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This paper aims to examine the consistencies and discrepancies in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting by analyzing the CSR reports of pharmaceutical companies. Despite the major role pharmaceutical companies play in the CSR field, our knowledge of the extent to which their disclosures provide comprehensive, material, credible and accurate information on their actual performances is limited because of a lack of sufficient literature on the CSR reporting practices of pharmaceutical companies.

The authors present a literature review that serves as the basis to develop the two key research questions: Do pharmaceutical companies publish comprehensive CSR reports? Are company reports that cover more material issues more comprehensive? Using the information on material CSR topics provided by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and CSR reporting quality scores by the CSR-Sustainability Monitor®, the authors analyzed the CSR reports of the world’s 15 leading pharmaceutical companies. A total of 11 material topics from SASB were mapped onto the corresponding contextual elements in the CSR-Sustainability Monitor. The Monitor evaluates CSR reports published by the world’s largest companies in terms of the degree of transparency and external verification of reporting.

The analyses revealed that while the pharmaceutical industry outperforms other industries in terms of the overall comprehensiveness of reporting, certain discrepancies exist among these companies in the content of their disclosures. Specifically, pharmaceutical companies beat the averages on multiple key CSR topics. However, while disclosures on mature areas such as environment and labor relations show some level of standardization, those focusing particularly on sensitive areas such as human rights and supply chain are far from being standardized. The authors also find that CSR reports that do not include all of SASB’s material topics are just as comprehensive as those that do. A detailed analysis of US and non-US companies separately further revealed that this result is valid for both groups of companies.

Considering the voluntary nature of CSR reporting, pharmaceutical companies still resort to selective disclosure techniques to highlight their achievements in areas where they feel more confident while leaving out others that can have potential negative consequences on the company. These results underscore the evolving nature of CSR reporting in the pharmaceutical industry and call for more attention and further investigation from managers and researchers alike.

The originality and value of the research show that despite its rapid growth and wide recognition by different segments of society and business as an effective and promising concept, CSR reporting has not yet reached a point where its expected benefits are realized. Focusing on the disclosure side of the story, this paper tries to identify the extent to which the pharmaceutical industry appropriately addresses increasing societal demand for enhanced transparency on its sustainable business policies and practices.

The aim of this research is to investigate the causal relationship between trade openness (TO) and life expectancy (LE) at birth in Latin American countries over the period of 1980–2014.

The bootstrap panel Granger causality test proposed by Emirmahmutoglu and Kose (2011) was used to determine the direction of causality in the presence of cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity among Latin American countries. Also, four different tests were employed in order to determine the cross-sectional dependency and slope homogeneity. The stationarity properties of variables were inspected by employing a unit root test.

The findings indicated that Granger causality existed between TO and LE, at birth which was running from the former to the latter for panel. On a country basis, TO Granger caused LE at birth for countries with low level of economic development and higher taxes on income and profits.

This study provides new insights for policymaking regarding the role of TO in achieving comprehensive economic reforms to increase LE at birth during a period of intense trade rivalry across nations.

Although research in the literature has mainly focused on the impact of TO on LE at birth with panel data, most studies ignored the regional effects. It is the authors’ concern that the direction of causality can be country-specific and have regional characteristics. In this regard, instead of dividing countries for a specific region into two parts such as developing and developed, the authors investigated the pattern of trade–health link for a specific region, Latin America.

In this chapter, the authors will examine turnover in Turkey. In the first section, the authors will briefly describe the legal, institutional, and cultural context with a particular emphasis on their implications for employment conditions and turnover in Turkey. In the second section, the authors will review the academic literature on turnover that originated from Turkey. The authors divide the reviewed studies into two groups: generalizability studies, which are primarily replications of the mainstream literature with no focus on any specific characteristics of Turkey, and contextual studies, which emphasized the role of the economic, legal, or cultural background in formulating or interpreting their research. In the final section, the authors will discuss the findings of the review vis-á-vis the mainstream literature as well as practical implications and conclude with potential future research directions in the Turkish context.

With the rapid development of technology in the era of digitalization, Industry 4.0 has become a reference for R&D studies in various sectors. The rapid development of technology makes the life of societies and people easier. For this reason, governments tend to develop their technologies and to encourage organizations in this field for this purpose. The concept of Industry 5.0 or Society 5.0 explains the revolution in people's lives with the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Today, many interrelated factors are rapidly preparing people for a complex and volatile future. This situation is accepted as the “new normal” and is defined as VUCA-RR (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity, Rapidity, Radicality). Variability refers to the increasing pace of change, uncertainty, unpredictability in life. Complexity indicates difficulties in relationships in life, and ambiguity indicates difficulties in understanding the events around us. The advancement and widespread use of digital technologies will enable organizations to develop sustainable strategies by providing them with the opportunity to grow by achieving sustainable competitiveness and profit in the VUCA-RR environment.

The case, while acknowledging the difficulty of managing a family business in view of the accompanying human issues, emphasizes that sound business practices and procedures, and clarity with regard to the goal, remain the key; a firm is a complex, interconnected system and management needs a systems viewpoint; and technology can only support underlying business processes if there is clarity with respect to these.

SomPack had survived low-cost Asian competition starting the mid-1990s, a revolt by some extended family to try and bring it down with the help of a competitor, the Turkish banking crisis of 2001, and the global economic crisis of 2008 all the while watching its suppliers, competitors and customers collapse. A focus on cost-cutting and internal discipline by the successor, who had been promoted to CEO in 2004, had exacerbated internal discontent somewhat and had led to issues with production planning, but everyone understood that times were tough. Several large customers who had left were asked to return because the alternatives had been worse. By 2012, SomPack was considering expansion into new products in collaboration with its international partners. Then one day, in July 2013, it suddenly collapsed. Could the entire approach have been wrong? What should management have done instead?

Undergraduate, graduate business management.

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CSS 7: Management Science.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Inclusive Leadership (IL) and Organizational Justice (OJ) on employees’ Happiness at Work (HAW). Utilizing a mediation mechanism, the study additionally uncovers the mediating impact of Workplace Inclusion (WI).

The research involved a cross-sectional study with a quantitative methodology, collecting data from 311 employees working in IT sector firms in India by administering standardized questionnaires. Statistical analyses, including Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling using SmartPLS4.0, were conducted to examine the relationship between constructs.

The hypothesized mediation model was supported. WI mediated the relationship partially between OJ and HAW, whereas there is a full mediating effect of WI on the IL–HAW relationship. Overall, the study shows that by providing fair treatment, inclusive leaders promote inclusivity among employees, further enhancing HAW.

The study’s implications suggest that leaders, with their inclusive behaviour and fair practices, can have a significant positive impact on employees’ workplace happiness when accompanied by a sense of inclusivity among employees.

Organizations and leaders can utilize this study’s findings to promote inclusiveness and HAW, which can be a key to organizational growth and development in a post-pandemic era.

This study contributes to the research literature by addressing the unexplored relationship between IL, OJ and HAW. The exclusive as well as inclusive focus on the mediating role of WI adds new insights and enriches the understanding of the intricate conceptualization of the variables under study.

The present study aims to investigate the effect of finish machining and aging processes on the surface integrity of the selective laser melted (SLM) maraging steel samples and compared them with those obtained conventionally.

Finish machining and aging were applied on the SLM and wrought maraging samples to investigate and compare their microstructural and mechanical properties such as surface roughness, microhardness and wear resistance.

After applying aging and finish machining treatments, the surface roughness <1 µm, microhardness (542Hv) and wear resistance (COF 0.578) of SLM samples were similar to their wrought counterparts. Compared to finish machining, the effect of aging was more significant on the microhardness and the wear resistance, regardless of sample type.

The knowledge of post-processing is essential to enhance the functional performance of the SLM samples. Aging and finish machining were applied for the first time to evaluate the surface integrity of the SLM prepared maraging steel and compared it with the wrought samples.

This investigation aims to determine the effect of trade uncertainty on domestic investment (DI) and foreign direct investment (FDI) for the Turkish economy from the first quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2020.

The authors adopt the vector autoregression (VAR) model augmented with Fourier terms. Using this methodology, the authors obtain the empirical results of the impulse-response functions and the variance decomposition analysis.

The empirical results demonstrate that a shock to trade uncertainty has a slight negative impact on DI for up to approximately 1.5 years, whereas its impact on FDI is negative but long-lasting. Moreover, the contribution of trade uncertainty to FDI is relatively higher than to DI in the error variance decomposition for the investigated period. These empirical results can be beneficial for shaping the Turkish authorities' trade policies in the following periods.

These findings have implications within the macroeconomic setting. Government authorities can provide tax exemptions for specified sectors and debureaucratize investment processes for both domestic and foreign entrepreneurs. Additionally, institutional quality and property rights should be protected strictly and developed gradually.

This study is the first to examine the impact of world trade uncertainty on Türkiye’s DI and FDI. Because trade uncertainty might act as fixed costs, this creates the option value of waiting and seeing the market, and firms hesitate to incur investment.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model for relief inventory ordering considering declining demand and realized shortage (RS) costs. This study is motivated by the overflow of unsolicited items in affected areas, which hinder the urgent relief flow.

This study proposes a dynamic programing model reflecting the change of demand and urgency during relief operations. A solution algorithm for finding a replenishing point of relief is also introduced here.

Relief ordering policy based on the RS cost increases the service level (in terms of time). The service level is dependent on the deterioration rate.

Deterioration is not applicable for all relief items. Therefore, the proposed model is applicable for certain relief items. Additionally, computation of temporal urgency is not included.

The study outcomes can be invaluable for resource planning. The model shows a gradual decrease of ordering quantity and a gradual increase of cycle length. This observation can be utilized for resource (e.g. truck) planning and fewer truck can be used in later stages of relief operations.

This study introduces temporal urgency for disaster logistics (DL) and proposes a relief inventory policy by incorporating temporal urgency. This model highlights the importance of considering declining demand for DL.

This paper aims to analyse COVID-19 indices and blockchain features on Bitcoin and Ethereum returns, respectively. The authors focus on the most used and owned cryptocurrencies that cover Europe, the US and Asian countries.

An autoregressive distributed lag panel (pooled mean group and mean group) is utilized, and a robustness check is incorporated by using a Random Effect Model and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM).

Four new findings were discovered, including (1) the vaccine confidence index (VCI) pushes economic recovery and increased demand for the Bitcoin market, but the opposite result was interestingly observed from Ethereum; (2) the blockchain features were revealed to be essential to Bitcoin, while they were irrelevant to Ethereum for short-run country-specific results; (3) the hash rate and network difficulty moved inversely during the pandemic; and (4) the government played a significant role in taking action during uncertain times and regarding cryptocurrency policies.

VCI is constructed by the most used vaccine type in our sample countries (i.e. Pfizer), as the data for a specific classification by each type is still unavailable.

Providing an evenly distributed vaccination program primary vaccination series against COVID-19 to the citizens is an essential duty of the government. Bitcoin policymakers and investors should watch the COVID-19 vaccine distributions closely as it will affect its return. Ethereum is emphasized to keep developing its smart contract which appeared to outplay other blockchain features. Cryptocurrency investors should be wise in their investment decisions by analysing the news thoroughly.

This research emphasizes that the success in the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination requires citizens' willingness to participate and their trust in the vaccine's efficacy. Such self-awareness and self-discipline in society can ultimately empower individuals and stabilise the economy. Nevertheless, the implementation of health protocols is still highly required to prevent the spread of new variants of COVID-19.

This is the first study that attempts to construct a VCI which denotes the confidence derived from the administration of full-dose COVID-19 vaccines (an initial vaccine and a second vaccine). The authors further find the impact on cryptocurrency returns. Next, blockchain size is utilized as a new determinant of cryptocurrencies.