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The concepts underlying innovation and standardisation presents an apparent divergence in what each strives to achieve. In the view of the authors, this has contributed in no small measure to the low take‐up of standardisation within the construction sector as organisations strive to be innovative to improve on their performance and attain continuous improvement in their processes and operations as well as design solutions. The paper presents as a case, how one major public sector outfit is striving to achieve innovation within an agenda that involves a widespread adoption of standardisation. It presents the motivations for adopting an organisation‐wide agenda on innovation and standardisation, identifies the elements of apparent incongruity between the concepts, and outlines how the case organisation has resolved the divergences.

This paper aims to examine the determinants and extent of corporate social disclosure (CSD) by UAE national banks and to investigate the changes in CSD before, during and after the latest financial crisis.

Deductive in nature, this paper uses content analysis of annual reports of 16 UAE banks over a period of six years (2006-2011) to test eight hypotheses related to size, financial performance and other variables as potential explanatory variables of the CSD extent over different periods.

The findings show that human resources and community disclosures exhibited the highest extent of CSD over the six years. Moreover, the size and financial performance variables appear to be significant explanatory factors for the extent of CSD. The findings also indicate a strong variation in disclosure between banks with international presence and those with no such presence, while there is no significant disclosure variation between Islamic and conventional banks or during the different periods under investigation (pre, during and post recent financial crisis).

Studies allowing a greater understanding of how banks with extensive governmental ownership define and disclose CSR in this particular region of the world are scarce and exploratory in nature. Consequently, the structure of national UAE banks provides a unique opportunity to understand the CSR mechanisms and disclosure of similar institutions in the world (particularly in the Arab world). This presents an interesting direction for further research.

These findings could assist UAE bankers and policymakers in integrating CSD in their corporate strategies and help the local and international business communities in understanding the characteristics of CSD in the UAE.

Comprehensive in scope, this paper provides a complete assessment of the potential explanatory proxies of CSD by UAE local banks before, during and after the recent global financial crisis. Comparable studies of the UAE banking sector have mainly focused on particular bank types (i.e. Islamic or conventional) and did not consider the effect of the recent adverse financial climate.

The research aims to empirically investigate the determinants of the breadth of the corporate social disclosure (CSD).

The study adopts a multi-perspective approach, referring to different theoretical frameworks on CSD, such as the legitimacy theory, the stakeholder theory, the agency model, the asymmetric information theory, and the institutional perspective.

The empirical research is based on the sustainability reports of 80 companies in which investments were made by European socially responsible funds (SRFs) listed on the Morningstar platform during the years 2009–2008.

The theoretical hypotheses are tested by a univariate and multivariate analysis.

The breadth of the CSD depends on multiple factors, both external and internal, such as the country of origin, the industry reputation, the firm size, the frequency of the SRFs participation, the corporate social performance.

Limits inherent in this type of research are the comparability of the CSR reports and the systematization of the categories of content to be analyzed.

The chapter identifies several factors that lead to a greater completeness of the CSD, exploiting the capacity of the social reporting to trigger benefits for the firms such as a stronger social legitimacy and the reduction of asymmetric information.

The research supports the investigation of the levers of CSD to meet the demand for a broader accountability.

The reference to firms in which SRFs participated allows to focus on companies ascertained as socially responsible in accordance with a “certification function” of these funds. Findings support an approach which is not one-sided, thus enabling to look at the determinants of the CSD through different theoretical perspectives.

This study proposed and examined a unique but underresearched strategic response to coercive institutional pressure, covert neutralization, in which organizations neutralize coercive institutional pressure by manipulating influential factors within their discretion while conforming to the pressure. In addition, this study pointed out that the extent of covert neutralization is contingent on organizational decision-makers' willingness and ability to take countermeasures.

To find evidence for covert neutralization and its strategic nature, a historical review with secondary data was conducted in the context of the coercive introduction of the independent director system in China. The board structure adjustments of 318 Chinese A-share listed companies from 2000 to 2004 were examined using univariate T-tests, robust ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models and ordered logit regression models to test the hypotheses.

This study found that in response to the coercive introduction of the independent director system, Chinese listed companies adjusted their board structures while conforming to the system, which neutralized the constraints on controlling shareholders' board control. Specifically, listed companies reduced the number of dependent directors and the ratio of directors representing noncontrolling shareholders to those representing controlling shareholders. Moreover, the extent of board structure adjustments was positively associated with the shareholding percentage of controlling shareholders. These findings provide evidence for covert neutralization and its strategic nature.

This study indicates the inefficacy of simple legal coercion and suggests that authorities should be aware of the covert countermeasures used by regulated organizations and employ normative approaches to improve the efficacy of regulations. This implication is rather instructive for regulators to effectively promote imposed changes in transitional economies with strong governments.

By differentiating conformity behavior from conformity inclination and considering the inevitable incompleteness of laws, this study challenges the conventional wisdom regarding organizational conformity and shows that organizations can strategically respond to coercive institutional pressure while conforming to it. In contrast to other strategic responses that aim to defy, avoid or resist the implementation (the means) of institutional pressure, covert neutralization aims to neutralize its efficacy (the ends).

This paper aims to examine the relationship between a diverse set of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and corporate sustainability disclosure (CSD) in Southeast Asian countries under national stakeholder reform.

Data analysis is based on 171 of the largest companies across six Southeast Asian countries using a 30-item CSD measure.

The authors find that there are wide variations in the levels of CSD across the countries. The findings indicate that board size, board gender diversity, block ownership and the presence of a sustainability committee are significant determinants of CSD. Additionally, whilst more stringent stakeholder governance reform motivates firms to publish more sustainability information, it fails to influence the effectiveness of the board of directors in promoting CSD.

Findings of this study highlight the essential role internal governance structure plays in monitoring corporate actions and enabling corporations to reduce their legitimacy gap. The findings further encourage regulators and policymakers to question, with utmost importance, the effectiveness of stakeholder reform in making significant organisational changes.

There is a dearth of studies that examine the CG-CSD nexus in relation to specific institutional characteristics. Existing studies mainly focus on a single country with similar institutional environments and thus limiting the ability to understand the “context specificity” of sustainability content development. This paper provides an overview of stakeholder reform in Southeast Asian countries and empirically substantiates the relationship between CG and CSD across six countries undergoing such reforms in the region.

This paper aims to investigate how the corporate attributes, namely, company size, age, leverage, profitability and ownership concentration, are associated with corporate social disclosures (CSD). The paper further examines whether there are any moderating effects on the association because of different proxies of corporate attributes.

The study uses 35 articles published between 1996 and 2016 for finding out the integrated results of the previous studies. The study uses the meta-analysis technique developed by Hunter et al. (1982) and Hunter and Schmidt (1990).

The findings of the overall meta-analysis show that company size and ownership concentration are significantly and positively associated with CSD, while age, profitability and leverage indicate an insignificant positive association. Also, the different proxies of explanatory variables moderate the association between corporate attributes and CSD.

This is a unique study that determines the association between corporate attributes and CSD by using meta-analysis. Therefore, it is expected that this investigation solves the inconclusive and mixed results of the prior studies and assists future researchers to develop a theory in that context.

This study investigates the crucial link between sustainable practices and organizational development, focusing on sustainable knowledge management (SKM), green innovation (GI) and corporate sustainable development (CSD) in diverse Pakistani organizations.

This study employs a comprehensive research methodology involving advanced statistical techniques, such as confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling. These methods are instrumental in exploring the complex interrelationships between SKM, GI, moderating factors and CSD.

This research generates significant findings and actively contributes to sustainable development. The following sections (Sections 4 and 5) delve into the specific findings and in-depth discussions, shedding light on how industry regulation, organizational sustainability priorities, workplace culture collaboration and alignment between green culture and knowledge management practices influence the relationships between SKM, GI and CSD. These findings provide valuable insights for the research community and organizations striving for sustainability.

The study’s findings have practical implications for organizations seeking to enhance their sustainability efforts and embrace a socially and environmentally conscious approach to organizational growth.

This study contributes to the literature on sustainable practices and organizational development. Researchers and business people can learn a lot from it because it uses advanced econometric models in new ways and focuses on the link between knowledge management, GI and sustainable corporate development.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the prediction capability of comprehensive structural dynamics (CSD) analysis codes for the higher harmonic control aeroacoustic rotor test (HART) II data.

A nonlinear flexible multibody dynamics analysis code DYMORE, as well as the comprehensive analytical model of rotorcraft aerodynamics and dynamics (CAMRAD) II, are used to perform the task. The predicted results on rotating free vibration analysis, airloads, blade elastic motions, and structural moments are correlated with the measured data for the baseline, minimum noise, and minimum vibration cases.

The DYMORE analysis results with a free wake model show a good performance in capturing blade vortex interaction peaks in the prediction of section normal forces but apparently with a phase shift problem. The high‐frequency behavior in the airloads signal does not affect much on the aeroelastic response and structural moments of the rotor.

The present approach uses two separate CSD codes to systematically validate the HART II data. The accuracy of each code on structural dynamic aspects of HART II rotor is assessed using a consistent set of inputs. The effects of blade tip deflections on the interaction of blades and their trailed vortices leading to a reduced noise emission are also investigated.

Manufacturing firms face increasing pressure to be more “greener” or environmentally friendly. Drawing upon the sustainable development (SD) theory and resource-based view, this study aims to examine the role of total quality management (TQM) and its effect on corporate SD (CSD). Also, this study focused on the mediating role of green innovation (GI).

This study used data from a time-lagged design with two waves that strengthened the hypothesized framework and used structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses.

The results showed a significant influence of TQM on CSD and GI. Also, GI positively affects CSD and fully mediates TQM and CSD relationships.

Important practical implications are integrating the quality indicators with sustainability and environmental dimensions. This study shall help the managers and policymakers in achieving their sustainability goals.

This study advances the prior literature and provides a noble approach of SD for TQM in manufacturing small and medium enterprises in an emerging country context.