Search results

To review the literature and identify research gaps in the role and influence boards of directors of companies have in occupational health and safety (OHS).

This was done in a scoping review built on a structured search in MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, CCInfoWeb, EconLit, Web of Science, CINAHL and gray literature. Citations and reference lists were tracked. Inclusion criteria were publication in English. Exclusion criteria were studies covering companies using subcontractors to arrange OHS, or with <250 employees.

Forty-nine studies were included. The majority contained empirical data (n = 28; 57%), some were entirely normative (n = 16; 33%), and a few contained normative claims far beyond empirical data (n = 5; 10%). Empirical studies gave no insight into the scope of impact of board activities on OHS, and no studies assess the causal mechanisms by which board activities influence OHS outcomes. Most studies focused on both health and safety (n = 20; 41%) or only safety (n = 15; 31%). Context might explain the focus on safety rather than health, but is not clearly elucidated by the studies. Several studies are describing leadership behavior, although not framed as such. A narrative summary is presented to facilitate future research.

Future research should include: (1) which board activities influence OHS, (2) how board activities influence OHS, (3) the influence of context and (4) the leadership role of boards of directors.

This study identifies a total lack of research on the basic mechanics of the relationship between boards and OHS.

Broader acceptance of entomophagy (i.e. human consumption of insects) will depend on factors that impact consumers’ perceptions of edible insects. The purpose of this paper is to examine how a broad-based information session would affect consumers’ perceptions and attitudes about an edible insect product.

During a taste testing session, preceded or followed by an information session about entomophagy, participants rated the organoleptic characteristics of two bread samples on nine-point hedonic scales. The two bread samples were identical, though one was faux-labelled as containing an insect product.

Generalised linear model (GLM) analysis showed effects of gender, information session exposure, entomophagy familiarity, and entomophagy experience on participants’ ratings of the samples. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney ranked sum tests showed that appearance, flavour, and overall liking were significantly better rated for the bread sample labelled as insect free by participants who attended the presentation a priori. Potential ways to improve information content and delivery in favour of encouraging dietary shifts are discussed.

This study shows that information about insect-based products could change consumers’ perceptions of such products. The results provide clues regarding how the food industry can adapt communication for target audiences.

Actual edible insect products were not used in this study. Paradoxically, it is the first to show the impact of an information session on the acceptability of edible insect products, by revealing participants’ perceptual expectations.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between auditor industry specialization and accounting quality in the European Union (EU).

This study employs a difference-in-differences design and explores audit quality from different industry specialist perspectives and different accounting standard regimes. Specifically, this study examines accounting quality among audits performed by non-industry specialists, EU member country-level industry specialists (EUM-level), EU community-level industry specialists (EUC-level), as well as joint industry specialists.

This study finds evidence of an improvement in accounting quality among audits performed by non-industry specialists post-IFRS. There is also evidence of an improvement in accounting quality among audits performed by EUC-level industry specialists post-IFRS. In addition, accounting quality among audits performed by EUM-level industry specialists seems to be greater than that of audits performed by non-industry specialists in either the pre-IFRS period or the post-IFRS period. Overall, the mandatory adoption of IFRS in the EU appears to be associated with an improvement in accounting quality among some auditor groups.

Industry specialization and accounting quality are not directly observable constructs; this study inevitably employs proxy measures for both. The findings of this study are location-specific and apply to mandatory IFRS adopters only.

This study informs regulators with respect to the importance of industry specialist auditors and financial reporting quality, particularly within the context of the EU. The findings suggest that industry specialists were a significant accounting quality determinant during the mandatory adoption of IFRS. The findings have implications for regulators in the EU and beyond.

This study is among the first to investigate the impact of auditor specialization on accounting quality in the EU, particularly in connection with the adoption of IFRS.

The aim of this paper is to gain insights into the gap that persists between management accounting education (MAE) and practice.

MAE is examined from four perspectives of the balanced scorecard (BSC), in terms of what is being taught at tertiary level: customer satisfaction, learning and growth, internal business and financial. A survey questionnaire was sent to management accountants selected randomly from a list of practicing management accountants identified by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in South Africa.

The study finds support for allegations that a gap exists between MAE and practice and indicates that to address this gap, a holistic focus using the four perspectives of the BSC would be useful to investigate the gap.

Previous studies in relation to the gap in management education have focused on the lack of skills provided by tertiary education. As one of the few studies to focus on the overall performance of MAE, this study identifies that the gap is not limited to the provision of adequate skills. The findings show that the gap is significant in terms of customer perspective but is not significant in relation to the internal business, learning and growth and financial perspectives of the BSC. The study provides deeper insights into the gap and will help tertiary education providers to improve their performance.

As one of the few studies on gaps between MAE and practice, the study provides insights to the potential gaps. The findings serve as a basis for further empirical and theoretical enquiries.

The study contributes to the management accounting literature by focusing on the gap in MAE using a BSC approach. Rather than single out the lack of skills provided by MAE as a reason for the gap, this paper provides information on the four areas of the BSC as ways to identify the gap.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of religious entrepreneurs on bank loans and further examine the moderating effect of entrepreneurial gender.

In 2010, the Chinese national survey reported the different religious beliefs of private entrepreneurs. Using this set of survey data, the authors obtain a sample of 4,330 Chinese family firms and employ the Tobit regression approach to examine the relationship between the amount of bank loans and the religious background of entrepreneurs. In addition, the authors use the propensity score matching approach to address the endogeneity issue.

Based on the data from the 2010 national survey, the authors document that the amount of bank loans is significantly higher for Chinese family firms with religious entrepreneurs than for their counterparts. This finding suggests that religious individuals are inclined to be more ethical and honest and Chinese family firms with religious entrepreneurs transfer soft information to banks, and eventually lenders favor religious entrepreneurs with more bank loans. Moreover, the authors reveal that the amount of bank loans is significantly larger for firms with female entrepreneurs than for those without female entrepreneurs. In addition, entrepreneurial gender attenuates the positive relationship between religious entrepreneurs and bank loans.

This study is one of few studies to examine the influence of an entrepreneur’s religious belief on bank credit decisions and adds to previous studies about religious influence on corporate behavior by revealing a positive association between religious entrepreneurs and bank loans. Moreover, this study validates that female entrepreneurs exert positive effects on the amount of bank loans and attenuate the positive influence of religious entrepreneurs on bank loans.

We investigate the effect of the PCAOB’s Part II report on annually inspected firms’ audit fees and audit quality. The PCAOB replaced the peer review auditor program with an independent inspection of audit firms. Upon completion of each inspection, the PCAOB issued inspection reports that include a public portion (Part I) of identified audit deficiencies, and (in most cases) a nonpublic portion (Part II) of identified quality control weaknesses. The Part II report is only made public when the PCAOB deems that remediation was insuffcient after at least 12 months have passed. Starting around the time of the 2007 Deloitte censure (Boone et al., 2015), the PCAOB shifted from a soft synergistic approach to an antagonistic approach, such that Part II reports were imminent, despite delays that ultimately led to their release one to four years later than expected. Our study spans the period from 2007 to 2015, and examines the effect on audit fees and audit quality at the earliest date that the Part II report could have been released – 12 months after the Part I report was issued. We find that following the 12 month period, that annually inspected audit firms eventually lost reputation by lower audit fees, while they concurrently made remedial efforts to increase the quality of their client’s financial reporting quality (abnormal accruals magnitude and restatements). However, three years after the Part II report was actually released, audit fees increased.

This study aims to investigate the impacts of bank capital requirements on the performance and risk of the emerging economy, i.e. Bangladeshi banking sector.

The study applies an unbalanced panel data which comprises 30 banks yielding a total of 413 bank-year observations over the period 2000 to 2015.

Using generalized methods of moments, the empirical results of this research reveal that bank capital is positively and significantly impressive on bank performance, whereas negatively and significantly impact on risk. The study also finds the inverse relationship between risk and performance in both the performance and risk equations. The results also indicate that there is a persistence of performance and risk from one year to the next year.

This is the unique investigation on Bangladeshi bank industry that considers the simultaneous effect of bank capital requirements on risk and performance. Therefore, it is predicted that the empirical evidence of this research shows policy implications to the regulatory authority of Bangladeshi banking industry to determine relevant policies.

Argues taht the idea of global and national/international categories being inherently opposed, is a fallacy of the globalization debate. Seeks to illustrate how “international” co‐operation can have favourable national consdequences. Explores the implications of international volunteerism for nation‐building in Singapore.