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The purpose of this paper is to develop the theoretical linkage between culture and economic growth and empirically test the relationship by measuring culture and how it affects labor productivity.

This study uses a cross-section study of developing countries and regresses economic productivity growth on a set of control variables and cultural factors.

It is found that three cultural factors, economic attitudes, political attitudes, and attitudes towards the family, affect economic productivity growth.

Many economists ignore culture as a factor in economic growth, either because they discount the value of culture or because they have no simple way to quantify culture, resulting in the role of culture being under-researched. The study is the first to extensively examine the role of culture in productivity growth using large-scale data sources. The authors show that culture plays an important role in productivity gains across countries, contributing to the study of the effects of culture on economic development, and that culture can be empirically measured and linked to an activity that directly affects the economic growth – labor productivity.

Research on how to use social media data to measure and evaluate service quality is still limited. To fill the research gap in the literature, the purpose of this paper is to open a new avenue for future work to measure the service quality in the service industry by developing a new analytical approach of using social media analytics to evaluate service quality.

This paper uses social media data to measure the service quality of the airline industry with the SERVQUAL metrics. A novel benchmark data set was created for each SERVQUAL metric. The data set was analyzed through text mining and sentiment analysis.

By comparing the results from social media with official service quality report from the Department of Transportation, the authors found that the proposed service quality metrics from social media are valid and can be used to estimate the service quality.

This paper presents service quality metrics and a methodology that can be easily adopted by other businesses to assess service quality. This study also provides guidance and suggestions to help businesses understand how to collect and analyze social media data for the purpose of evaluating service quality.

This paper offers a novel methodology that uses text mining and sentiment analysis to help the airline industry assess its service quality.

The success and reliability of business transactions and research in emerging markets depend on the quality of financial information. Due to the institutional and historical backgrounds, financial information provided by firms in emerging markets has often been questioned for their accuracy. This study aims to examine the reliability of financial information through various descriptive and statistical analyses in major emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRICs).

The authors use firm-level data from the BRIC countries and apply statistical models to identify patterns of profit misreporting by firms in these countries.

The results show significant and systemic signs of misreporting of financial information in these countries, particularly in China and Russia, which are further examined to understand the possible reasons behind their more severe misreporting.

The study then concludes with practical and specific recommendations for investors, managers, and policy makers on how to detect and avoid potential risks due to inaccurate financial information and improve the overall quality of decision making.

This study examines a new type of corruption that has not previously been studied but that significantly affects the world. Traditionally, corruption has referred to individuals or organizations that bribe state officials. The author examines a phenomenon in which the briber is actually the government of a country that bribes the rest of the world in order to gain influence and propose a framework to explain it.

A multi-case qualitative method is used to compile and analyze evidences and develop my arguments. Specifically, the author compiles information on and analyzes the Confucius Institutes, the training of future foreign leaders, influencing the influencers, the Thousand Talents Plan, the Belt and Road Initiative and foreign aid.

The findings reveal the existence of state-sponsored bribery of the world.

State-sponsored bribery is a threat to the world. Recognizing it is the first step to curb it. Reducing the bribery by China's state will benefit the world and China.

State-sponsored bribery is originally defined and documented. A framework about the motivations and capabilities of state-sponsored bribery is proposed, the effects of and responses to such a bribery are reviewed, and policies to curb it are suggested.

This study aims to examine how different hospitals utilize social media to communicate risk information about COVID-19 with the communities they serve, and how hospitals' social media messaging (firm-generated content and their local community's responses (user-generated content) evolved with the COVID-19 outbreak progression.

This research proposes a healthcare-specific social media analytics framework and studied 68,136 tweets posted from November 2019 to November 2020 from a geographically diverse set of ten leading hospitals' social media messaging on COVID-19 and the public responses by using social media analytics techniques and the health belief model (HBM).

The study found correlations between some of the HBM variables and COVID-19 outbreak progression. The findings provide actionable insight for hospitals regarding risk communication, decision making, pandemic awareness and education campaigns and social media messaging strategy during a pandemic and help the public to be more prepared for information seeking in the case of future pandemics.

For hospitals, the results provide valuable insights for risk communication practitioners and inform the way hospitals or health agencies manage crisis communication during the pandemic For patients and local community members, they are recommended to check out local hospital's social media sites for updates and advice.

The study demonstrates the role of social media analytics and health behavior models, such as the HBM, in identifying important and useful data and knowledge for public health risk communication, emergency responses and planning during a pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of CEOs’ characteristics on the level of forward-looking information (FLI) disclosure. In particular, the study examines the effect of CEO age, gender and overconfidence on the disclosure of FLI in Jordan firms.

The study uses a disclosure index to measure the level of FLI disclosure and employs random-effect and panel data regressions to examine the relationship between CEOs’ characteristics and the level of FLI disclosure. The sample consists of 201 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange for the period 2008-2013.

The results of the study show that the CEO age has a significant negative relationship with the level of FLI disclosure in annual reports of non-financial Jordanian companies, whereas gender and overconfidence have a significant positive association with FLI disclosure.

The single country context limits the generalisability of the findings.

The results of the study could be beneficial for the users of financial information, such as regulators, investors, auditors and lenders. These users might consider the findings of the study when they are using a company’s financial information. Accordingly, they may seek to extend the investigations and verify such reporting practices and consequently make better decisions. In addition, the findings provide empirical evidence that helps managers in assessing their financial transparency and accountability.

The relationship between CEO’s characteristics and the level of FLI disclosure is still ambiguous. This study contributes to the FLI disclosure literature by identifying the role of CEO characteristics on the level of FLI disclosure. Thus, it offers evidence that the level of FLI disclosure is driven by specific CEO characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of competitiveness. The authors introduce the concept of Competitive Productivity (CP), supplementing shortcomings of traditional understandings of national, organisational and individual productivity which overlook the nature of competitiveness, i.e. outperforming the competition, or at least bettering one’s own performance. The authors offer definitions, components and construct measurements of CP at three levels: macro, meso and micro.

A review of the literature was conducted to evaluate the need for combining productivity and competitiveness into one new construct. There are theories that combine these ideas – e.g., the resource-based theory of the firm – but the authors are presenting these concepts differently, or in a novel way. The authors’ focus on CP makes necessary a new group of construct measures which are different from that of the strategy literature: the authors measure an agent’s tendency “to be better than the competition” along multiple dimensions. Based on the CP construct, the authors present three testable models to uncover determinants of CP at three levels (macro, meso and micro). Finally, the work around “emergent property” can be applied to examine CP itself as being a determinant for other higher-order outcomes such as welfare, profits and life satisfaction. CP forms a platform to explore likely interplay (bottom-up and/or top-down mechanisms) within the micro–meso–macro architecture.

Three CP models were developed and are briefly discussed in this paper: first, a National Competitive Productivity (NCP) model to capture the components/drivers of national CP (macro level). Second, a Firm Competitive Productivity (FCP) model to capture the components/drivers of firm CP within an industry context (meso). And finally, an Individual Competitive Productivity (ICP) model capturing the components/drivers of CP at the individual (micro) level.

The study provides a combined approach to capture productivity and competitiveness within one innovative concept: CP. It can be used by government and policy makers (NCP model), managers and organisations (FCP model), and individuals such as workers and students (ICP model) to evaluate and enhance their performance. A better understanding of the components/drivers of CP at the three levels and the suggested measurement of CP should provide a stronger theory of competitiveness of nations, firms and individuals. Not least should a focus on the three levels (macro, meso and micro) better prepare citizens, firms, workers and students to effectively function and work in the marketplace and in society. The authors’ work should eventually contribute to more effective benchmarking and continuous improvement in the competitiveness domain. Crucially, this conceptual paper forms the foundation for future empirical testing of CP components in the context of the relative values and moderated behaviour as captured by the ReVaMB model.

This study aims to examine the effect of CEO’s personal characteristics on earnings management (EM) practices.

The authors use panel data for 201 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) for the period 2008-2013. The authors use random effect models to test the hypothesis of this study and extent the analysis to family versus non-family.

The study finds a positive relation between CEO’s overconfidence and EM practices in Jordan. Moreover, the findings reveal that managers in family companies are more likely to engage in EM practices than non-family companies. The findings shed more light on the intricate relationship between CEO’s characteristics, the decision-making process and financial reporting.

Results of this study could be beneficial for a number of users of financial information such as investors, auditors, regulators, lenders, as well other players in the capital market to make right decisions.

A literature review finds that much less studies have investigated the relationship between EM practices and personal CEO characteristics (gender and overconfidence) in developing countries such as Jordan. Furthermore, no study yet has examined the influence of CEO age on EM practices. The authors extend previous literature by providing empirical evidence about effect of some personal CEO’s characteristics on EM practices.