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The grain size and grain distribution mode have a significant impact on the tribological properties of Babbitt alloy. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of differentiated SnSb grain size distribution on the improvement of tribological properties of Babbitt alloy.

Babbitt (marked by babbitt-cr), with a differentiated SnSb grain size distribution, was fabricated using a selective zone laser surface treatment. Bare Babbitt with coarse SnSb grain was marked as babbitt-c, and Babbitt with refined SnSb grain was marked as babbitt-r. The microstructure, microhardness and wettability of specimens were tested. The tribological properties of babbitt-c, babbitt-r and babbitt-cr were evaluated under dry and lubricated conditions.

The microstructure transforms from single coarse SnSb grain distribution or single refined SnSb grain distribution to differentiated SnSb grain size distribution, as a result of selective zone laser surface treatment. Among three specimens of microhardness, babbitt-cr showed the highest microhardness. The lipophilicity property of babbitt-cr was better compared to babbitt-c. A mixture of coarse and refined grain is beneficial to improve the tribological properties of Babbitt alloy under dry condition. Furthermore, compared with babbitt-c, the wear resistance of babbitt-cr was enhanced under lubricated condition. However, the anti-wear property of babbitt-cr was not significantly improved relative to babbitt-r with an increase in the loads.

The study demonstrates that modulated different grain size alternating distribution modes can improve the tribological properties of Babbitt alloy.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-09-2022-0259/

This study aims to investigate the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) at a functional level and examine its impact on company performance.

Using data from 435 Indonesian manufacturing companies, 11 hypotheses were tested on direct, indirect and total effects of the relationship between functional CSR integration and its impact on company performance. The stakeholder and contingency theories were applied.

The findings of this study reveal that functional CSR integration has a significant impact on customer, employee, operational and financial performances. The findings show that the relationship between functional CSR integration and financial performance can be mediated by customer, employee and operational performances. The results of this study also highlight that functional CSR integration has a stronger total effect on both customer and financial performances in environmentally non-sensitive industries than in environmentally sensitive ones.

This study expands the prior studies by providing a theoretical framework for the relationship between CSR integration and company performance, as well as testing the framework using quantitative research.

The findings can encourage managers to effectively integrate CSR into business functions to achieve superior social and financial performance, particularly in a developing country context.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to empirically investigate the performance implications of integrating CSR into business functions and reveals new findings on how such integration can substantially improve company performance.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Supply chains are better able to become sustainable practices when they adopt circular economic practices.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The present work highlights the outstanding properties of Cannabis sativa that can be harnessed for various utilitarian functions and its climate friendly properties.

In this paper, the authors reviewed current research on all possible utilities from household work to manufacturing of various products that are environmentally sustainable. The authors have presented some of their research on this materials and also exploration of hemp as an archaeological material based on the findings from wall paintings of Ellora caves.

There are references of hemp use in mixing with earthen/lime plaster of western Indian monuments. Around 1,500 years of Ellora’s earthen plaster, despite harsh climatic conditions, survived due to the presence of hemp in the plaster that adds durability, fibrosity and its capacity to ward off insects and control humidity. Furthermore, the outstanding quality of Cannabis as carbon sequestrant was harnessed by Indians of ancient times in Ellora mural paintings.

This work discusses some relevant literature on the potential use of hempcrete aligned with Agenda 2030 of sustainable development goals.

There are several research going on in producing sustainable materials using hemp that have the least environmental impact and can provide eco-friendly solutions.

The authors impress upon the readers about multifarious utility of the hemp and advices for exploration of this material to address many environmental issues.

This paper presents both review of the existing papers and some components coming directly from their laboratory investigations.

Utilising the resource dependency theory, this study investigates the impact of board interlocks (CEOs' interlocks, women board interlocks, independent board interlocks and total board interlocks) on carbon emissions performance in India.

This research applies varieties of regression methods comprising robust least squares, generalised method of moments and Heckman's regression on a final sample of 63 of India's top 200 Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed companies that voluntarily participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) Climate Change Program and disclose their climate change data for years 2013–2020.

We provide strong evidence for a strong negative association between CEOs' interlocks and women board interlocks on carbon emissions performance. Independent and total board interlocks are not found to significantly affect carbon emissions performance.

Our sample is restricted to the proportion of the top 200 BSE firms that voluntarily submit their carbon emissions data to CDP. Also, the study's focus is India, limiting the generalisation of our findings to other emerging economies.

The study's findings provide valuable insight for regulators and corporate board of directors on the important role of CEOs and women board who interlock with other firms in steering the carbon emissions reduction. Specifically, the corporate board of directors should encourage CEOs to build more networks through outside board memberships. The regulators should revisit the Companies Act, 2013 and the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulation to increase the number of multiple directorships of CEOs and women board of directors.

This study responds to the dearth of literature on the efficacy of board interlocks on carbon emissions performance in emerging economies.

This study examines how assurors make sense of sustainability assurance (SA) work and how interactions with assurance team members and clients shape assurors’ sensemaking and their actual SA work.

To obtain detailed accounts of how SA work occurs on the ground, this study explores three SA engagements by interviewing the main actors involved, both at the client firms and at their Big Four assurance providers.

Individual assurors’ (i.e. partners and other team members) sensemaking of SA work results in the crafting of their logics of action (LoAs), that is, their meanings about the objectives of SA work and how to conduct it. Without organizational socialization, team members may not arrive at shared meanings and deviate from the team-wide assurance approach. To fulfill their objectives for SA work, assurors may engage in socialization with clients or assume a temporary role. Yet, the role negotiations taking place in the shadows of the scope negotiations determine their default role during the engagement.

Two options are available to help SA statement users gauge the relevance of SA work: either displaying the SA work performed or making it more uniform.

This study theoretically grounds how assurors make sense of SA work and documents how (the lack of) professional socialization, organizational socialization and socialization of frequent interaction partners at the client shape actual SA work. Thereby, it unravels the SA work concealed behind SA statements.

Japan applies a quasi-mandatory approach to corporate environmental reporting by defining the desired norm through formal law and guidelines and pushing large companies to be role models regardless of their sensitivity to environmental impacts. This study aims to analyze the change in Japanese companies reporting quality to justify this approach’s capability to produce normativity of environmental reporting.

This study examines the change in corporate environmental reporting quality and the effect of company characteristics on it. The analysis focuses on 88 companies for 2008, 2013 and 2018, resulting in 264 company-year observations.

The result shows a continuous upward trend, although it is unsatisfactory regarding the comparability and free from error characteristics. Then, company size positively affects the quality, and sensitivity to environmental impacts does not. Overall, the findings indicate that Japan is moving toward normativity through the quasi-mandatory approach and the norm entrepreneurship of its large companies, regardless of their sensitivity to environmental impacts.

This study could relieve the belief that it is necessary to apply a mandatory approach to improve reporting quality and enrich views on the effect of company characteristics which mainly used only the legitimacy perspective.

This study proposes a more comprehensive measure of environmental reporting quality. The measure is based on the qualitative characteristics of useful information from the most influential accounting standard-setting bodies. In addition, the effect of company characteristics on the quality is explained based on the norm entrepreneurship view instead of the legitimacy perspective.

The case describes the internal growth workshop initiative at Vedanta Group. Anil Agarwal in 1976 founded Vedanta as a scrap-metal dealership in Mumbai (then Bombay). Over the years, Anil pursued a very aggressive growth journey with a vision to create a leading global natural resource company. The principal objective of discussing this case is to understand how Vedanta introduced this initiative and how it fits within the strategic human resource management at the group.

Whereas the majority of research explores the direct relationship between quality management practices and firm operational performance using data on developed economies, this paper asserts that the effect of quality management practices on firm operational performance needs to be evaluated with reference to the contingency approach, especially in developing countries. Therefore, the authors empirically test whether competitive intensity moderates the relationship between quality management practices and inventory management process.

The authors employ a fixed-effect model on data from more than 7,000 observations operating in 27 Eastern and Central European countries.

The findings reveal that the adoption of quality management practices decreases inventory days only in a highly competitive market. Additionally, the results indicate that this effect is changing when distinguishing between countries and sectors.

This study advances research on quality management practices by emphasizing the importance of contingency and institutional approach.