance, with individual work values moderating this effect.

The current study offers several contributions to the literature on LMX and job performance. First, in this study’s dyadic leader–follower sample, the authors extend propositions made by social identity theory around value congruence and LMX by offering support for a multi-dimensional and multi-target approach to questions of values and LMX. Second, within this study’s larger non-dyadic sample, the authors offer insights into previous conflicting findings around dyad contact and LMX, by offering support for the indirect effect of dyad contact on supervisor-rated performance via LMX. Third, within this second sample, the authors also extend the literature on values and LMX to show that the process through which LMX influences job performance is dependent on follower values.

To comply with the adopted Paris Agreement, global finance flows must be measured against climate scenarios consistent with possible pathways towards limiting global warming to 2°C or less. For this, there must be proven and accepted accounting principles for assessing financial plans of climate relevant actors against climate models. As there are a variety of data sources describing the financial plans of relevant actors, these principles must accommodate a variety of reported information, while still yielding relevant metrics to different stakeholders. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A set of accounting principles tested by governments, financial supervisory bodies and both institutional investors and mangers, covering global-listed equity and corporate bond investment is described.

The application illustrates that a common set of accounting principles can act across both asset classes and provide relevant metrics to multiple stakeholders.

The principles require data of varying quality and are ultimately unverified. Thus, the definitive quality of the output metrics is uncertain and is yet to be characterized. The principles are yet to be applied to the credit market as the information is seldom publicly available, but it too plays an important role in the required market transition and therefore must be incorporated into these guiding principles of analysis.

The principles allow for standardised assessment of financial flows of equity and corporate debt with global climate scenarios.

It illustrates the acceptance of a common set of accounting principles that is relevant across different actors and asset classes and summarizes the principles underlying the first climate finance scenario analyses.

Technology-facilitated violence and abuse is a truly global problem. As the diverse perspectives and experiences featured in this book have shown, the deep entanglement between technologies, inequality, marginalization, abuse, and violence require multi-faceted and collaborative responses that exist within and beyond the law. When this chapter was written, society was (and continues to be) facing an unprecedented challenge in COVID-19 – a global pandemic. At the same time, a renewed focus on racist police and civilian violence has occurred following the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in the United States. As we describe in this chapter, these two major moments are ongoing reminders of the profound social inequalities within our global communities, which are grounded in systemically discriminatory oppressions and their intersections. This chapter draws together some thoughts on technology-facilitated violence and abuse in an era of COVID-19 and antiracist protest. It explores these within the context of the book as a whole, highlighting the importance for improved understanding of, and responses to, technology-facilitated violence and abuse as part of a broader push for social justice.