Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceived benefits of integrated reporting (IR) and factors influencing the motives that supervisory board members (SBMs) have for advocating a change towards IR implementation.

An exploratory survey study was conducted to investigate the influence of external market conditions, internal organizational conditions and observed benefits on the motivation to advocate IR adoption in companies that have not yet implemented IR. A unique set of survey data from 62 SBMs of Dutch companies was used for analysing the propositions derived from IR literature and based on institutional theory, legitimacy theory and diffusion of innovation theory.

The respondents indicated to be supportive of IR adoption. SBMs who had experienced the implementation of IR observed that IR offers benefits. Their motives for advocating a change towards IR in companies that had not implemented IR were influenced most by the observed benefits in IR companies. SBMs only involved in companies that had not adopted IR are motivated to support IR adoption to a similar extent. These findings suggest that directly observed benefits by SBMs need to exceed a considerable minimum level before these SBMs are more motived to advocate IR than their peers who have not witnessed the implementation of IR and that experiences are shared across companies. The motivation of both groups is influenced by external market conditions but not by internal organizational conditions.

The findings have implications for potential IR adopters and institutions promoting the further diffusion of IR as they emphasize the need for tangible benefits of IR and confirm that sharing good practices and benefits of IR can provide a catalyst for IR adoption. The findings contribute to the understanding of the motivation of SBMs as an important organizational condition for implementing IR as this study provides insights in the factors that drive this motivation of key actors influencing the decision to implement IR. Furthermore, the finding that these factors predominantly comprise tangible results and external market conditions is relevant from an organizational change perspective.

Understanding the mechanisms of IR-adoption decisions provides a relevant basis for deploying programmes promoting IR as a general reporting standard. This could provide society and a broad range of stakeholders with access to information incorporated in integrated reports. It could ultimately have a major impact on society by improving decision-making and increasing the long-term sustainability of organizations and their relations with stakeholders.

This study provides preliminary empirical evidence concerning the perspectives of SBMs on their motives for advocating IR, based on a unique sample from a country that has been involved with IR from its start.

The coffee industry has experienced two major trends: the development of connoisseur consumption of specialty coffee and the importance of sustainability. Despite the increasing concomitant relevance of both trends, literature on how sustainability has been interlacing with connoisseur consumption is rather limited. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse how connoisseur consumers (CC) integrate sustainability into their coffee consumption practices.

The paper adopts a qualitative netnographic approach through an interpretive cultural analysis of specialty coffee bloggers narratives, conceived as a specific sub-group of CC that tend to be particularly active on social media.

Through the lens of social practice theories, the study reveals that CC are likely to implement and perceive sustainability very differently from the dominant mass market as subject to the influence of their shared rituals, values, norms and symbolic meanings. Such findings are relevant under a managerial perspective as they also generate insights on how to foster environmentally friendly practices in coffee consumers as well as on how to create more sustainable marketing strategies.

The study contributes to the literature on coffee consumption behaviour and sustainability. First, by analysing actual behaviours rather than intended, the study offers an alternative approach to the dominant paradigm of linear decisions models in the study of sustainable consumption. Second, because CC possess a unique consumption style, different from the mainstream market, the analysis has led towards the identification of alternative sustainable consumption patterns and enablers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the etiological model of cyberbullying behaviors among Thai adolescents, testing the hypothesis that the constructs of theory of planned behavior (TPB), including self-esteem, will influence and have impact on cyberbullying intention and behaviors.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. Self-administered questionnaires were used among multi-stage stratified random samples from secondary schools in the Bangkok. The sample size consisting of 354 subjects included those who were victims (44.7 percent), perpetrators (33.1 percent) and witness (67.8 percent).

The SEM showed subjective norm (SN) to be the most direct influential factor of cyberbullying intention and behaviors, followed by attitude toward cyberbullying (Intention β=0.31, 0.24; p=0.01, Behavior β=0.09, 0.07; p=0.012 and 0.05, respectively). However, the SEM revealed that all variables from TPB including self-esteem in the equation can explain the variation scores of intention and cyberbullying behaviors at 54 and 67 percent levels (adjusted R²=0.54 and 0.67), respectively. The SEM showed that model modification indices indicate a good fit to the data (χ²=0.00, df=0, p>0.05, CMIN/df=0, GFI=1, AGFI=1, CFI=1 and RMSEA=0).

The experiences or witness of family violence and support at school level, which is supposed to mitigate the bullying problems, were neglected from this study.

The preventive measures for cyberbullying behaviors among adolescents should involve activities fostering self-esteem, developing proper attitude and SN to prevent cyberbullying. The initiatives and developed school supportive system for adolescents to understand how to control themselves when engaging in social network are imperative. However, for future research, family violence witness and attempt to lure the cyberbullying victims into offline meeting should be explored more.

TPB and the use of social media should be taken into account for planning and designing appropriate intervention to reduce and eliminate cyberbullying among all stakeholders in both public and private sectors in the area of health and educational institutes in order to endeavor and to advocate the anti-cyberbullying policy in Thailand.

TPB and self-esteem explained a substantial portion of and more modest but significant amount of variance in cyberbullying intention and behaviors. However, SN and attitude toward cyberbullying which was found to be most influential factors could be the useful information for designing intervention toward cyberbullying prevention for Thai adolescents and advocate implementing the anti-cyberbullying policy in Thailand.

The purpose of this study is to share how the learning impact of a remote workshop was improved through action research practices, especially action inquiry and critical reflexivity.

Research design detailed herein consists of one complete cycle of action and reflection. Methods used include: journaling into four territories of experience, free-form journaling, individual and joint reflection using four parts of speech and extended ways of knowing.

Action inquiry and critical reflexivity have shown themselves to be a potent means of improving the learning outcomes of remote Playing Lean workshops. Drawing on early insight, the author suggests several venues for further inquiry.

This paper contributes a novel combination of action research practices that can be used for improving other learning initiatives as well, and an example of how to question the veracity of qualitative findings.

This research aims to investigate the factors that can influence Bumiputera contractors’ acceptance of the Contractor’s All Risks (CAR) takāful (Islamic insurance) product using the theory of reasoned action (TRA).

Using the method of quantitative surveys, 414 questionnaires were collected from targeted Bumiputera contractors in Malaysia (grade G1 to grade G7), except in Sabah and Sarawak, that are registered with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and are also members of Persatuan Kontraktor Melayu Malaysia (PKMM). The data was analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.

The findings from the PLS-SEM analysis show that attitude, subjective norm, religiosity and awareness have a positive relationship with Bumiputera contractors’ acceptance of the CAR takāful product. Religiosity appeared to be the most significant factor influencing Bumiputera contractors’ acceptance of the CAR takāful product.

The respondents in this study only comprised Bumiputera contractors in Peninsular Malaysia, excluding those from Sabah and Sarawak. Therefore, it is not possible to generalise the findings to a broader population.

Takāful operators and their sales and marketing departments need to act proactively in promoting the benefits of investing in CAR takāful that follows Sharīʾah (Islamic law) rules and principles. They should create mechanisms to market CAR takāful better, thus accelerating its acceptance rate among contractors.

The paper uses the proposed extended TRA model, which includes the variables of religiosity and awareness in the TRA model. These variables were successfully integrated in the model, and the findings show that they have significantly contributed to the acceptance of the CAR takāful product among Bumiputera contractors.

This study aims to identify the contextual and relational factors that enhance and limit the empowerment of young people from the perspective of social education professionals.

Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model made it possible to locate the narratives of the educators in the territory. These narratives include field diaries, i.e. hybrid narratives that include visual, written and spoken materials, and focus groups with 11 educators from different fields of action and related to youth empowerment projects.

According to these educators, the most important factors for empowering young people are their immediate environment, and the issues that affect them most. For these factors to be empowering, young people need to be accompanied, with support based on connectedness, horizontality and the creation of safe spaces and learning experiences. Both the microsystem and the mesosystem form the immediate reality for their action. Aware of this, educators do the work of connecting with the exosystem.

It is evident why communities are spaces with opportunities for youth empowerment, and the authors observe the need for more transversal and less welfare-based social and youth policies that generate empowerment instead of dependency.

This methodology evidenced the environmental structures of educators and the dissimilar levels to explore and understand the work of educators and the complex interrelationships, which play an important role in empowerment processes.

This research presents a new perspective that allows traditional qualitative reflection to be embedded in the bioecological model. All of this sheds light on relational ecosystems with young people and proposes youth policies, in this case, oriented towards empowerment.

The objective of this paper is to propose a taxonomy of sustainability communication (SC) topics that provide digital content managers with a guide for setting a sustainability content agenda and for fostering stakeholder engagement mechanisms on environmental, social and economic issues that increasingly characterize conversations on social media of all stakeholder groups.

Taxonomy is a conceptual and qualitative way used to classify and represent the corporate sustainability (CS) domain of knowledge. The taxonomy categories of SC topics are both theoretically and empirically derived, combining an in-depth literature review with a thematic content analysis of 300 web pages of the corporate websites of the top ten sustainable brands selected in “The 2019 GlobeScan-SustainAbility Leaders Survey.”

The analysis of the results led to the construction of a hierarchical dictionary of tags that categorizes all sustainability topics based on a new, four-dimensional conceptual structure: planet, people, profit and governance. Each dimension is organized in four groups of sustainability themes, which, in turn, group multiple topics, considered the smallest communication unit to develop the SC content.

The taxonomy provides a concise and immediate conceptual framework on all those topics of broader interest, which, suitably modulated, can act as touch points with several groups of stakeholders. Drawn upon the best practices of thematic organization of SCs via the web, the taxonomy represents a guide for programming an editorial plan based on environmental, social, economic and governance issues from a sustainability content marketing perspective. The taxonomy of sustainability topics also finds application as a framework for a content intelligent system, providing a dictionary of tags that can be used for the indexing and retrieval of SC web content.

The study represents the first attempt at reaching a taxonomic organization of the sustainability aspects from a communicational perspective, supporting a new way of thinking and managing SC in the digital realm. Moreover, the results highlight, for the first time, that the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory, applied to corporate communications, lacks the governance aspect, which is essential to pursue sustainability consistently and effectively.