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This research intends to undertake a rigorous bibliometric analysis of product quality research trends and patterns, map the intellectual and social structure of the field, identify the predominant themes and propose a transition plan for future work in this discipline.

The procedure was carried out in a step-by-step manner. Following a specified search string, Scopus retrieved 1454 journal articles from the previous 39 years (1984–2022). To comprehend the field’s base, various techniques of performance analysis and science mapping were employed using RStudio and VOSviewer.

In light of the results, both the volume and influence of product quality studies have surged over the past four decades, with most works appearing in prestigious academic journals. A number of cross-country product quality collaborations took place in nations with little geographic, historical, or cultural proximity. Using co-citation analysis, five distinct subfields were identified within the literature on product quality. Finally, the use of co-word analysis helps understand the field’s underlying themes and concludes with a set of potential research avenues built on a content analysis of the articles from each of the five subfields.

To the authors' understanding, this study represents a pioneering effort to examine the research field on product quality using bibliometric analysis. Notwithstanding being rooted in scientometrics, this research’s outcomes are instructive for practitioners, academics and aspiring researchers in the field.

This article aims to answer two research questions that remain controversial in the accounting and corporate governance literature: (1) how corporate disclosure is related to board monitoring and (2) how this link is affected by the institutional environment and firm-level governance.

The study is based on S&P data on corporate disclosure by Russian companies collected over 2002–2010 and supplemented by information from the SKRIN database. The dataset covers 125 non-financial companies, with 559 observations in total. We use three indicators of board monitoring: the percentage of non-executive directors, a dummy for two-tier boards, and a dummy for an audit committee. The firm’s governance is proxied by a dummy for single class stock, while the institutional environment is proxied by a dummy for ADRs/GDRs. We apply conventional methods of panel data analysis with several robustness checks, including the random- and fixed-effects models, 2SLS that addresses the potential endogeneity of board composition, alternative definitions of the dependent variable, and an extended list of controls.

We find a positive (complementary) relationship between the amount of disclosure and the proxies for board monitoring employed. This complementary relationship turns out to be the strongest among companies that have better internal governance but face a weaker institutional environment. There is little evidence of such complementarity under strong institutions.

The findings may be of interest to investors and policymakers. As to the former, the results warn of firms that provide limited disclosure in the presence of strong corporate governance arrangements, such as independent boards, as these factors are not substitutes for each other. As to the latter, the results support comprehensive policies aimed at simultaneous improvements in both board governance and corporate disclosure in weak institutional settings.

This paper uses a unique setting and rich, partly proprietary data to extend the existing literature on the relationship between corporate disclosure and board monitoring, with an emphasis on the moderating role of the institutional environment and firm-level governance. It is also one of the very few studies of corporate disclosure in Russia, an important emerging economy of the early 2000s.

This study aims to investigate the direct relationship between audit committee effectiveness and sustainability performance and the mediating role of risk management in the relationship between audit committee effectiveness and firm sustainability performance.

The Hayes Process regression mediation model was used in this study. The data included 2,590 firm-year observations from 518 publicly non-banking and finance companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2017 to 2021.

This study proves the important role of risk management in mediating the effect of audit committee effectiveness on firm sustainability performance. Audit committee effectiveness was found to positively and significantly affect risk management. However, the effect of audit committee effectiveness on firm sustainability performance was statistically insignificant. The robustness checks and additional tests support all the main regression results.

Sample firms from Indonesia were used as representatives of developing countries. Further research may use more sample firms from multiple countries or provide a comparative study between firms in different countries.

The authority must enhance the audit committee’s role in risk management quality due to the indirect effect between the audit committee and sustainability disclosure. It should also expand the audit committee’s role to include sustainability disclosure.

This study could increase community awareness of firm sustainability. Where a company is required to provide more eco-products, stakeholders are, therefore, expected to have more equal concerns.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine risk management as a mediator of the effect of audit committee effectiveness on firm sustainability performance.

This study investigates if and how the board size, the board independence, the CEO duality and the board-specific skills are associated with higher-quality Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) disclosure in European State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

We measured SDGs disclosure through a content analysis of SOE's reports from 2017 to 2022. The characteristics of the boards analyzed are board size, board independence, CEO duality and board-specific skills. We performed multiple regression models to test the association between the SDGs disclosure and the characteristics of the boards.

The results show that board size, independent directors and board-specific skills are positively associated with higher-quality SDGs disclosure, while CEO duality is negatively associated with higher-quality SDGs disclosure.

This study provides several practical implications. Shareholders could equip their firms with larger boards, more independent and highly skilled directors, while avoiding a CEO duality for improving the SDGs disclosure; capital providers could examine the characteristics of a firm's board before allocating financial resources to verify which firms are accountable in reaching the SDGs. Also, standard-setters and policymakers could use the results of this research to define new standards or regulatory pathways to push firms to put more efforts in preparing a comprehensive and high-quality SDGs disclosure.

While prior studies mostly focused on sustainability reporting overall, this study adds a specific insight about SDGs disclosure employing an investigation which has not been previously analyzed.

This study analyzes the role of regional cooperative banks in identifying and financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from a proximity perspective. Access to finance is a major challenge for SMEs. Regional cooperative banks can remove this barrier based on cooperative bank's characteristics and geographic proximity to SMEs. Understanding the interplay between these financial actors and firms can contribute to a better support of SMEs development.

The results are based on a case study of eight SMEs located in southwestern France. Interviews were conducted with two regional cooperative funds and eight SMEs. The interview guide included questions related to the company, the projects financed and how financing was accessed.

Results reveal that a combination of three forms of proximity allows regional cooperative banks and SMEs to establish effective financing operations. They show that regional cooperative banks are key players in the existing financing mechanisms for SMEs. Such financing is often used to gain access to larger players at a later stage. The findings suggest the need for public policies that promote the integration of financing actors in regional ecosystems to advance SMEs' development.

This article examines how SMEs access financing, with a focus on regional cooperative banks, which have received little attention in the literature. Moreover, the relationships between these actors are studied through the lens of proximity. Regional cooperative banks are able to finance projects that may have been overlooked by traditional banks due to trust-building local dynamics.

Corporate digital responsibility is a challenge for companies as it recognizes that the use of technology can have a significant impact on society. In addition, a whole philosophy of nonfinancial disclosure has recently been developing and has become a priority for organizations seeking to be transparent and accountable. While some companies have already adopted this approach, practices related to information transparency in corporate digital responsibility are still in their early stages, creating a need to improve reporting and promote greater understanding in this evolving field. Based on a study analyzing the disclosure of information on digitization and taking into account that the board of directors is the body in charge of companies’ disclosure policy, the study aims to identify the factors that favor this disclosure.

As established by Ponce et al. (2022), IBEX-35 companies are Public Interest Companies subject to European and international regulations and are required to provide information on economic efficiency indicators and nonfinancial indicators. In relation to the proposed objectives, the aim is to analyze the possible factors that condition the degree of dissemination of information on digitization. To this end, a multiple linear regression of the dissemination index has been proposed following the works of Gil et al. (2018), Rodríguez-Ariza et al. (2014) and Briano-Turrent & Rodríguez-Ariza (2013). The estimation will be performed using the SPSS software (version 27).

The results show that the number of independent directors has a positive influence on the level of information disclosed by companies online. Conversely – and in line with previous studies – board size does not have a significant impact on the level of information transparency.

This study has a few limitations that adversely impact the generalizability of the results. First, the subjective problem inherent in the rating and evaluation of information collected in the annual reports of sample companies cannot be excluded. Second, the consideration that each element that constitutes the IDT has the same weight, there being no weighting criteria. Finally, the study population is limited to 35 listed companies, not considering medium and small companies. Nevertheless, despite these limitations, the results are sufficiently interesting to justify and extend the research to a larger number of companies and, of course, to other stock market indices. Another interesting future line of research would be to include more independent variables to analyze what other factors determine the degree of digital transparency of companies.

The study may be useful for organizations to take into account when identifying the corporate governance characteristics that will improve the disclosure of information on digitalization, which is still incipient and voluntary. Similar considerations could be made with respect to the competent authorities in regulating the disclosure of information by companies, insofar as they should promote policies that, in general, favor corporate transparency.

This study contributes to the literature in three main ways: 1) although there is a large body of research that has explored the impact of corporate governance dimensions on the level of nonfinancial transparency, the present study pioneers the approach to digitalization disclosure in Spanish listed companies; 2) it provides evidence that it is highly advisable to have a majority of independent directors to achieve a higher degree of digital disclosure; and 3) the results of this research show the current state of digital transparency on the websites of most of the listed companies in Spain, which could serve as a benchmark for those responsible for issuing corporate governance policies and guidelines.

This study seeks to evaluate gender diversity within family members and analyze its effects on financial distress in firms listed in Vietnam.

The research employs a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regression model to assess the impact of gender diversity on corporate board performance, including factors such as the presence and proportion of female directors, female directors with family ties and the gender of CEOs. The study covers 152 listed companies on the HNX and HOSE exchanges from 2015 to 2022. The GMM model is chosen for its robustness in dealing with endogeneity issues and its ability to provide consistent estimates in the presence of potential correlation between explanatory variables and unobserved effects. This approach allows for a more accurate evaluation of how gender diversity influences operational efficiency and how these companies manage financial difficulties within the sample period.

Our research shows that diversity on the Board of Directors (BOD) as well as female CEO employment not only does not reduce the financial distress of businesses but also increases this situation. However, being both a female and a family member of the BOD is negatively related to financial distress. This can help female members who have connections with the family contribute to the work of adjusting and monitoring the business's operations to suit the family's goals, contributing to improving the operational efficiency of the business. BOD maximizes profits and contributes to promoting the company's sustainable development goals. From there, limited ability to travel and financial exhaustion.

The empirical results obtained from this study contribute to building a solid knowledge base, supporting businesses in the policymaking process and providing empirical evidence to enrich learning materials.

This study provides empirical evidence on how gender diversity influences the financial challenges of businesses, especially within the context of publicly listed companies in Vietnam. It stands out from previous literature by specifically focusing on listed companies in Vietnam. By analyzing the impact of gender diversity on financial difficulties, this study also clarifies how various factors can influence management and business development.

The study aims to embrace the lingering call for more empirical studies that can theorize the role of digital platforms in digital entrepreneurship. Hence, this study seeks to reveal the liminal space entrepreneurial experience of third-party application developers, by investigating how the platform boundary resources promote third-party entrepreneurial actions, as they transition through the disoriented, uncertain and ambiguous processes of digital entrepreneurship development.

To conduct this investigation, an expert interview qualitative method was used. This approach is a well-established technique in the field of social sciences, which allowed a detailed exploration of the theory of liminality. Liminality refers to the transitional phase that individuals or groups experience when moving from one social or cultural context to another. The expert interview method is appropriate for this study because it involves engaging with knowledgeable individuals who have extensive experience and expertise in the subject area being investigated. Through in-depth and unstructured interviews, the experts were able to provide valuable insights and perspectives about the phenomenon investigated.

The research findings demonstrate that digital platform boundary resources play a significant role in the behaviour of third-party developers’ who engage in the development of digital entrepreneurship in today’s market. The study highlights three ways that show how these resources (software development kit (SDK), API, integrated development environment (IDE), libraries, frameworks) enable third-party developers to create new applications that are used to pursue entrepreneurship in a digital platform, leading to increased user engagement and revenue generation.

The research addresses the critical roles of digital platform boundary resources in digital entrepreneurship development processes. Also, using liminality theory, the research explicated the core experiences of third-party developers as they navigated the challenges and ambiguities experienced in the pursuit of entrepreneurship. Thus, contributing to the existing body of knowledge in literature and practice.

This study aims to examine the relationship between CEO characteristics and the value of excess cash holdings from the perspective of resource-based view (RBV) theory in the context of Malaysia.

The analyses were made using ordinary least squares across 173 non-financial firms listed in Bursa Malaysia over the period of 2015–2021. The authors address potential endogeneity through the generalized method of moments. The results are also robust to alternative measures of excess cash holdings.

The results showed that female CEOs and CEOs’ educational level are significantly positively related to the value of excess cash holdings. In contrast, CEO tenure and CEO age negatively affect a firm’s excess cash valuation. The results are robust to measurement error and endogeneity issues.

The empirical results have useful policy implications. For practitioners, firms are recommended to prioritize the selection of female CEOs and CEOs with high education levels within their top management, as this initiative can result in improved value associated with excess cash holdings. In addition, policymakers are recommended to guide programs that attempt to improve educational attainment and gender diversity in business leadership. This study also provides investors with insightful information about the possible relationship between CEO traits and company performance, especially with regard to measures for managing surplus capital.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the role of CEO characteristics in the value of excess cash holdings based on the RBV theory.

Hospitals’ corporate governance (CG) mechanisms oversee critical operational issues and evaluate the outcomes. This paper investigates the impact of CG (i.e. board size, board independence, board expertise, board meetings, board gender diversity, CEO gender, and academic directors) on the financial performance of English National Health Service (NHS) hospitals and separately by hospital type (i.e. trusts and foundation trusts).

The sample includes 128 NHS hospitals. The data were collected through document analysis and archival work from annual hospital reports from 2014 to 2018.

The findings indicate that board expertise, board meetings, board diversity, CEO gender, and academic directors significantly and negatively affect NHS hospitals’ financial performance. For NHS trusts, the results reveal that board expertise, board diversity, and CEO gender have a significant negative effect, while for NHS foundation trusts, only CEO gender has a significant negative impact.

Overall, this study contributes to the literature on the healthcare system. It holds significant practical implications for hospital governance and has important implications for theories.