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Growing concern over sustainability adoption has presented an array of challenges to businesses. While vital to an economy's success, banking is not immune to societal, environmental and economic consequences of business practices. The study has examined the sustainable performance of banking institutions on the suggested multidimensional framework comprising economic, environmental, social, governance and financial dimensions and 52 sustainability indicators. The study benchmarks the significant performance indicators of leading banks indispensable to sustainable banking performance. The findings attempt to address research questions concerning the extent of sustainable banking performance, ranking the sustainability dimensions and indicators and standardizing sustainability adoption metrics.

To determine the responsiveness of the banking industry to sustainability dimensions, content analysis was conducted using NVivo software for the year 2021–2022. Furthermore, a hybrid multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is used by integrating entropy, the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR) to provide relative weights to performance indicators and prioritize banks based on their sustainable performance. Sensitivity analysis is used to ensure the robustness of results.

In the context of the Indian banking industry, the pattern of sustainability reporting is inconsistent and concentrated on addressing environmental and social concerns. The results of the entropy methodology prioritized “Environmental” sustainability over other selected dimensions while “Financial” dimension has been assigned the least priority in the ranking order. The significant sustainable performance indicators delineated in this study should be used as standards to ensure the accountability and credibility of the sustainable banking industry. Additionally, the research findings will provide valuable inputs to policymakers and regulators to assure better contribution of the banking sector in meeting sustainability goals.

Considering the paucity of studies on sustainable banking performance, this study makes two significant contributions to the literature. First, the suggested multidimensional disclosure model integrating financial and nonfinancial indicators would facilitate banking institutions in addressing the five aspects of sustainability. As one of the first studies in the context of the Indian banking industry, the findings would pave the way for better diffusion of sustainability practices. Second, the inclusion of MCDM techniques prioritizes the significance of sustainability indicators and benchmarks the performance of leading banks to achieve better profits and more substantial growth.

The role of labor unions in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains both ambiguous and crucial for union members and business leaders. Given the complex relationship between labor unions and corporations, this study aims to address whether labor unions keep corporations honest (by monitoring CSR activities) or potentially render CSR initiatives less necessary.

Using data from the MSCI Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Database for firms in the Russell 1000 Index, this study examines the link between labor unions and CSR in U.S. companies over a six year period. Generalized least squares models were used to test the hypotheses for 3,937 firm-year observations.

The findings show that unionized companies generally pay less attention to CSR compared to nonunionized ones. The presence of labor unions and positive union-management relations both show a significant negative impact on CSR ratings, where positive union-management relations negatively affect CSR ratings more than just the presence of labor unions. Further, when considering the environmental, social and governance aspects of CSR separately, the results are more complex, suggesting that the relationship between labor unions and CSR varies depending on specific ESG dimensions.

CSR, a well-researched area, rarely addresses the companies' relationships with labor unions. Studies in South Korea and the UK have touched on the impact of labor unions on CSR, but in the USA it remains unexplored. This study extends this line of work by examining U.S. companies.

This study examines how the presence of labor unions affects a firm’s pay disparity between executives and employees and its financial statement comparability.

It uses firm-level labor union data in Korea and applies regression analyses to a sample of 1,776 firm-year observations from 2004 to 2008.

The authors find that unionized firms have a smaller pay disparity between executives and employees than non-unionized firms, suggesting that labor unions place pressure on the pay structure. Unionization also lowers financial statement comparability, which helps managers of unionized firms maintain information asymmetry. Further, this negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is stronger in non-chaebol firms, implying that they are more motivated than chaebol firms to reduce their financial statement comparability in response to the presence of labor unions. In addition, the negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is pronounced in profit-making firms, firms with less analyst following, firms with fewer foreign investors and firms in more competitive product markets.

The finding that firms adjust comparability in response to labor unions interests regulators and policymakers, who emphasize the role of comparability in providing usefulness to information users.

The findings add to the existing literature on the effect of labor unions on firms' pay structures and accounting choices.

The study aims to examine the association between the sustainable development triangle and real earnings management (REM) and the moderating role of business innovation.

The study was based on the quadruple bottom line approach to measuring corporate sustainable development. For the REM, Roychowdhury model is used to identify the practices. The study used panel data using 740 firm-year observations from non-financial listed companies in the Nigerian market from 2011 to 2020, collected from the Nigeria Stock Exchange.

The study finds a negative influence on the association of economic, environmental, social and governance (EESG) on REM in related party transactions. Thus, by regressing the three different components of REM separately, then EESG will have strongest impact as well. The study suggests a bidirectional association between EESG and REM. Furthermore, the study finds that business innovation strengthens the negative association between EESG and REM. The study concludes that sustainable companies in the Nigerian public market are less liable to practice REM.

The study examines only non-financial listed companies quoted on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, which restricts the generalization of the findings.

The findings of the study should be of immense value to the investors who need comprehensive appraisal of earnings quality to enhance sustainable development strategies for sustainable business innovation among Nigeria firms. Thus, sustainability and innovation can serve as the principles for supporting developing countries impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting a sustainable development.

The study will be of immense value to policymakers, regulators and standard setters who demand for facts insightful of business practices and reporting behaviors for sustainable development.

Existing studies have mainly focused on triple bottom line. This study adds to the existing body of literature on the Quadruple bottom line in an African market. More so, the study investigates the impact of business innovation on the relationship between economic, environmental, social and governance and real earnings management, which was rarely investigated in the prior literature.

This paper aims to do a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature on workplace spirituality to address the intellectual framework of workplace spirituality and the framework's future direction.

A multistep screening procedure was used to obtain data from the Scopus database, which included 648 papers ranging from 1998 to 2023. The bibliometric analysis is conducted by using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny.

The bibliometric analysis showcases that workplace spirituality is a multidimensional concept primarily studied in the organizational behavior domain. The most important research themes were organizational culture and spirituality. In addition, this paper advances workplace spirituality literature by identifying the keywords, prominent authors, journals and conceptual structure.

The study summarizes the existing knowledge on workplace spirituality using bibliometric analysis, classifies thematic areas, identifies research gaps and suggests future avenues of research.

The review paper conducts a bibliometric analysis of the emerging area of workplace spirituality over time. These results can also serve as a guide for future research in the subject of workplace spirituality.

Impoverished employee mental health is harmful to employees and organisational performance. There is emerging interest in employee mental health in the human resource management (HRM) field. The majority of these studies mainly focus on the organisational and individual levels from the psychological and managerial perspectives without considering the sectoral characteristics and societal context.

This perspective paper draws on extant literature as well as 10 informal interviews with medical professionals, organisational leaders in the public sector, teachers and HR professionals to shed light on employee mental health research, practice and challenges in the Chinese context.

This paper reveals national, sectoral, occupational and individual factors that shape mental health problems, individual coping mechanisms and organisational interventions. It also shows international influence on employee mental health in the form of institutional pressure and knowledge transfer.

There is limited research on employee mental health and HRM in the Chinese context, which restricts the scope of discussion in this paper, but at the same time presents rich future research opportunities that may be relevant to other national settings.

Managing the mental health of the workforce is part of the mental health management of the population, which means a holistic approach to building a mental health eco-system needs to be adopted. The authors call for more research on employee mental health in the Chinese context to provide evidence to support policy development and organisational efforts to scale up mental health services at the national and organisational levels. The authors also provide practical recommendations for policymakers and employing organisations.

The authors present a multi-level and multi-factor overview related to employee mental health in the Chinese context. The authors argue for a resource-based and multi-stakeholder approach, which will help inform and improve mental health policy and practice. The authors present several avenues for future scholarship and research. The authors extend the research frontiers of employee mental health issues by calling for the inclusion of a broader range of theoretical lenses including institutional theory, cultural and spiritual perspective and critical sociology to understand more fully how employee mental health conditions may be undermined or improved.

Studies highlight that poor labour supervision and inadequate labour training facilities are the primary factors that result in labour skill shortages and productivity-related challenges among construction firms. This study aims to assess the construction supervisors’ abilities in providing work-based training elements and evaluating labour skills in construction.

A construction supervisory training programme was newly designed with a set of labour training exercises using comprehensive approaches. A total of 64 construction supervisors were trained to deliver the labour training components for more than 250 labourers working on 23 construction projects in Sri Lanka. The supervisors’ competencies were assessed using a detailed marking guide developed through expert discussions and literature reviews.

The results show the detailed cross-section of a wide range of competencies of the construction supervisors in providing labour training elements with the levels of standards/descriptions. The generalisability of the study applications and the reliability of the results were ensured using statistical tests and expert reviews. The findings further describe the impacts of the well-improved competencies of construction supervisors on labour working patterns and work outputs.

Though the study findings were limited to the Sri Lankan construction sector, the study applications can have a considerable impact on the current/future practices of the construction sector in developing countries as well as other developing industries.

The study outcomes may contribute to a rapid increase in the number of construction supervisors becoming certified assessors of National Vocational Qualifications up to certain levels. This paper describes the further extensive implications and future scopes of the study elaborately.

The study adds new characteristics and values to construction supervision practices that can be remarkable in achieving higher levels of performance and productivity in labour operations. Importantly, the study contributes to adorning the job role of construction supervisors with the title of “labour training expert”.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations on accrual earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM) in Iran’s emerging capital market.

The panel data regression is used to testing hypotheses. The sample includes 2,020 data and 202 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) over a period of ten years from 2012 to 2021. Also, the companies covered in this study include financial and nonfinancial companies. Furthermore, the data related to the research variables were extracted from the annual financial statements and the TSE database.

The results show that compliance with AML regulations leads to a reduction in AEM and REM. In other words, companies with higher money laundering (ML) tend to manage their earnings, which is in line with agency theory.

This study has implication for policymakers and regulators, auditors and managers. Considering the negative impact of AML regulations on earnings management (EM), Iranian auditing firms need to emphasize on the full implementation of AML regulations in TSE. Also, the results of this research may aid policymakers and regulators to detect financial crimes through accounting signals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in an Iran capital market to examine the impact of AML regulations on EM in financial and nonfinancial companies. Previous research has not controlled for the effects of financial companies. Prior studies have not examined the effects of financial companies. In addition, this study differentiates itself from previous studies by introducing a new method for measuring the independent ML variable based on auditor opinions. The obtained data can aid international bodies to better understand compliance with ML regulations in Iran and can reduce their concerns in negotiations.

A rise in productivity is associated with higher profits, competitiveness and the sustainability of an industry and a nation. Recent studies highlight inadequate labour supervision and training facilities as the main causes of productivity-related challenges among construction enterprises. This study aims to evaluate the construction supervisors' capabilities in applying the required elements of work practices for enhancing the performance and productivity of construction operations using a case study.

A new construction supervisory training programme was developed through comprehensive sequential processes, and 64 construction supervisors underwent training . Marking guides with different levels of descriptions/standards were developed through consultations with experts and literature reviews, and the supervisors' capabilities were assessed under 64 competency elements of 12 competency units.

The findings show a clear cross-section of all the required competencies of construction supervisors with various levels of standards/descriptions, leading to a new generalised guideline that helps to comprehend what degrees of skills can be taken into account in supervision attributes. Statistical tests and expert reviews were used to ensure the generalisability of the research applications and the reliability of the results.

Despite the study findings being limited to the Sri Lankan construction industry, its applicability could create considerable impacts on the current/future practices of the construction sector in developing countries as well as other developing industries.

The study adds new characteristics and values to construction supervision practices that can be remarkable in encouraging construction supervision to drive the sustainability of construction practices. The study findings are significant in decision-making/planning procedures related to technical comprehension, industry training, scientific documentation, adherence to workforce employment constraints and job outputs. This paper describes the further extensive implications and future scopes of the study elaborately.

This study addresses the knowledge gap in the industry related to the development of protocols and application methodologies necessary to track their performance. The study opens a new window that inflows knowledge attributes to the industry sector along with the necessary comparison of the relevant competency elements to predict/comprehend what levels of capabilities can be theoretically considered and practically applied in supervision characteristics.

This paper aims to investigate associations between firm resources and reliance on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) channels among agrofood ventures. It accounts for agropreneur gender and racial/ethnic status in the context of marketing channel portfolio composition. The authors examine the established assumption that resource limitations drive EM and whether socially disadvantaged status of agropreneurs is associated with marketing strategy beyond standard resourcing measures.

Using 2015 Local Foods Marketing Practices Survey data, the authors apply linear regression to investigate differences in the use of EM channels, accounting for resources, social status and other factors.

Limited-resource ventures rely more on consumer-oriented channels that require EM practices. Socially disadvantaged entrepreneurs favor these channels, even when accounting for resources. Notably, ventures headed by men of color rely more on the most customer-centric local foods marketing channel.

Future research should investigate how social and human capital influences the use of EM.

Entrepreneurial support policy and practice for agropreneurs should be cautious about the “double-burden” folk theorem of intersectional disadvantage and review how to best direct resources on EM to groups most likely to benefit.

This paper uses a unique, restricted, nation-wide, federal data set to examine relationships between resource endowments, social status and the composition of agrofood enterprises’ marketing channel portfolios. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first to include racial- and ethnic-minority status of agropreneurs and to account for intersectionality with gender.