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Green buildings have proven to be essential contributors to the sustainability of buildings in the construction industry. However, in developing economies, the rate of green building adoption is slow. Moreover, the factors linked to a relatively slow adoption rarely feature in the literature. This study seeks to bridge the gap by first exploring factors influencing the adoption of green buildings. Second, analysing strategies and preferences determining the adoption of green building principles and lastly, exploring case-based opportunities for their adoption in Tanzania.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data from twelve key informants. The qualitative data were analysed using content analysis.

The findings indicate that the most influential factors in green building adoption are related to key organizational decisions. Moreover, social and environmental factors are more related to green building adoption than economic factors. In addition, energy and water efficiency are the most commonly adopted sustainability features, while certified materials, recycling and reusing are rarely implemented.

Since green building adoption is still in its infancy, this study informs policymakers, professional bodies, developers, and researchers of the empirically supported factors for green building adoption. The conclusions can be amplified within the sustainability movement.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of the precursors of green building adoption, which is increasingly becoming a paradigm shift in the construction sector. The study is the first to present an in-depth analysis of the real-life factors influencing the adoption of green buildings in Tanzania.

Industry 4.0 accelerates the performance of supply chains, in particular, the reduction in supply chain cost (SCC) and improvement in supply chain flexibility (SCF). The aim of this study is to examine the role of Industry 4.0 on SCC and SCF, using network theory to explain the interrelationships.

Data were collected from 182 manufacturing firms in Turkey. The partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed in testing the research hypotheses.

The results showed that Industry 4.0 positively affects SCC; however, no direct relationship was found between Industry 4.0 and SCF. Moreover, SCC was found to have a positive impact on SCF, while SCC was found to mediate the relationship between Industry 4.0 and SCF. An additional finding was that customer integration (CI) moderates the relationship between Industry 4.0 and SCC; however, CI does not moderate the relationship between Industry 4.0 and SCF.

The research validates the role of Industry 4.0 on supply chain processes and thus provides valuable insights into supply chain practitioners and decision-makers interested in Industry 4.0 for supply chain management.

In view of the limited number of studies, this study empirically contributes to the literature on the relationships among Industry 4.0, SCC, SCF and CI.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to understand the calculation of cost of individual sources of funds and cost of capital, examine various tools such as economic value added and cash value added analyses which help determining whether a company has added value to its shareholders or not and explore the application of Benford’s law and the Beneish M-score in detecting manipulation of numbers in financial statements.

Nimmy Jacob, a newly recruited research analyst with an equity research firm, was entrusted with tracking the “auto ancillary industry”, specifically “Minda Corporation Ltd” (MIL). MIL was a leading diversified auto components manufacturing companies in India. The company’s share price meteorically rose during February 2021–2022 (Figure 1). The company’s turnover over the past few years had grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 15% during the three preceding years. The company had in the recent past bought a 15% stake in another competitor, Pricol Ltd, for a consideration of INR 400 crores and previously had used joint ventures and acquisitions to scale up its operations. Jacob, apart from the conventional financial analysis, had to ascertain whether all the strategic decisions were adding value to the shareholders’ investments by exploring the various tools available for the same and also calculate the minimum expected rate of return for MIL. Jacob was apprehensive about the financial statements, although the numbers for the company were good. Jacob was skeptical about a high-growth company having the incentive to manipulate its earnings. Manipulations could be in the form of abnormal increase in accruals, inconsistency in expenses and high days of receivables. Therefore, Jacobs used certain analytics/statistical tools to detect any manipulation of numbers in the financial statements of the company and to ascertain apt findings about the company.

This case study is intended for discussion in corporate finance, financial reporting and analysis and financial analytics at Master of Business Administration/undergraduate level.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS1: Accounting and finance

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of Industry 4.0 capability (I4.0 C) in creating a supportive environment for business model innovation by focussing on the mediating role of knowledge management capability (KMC) and the moderating effect of market uncertainty.

This paper uses interviews with managers and academics. Data were collected from 379 managers; CFA and finally regression analysis were performed, and the program “PROCESS” software was used to validate the data and examine the hypothesized relationships.

KMC mediates the relationship between Industry 4.0 capability and business model innovation. The effect of Industry 4.0 capability on KMC is stronger for firms with increased market uncertainty. In contrast, the impact of KMC on business model innovation is weaker for firms operating in highly-uncertain markets.

Data were collected at only one point in time from one country, Greece. This might pose limitations on the generalizability of our results. Future research should test the relationships examined in this study in other international contexts.

Managers should invest in more advanced technology in order to obtain knowledge and capability. In addition, they need to pay more attention to how their firms' knowledge derived from Industry 4.0 contributes to business model innovation.

The current state of knowledge of both theory and practise for critical organizational factors such as Industry 4.0 capability, KMC, business model innovation and market uncertainty will be extended.

Prodigious teamwork is the basis for augmenting the level of productivity on construction projects. Globalisation of the construction market has meant that many practitioners work outside of their geographical spectrum; however, the multicultural dissimilarities of construction workforces within the project management team (and how these may impact upon project productivity performance) have been given scant academic attention. To bridge this knowledge gap, this paper aims to analyse the effects of a multicultural workforce on construction productivity.

The epistemological positioning of the research adopted mixed philosophies (consisting of both interpretivism and postpositivism) to undertake a deductive and cross-sectional survey to collate primary quantitative data collected via a closed-ended structured questionnaire. Census sampling and convenience sampling techniques were adopted to target Ghana’s construction workforce and their opinions of the phenomenon under investigation. Out of 96 questionnaires administered, 61 were retrieved. The data obtained were analysed by using mean score ranking, relative important index, one sample t-test and multiple regression. The reliability of the scale was checked by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

From the t-test analysis, 11 variables sourced from extant literature, and the null hypothesis for the study was not rejected and all factors (except high cost of training and improper gender diversity management) were affirmed as negative effects of the multicultural workforce on construction productivity. Using multiple regression analysis, six of the independent variables were shown to impact upon productivity. The goodness of fit was verified by collinearity and residual analysis. The model’s validation revealed a relatively high predictive accuracy (R² = 0. 589), implying that the results could be generalized. In culmination, these findings suggest that the predictors can be used to accurately predict the effects of multicultural workforce on construction productivity performance.

The findings indicate that multicultural workforce/teams have a substantial effect on overall construction productivity in the construction sector; consequently, stakeholders must address this issue to enhance productivity across the sector.

The current study significantly contributes to our understanding of how multicultural workers/teams affect construction productivity in the construction business perspective and how to respond to the negative menace.

The purpose of the research is to propose reforms that would help to bridge the gap between theory and practice and produce more effective urban planners. The research on urban planning curricula in the global South is a valuable contribution to the field of urban planning education. It provides a new perspective on the challenges facing urban planning education in these countries and offers a roadmap for improvement.

The research explores and evaluates the urban planning curricula in the global South, with a particular interest in Egypt. The research employs the use of questionnaires with 56 university instructors, analysed thematically, to evaluate the current content of curricula. The results are compared and correlated with a pilot study exploring research interest, government policies and practices of urban planning in Egypt.

Through comparing the results of the evaluation with the current research interest in urban planning in Egypt, the paper investigates the possibility of improving current educational curricula using comparative network analysis which would establish stronger interdisciplinary connections.

The seeming disconnects between urbanism concepts taught in educational curricula and their relevance in practice and reality is a vital issue in urban studies and planning. Interdisciplinary connections with topics like politics, economies, gender, and others can assist curricula in becoming more relevant to real-world situations. This disconnect is even more apparent in the global South where most educational content is highly derivative from Northern contexts. Though such interdisciplinary aspects are under discussed in educational curricula, they are frequently discussed in academic research.