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Maintenance policy is an element of building maintenance management that deals with organisation policy, planning and procedures, and delineates how maintenance units in an organisation will manage specific building components, auxiliary facilities and services. Given this contextual setting, this study investigates whether organisational maintenance policies (OMPs) utilised in developed countries are relevant in developing countries – using Nigeria as a case study exemplar.

An empirical research design (using deductive reasoning) was implemented for this research. Specifically, a Delphi study conducted revealed 23 elements that impact OMP development in Nigeria.

Of these twenty elements, six had a very high impact on maintenance management (VHI: 9.00–10.00), nine variables had a high impact (HI: 7.00–8.99) and eight other variables scored a medium impact (MI: 5.00–6.99). Emergent findings reveal that the elements of organisational maintenance policy that engender effective building maintenance management include preparation of safety procedure, optimisation of the maintenance policy, optimisation of the maintenance action plan, well-defined priority system, risk factor establishment, suitable maintenance procedures and a clearly delineated process.

The study findings will guide policymakers in identifying the main elements required in maintenance policies development towards making national public asset preservation and economic gains. Also, the content of the future educational curriculum on maintenance management study will be more receptive to the body of knowledge and the built environment industry.

Cumulatively, the research presented illustrates that these elements replicate those adopted in other countries and that effective maintenance management of public buildings is assured when these elements are integral to the development of an OMP.

The purpose of this study is to extend the findings from a very limited number of studies that have focused on the potential antecedents of firm diversity. Specifically, the authors examined the extent to which a set of firm-level diversity management initiatives, which included diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) policies and oversight structures, senior leader values and utility perceptions about DE&I and DE&I dissemination strategies, may be related to firm-level reported diversity – overall, and that which is specific to gender, ethnicity, race and disability.

The data for this study were gathered from a national sample of 200 US restaurant and foodservice companies during the third quarter of 2021 by an independent data collection firm.

After controlling for firm size, age, ownership structure and chain affiliation, the results from a series of regression analyses showed that formal diversity management policies and procedures (e.g. policies beyond those legally mandated), structural oversight of diversity management initiatives (e.g. designated diversity leader) and beliefs among senior leaders regarding the utility of diversity management initiatives, were positively related to firm-level diversity. There were also several notable differences in the significance of the findings across the four diversity groups, indicating support for a contingency explanation.

There are two unique contributions to this study. First, by considering a more support-based (vs compliance and control) approach to managing DE&I that is authenticated by senior leadership’s beliefs about the utility of DE&I, the findings advance the understanding of the nature and scope of diversity management initiatives that may influence firm-level diversity – in general, as well as that which may be specific to restaurant and foodservice settings. Additionally, the findings offer industry-specific insights regarding the extent and relevance of DE&I policies and practices that have been adopted by restaurants and foodservice organizations and prescriptive guidance for future inquiry on this topic.

This paper aims to draw lessons for telecommunications (telecom) network deployment in India, from a study of policy and regulatory approaches taken by other federal administrations in streamlining processes for site clearances, grant of rights of way (RoW) and approvals for local infrastructure deployment and sharing. With the urgent need for setting up small cells and rapid fiberisation of networks in the 5G era, the importance of such processes has gained prominence.

The authors adopt qualitative thematic content analysis with three-tier coding and classification to identify themes in archival and current documentary data and information obtained from subject-matter experts in the countries studied.

Formulation and implementation of telecom policy is led by national governments. However, national telecom administrations, in recognition of new needs, have co-opted states and local authorities as partners in development of telecom networks, providing the overall framework, guidance and appropriate incentives where required.

This cooperative model could work well in India, where telecom policy making and regulation is the prerogative of the central government, but administration of RoW and local clearances for cable laying, tower siting and associated infrastructure activities for expanding telecom networks are left to decentralised decision-making in the states and local bodies.

This research attempts to sytematise, thematise and draw cross-country comparisons to inform regulatory and administrative policy for 5G infrastructure rollout in India.

This paper aims to provide authorities managing free trade zones, business enterprises, financial institutions and dedicated free zone customs, police and immigration command assigned to deal with aspects of movement of goods and persons in and out of the free zones with a clear understanding of the cross-border financial crime risks associated with the African Continental Free Trade Area and the risk control measures that combines human intelligence with advanced technology to combat cross-border financial crimes in the African Continental Free Trade Area.

A range of research activities would be used in this study. In addition to a sweeping literature review of academic, official studies and media writings, the main focus is on critically evaluating and analysing primary data by searching and collecting statutes, court cases, administrative rules and regulations and policy documents.

This paper identified bribery and corruption; modern slavery; and trade-based money laundering as the financial crime risks that are of priority concern to African Continental Free Trade Areas and demonstrated how countries can assess and mitigate these risks through adequate policies, procedures and controls including appropriate compliance management arrangement and adequate screening procedures to ensure high standards when hiring employees; corporate transparency; training on managing incidents of modern slavery, forced labour and third-party exploitation; and appropriate monitoring framework for trade-based money laundering activities.

While many authors have written research papers on intra-African trade, none of those research papers explained how countries can assess and mitigate financial crime risks in free trade zones. This research paper describes the ways in which cross-border financial crime risks can be assessed and adequately addressed by the authorities managing free trade zones. This research paper analyses the risk assessment topic in line with the African Continental Free Trade Area with a focus on free trade zones in Nigeria. This research paper would help authorities managing free trade zones, commercial organisations and business enterprises to identify, prevent and mitigate cross-border financial crime risks. Zone managements and business enterprises that implement the risk-based approach, in line with the guidance given in this research paper, will be well-placed to avoid the consequences of inappropriate de-risking behaviour.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between companies’ business ethics (BE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR), with particular reference to policies toward employees, with the aim of understanding if and how the two concepts are linked and to foster a better management of the company-employee relationship through BE and CSR policies.

Through a content analysis, the authors study three issues related to employees disclosed in Code of Ethics (CE) and CSR report of a sample of Italian companies. Next, using a multivariate regression model, the authors examine the relation between the BE and CSR initiatives, related to employees.

The findings show that CE and CSR initiatives are negatively related. They are distinct concepts, but since the authors find that they are connected, they must also be considered in terms of their mutual dependence. To standardize practices toward employees in a code may induce the need to establish additional corporate social responsibility initiatives that elicit legitimate stakeholder satisfaction.

The analysis focuses on employees, whereas several other CSR aspects that can be explored. Furthermore, additional investigation (through questionnaires or interviews) could deepen this analysis. Furthermore, it might be interesting to consider different countries or more variables, such as cultural differences or different regulations.

The results of this research reveal that BE and CSR initiatives require precise and personalized observations to be properly understood; however, as they are linked, they must also be studied in their mutual interdependencies; this can be very useful to define governance bodies and organizational procedures devoted to BE and CSR issues.

This research provides a tool for evaluating and monitoring CSR and BE principles and can be adapted to many business contexts and refer to different stakeholders.

The existing literature on BE and CSR presents opportunities for further study, as these concepts are often studied without insights into their mutual impacts.

This study aims to identify European positioning on the use of remote customer onboarding solutions in combating financial crime.

This study is a desktop research that examines European Banking Authority (EBA) policy statements relating to the use of innovative solutions in combating financial crime.

Technological advancements in biometric data and software tools provide a unique opportunity to address potential paper customer onboarding process deficiencies. Electronic remote customer onboarding solutions equip credit, financial institutions and investment firms with an alternative FTE cost-saving solution, in their pursuit of revenue generation. Whilst the EBA and Financial Action Task Force have provided approval for the utilisation of innovative solutions and AML technologies in combatting financial crime. Hesitancy remains on the ability of credit and financial institutions to use technological solutions as a “magic solution” in preventing the materialisation of money laundering/terrorist financing related risks. Analysis of policy suggests a gravitation towards the increased use of the aforementioned technologies in the interim.

Capitalisation of European banking authority.

Small business owners require objective solutions to deal with threats of labour unionisation. This study aims to centre on a novel exploration for improving the leadership acumen of small business owners to address labour unionisation. Specifically, small business owners need a theoretical framework that uses best practices from human resource management (HRM) and industrial relations to provide solutions.

The design, methodology and approach reflect post-modernist epistemological and ontological perspectives for conducting systematic literature reviews. A systematic literature review revealed the relationship between small business owners’ leadership, positive industrial relations and HRM policies and procedures. To identify relevant studies in the review, the utilisation of several databases (EBSCO Database, including PsycINFO and Psych studies; Web of Science) and a mix of ranked journals from entrepreneurship, human resources, leadership and organisational behaviour.

The findings and results in this paper reflect the purpose, methodology and literature analysis culminating in 162,132,000 peer-reviewed studies. A total of 142 peer-reviewed studies met criterion for review. For example, the purpose of this review focused on labour unionisation mitigation for small businesses and HRM solutions. In doing so, the methodology allowed for identification of a novel research topic (i.e. how small business owners mitigate labour unionisation) worthy of further investigation. The sparse findings on labour unionisation mitigation represent small business owners' reticence in creating HRM policies and procedures.

This study contributes research implications for theory and practice by offering small business owners a theoretical framework to address labour unionisation. The framework, centring on HRM solutions, is grounded in social exchange theory to address the novel topic of labour unionisation mitigation in small businesses. This study results suggest that HRM solutions for small business owners provide competitive advantages for employee job satisfaction through a holistic industrial relations approach. In future research, examining other issues discussed in this study can influence the understanding of the relationship between small business owners and industrial relations to increase employee job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the recommendations on knowledge organisation from guidelines, policies and procedure manuals of a sample of institutional repositories and networks within the Latin American area and observe the level of follow-up of international guidelines.

Presented is an exploratory and descriptive study of repositories’ professional documents. This study comprised four steps: definition of convenience sample; development of data codebook; coding of data; and analysis of data and conclusions drawing. The convenience sample includes representative sources at three levels: local institutional repositories, national aggregators and international network and aggregators. The codebook gathers information from the repositories’ sample, such as institutional rules and procedure manuals openly available, or recommendations on the use of controlled vocabularies.

The results indicate that at the local repository level, the use of controlled vocabularies is not regulated, leaving the choice of terms to the authors’ discretion. It results in a set of unstructured keywords, not standardised terms, mixing subject terms with other authorities on persons, institutions or places. National aggregators do not regulate these issues either and limit to pointing to international guidelines and policies, which simply recommend the use of controlled vocabularies, using URIs to facilitate interoperability.

The originality of this study lies in identifying how the principles of knowledge organisation are effectively applied by institutional repositories, at local, national and international levels.

The aim of this paper is to explore the implementation of an integrated lean and ISO 14001 approach in meat industry for environmental performance and examine a proposed conceptual framework by capturing insights from lean and ISO 14001 experts in New Zealand (NZ).

Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with a group of consultants (lean and ISO 14001) to evaluate the suitability of an integrated lean and ISO 14001 approach in the meat industry for environmental performance. A conceptual framework from literature has guided this study leading to its further development based on the empirical evidence collected.

Findings have illustrated a synergistic positive impact of lean and ISO 14001 implementation as an integrated approach for sustaining environmental performance in the meat industry. A joint implementation program provides more clarity in aligning ISO 14001 operational procedures with lean tools and techniques for an enhanced environmental performance outcome.

The application of an integrated lean and ISO 14001 framework is proposed in this paper, which can help industry practitioners and academia in developing a joint implementation strategy and conducting future research.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to assess the effective implementation of lean and ISO 14001 as an integrated approach in the NZ meat industry.