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The paper aims to report initial empirical research that examines UK employees’ perceptions of the changing nature of work since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to consider how the financial context may have constrained HRD practice and more sustainable approaches.

Focus group research was facilitated through collective group discussion. Through template analysis of the findings, thematic analysis was undertaken to extend prior research. Themes used by Hassard et al. (2009) in terms of the changing nature of the workplace between 2000 and 2008, were used to provide new data on HRD realities.

Participants reported diminishing personal control over changes within the workplace and a cultural shift towards a harsher work climate. HRD was considered as silenced or absent and associated solely with low cost-based e-learning rather than acting in strategic role supporting sustainable business objectives.

Whilst providing only indications from employee perceptions, the research identifies a weakened HRD function. The key contribution of this paper lies with empirical evidence of post-GFC constraints placed upon HRD strategies. It further identifies whether alternative development approaches, mediated by organisational learning capabilities, might emancipate UK HRD.

This paper engenders a debate around the status of HRD within the UK organisations, further to the global financial crisis (GFC), where HRD might be viewed as at a juncture to argue a need for a shift from a financialised mode for people management towards one of greater people focus.

This research provides initial findings of the impact of the economic climate. It considers new approaches which might resolve expiring HRD through more sustainable practices.

This study examined the effect of different types of politically connected (PCON) Malaysian firms on analysts' forecast accuracy and dispersion.

The study identified different types of PCON firms according to Wong and Hooy's (2018) classification, which divided political connections into government-linked companies (GLCs), boards of directors, business owners and family members of government leaders. The sample covered the period 2007–2016, for which earnings forecast data were obtained from the Institutional Brokers' Estimate System (IBES) database and financial data were extracted from Thomson Reuters Fundamentals. We deleted any market consensus estimates made by less than three analysts and/or firms with less than three years of analyst forecast information to control for the impact of individual analysts' personal attributes.

The study found that PCON firms were associated with lower analyst forecast accuracy and higher forecast dispersion. The effect was more salient in GLCs than in other PCON firms, either through families, business ties or boards of directors. Further analyses showed that PCON firms—in particular GLCs—were associated with more aggressive reporting of earnings and poorer quality of accruals, hence providing inadequate information for analysts to produce accurate and less dispersed earnings forecasts. The results were robust even after addressing endogeneity issues.

This study found new evidence of the impact of different types of PCON firms in exacerbating information asymmetry, which was not addressed in prior studies.

This study has a significant practical implication for investors that they should be mindful of high information asymmetry in politically connected firms, particularly government-linked companies.

This is the first study to provide evidence of the impact of different types of PCON firms on analysts' earnings forecasts.

This paper investigates the market responses towards four types of politically connected (PCON) firms during two political events – general election and change of leader in Malaysia.

The authors capture the market response using cumulative abnormal return and further test it using regression analysis. The authors use a sample of 376 politically connected (PCON) and non-politically connected (non-PCON) firms from 2002 to 2013.

The market reacted negatively towards government-linked companies (GLC) during both events, showing that GLCs are negatively perceived by the market during political instability. On the other hand, the reaction of the market towards firms connected by businessmen does not differ from other firms. When compared to the findings of past literature, it shows the decreasing influence that businessmen have over the government leader. In further analysis, this study finds firms that are connected to the incoming government leader recorded a higher CAR as compared to firms connected to the outgoing government leader.

The authors’ study offers several practical implications. Knowing how the market responds to the different types of political connections might prove beneficial to investors. With this information, investors can recognize stocks with potential returns before the event date and may consider buying or selling them to capture a short-term profit. The authors’ findings may also have important implications for the management of PCON firms in terms of implementing an effective risk management and asset allocation plan to safeguard their value during political events that may disrupt the stability of their firms.

This paper provides an insight on how the markets have a different perception towards different types of politically connected firms during short-run political events. Past studies usually categorize political connection into a single category. With this separation, the authors are able to see how their individual CAR differs from other types of PCON.

This paper aims to examine how board composition, political connections and sustainability practices affect risk-taking and performance of firms.

This paper used secondary data and regression technique to analyse the relationship. A sample consisting of 290 firm-year observations was applied in the analysis.

The findings show that a larger board size contributes to greater financial risk; however, this risk can be reduced with more independent directors in the boardroom. An optimal board size with appropriate number of independent directors is desired, as a large board size can be harmful to firm performance. Politically connected firms also generate lower risk-taking and performance, and the double-edged sword effect of political connections needs to be considered. In terms of sustainability practices, firms have to engage in sustainable development to maximise the firms’ value, not ignoring the vital role of women in strategising business performance. However, the effect of sustainability practices on firms’ risk-taking is still not noticeable.

Even though the sample size is not large because of the limited availability of data, the findings, to a certain extent, could be generalised to emerging markets, as most emerging markets do have similar financial and economic developments.

The findings from this paper can be used to support the implementation of sustainability practices, especially in those countries where sustainability initiatives are yet to be widely accepted.

This is one of the first few studies that examined the effect of non-financial information on risk-taking and performance of firms. This study concludes the positive effect of sustainability practices on firm performance.

This study aims to examine the economic role of politics on corporate governance reforms in one of emerging market, namely, Malaysia.

The paper is based upon a literature review analysis.

The Malaysian economic, political and social settings have resulted in undue state and detrimental political influence on business, and yet the corporate governance reforms undertaken seemed not be able to resolve the matter. It is suggesting that it would be beneficial for Malaysia to have more independent regulatory bodies representing a wide variety of stakeholders to improve the transparency and accountability to ensure that the reforms are effectively enforced without conflicting with the political agenda. Legal institutional reforms also may be needed to improve the structure, capacity and performance of judicial system, as it is capable to capture reliance of economic role of politics and promoting accountability in Malaysia.

The economic role of politics on corporate governance reforms is merely to broaden the political strategy in the corporate sector as the change in politics can improve the effectiveness of corporate governance reforms. Moreover, the economic role of politics raises the tone of the corporate governance reforms, and it implies that policymakers need to have effective corporate governance strategy in dealing with the reforms initiatives in areas that have strong political interventions.

Regulatory and judicial implications are offered as a means to improve corporate governance in Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there has been a change in the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and to determine whether corporate governance attributes influence CSR disclosure in corporate annual reports of Malaysian government‐linked companies (GLCs).

The annual reports of 27 GLCs for two years (2005 and 2007) were analysed using content analysis. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify factors influencing CSR disclosure in annual reports.

Consistent with expectations, the paired‐sample t‐tests showed that there was an increase (significant at the 1 percent level) in the extent of CSR disclosure. The multiple regression analysis revealed that board size was positively associated and statistically significant (at the 1 percent level) with the extent of CSR disclosure.

The regression model reported an R² of 33.9 percent, which means that almost 66 percent of factors influencing CSR disclosure in Malaysian GLCs have not been captured by the model. These other factors may perhaps be identified through other research methods such as questionnaire surveys or interviews.

The findings appear to suggest that the government efforts in promoting CSR among GLCs through the introduction of the Silver Book in 2006 have had some positive impact on CSR disclosure in annual reports. The results also imply that larger board size through wider exchange of ideas and experience could lead to better appreciation and involvement in corporate social activities and hence disclosure in annual reports.

This paper is one of the few studies to examine CSR disclosure and corporate governance attributes in GLCs after the introduction of new initiatives to promote CSR.

One of the significant components of a firm's overall sustainability is establishing and nurturing governance. This study attempts to understand how politically connected firms maintain sustainability measures in terms of risk-taking strategies. This paper has two purposes. The first purpose is to provide empirical evidence on the politically connected (PC) firms' corporate risk-taking and performance. The second purpose is to investigate the moderating impact of PC firms' risk on corporate performance.

To conduct the analysis to test our hypothesis efficiently, data has been collected from Bloomberg and annual reports of all Malaysian PC and non-PC companies. The final sample comprises 561 firms over the investigation period 2010–2019. The methodology entails Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions of the impact of the PC firms on corporate risk-taking and performance. The authors also conduct t-tests of the equality of means of corporate risk-taking and performance between PC and non-PC companies.

The authors’ results show that politically connected firms undertake significant less corporate risk and relish higher financial performance than their counterparts. It implicatively insinuates that the presence of a politician on the board enables the management to mitigate the risk-taking, which makes the firms more profitable. The authors’ results corroborate network theory, suggesting that political ties alleviate the agency issue and safeguard the shareholders' interest.

The study's results were important as they highlighted the sustainable development of PC and non-PC companies, offering insights to researchers, policymakers, regulators, financial report users, investors, environmental unions, employees, clients and society.

This paper is novel since it is unique in evaluating sustainable practice in PC and non-PC firms.

The Singaporean government has enjoyed an astounding record of success based on its ability to attract MNCs and corresponding capital. Government‐led development has involved crafting a culture that will adapt to MNCs’ needs and to fast‐changing global environments in a restructured economy. The socially re‐engineered Singaporean culture appears hierarchical, disciplined, authoritarian and a showcase for technocratic management. Yet, further crafting of the Singaporean culture along the top‐down, technocratic model seems to result in a diminishing ability to produce creative, innovative and productive workers for the knowledge economy and the MNCs that dominate it. The authors sketch the ideological bases for Singapore’s crafted culture and explore Singapore’s distinctive characteristics as well as governmental policies that have molded this culture. They proceed to highlight specific governmental policies that are designing Singapore for the restructured, globalizing and fast‐changing knowledge economy; and discuss the competing model offered by Taiwan. Finally, the authors propose some implications for civic society and cultural change in Singapore.

Humanitarian logistics has for a long time been argued to be a new discipline. Now that even the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management (JHLSCM) has existed over a decade, it is time to take a closer look at its evolution. This article provides some understanding for the developments of humanitarian logistics over the past decade, reveals current trends and discovers what lies behind the curtains in the humanitarian logistics and supply chain management discipline.

This article brings in developments and discussions in humanitarian logistics practice into the research domain.

The article conveys the concerns of humanitarian logistics practitioners to research. These include the backlash from the COVID-19 pandemic as a prime current concern, and also other longer-term issues and developments.

The themes identified in the article can be used to inform a research agenda in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management. The article revisits a framework of global events and their cascading impacts to include non-linearities and multiple disruptions from evolutionary disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article argues for more collaborative and co-designed research to increase the relevance and impact of humanitarian logistics.

Wider societal views are brought into the area of humanitarian logistics.

The article highlights the gaps that remain in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management research.

The purpose of this study is to examine how accounting for sustainable development (SD) in Malaysian organisations decouples economic growth from ecological consequences. The research analyses the empirical evidence of organisational responses and actions that purport to support SD in a developing country.

This study uses a discursive model of institutional theory to examine the relationship between texts, discourse and action within Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) organisations. This study uses both qualitative content and interpretive textual analysis of Malaysian organisations project design documents (PDDs) and interview transcripts to interpret and determine the “conceptions” of SD.

Documentation and interviews with Malaysian CDM organisations show that SD conceptions range from “business as usual” to weak ecological modernisation. The key narratives are both economic and technocratic but have little to do with SD concerns about ecological limitations and social equity.

The empirical evidence provides insights into the motivations and challenges of a developing country's commitment to SD. We perform the study in an accountability space other than corporate financial reporting. Unlike external corporate reports, PDDs are closer to the underlying organisational reality as they are internal project documents made publicly accessible through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, allowing for a more transparent evaluation. The evidence shows how the organisational approach to SD is institutionalised through the mediating role of discourse and texts used by the actors within the CDM.