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This study explores the quality of sustainability reporting (QSR) and the impact of regulatory guidelines, social performance and a standardised reporting framework (using the Global Reporting Initiative [GRI] guidelines) on QSR in the context of banks in Bangladesh.

Using a sample of 315 banking firm-year observations over 13 years (2002–2014), a content analysis technique is used to develop the 11-item QSR index. Regression analysis is used to test the research hypotheses.

Initially, QSR evolved symbolically in Bangladesh's banks but, over our investigation period, with QSR indicators gradually improving, the trends became substantive. The influences on QSR were sustainable banking practice regulatory guidelines, social performance and use of the GRI guidelines. However, until banks improve reporting information, such as external verification and trends over time, QSR cannot be regarded as fully substantive.

This study advances QSR research and debate among academic researchers. With regulatory agencies and stakeholders increasingly using sustainability reporting information for decision making, the information's quality is vital.

This study is the first on QSR in the banking industry context, with previous research mostly investigating the quantity of sustainability reporting. The current study also synthesises QSR with sustainability regulation and social performance factors which have rarely been used in the sustainability literature. To gain a holistic understanding of QSR, existing QSR measures are advanced by combining external reporting efforts with banks' internalisation initiatives.

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of corporate reputation (hereafter CR) and the degree of economic development on firms’ cost of capital remains unresolved. This study addresses these issues.

Using a global sample across 20 countries, the study investigates the discrete and joint effects of CR and jurisdictional economic development on the cost of equity (COE) and cost of debt (COD) capital. The analysis encompasses a dual data set, comprising 1,308 observations for COE and 1,223 observations for COD, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of these dynamics.

The findings indicate that CR leads to a reduction in the cost of capital for reputable firms. Nevertheless, the extent of this decrease varies per type of capital and firm’s reputation level and is contingent upon the economic development level within the firm’s jurisdiction. Particularly noteworthy is the moderating effect of economic development on CR, which shows that COE capital tends to be lower for reputable firms operating in economically developed jurisdictions. Albeit, this is not the case for COD capital for reputable firms in similarly developed jurisdictions.

This study illustrates that effective CR management, aimed at reducing the cost of capital, necessitates a combination of the firm’s unique competitive advantage and the economic development context of its jurisdiction to truly achieve its intended goal.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first global study to explore the impact of CR on both COE and COD capital. Furthermore, this study is primarily towards understanding the moderating role of economic development in the relationship between CR and cost of capital.

This study examines the association between Chief Executive Officer (CEO) power and the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, as well as the moderating role of stakeholder influence on this association.

Using a sample of 986 Bangladeshi firm-year observations, this study uses a content analysis technique to develop a 24-item CSR disclosure index. The ordinary least squares regression method is used to estimate the research models, controlling for firm-specific factors that potentially affect the levels of CSR disclosure.

The study findings indicate that CEO power is negatively associated with the level of CSR disclosure, and that the negative effects of CEO power on the level of CSR disclosure are attenuated by stakeholder influence. CEO power is documented as reducing the positive impact of CSR disclosure on a firm’s financial performance, with this negative impact attenuated if stakeholders have greater influence on the firm.

This study suggests that CEO power and stakeholder influence are important factors in determining firms’ incentives to disclose CSR information. Both CEO power and stakeholder influence need to be considered in the CSR – firm performance nexus, given the mixed findings documented in the literature.

This study makes a significant contribution to the literature on CSR practices by documenting that firms with a powerful CEO have lower levels of CSR disclosure, and that stakeholder influence affects CSR disclosure in the emerging economy context.

The purpose of this study is to explore the possible impact of banking market structure on the idiosyncratic risk of financially dependent firms in China.

The study analyzes firm-level data for China from 1999 to 2018 using a two-step dynamic panel system generalized method of moments (GMM).

The findings imply that bank competition lowers corporate risk, particularly among firms that are highly dependent on external funding for their financing needs. The findings are consistent with alternative indicators of competition, corporate risk, and financial dependence. The analysis of the transmission mechanism – the channel through which competition affects corporate risk – reveals that bank competition reduces corporate risk by curtailing financing constraints faced by firms.

The competition-enhancing policy should consider the optimum level of bank competition for financial and economic stability. Further research is necessary to define the “desirable” or “optimum” level of bank competition.

In China, where the banking sector is still highly concentrated, the findings of this study call for policies aimed at encouraging healthy competition among banks. Nevertheless, such a policy must also consider the extent of bank competition that is optimal for the economy, particularly for financial and economic stability.

The paper provides the first evidence of the possible linkage between bank competition and corporate risk in China.

This literature review aims to assess the current research on healthcare job availability and skilled professionals. The objective of this research is to identify challenges caused by the imbalance between healthcare service demand and qualified professionals and propose potential solutions and future research directions.

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method was employed as the guiding framework for conducting this review. A qualitative research design analyzed 38 peer-reviewed, evidence-based research works from 50 journal publications. Inclusion criteria focused on empirical studies, observational research and comprehensive reviews published within the last ten years. Thematic and discourse analysis categorized themes and factors explored in selected publications.

The findings highlight significant challenges in the healthcare sector regarding job availability and skilled professionals. Developed countries face understaffed healthcare facilities, resulting in increased workloads and compromised care. Developing countries experience high rates of unemployment among healthcare graduates due to limited resources and mentorship.

Improving educational infrastructure, expanding training opportunities and increasing healthcare investments are crucial for nurturing a skilled workforce. Implementing effective retention policies, fostering international collaborations and addressing socioeconomic determinants can create a sustainable job market.

The healthcare sector faces critical challenges in balancing job availability and skilled professionals. Strategic solutions are proposed to create a sustainable and equitable healthcare workforce. By implementing recommendations and conducting further research, access to quality healthcare and global public health outcomes can be improved.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of human capital (HC) reporting in leading Bangladeshi firms using the HC reporting framework, thereby making a contribution to the body of knowledge in the area of HC reporting practice in a developing country context.

Using the technique of content analysis, three years of annual reports of 32 leading manufacturing and service sector companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), selected on the basis of the market capitalization, were examined to identify any HC reporting trends.

The findings reveal that the HC reporting practices of leading Bangladeshi firms are not as low as projected in relation to the total list of items reported. The most commonly disclosed HC items are information on employee training, number of employees, career development and opportunities that firms provide, and employee recruitment policies. Moreover, as a result of a degree of intervention on the part of some Bangladeshi regulators, the extent of reporting has increased during 2009/2010.

The principal limitations of the study are that it is based on a small non‐random sample of firms taken from a single country and drawing solely annual reporting information.

This is the first paper that documents HC‐related disclosures in the context of a transitional economy such as Bangladesh using multi year‐data. The study contributes to the HC literature by providing empirical evidence of the status of HC reporting in a developing country context.

This paper aims to examine: the status and the use of financial and non‐financial measures, and the balanced scorecard (BSC) in Bangladeshi companies; the reasons for BSC adoption; and associated problems.

Data via a questionnaire were obtained from the chief accounting and finance officers of a cross section of 60 Bangladeshi companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. A combination of descriptive statistics, bi‐variate, and multi‐variate techniques of statistics were used to test three research questions.

The results indicate that financial measures are more widely used, but that 78.4 per cent of companies use some non‐financial indicators. Further, the exercise of a full BSC is limited to only 10 per cent of the sample. The results also show that companies adopt these frameworks to aid decision making, and the problems associated with the adoption of BSC include a cost‐benefit perspective and a lack of management support.

The findings suggest many companies are using a dashboard of financial and non‐financial performance measures that could possibly be a precursor to adopting more holistic performance measurement frameworks like the BSC.

There have been recent calls for more in‐depth analysis of the management accounting systems of emerging countries and these findings contribute further knowledge to an under researched area. In particular, the paper demonstrates how a performance measurement framework may evolve in an emerging country context.

This paper aims to examine the tendencies of sustainability reporting by major commercial banks in Bangladesh in comparison with global sustainability reporting indicators outlined in the GRI framework together with banks' predilection toward reporting 16 GRI financial service sector (FSS) specific performance indicators.

Based on the GRI G3 guidelines, the paper investigated banks' reporting in five broad areas of sustainability, such as environment, labour practices and decent works, product responsibility, human rights and society. The 2008/2009 annual reports of 12 major commercial banks listed on Dhaka stock exchange were analysed and coded using a content‐based technique.

The results show that information on society is addressed most extensively with regard to extent of reporting. This is followed by the disclosures prepared on decent works and labour practices and environmental issues. Furthermore, the disclosures of product responsibility information and the information for human rights are rather scarce in banks' reporting; on the subject of FSS‐specific disclosures, only seven items out of 16 are disclosed by all sample banks.

The findings of the study indicate that Bangladeshi commercial banks' social disclosures could develop in this style to become more holistic and over time (in association with the country's central bank involvement) to resemble a type of structured reporting to the point where they are properly labelled per se.

The study contributes to the social disclosure literature, in particular in a developing countries banking sector context, seeing as it disseminates evidence of the standing on social disclosures practices at the level of GRI with developing countries' banks data.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting information of Bangladeshi listed commercial banks and explores the potential effects of corporate governance (CG) elements on CSR disclosures.

The annual reports of all private commercial banks (PCB) for the year 2007‐2008 are examined to analyse the banks' CSR reporting practice using content analysis. It also considers three elements of CG such as non‐executive directors, existence of foreign nationalities and women representation in the board. The multiple regressions were used to measure the impact of CG elements on banks' CSR reporting initiatives.

The results of the study demonstrate that though voluntary, overall CSR reporting by Bangladeshi PCB are rather moderate, however, the varieties of CSR items are really impressive. The results also displayed no significant relationship between the women representation in the board and CSR reporting. Conversely, non‐executive directors and existence of foreign nationalities have been found the significant impact on the CSR reporting.

The main limitations of the paper are that it considers PCB from only one country and uses annual reports disclosures from a single year. The results of the study can be used by researchers to analyse the benefits of including the non‐executive directors and foreign nationals on different types of CSR initiatives and standard setters to set the suitable CSR policy guidelines with a view to reinforce such initiatives.

This unique paper divulges the CSR related disclosure with possible impact of CG in the specific context of a transitional economy's banks such as Bangladesh. The paper contributes to the CSR literature as it presents empirical evidence of the influences of CG structure on the practices of CSR activities in developing countries' banking sector setting.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the listed firms' debt level and performance on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during a five-year period.

This study uses pooled ordinary least squares regression and fixed- and random-effects models to analyse a cross-sectional sample of 30 Pakistani companies operating in the automobile, cement and sugar sectors during 2013–2017 (N = 150).

The results indicate that both short- and long-term debt have negative and significant impacts on firm performance in profitability. This suggests that agency issues may lead to a high-debt policy, resulting in lower performance. However, both sales growth and firm size have positive effects on the profitability of non-financial sector companies.

This study suggests that when debt financing significantly and negatively influences firm profitability, company owners and managers should focus on finding a satisfactory debt level. However, this study is limited to the automobile, cement and sugar sectors of Pakistan. Future studies could address other sectors, such as textiles, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals.

This study focusses on enhancing the existing empirical knowledge of debt financing's influence on the PSX's major sectors' profitability.