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This chapter is one of five chapters dedicated to anti-racism, specifically focusing on its conceptual foundations. Drawing from critical scholarship on ideas that have inspired political debates and policies about racism, I address key questions pertaining to anti-racism as an idea, policy framework and as a catalyst for sociopolitical action. This chapter engages with the fundamental principles that underpin anti-racism endeavours, ranging from community engagement to political activism and civil rights movements. It critically examines the ongoing debates on whether the goals of anti-racism, such as racial justice and dismantling of institutional racism/privilege, align with existing sociopolitical order. In addition, this chapter contributes to anti-racism scholarship that has evolved over the past five decades, by synthesising how anti-racism relates to various societal goals. Furthermore, this discussion incorporates themes such as the promotion of tolerance, equality, social justice and recognition within the context of anti-racism.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a slowdown of economic activity across the globe, which has resulted in high levels of disruption to labour markets. This study seeks to examine how the outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted the search strategies of students seeking for an internship, and whether these have changed since the start of the pandemic. The study utilises the strength of weak ties hypothesis, social capital theory and status attainment theory to explore the changes in securing a position since the outbreak of COVID-19.

This study draws on data from two cohorts of MBA students seeking to secure internships: one before the outbreak and one during. A multinomial regression is employed to examine how students have used network ties to secure internships and how this has changed since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The multinomial regression results indicate that there was little difference in the strategies employed by students before the crisis compared to those that secured them during, potentially indicating that students are unwilling to deviate from typical job search strategies, especially in times of uncertainty.

This study provides insights into how network ties are used by job seekers during a period of economic and environmental uncertainty.

The aim of this paper is to better understand European consumers' behaviour in relation to Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), so as to provide insights to support their development as part of a sustainable food system. Specifically, it aims to analyse consumer purchase patterns, motivations and perceived barriers and to identify patterns of behaviour amongst different consumer groups.

An online consumer survey was conducted in 12 European countries (n = 2,419). Quantitative data analysis, including principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis, was undertaken using SPSS.

Four consumer clusters are named according to their behavioural stage in terms of SFSC engagement: Unaware Unengaged, Aware Unengaged, Motivationally Engaged and Executively Engaged. Unaware Unengaged and Aware Unengaged are in the non-engagement phase of behaviour. Motivationally Engaged are motivationally activated to engage in the behaviour but fail to do so consistently. Executively Engaged is the fully engaged cluster, being motivated to act and purchasing local food on a frequent basis. The results show an interesting interplay between motivations and barriers, i.e. higher scores for motivations and lower scores for barriers do not necessarily translate into higher purchase frequency.

The research gleans insights into the contextual factors that may inhibit SFSC purchases in different consumer segments. It offers practical implications for policymakers and others seeking to develop SFSCs as part of a sustainable food system.

Individuals develop and perform and process their identities in relationships with others as well as with the environment in which they find themselves, Many of these relationships with others are characterized by fundamental inequalities. In finding their identities, the subordinate in the relationship develops an identity that typically take steps – by vocal and non-vocal gestures – to perform this particularized identity. The identification of self is not only related to the others, with eachindividual in reflective communication, but also reflections characterized by inequality. In continuing to do so, he or she will experience a certain powerlessness, indeed what Marx called alienation.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale to assess the influence of Higher Educational Facilities for the growth of education in higher education institutions.

The first step in the process of scale development is to generate an item pool containing as many items as possible which captures the construct of interest. A total of 111 items were constructed for the initial try-out of the scale measuring the construct of higher educational facilities. This rating scale was based on the Likert-type was designed, where each item had to be rated on a five-point scale. The scale consisted of a few items involving the dimensions of infrastructure, quality assessment and quality assurance regard to the vision actualization.

Higher Educational Facilities Scale (HEFS) was developed by the investigator and designed in the format of a 5-point rating scale of the Likert type. There are different phases identified for the scale construction. In the first phase, items are created and the content’s validity is determined. The scale is constructed in the second phase. Pre-testing the questions, administering the survey, reducing the number of items and determining how many factors the scale captures are all steps in the scale construction process. The number of dimensions, reliability and validity are all verified in the third phase, scale evaluation. In developing the scale, the content and face validity was ascertained. The reliability of the scale and its three subscales were established. This scale has potential value for policymakers to assess the perception held by the religious faculty members working in higher education institutions.

The research is part of the doctoral thesis by Dr Deepa Thomas under the supervision of Dr Fr. Joseph C. C. and the co-supervision of Dr Kennedy Andrew Thomas. The purpose of the scale is to assess the higher educational facilities of in institutions of higher Education. Quality, excellence and service are the vision and purpose of higher education institutions to provide ample opportunities and good facilities for their beneficiaries, thus creating tremendous changes in the Indian education scenario.

This paper aims to examine sites of dissonance or consensus between global investor responses to the draft standards, International Financial Reporting Standards S1 (IFRS) (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information) and IFRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures), issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

A thematic content analysis was used to capture investor views expressed in their comment letters submitted in the consultation period (March to July 2022) in comparison to the ex ante position (issue of draft standards, March 2022) and ex post summary feedback (ISSB staff papers, September 2022) of the ISSB.

There was investor consensus in support of the ISSB and the development of the draft standards. However, there were sites of dissonance between investors and the ISSB, notably regarding the basis and focus of reporting (double or single/financial materiality and enterprise value); definitional clarity; emissions reporting; and assurance. Incrementally, the research further highlights that investors display heterogeneity of opinion.

The ISSB standards will provide a framework for future sustainability reporting. This research highlights the significance of such reporting to investors through their responses to the draft standards. The findings reveal sites of dissonance in the development and alignment of draft standards to user needs. The views of investors, as primary users, should help inform the development of sustainability-related standards by a global standard-setting body apposite to current policy and future reporting requirements, and their usefulness to users in practice.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper makes an original contribution to the comment letter literature, hitherto focused on financial reporting with a relative lack of investor engagement. Using thematic analysis, sites of dissonance are examined between the views of investors and the ISSB on their development of sustainability reporting standards.

Green sukuk (GS) is an emerging financial tool that has gained momentum in recent years owing to increased attention being given to Islamic finance, socially responsible investing (SRI) and sustainability agendas. Yet, GS studies are fragmented, dispersed and lack comprehensive reviews. As a response to this gap in academia, this paper aims to synthesize the knowledge on GS into thematic clusters, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the subject and offering guidelines for future research.

This study implemented a systematic literature review approach to analyse studies on GS that were published prior to and including June 2023. The PRISMA 2020 protocol was used in the sample selection process. A total of 62 peer-reviewed journal articles from six databases were identified and categorized into various themes.

The results suggest that previous research has predominantly focused on the areas of GS advantages, drivers, market development and potential sectors, along with challenges and recommendations to improve the market. However, it was found that some other aspects, including GS pricing, performance and purchasing intention, require further research attention. The analysis also indicated that the use of theories in the GS context was limited, with only five theories employed in just four out of the 62 articles examined. Moreover, this paper’s findings revealed that the studies employing quantitative and empirical analysis methods were limited to four articles. Geographically, most of the studies were conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia, while other countries with high-potential markets (e.g. GCC) had limited GS practices and studies.

The results of this study have several practical implications. For investors, a review of GS will provide greater insight into the understanding of the GS market, helping them make better investment decisions. For policymakers, this paper empowers them with the knowledge to make informed decisions regarding GS markets by highlighting key recommendations identified in the literature. Finally, the proposed guidelines can be used in future research.

While Green Bonds have received significant attention, there is a dearth of research on GS and those that exist are fragmented. A systematic literature review is necessary to identify knowledge gaps for future research.

Using a sample of oil and gas firms in the USA, the study examines the relation between the presence of hedging and annual report readability.

The authors use regression analysis to examine the relation between the presence of hedging and annual report readability.

The authors find that annual reports of firms with the use of hedging are less readable (i.e. difficult to read and understand). The authors also find that the primary results are more pronounced for firms with a higher level of business volatility.

The study contributes to the finance literature on the use and value of hedging and to the accounting literature on the determinants of annual report readability. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has persistently asked companies to improve the readability of their disclosures to stakeholders (SEC, 1998; 2013, 2014). Hence, the study not only identifies a potential determinant (i.e. hedging) that may influence the level of readability but also supports the current regulatory policy by the SEC, which is encouraging companies to improve readability.

Cyberloafing is an organization-directed counterproductive work behavior (CWB). One stream of literature deems cyberloafing to be bad for organizations and their employees, while another suggests cyberloafing is a coping response to stressful work events. Our work contributes to the latter stream of literature. The key objective of our study is to examine whether cyberloafing could be a means to cope with a stressful work event-abusive supervision, and if yes, what mediating and boundary conditions are involved. For this investigation, the authors leveraged the Stressor-Emotion-CWB theory which posits that individuals engage in CWB to cope with the negative affect generated by the stressors and that this relationship is moderated at the first stage by personality traits.

Using a multi-wave survey design, the authors collected data from 357 employees working in an Indian IT firm. Results revealed support for three out of the four hypotheses.

Based on the Stressor-Emotion-CWB theory, the authors found that work-related negative affect fully mediated the positive relationship between abusive supervision and cyberloafing, and work locus of control (WLOC) moderated the positive relationship between abusive supervision and work-related negative affect. The authors did not find any evidence of a direct relationship between abusive supervision and cyberloafing. Also, the positive indirect relationship between abusive supervision and cyberloafing through work-related negative affect was moderated at the first stage by the WLOC such that the indirect effect was stronger (weaker) at high (low) levels of WLOC.

This work demonstrates that cyberloafing could be a way for employees to cope with their abusive supervisors.