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The study evaluates small marginal farmers’ (SMFs) potential behavior, attitude and trust in the adoption of innovative emerging technologies.

The study employed an agile multi-factor approach to conceptualize a digital marketplace to connect a supply chain ecosystem for stakeholders.

The empirical findings suggest that most SMFs are willing to embrace innovative technologies. Nonetheless, they lack the necessary technological oriented education, training and funds to innovate. However, their reluctance to adapt changes is attributable to their fear of losing past customs and practices; they were threatened by the reaction of intermediaries (arthyias) to the adoption of technologies, which could result in them suffering huge losses.

This innovative disintermediation business model has a significant potential to reduce information asymmetry, cost and hoarding – and can thus increase the SMFs’ profit margins. Agricultural technological innovations have a profound potential to impact their supply chain logistics positively by reducing the wastage of perishable food and thus enhancing the consumer experience.

This paper aims to explore how narcissistic traits and personality influence entrepreneurial behaviour. In entrepreneurship and psychology, research has shown that narcissism and personality have “productive” and “unproductive” influences on entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, this paper explores the entrepreneur from a social constructionist perspective by using the narrative from the emerging literature. The narrative focus is on narcissism, entrepreneurial personality and the intention to start a new venture, focusing on activities in the early stages of entrepreneurship.

This study draws upon the narcissism theory and the big five personality models. Using the conceptual model, the authors identify commonalities with entrepreneurial activities such as product and service development, market competitive strategies, marketing, networking, performance management, learning from failure and fund-raising activities. The conceptual framework demonstrates a connection between narcissism, the big five personality and entrepreneurial activities.

This study proposes an innovative conceptual framework for productive entrepreneurial behaviour. Productive traits of the grandiose narcissist are extraversion and openness to experience, which may have positive influences on the entrepreneurship process. Traits such as assertiveness, overconfidence and intellect have been found to be instrumental in resource acquisition activities. Findings also suggest that the grandiose narcissist will be high in openness to experience (intellect) and extraversion (excitement and social networking). The narcissist is most likely to choose an internal source of funding to protect their fragile ego and maintain control over their entities. Those with high extraversion and openness to experience may be more open to pursuing external sources of funding, as they are more inclined to have social networks and enjoy the external process. Though the study focuses on the “dark trait productivity” of narcissism, it is important not to overlook the damaging side of the narcissistic entrepreneur – “dark trait unproductivity”. The study also discusses the unproductive traits of narcissistic entrepreneurs, such as constantly chasing goals, deflecting and blaming the environment and others for failure, embarking on risky financial decisions, a lack of empathy in team dynamics and poor stakeholder management.

The influence of narcissism on entrepreneurial activities and its impact have gained traction among academia and practitioners. Yet, this is an insufficiently understood area of study and has not been explored in depth. Previous research has focused chiefly on entrepreneurial intentions in the context of entrepreneurship, and what influences the choice to start a business. There is limited research that bridges the gap between entrepreneurial finance and psychology–narcissism personality.

Purpose: This study examines sustainability communication’s direct and indirect effects on consumer loyalty and brand reputation. It also aims to identify sustainable practices that enhance consumer behaviour and brand reputation.

Methodology: The study used a cross-sectional survey design and collected data from 500 participants through an online survey. The survey included measures of sustainability communication, consumer loyalty, brand reputation, and demographic variables. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesised relationships between the variables.

Findings: The results of the SEM analysis suggest that sustainability communication has a direct and positive effect on consumer loyalty, which in turn positively impacts reputation. Furthermore, the study identifies specific sustainability practices, such as reducing the carbon footprint and promoting ethical sourcing, that can positively influence consumer behaviour and brand reputation.

Implications: The study underscores the significance of adept sustainability communication for fostering consumer loyalty and boosting brand reputation. Focusing on initiatives like loyalty programs and personalised offers can harness this connection. Additionally, the research identifies critical sustainable practices – carbon reduction, ethical sourcing, and renewable energy investment – that foster positive consumer behaviour and brand reputation.

Originality/value: This study provides new insights into the mechanisms by which sustainability communication can influence consumer behaviour and brand reputation. The study identifies the importance of consumer loyalty as a mediator between sustainability communication and brand reputation. It recommends companies seeking to enhance their brand reputation through sustainability practices.

This study aims at investigating the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) on corporate financial performance (CFP) in firms headquartered in developed versus emerging countries. Drawing upon stakeholder and legitimacy perspectives, the authors argue that the CSR/CSI–CFP relationship differs depending on the home-countries’ level of economic development as this reflects their different sensitivity to sustainability. Indeed, as emerging economies are normally characterized by weaker regulations, they are likely to place lower pressures on companies for superior CSR practices. Therefore, the authors expect the effect of CSR on CFP to be more positive for firms headquartered in advanced than in emerging countries. At the same time, the authors propose a more negative relationship between CSI and CFP for firms headquartered in developed countries due to the higher overall sustainability expectations required to gain legitimacy. The empirical analyses, run on a sample of 1,971 publicly listed firms between 2010 and 2020 from developed and emerging economies, support the expectations, thus confirming that country-specific contextual factors do play a role in shaping both the positive and the negative impact of CSR and CSI on CFP, and that the reactions of stakeholders to responsible and irresponsible behavior are stronger when their sensitivity to sustainability is higher.

The study aims to determine whether a relationship exists between the potential significance of corporate controversies for stakeholders and how organisations respond to them in their annual and sustainability reports.

This paper employs content analysis on annual and sustainability reports of 48 listed companies from the Refinitiv database. The logit regression was used to estimate the model.

The study revealed that the main factors increasing the probability of a controversial issue being addressed in a corporate report are the controversy’s potential significance, companies’ financial performance and lawsuits.

Our study has three major limitations. These are a relatively small sample of companies and reports, focusing on disclosures made in corporate reports and omitting other channels of communication, for example, social media, and a certain amount of subjectivity in the process of coding information.

Former studies show that corporations face a serious risk of their hypocritical strategies becoming too evident for stakeholder groups. Our findings suggest that the risk is already materialising and may undermine the idea of CSR and sustainability reporting.

Our research focuses on high-profile adverse incidents widely reported in the media, the omission of which from corporate reports seems to constitute a particular case of organised hypocrite. It also demonstrates that companies use an impression management strategy to defuse adverse publicity and that major controversies cause minor ones to be omitted from their reports.

This study aims to examine the mediating and moderating roles of cognitive trust and organizational culture in the relationship between leadership and employee task performance and turnover intention.

Data were collected from 543 employees through a survey from the Islamic banking sector in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling (partial least squares) was used to estimate the effect.

The results demonstrate that cognitive trust plays a positive and significant mediating role between leadership and task performance (O = 0.064, T = 2.005, p = 0.028). Moreover, there is a negative relationship between leadership and employee turnover intention with the mediation of cognitive trust (O = −0.061, T = 1.976, p = 0.021). In addition, organizational culture plays a significant moderating role between cognitive trust and employee task performance (O = 0.014, T = 2.141, p = 0.038).

The results emphasize the critical role of organizational culture and cognitive trust in amplifying or reducing the impact of leadership on employee attitudes. This offers managers and leaders practical insights to boost employee performance and reduce turnover.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is unique in that it seeks to advance understanding of social exchange theory management by examining the moderated-mediation frameworks in the interaction between leadership and specific aspects of employee attitudes.

This review paper aims to highlight the causes of delays (COD) and their interactions in construction projects, potentially aiding in timely completion and waste reduction through early anticipation.

Forty-seven global literature were examined in detail to identify CODS and its interactions using the systematic literature review (SLR) method that utilised the PRISMA guidelines to ensure the studies reviewed were adequate to safeguard the robustness and comprehensiveness. Three-way analysis, such as Pareto, degree of centrality and loops, was undertaken to identify the critical Level 1,2 and 3 CODS that affect the Construction projects.

The research findings demonstrate that 65 CODs in eight categories affect construction projects. The CODs act in coherence rather than silos; the CLD displays complex interconnections of 44 factors obtained through the pairwise comparison of the 47 identified literature of the SLR. Through its systematic analysis of interaction loops, this research identified Ten level 1 critical CODs, two second-level critical CODs and 4 Third-level critical CODs. “Contractors' excessive workload/beyond potential/inadequate experience” emerged as the top COD that affects scheduling and project delay.

The study limitations include using only English articles and a restricted number of databases. However, the chosen databases were reputable and underwent thorough peer review processes. This study may have limitations due to the SLR, which means that factors affecting COD and interactions may vary by country, and future research is suggested for validation.

This study identified interactions of construction delays that potentially support scheduling risk management during the early stage of the project and reduce waste to improve sustainability. The theoretical implications of SLR-based research include helping develop a framework that would potentially have all COD in the current scenario and aid future academic and industrial research factor-wise and country-wise in aiding sustainability. This will support and provide construction professionals and academia with knowledge of the COD related to factors and their interactions to be considered in the early assessment and management of future projects and improve sustainability.

Most literature studies the factors or causes of construction delays that affect construction projects. The CODs primarily do not operate in silos but combine with other causes to enhance their influence on delays. Hence, it is of utmost importance to study the interactions of COD to enhance the knowledge in the construction field that would aid in schedule repair and, in turn, on-time project delivery. The study is the first related to COD and their interactions in construction projects in the digital era.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the research of knowledge management in higher education institutions (HEIs) by studying the enablers of knowledge entrepreneurship. Anchored in the dynamic capability theory, knowledge entrepreneurship is heterogeneously distributed in HEIs and is critical for the sustenance of organizations in the knowledge economy. This aim is realized by understanding the determinants of knowledge entrepreneurship and empirically investigating the relationship of knowledge-sharing behaviour and entrepreneurial leadership with knowledge entrepreneurship.

Data was collected through structured questionnaires from 550 faculty members of HEIs in Pakistan by adequately representing the sample size through regional stratification and proportionate sampling. Data was analyzed through the Analysis of Moment Structures software where the data validation and reliability were achieved using correlations, confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modelling to generate generalizable results.

The findings revealed that knowledge sharing is an important component in developing knowledge entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial leadership is pivotal in providing the support, vision and autonomy to individuals with personal and professional capabilities to ensure the creation of new knowledge, collaboration and innovation.

The study contributes to an understanding of relationship of knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial leadership that leads to promotion of knowledge entrepreneurship in HEIs of Pakistan. In addition, the findings of the study extend the existing literature on knowledge entrepreneurship by offering the positive mediating role of entrepreneurial leadership in the universities of Pakistan, hence, addressing the specific challenges and opportunities faced by the HEIs of a developing country like Pakistan. The theoretical framework of the study elucidates the importance of knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial leadership by using the dynamic capabilities theory and extends the scope of the aforementioned theory in entrepreneurial leadership realm.

By generating an understanding of the dynamics of knowledge entrepreneurship this study tries to help policymakers and educational leaders to develop strategies to cultivate a culture of knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial leadership in Pakistani HEIs. Building the entrepreneurial ecosystem entails prioritizing knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and retention that can lead to innovative solutions for local and global challenges.

The study used dynamic capabilities theory to link the knowledge and resources together for the education sector for sustainable outcomes in the knowledge economy. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically study the behaviour of HEIs to create and support knowledge entrepreneurship in the presence of entrepreneurial leadership in the context of a developing country, Pakistan. Becoming a knowledge-based society will help Pakistan upgrade itself to the list of developed countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the melting heat transfer of magnetohydrodynamics Casson nanofluid flow with viscous dissipation, radiation, and complete slip effects on a porous stretching sheet. Since, the study of melting heat transfer has mesmerized the attention of scientists and engineers in the sense of its enormous uses in industrial processes, solidification, casting, and technology.

Bejan number and entropy are analyzed. Exploration of irreversibility is modeled using the thermodynamics second law. There is a discussion on thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion along with first-order chemical reactions. Adequate transformations are introduced to convert the controlling partial differential equations to ordinary differential equations. The three-phase Lobatto solvers (bvp5c) are used to obtain numerical solutions of the transmitted equations.

The effects of various factors on temperature, velocity, concentration, Bejan number and entropy rate are shown graphically. The velocity field is enhanced by increasing the melting heat parameter, and it declines for growing magnetic parameters. Temperature is decreased for increasing parametric values of melting heat, porous and Casson parameters. A 7% decrease in the Sherwood distribution is seen when we increase the Brownian motion parameter from 0.1 to 0.2. Similarly, an 11% decrement is found in the Nusselt distribution for increasing the Brinkman number from 0.5 to 1.

Entropy and Bejan number experience dual tendencies whenever the melting heat parameter increases. Nusselt number and skin friction experience the opposite behavior for the increasing values of melting parameter. Sherwood number decreases for the increasing values of melting parameter. The velocity profile is directly related to the melting parameter and inversely related to porous and magnetic parameters. Thermophoresis and Brinkman parameters boost the temperature profile and it is controlled by melting and porous parameters. Some notable fields where the present study is used inevitably are silicon wafering, geothermal energy recovery and semiconductor manufacturing.

This study aims to provide quantitative information on the research trends of international public sector accounting standards (IPSAS).

The study used bibliometric analysis to determine the research trends in IPSAS literature. The method was applied to papers indexed in the Scopus database to analyze the growth and publication trends of the selected papers. The research team rigorously compiled a list of keywords relevant to IPSAS after consultation with the principal researcher. The study did not apply document type, year or language filter. The search query resulted in 475 documents. The study used MS Access, Excel and Biblioshiny software for the data analysis and visualization.

The acceptance and application of IPSAS by many countries and UN system organizations have led to the rise in IPSAS literature globally. The study finds the USA to be the most productive country, with Italy, Spain and the UK as second, third and fourth, respectively. Similarly, the University of Zaragoza has produced the most publications in the field, followed by the University of Salerno and Ghent University.

This study provides the current state of IPSAS research globally; as a result, it supports the development of policies by the users of this standards. This information can inform the development or revision of public sector accounting policies and standards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that provides a bibliometric analysis of the growth and publication trends of IPSAS literature. The findings in this study uncover different areas of IPSAS research productivity globally.