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In 2020, mining activity by Rio Tinto destroyed rock caves in Western Australia's Juukan Gorge that are considered sacred sites by the First Nation Peoples of that area, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Peoples. This paper examines the public response to the damage caused at this culturally sensitive site and identifies cultural heritage protection strategies that emerged in the aftermath of this catastrophic event.

This research applies a qualitative case study method and analysis of open-sourced official policy documents, media reports and published institutional statements.

The research identified specific cultural heritage protection strategies, including stakeholder-driven advocacy and shared values approach to business practices to help foster a greater appreciation of the connections between people, objects and lands. Whilst the mining activities were considered lawful, significant gaps in the legislation to protect heritage sites were also exposed.

Using a recent case that occurred in 2020, this paper unpacks how the motivations for accessing minerals can override cultural sensibilities and legal/ethical frameworks established to protect cultural heritage. This paper brings to light the liabilities associated with the mining industry when operating in a culturally significant environment where appropriate due diligence to manage cultural heritage is not thoroughly applied. The paper highlights the role the community can play in demanding improved corporate social responsibility which can, in turn, act as a strategy for cultural heritage protection.

Situated in the context of India, where women’s representation on corporate boards remains low, this study aims to explore whether and how tokenism impacts the behaviours of female directors.

The boardroom experiences and perceptions of 14 women directors are explored through semi-structured interviews and analysed using an inductive and interpretive process. Also, to get a counter perspective and avoid the social desirability bias from the women participants’ responses, 16 men directors are interviewed.

The study finds that, as gender minorities, women directors' visibility on boards can create performance pressures on these women. To counter gender-based prejudices, women directors consciously alter their behaviours and project both male and female traits consistent with the director role. By doing so, women directors overcome tokenistic stereotypes and are accepted as part of the director in-group, irrespective of their numeric representation on the board.

The research has implications for governments attempting to increase women’s board presence through affirmative actions and for firms aiming to improve the gender diversity of their board composition.

These findings present an alternative perspective on women directors’ board behaviour by exploring the applicability of Western trends on tokenism and critical mass in the context of India, adding to the vast body of literature concerned with minorities on corporate boards.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the implementation of edge computing can enhance the progress of the circular economy within supply chains and to address the challenges and best practices associated with this emerging technology.

This study utilized a streamlined evaluation technique that employed Latent Dirichlet Allocation modeling for thorough content analysis. Extensive searches were conducted among prominent publishers, including IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, MDPI and Hindawi, utilizing pertinent keywords associated with edge computing, circular economy, sustainability and supply chain. The search process yielded a total of 103 articles, with the keywords being searched specifically within the titles or abstracts of these articles.

There has been a notable rise in the volume of scholarly articles dedicated to edge computing in the circular economy and supply chain management. After conducting a thorough examination of the published papers, three main research themes were identified, focused on technology, optimization and circular economy and sustainability. Edge computing adoption in supply chains results in a more responsive, efficient and agile supply chain, leading to enhanced decision-making capabilities and improved customer satisfaction. However, the adoption also poses challenges, such as data integration, security concerns, device management, connectivity and cost.

This paper offers valuable insights into the research trends of edge computing in the circular economy and supply chains, highlighting its significant role in optimizing supply chain operations and advancing the circular economy by processing and analyzing real time data generated by the internet of Things, sensors and other state-of-the-art tools and devices.

The purpose of the article is to contribute to the body of research on digital transformation among members of the supply chain operating in an emerging economy. This paper researches the digital transformation trends happening across Vietnamese supply chains, by investigating the current adoption rates, predicted impact levels and financial investments being made in key Industry 4.0 technologies.

By using a semi-structured online survey, the experiences of 281 supply chain professionals in Vietnam were captured. Subsequently, statistical techniques examining variances in means, regression analysis and Monte Carlo simulation were applied.

The findings of this study offer a comprehensive understanding of Industry 4.0 technology in Vietnam, highlighting the prevalent technologies being prioritized. Big data analytics and the Internet of things are expected to have the most substantial impact on businesses over the next 5–10 years and have received the most financial investment. Conversely, Blockchain is perceived as having less potential for future investment. The study further identifies several technological synergies, such as combining advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and the Internet of things to build effective and flexible factories, that can lead to more comprehensive solutions. It also extends diffusion of innovation theory, encompassing investment and impact considerations.

This study offers valuable insights into the impact and financial investment in Industry 4.0 technologies by Vietnamese supply chain firms. It provides a theoretical contribution via an extension of the diffusion of innovation theory and contributes toward a better understanding of the current Industry 4.0 landscape in developing economies. The findings have significant implications for future managerial decision-making, on the impact, viability and resourcing needs when undertaking digital transformation.

This study aims to define, classify and interconnect the wide range of known entrepreneurial abilities with terms such as skills, capabilities and competencies, which have been used inconsistently within the entrepreneurial field.

This investigation is based on a systematic literature review and strengthened by a meta-analysis equipped with a bibliometric study to assist the generation of outcomes with a quantitative investigation.

This study proposes an evolving entrepreneurial ability model which interconnects genetic and acquired skill types, capabilities and competencies and is equipped with an Entrepreneurial Skills Map essential to operate in the 21st century.

The proposed model is specific to the entrepreneurial field.

This study supports universities and government agencies for the development of educational programs to prepare current and future entrepreneurs to match the changes in the new environment that has emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research contributes to the entrepreneurship research domain by shedding light on the inconsistent use of non-standardised terminologies and providing an entrepreneurial model and updated skills map to guide scholars to frame research in the post-COVID era with more clarity.

This study explored one form of remote working – work from home – to understand the impact of work disruptions on workers and human resource management (HRM) practice and therefore how to adapt to future crises. Specifically, the purpose is to understand the impact of events on employees when they are forced to move back and forth (yo-yoing) between work from home and a central office, using the case of Perth, Western Australia (WA).

Thirty-nine interviews with leaders, managers and co-workers working in private and public organisations suggest that forced changes to work arrangements affect job content and demands, well-being and potentially career trajectories.

The authors critically applied and developed the tenets of event system theory (EST) (novelty, disruption and criticality) by analysing an ongoing or “long” event rather than a discrete or time-limited one. The study found that the work-from-home experience influenced the individual perception of whether remote working would suit employees in the future, potentially influencing career paths. In addition, the selection of locations to live, preferred properties (e.g. home office space) and access to services (e.g. broadband infrastructure) has also become dominant features of work decisions.

While the study generated rich data, it is not without limitations. The participants were from one Australian state which may not reflect the COVID-19 experiences of other jurisdictions. In addition, the participants were mostly female so this may offer a different perspective than a more gender-balanced sample. The study was limited to the perspectives of employees and middle managers.

The authors note three areas of implications for practitioners. First, the findings suggest that strong organisational and HRM support assists employees to cope well with change. Second, the importance of technological and social preparedness in improving employee experiences highlights the role of HRM in job design. Third, it is key that salient events are recognised as potential determinants of career pathways.

The evidence from this research broadens the application of EST showing that forced flexibility has an influence on work arrangements by influencing a series of changes in features of work and experiences of employees. As such, this impacts employee's well-being and potentially future career decisions.

Society's concerns about environmental degradation have tightened competitive pressure and brought new challenges to small firms. Against this backdrop, this study develops a decision model to determine a suitable configuration for entrepreneurial orientation to help small firms manage circular economy challenges and improve their performance.

This study used a multi-study and multi-method approach. Study 1, through qualitative in-depth interviews, identified a portfolio of circular economy challenges and entrepreneurial-orientation components. Study 2 applied the quality function deployment technique to determine the most important components of entrepreneurial orientation. Study 3 adopted a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to determine the best configuration for challenges and components.

The findings reveal a set of challenges and identify the salient need to combine the negation of these challenges with the components of entrepreneurial orientation; this combination will improve the performance of small firms. The research extends the current knowledge of managing circular economy challenges and offers decision-makers insights into improving their resilience.

The use of the dynamic capability view, together with the multi-study and multi-method approach, may lead to an appropriate reconfiguration of entrepreneurial orientation, which, to date, has received limited empirical attention in the small-business-management discipline.

In this study the authors examine the nature and contents of key audit matters (KAMs), and the consequences of KAMs reporting on audit quality in the context of a developing country, Bangladesh. The authors’ proxies of audit qualities are discretionary accruals, small positive earnings surprise, audit report lag, earnings management via below the line items and audit fees.

The authors use content analysis of the KAMs for the period 2018–2021 to understand the nature and extent of KAMs reported by auditors in Bangladesh. The authors then use multivariate regression analysis to examine the effect of the number and content characteristics of KAMs on audit quality by using multivariate regression analysis.

Auditors in Bangladesh disclose a higher number of KAMs compared to other countries, disclose short descriptions of KAMs and industry generic KAMs. The authors document significant cross-sectional variations in the number and content characteristics of KAMs reported by auditors in Bangladesh. The authors’ pre-post analysis suggest that audit quality has improved after the adoption of KAMs. Cross-sectional analysis suggests that KAMs number and content characteristics are related to audit quality.

The authors’ findings imply that the KAMs reporting has the potential to play significant monitoring role in reducing the opportunistic behavior of managers. Hence, KAMs reporting can play a significant role in reducing the agency problem. For regulators, shareholders and corporate managers, the authors’ findings imply that if the audit quality is to be increased, the audit effort should be supported by an appropriate amount of audit fee.

The content characteristics of KAMs significantly influence managerial reporting behavior and affect the level of audit efforts.

Unlike developed countries (Gutierrez et al., 2018; Lennox et al. 2022), this study supports that KAMs reporting improves audit quality and control opportunistic behavior of managers in developing countries. The authors show that even though the KAMs disclosure quality is poor, it has the potential to improve financial reporting quality.

Advances in technology have given rise to an increased demand by small businesses for personalised e-government services. Given the importance of small businesses to the Australian economy, it is vital to deliver small business-centric services that offer potential to generate value. To do that effectively, government departments need to understand factors that affect small business. The purpose of this study is to explore how preferences for personalised services and the use of intermediaries affect small business participation behaviour and, in turn, stimulate positive outcomes that are of interest to the government.

This study draws on secondary data from a survey of 800 Australian small businesses about the digital services offered by a large government department. Structural equation modelling was used to empirically test the model.

The findings demonstrate that whilst preference for personalisation has a positive relationship with participation behaviour, reliance on an intermediary does not. While such behaviour fosters emotional connection and perceptions of partner quality, the results of this study show no significant impact on satisfaction.

This study advances knowledge about how small businesses can gain value from personalised support services. Importantly, it focuses on participation behaviour and small business – both of which are largely absent from existing studies. The findings can assist government departments to design personalised services that are valued by small businesses.

This study aims to examine the strategies that auditors in Bangladesh follow in identifying and reporting key audit matters (KAMs). The study also examines the factors affecting auditors’ strategies in the identification and disclosures of KAMs.

The authors have conducted interviews with audit partners, chief financial officers (CFOs) and regulators involved in KAMs reporting and monitoring. The authors have used the lens of institutional theory of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism and the concept of decoupling.

Auditors have used a decoupling strategy by identifying and reporting greater number of industry-generic KAMs than that of other countries in an effort to minimize risks and avoid regulatory scrutiny, although they disclose remote risks as KAMs and mask severe problem areas of the client. Because of the principle-based approach of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) 701 and because of the pressure and misunderstanding from the audit committee, auditors report industry-generic items and generic descriptions of KAMs.

The findings have important implications for the standard setters and local and global audit firms for the diffusion of new auditing standards in different jurisdictions. Without the development of audit firm-level capability and the corporate governance environment, changes in standards may not be effective in achieving the objectives of the standards.

Although auditors consider that the KAMs reporting requirements provide with opportunities to enhance audit profession’s legitimacy and public trusts, the actual KAMs reporting practices are driven by the market logic, an urge to maintain the status quo with clients and eventual rationalization of the impairment of professional independence.

Given the dearth of prior research on the implementation and diffusion patterns of ISA 701 KAMs reporting, this study fills the gap in the literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known study to examine auditors’ strategic responses to balance among conflicting priorities in reporting KAMs.