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This article explores how companies in multiple controversial industries report their controversial issues. For the first time, the authors use a new conceptualization of controversial industries, focused on harm and solutions, to investigate the reports of 28 companies in seven controversial industries: Agricultural Chemicals, Alcohol, Armaments, Coal, Gambling, Oil and Tobacco.

The authors thematically analyzed company reports to determine if companies in controversial industries discuss their controversial issues in their reporting, if and how they communicate the harm caused by their products or services, and what solutions they provide.

From this study data the authors introduce a new legitimacy reporting method in the controversial industries literature: the solutions companies offer for the harm caused by their products and services. The authors find three solution reporting methods: no solution, misleading solution and less-harmful solution. The authors also develop a new typology of reporting strategies used by companies in controversial industries based on how they report their key controversial issue and the harm caused by their products or services, and the solutions they offer. The authors identify seven reporting strategies: Ignore, Deny, Decoy, Dazzle, Distort, Deflect and Adapt.

Further research can test the typology and identify strategies used by companies in different institutional or regulatory settings, across different controversial industries or in larger populations.

Investors, consumers, managers, activists and other stakeholders of controversial companies can use this typology to identify the strategies that companies use to report controversial issues. They can assess if reports admit to the controversial issue and the harm caused by a company's products and services and if they provide solutions to that harm.

This paper develops a new typology of reporting strategies by companies in controversial industries and adds to the theory and discourse on social and environmental reporting (SER) as well as the literature on controversial industries.

This paper aims to examine the extent to which performance indicators (PIs) reported by New Zealand (NZ) higher education institutions (HEIs) correspond with accounting standards and guidance and the effects issuance of principles-based authoritative guidance and early adoption of Public Benefit Entity Financial Reporting Standard 48 (PBE FRS 48) have on the PIs disclosed.

Using a content analysis index derived from accounting standards and guidance, we conduct a longitudinal assessment of the 2016 and 2019 statements of service performance published by 22 NZ HEIs.

The PIs reported extend beyond the service performance elements proposed by standard-setters. Despite few indicators on intermediate and broader outcomes, the measures disclosed by HEIs are reflective of their role in the NZ economy and the national Tertiary Education Strategy. The results show that principles-based authoritative guidance and early adoption of PBE FRS 48 influence the focus and type of measures disclosed, while there is no evidence of improvements in the reporting of impacts, outcomes and information useful for performance evaluation.

This paper provides timely insights for standard-setters and regulators on the influence principles-based accounting standards and guidance have on non-financial reporting practices.

This study contributes to the scant literature on HEIs’ service performance reporting. It presents a model for conceptualising HEIs’ PIs that can be used as a basis for future research on non-financial reporting. It also reflects on the tension between accountability and “accountingisation”, suggesting that, although the PIs reported support formal accountability, they do not communicate whether HEIs’ activities and outputs meet their social purpose.

This paper aims to determine the significance of tourist walkability on three community-based tourism sustainability indicators, namely, the economic, social and environmental benefits and costs impacting community’s quality of life through the lens of the triple bottom line approach with the institutional theory.

This study views institutions as either enabling or restricting the sustainable community-based tourism because institutions influence resource integration and value assessment by the beneficiary. Moreover, institutions also lead the co-creation of sustainable community-based tourism among various stakeholders. Drawing on this conceptualisation, the notion of sustainable community-based tourism is filtered through the lens of institutional theory. Thus, this work approaches sustainable community-based tourism as a dynamic process of co-creating a tourist destination formed by different actors’ and institutions within the ecosystem of the tourist destination. Meanwhile, the triple bottom line benefits and costs experienced by the overall community would produce net effects on the residents’ perceptions of sustainable tourism.

This paper classifies both tangible and intangible costs and benefits because of tourist walkability and its triple bottom line trade-offs experienced by tourists and residents. This paper penetrates new grounds by reviewing the triple bottom line impacts of tourist walkability on residents’ quality of life. Government policies as mediating variable and national culture and individual personalities of tourists and residents as moderating variables were discussed. A conceptual framework named Tourist Walkability Sustainable Tourism Impact on Residents (TWSTIR) is proposed. Finally, a Sustainable Community-based Tourism Strategic (SCBTS) model which is based on the two dimensions of intensity of tourist walkability and residents’ quality of life is proposed.

Research limitations may include a lack of assessment on political, technological and legal issues, and therefore, future research is warranted in these three areas. Some emotions and attitudes of the residents may not be captured since the Gross National Index (Gross National Happiness) may have its inherent blind spots.

This paper would be of interest to the scholarly world, as its original idea and concluding research agenda are burrowing into a new sub-field of tourism research. In view of growth and degrowth of sustaining community-based tourism, the SCBTS model is presented to provide directions for tourism policymakers and entrepreneurs to formulate and implement appropriate strategy for the tourist walkability activity per se and investment in the accompanying infrastructure.

This paper also presents the sacrifices and inequities in the communities and the relevance of government policies, national culture and individual personalities of tourists and residents, in which the attention of tourism policymakers and the communities that thrive on the travel and tourism industry should not be neglected.

The idea and discussion of this paper is original. This paper burrows into a new sub-field of tourism research. Tourist walkability needs more attention from the scholars, as this tourist activity can have positive and negative effects on residents’ quality of life. The TWSTIR framework is developed to discuss the relationships of tourist walkability, triple bottom line concept and residents’ quality of life within the sustainable community-based tourism scope. The SCBTS model is presented for tourism policymakers and entrepreneurs to perform appropriate strategy for the tourist walkability activity and investment in the accompanying infrastructure.

Electric cars (EC) adoption represents a strategic action aimed at promoting environmental sustainability. Although Millennials and Gen Z represent the greatest potential market for EC, their adoption remains low; thus, this study focused on examining the role of motive in predicting EC adoption intention within these two generations’ population. Built upon the fundamental motive framework, this research explores the motives that lead to EC adoption intention. Subsequently, this study aims to examine the role of performance expectancy as the mediating variable and EC attributes beliefs as the moderating variable that can promote EC adoption intention.

Both exploratory and confirmatory methods were used in this investigation. Using an exploratory approach, this research explores the fundamental motives and the attributes of EC that influence EC adoption intention. Using a confirmatory approach, this research tests the mediating role of performance expectancy. To collect the data, an online survey was administered to 260 young consumers in Indonesia.

The results of PLS-SEM analysis from the data revealed that self-protection, kin-care, status and affiliative motives influence EC adoption. Furthermore, performance expectancy mediates the relationship between self-protection, mate acquisition, affiliative motives and EC adoption intention. Among EC attributes, the short-haul performance strengthens the indirect relationship between affiliative motive and EC adoption intention.

The main limitation of this study is that it only focuses on the practical attributes of EC, whereas psychological attributes that were found to be more influential in consumer’s purchase decisions were not examined.

Marketers need to explore EC attributes that can strengthen the relationship between consumers’ motives and EC adoption intention by increasing consumers’ evaluation of performance expectancy. In this study, marketers can promote short-haul performance, as it will lead to EC adoption for consumers with affiliative motives.

This study ties together two lines of research on the adoption of EC, exploring EC attributes and examining consumers’ motivation to choose EC, especially Millennials and Gen Z. In this way, EC attributes facilitate the fulfillment of consumers’ needs and promote EC adoption intention.

This paper aims to analyze the relationship between sustainability practices and the degree of innovation in the service provided by restaurants. The study identifies relevant restaurant segments in relation to sustainable practice-based service innovation so that effective actions to raise awareness and train managers and staff may be developed. Segmentation has been identified as a key tool when designing strategies and proposing actions. Yet, the use of segmentation techniques is still scarce regarding service innovation and sustainability in restaurants.

A segmentation analysis was carried out applying the CHAID algorithm from 300 valid questionnaires completed by restaurant owners or managers from coastal Ecuador, where tourism and gastronomy may be drivers of service innovation.

A typology of restaurants based on the sustainability-service innovation interrelation suggests three final segments: sustainable innovators focused on the value chain, moderate innovators focused on saving resources and restaurants with a low innovative profile.

The three segments derived from the analysis present differences in terms of the degree of implementation of sustainability practices, as well as in terms of the demographic profile of the restaurant manager. These segments are measurable, substantial, accessible and actionable, so that tailored initiatives to raise awareness and boost sustainability-oriented innovativeness among restaurant owners/managers may be targeted to each group of establishments.

The present research provides evidence of the positive relationship between sustainability practices and service innovation in foodservices. The segments of restaurants identified enable the design and implementation of actions that facilitate the transition of less sustainability-oriented restaurants towards more innovative and sustainable business models.

Drawing on an organizational learning perspective, this paper examines the effect of levels of foreign market involvement (intensity and geographic spread) on internationalization outcomes recognizing that the moderating influence of entry-mode learning potential is not well documented in the literature on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The sample includes 180 SMEs evenly selected from three industries: biotechnology, software and clothing (60 firms in each industry). The sampled firms employ less than 250 employees and are equally distributed between three developed economies and three emerging economies. All were engaged in foreign business.

The authors find that there is a direct relationship between levels of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes. Entry-mode learning potential moderates the relationship between intensity of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes but not the relationship between geographic spread and internationalization outcomes.

This study reveals several new insights that help explain the pathway through which foreign market involvement activities are translated into internationalization outcomes.

The authors conclude that the positive relationship between intensity of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes is strengthened when SMEs also use an entry mode with a higher learning potential than exporting only.

This research sought to understand better how readily managers choose action to change the status quo. Specifically, in experimentally manipulated ambiguous situations, I examined the effect of managers’ promotion and prevention focus on how much information they wish to review to help them choose.

I developed a novel experimental paradigm and applied it in a sample of 157 managers. Managers faced choosing action (change the status quo) versus non-action (keep the status quo), and I test under which circumstances they want to review more information that they believe will help them choose effectively.

The experiment showed evidence that (1) managers with a prevention focus want to review more information when they are trying to assure that they do not choose action erroneously; (2) managers with a promotion focus want to review more information when they are trying to assure that they do not choose non-action erroneously.

This research provides an original perspective on a managerial decision-making phenomenon. It goes beyond managers’ choice preferences to examine a practically relevant outcome of the process of deliberating about taking action to change the status quo.

Advances in technology and the popularity of social media influencers have sparked a rise of “virtual influencers (VIs).” This study examines consumer attitudes toward VIs in social networking services and explores factors that enhance or dampen these attitudes. In three experiments, it was explored how contextual factors (background and companion) interact with human (HIs) and VIs, influencing attitudes through trustworthiness.

Three experiments were conducted using an online panel (N = 894). All experiments were based on the comparison between HIs and VI with mediating role of trustworthiness. In Studies 2 and 3, moderated mediation analyses were conducted to test hypotheses.

The results revealed that human-like VI was less trusted than animi-like VI or HIs. However, the perceived trustworthiness toward VI was enhanced when the VI was in a virtual (vs. real) environment (Study 2) or accompanied by a virtual (vs. human) companion (Study 3), leading to positive attitudes.

This research not only enriches relevant literature (avatars and SMIs) but also provides actionable insight for practitioners who design and utilize VIs. This paper proposes novel and handy tactics to enhance consumers' trustworthiness in and attitudes toward VIs.

This paper aims to introduce the concept of compassion to the field of international business studies. As international business activities continuously intensify and hence generate a work environment characterized by cultural heterogeneity and pluralism, the notion of compassion in a cross-cultural context can be regarded a key skill for employees in internationally operating firms to enable coping with potential cross-cultural conflicts.

In this narrative-oriented type of review, the authors discuss compassion in a cross-cultural context by drawing on the literature in the management and international business studies. By connecting prior research on compassion with the typical research interests in the IB domain, the authors identify and define potential future research foci for a research agenda centering on the role that cross-cultural compassion plays.

The authors argue that the conventional approach to learning about other national cultures, their value and norm systems, needs to be complemented by the acquisition of compassion skills. In todays culturally diverse business environment where employees increasingly work in virtual teams, cultural complexity is hardly manageable alone by developing expert knowledge about respective cultural contexts to prevent cross-cultural conflicts.

By drawing on extant research on compassion conducted in neighboring disciplines of the social sciences, the authors conceptualize compassion in the context of international business research. Because compassion in a cross-cultural context is new to international business research, this study suggests directions for future research consisting of four research streams to guide future research on compassion in a cross-cultural context in international business studies.

Despite the significant growth in Islamic economies and the increasing number of Muslim youths inclining digital services, empirical-based research addressing the adoption of digital Islamic services is still limited. ZakaTech is a new phrase that has recently emerged as a modern term describing novel technologies adopted by zakat institutions; yet, it has been largely neglected in the literature. Therefore, this study aims to provide an integrated model that scrutinizes the determinants of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) of ZakaTech, combined with social cognitive theory (SCT), in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis where social distancing is the norm in conducting economic activities.

Based on cross-national evidence from two Muslim-majority countries, a total of 1,006 valid responses were collected from zakat payer users in Saudi Arabia and Egypt using a Web-based survey. To validate the research model and draw significant insights, SmartPLS structural equation modeling was used.

By analyzing both Saudi and Egyptian samples, the authors found that all UTAUT constructs are statistically significant, except for effort expectancy in Egypt. The effects of self-efficacy and social isolation on ZakaTech adoption are supported across both countries. Trust in technology reduces users’ inherent risks and increases their likelihood of adopting ZakaTech services in Saudi Arabia, while this is not the case in Egypt. However, the study revealed that trust in electronic-zakat systems (EZSs) is a vital predictor for mitigating perceived risk among Egyptian users of ZakaTech, but it is not the case in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, significant gender differences were found between males and females in the adoption of such digital services in both countries, particularly regarding self-efficacy, trust in EZSs, social isolation and social influence.

The results provide meaningful insights for policymakers to find ways to develop strategies to escalate the adoption of technology in zakat administration and also to create awareness among the users of ZakaTech in a gender-balanced manner that will include zakat payers and recipients as well in the hope that the digital gender divide will be bridged. Bridging the digital gender divide in this regard is imperative for sustainable inclusive development of zakat. Further, strategies need to be developed to provide incentives to zakat authorities and zakat organizations that adopt technology in managing zakat. This is important to escalate the process of fusing technology with zakat, which is an important social finance tool to eradicate poverty in the world.

This research serves as a building block for literature by empirically testing an integrated model of UTAUT-SCT within a modern and unique related context like ZakaTech. Also, it adds value by testing gender disparities in ZakaTech adoption among Muslims.