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This study aimed to address a gap in subcontractor management by focusing on previously unexplored complexities surrounding subcontractor management in developing countries. While past studies concentrated on selection and relationships, this study delved into how effective subcontractor management impacts project success.

This study used the Bayesian Network analysis approach, through a meticulously developed questionnaire survey refined through a piloting stage involving experienced industry professionals. The survey was ultimately distributed among participants based in Accra, Ghana, resulting in a response rate of approximately 63%.

The research identified diverse components contributing to subcontractor disruptions, highlighted the necessity of a clear regulatory framework, emphasized the impact of financial and leadership assessments on performance, and underscored the crucial role of main contractors in Integrated Project and Labour Cost Management with Subcontractor Oversight and Coordination.

Previous studies have not considered the challenges subcontractors face in projects. This investigation bridges this gap from multiple perspectives, using Bayesian network analysis to enhance subcontractor management, thereby contributing to the successful completion of construction projects.

Customer loyalty is of growing interest to many service firms due to the many tangible and intangible benefits it offers them. However, building customer loyalty is challenging for many service firms. This study aims to examine the impact of corporate reputation on customer loyalty. It also assesses the moderating role of the firm's country of origin in this relationship.

Survey research design was used to collect data from 367 universal banks' customers. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings shed light on several crucial aspects of corporate reputation that influence customer loyalty. Specifically, signals of corporate social responsibility, corporate credibility, product attributes and relationship marketing were found to have a substantial impact on customer loyalty. Additionally, the study uncovers a noteworthy insight that the firm's country of origin plays a moderating role in the relationship between corporate reputation and customer loyalty, particularly in the context of the banking sector.

This research stands out due to its utilisation of signalling theory, making it one of the pioneering works in the bank brand management literature. It presents a comprehensive corporate reputation framework and its profound implications for customer loyalty. Furthermore, the study underscores the significance of considering the strength of the country-of-origin effect in shaping customer loyalty relationships.

The purpose of this study is to examine effects of classroom-level and student-level factors on student engagement in the context of a higher education system vertically differentiated into research, applied and comprehensive university types.

The study used a cross-sectional multilevel design to explain student engagement based on class and student variables. Specifically, the study collects data from 656 students and 61 randomly selected teachers at both levels and uses multilevel modeling to explain relationship patterns.

The results show that institutions vary significantly in student engagement scores. In addition, while a significant variation is found at the student and classroom level, the effects of academic achievement, instructional quality, teaching experience and teacher qualifications on student engagement vary across classrooms in institutions. However, the interaction effect of classroom and student-level variables on student engagement remains non-significant.

The main contribution of this lies in the explanation of student engagement using classroom and student level factors in a vertically differentiated higher education system using multilevel modeling. Student engagement varied in classrooms research universities applied and comprehensive universities.

Higher education institutions are undergoing a change in their teaching–learning practices, with the core goal of giving students the necessary skills and competencies to succeed in a complex and uncertain society. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of business simulation as a pedagogical strategy for teaching 21st-century competencies to undergraduate students. The study looks at students’ self-perception on how business simulation impacts future skills such as entrepreneurship, employability and sustainability.

The research incorporates a one-week workshop for undergraduate business students using AnyLogic business simulation. For this study, a 24-item skills-based survey was used as the instrument for eliciting input about students’ self-perceptions. To measure the impact of business simulation on overall student learning, a theoretical framework was developed and tested using SmartPLS version 4 for construct reliability, validity and hypotheses testing.

Based on the students’ feedback, the finding shows that most of the 24 soft skills were facilitated by the business simulation used. The simulation significantly affects the development of entrepreneurial and employable skills. On the contrary, it has little effect on enhancing sustainability skills. In addition, the study suggests that factors like gender and expertise had little overall impact on the results.

The most apparent practical implication of this study is that business schools should focus more on skill development by stressing on experiential teaching methods like business simulation to help students build various skills and become more prepared for the actual world of business.

The research presents fresh empirical data that add to the continuing discussion on active learning in business education and assist educators in avoiding some potential drawbacks of these innovative teaching techniques. With the right direction and criticism throughout the simulation, this learning experience has shown to be useful for everyone involved.

The e-health services came up as an effective tool to mitigate effects of COVID-19 and following social distance norms. This study highlighted an issue of contentious usage intentions of e-health services among Thai older citizens. This study aims to examine the relationship of social influence (SI), information quality (IQ) and the digital literacy (DL) to contentious usage intentions.

This study follows quantitative techniques, and the sample size is 140 to analyze, that is collected from the older Thai citizens. The convenient sampling technique was used to collect the data and the items were measured by using a five-point Likert scale.

The findings of this study are having mixed results. The effect of DL and satisfaction (SAT) on continuous usage intention (CUI) is significant. The effect of IQ and SI on CUI is non-significant. The effect of IQ and SI on SAT is significant. Further, the mediating effect of SAT between IQ and CUI is non-significant. However, the mediating effect of SAT between SI and CUI is significant.

This study contributes to knowledge by empirical testing of DL and usage of the medicine. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the rare studies that incorporate technological intervention for drug usage intentions.

The purpose of this study is to identify which dimensions of perceived value best mediate football club branding and fan loyalty from a developing league perspective.

Using a cross-sectional design, we collected data using questionnaires from football fans in Ghana (N = 700). The data were analysed using SmartPLS V3, applying structural equation modelling with bootstrapping procedure.

The results indicate that club branding is an effective precursor of fan loyalty. Moreover, the findings suggest that functional, social and emotional values mediated club branding and fan loyalty, whereas epistemic and economic values did not.

This study contributes to sports management literature by identifying the dimensions of perceived value that will be relevant in the development of club brands in the developing league context.

Many investors have less interest in tendering for public-private partnership (PPP) construction projects as a result of the uncertain risks associated with the project delivery. Moreover, PPP project stakeholders have inadequate information about the probable impacts of time-based delay imposed on PPP projects under the PPP arrangement. This study aims to identify and categorize construction stakeholders’ perceptions of the impact of time-based delays on PPP construction projects.

A purposive sampling technique was adopted where questionnaires were used as the primary instrument for gathering data from PPP experts. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Kendall’s concordance were used to measure the reliability of the scale and the respondent’s level of agreement, respectively. One sample t-test, mean score ranking and principal component analysis were used to analyse the identified time-based delay impacts.

The study revealed seven significant impacts of time-based delay on PPP construction project delivery as: “project schedule overrun”, “idling of project resources”, “project cost overrun”, “poor quality of completed works”, “delayed realization of project benefits”, “frequent arbitration/litigation in PPP projects” and “total abandonment of PPP projects”. The study further identified the top five significant impacts of time-based delay on PPP project stakeholders as: “reduction in motivation to attract investment”, “high interest on finance (loans)”, “contractor in financial crisis”, “loss of public confidence in government” and “reduction in parties’ reputation”.

The identified significant impacts of time-based delays will increase stakeholders’ awareness of the repercussions and effects that time-based delays may impose on PPP construction projects if not appropriately managed throughout the project implementation. This awareness will further guide stakeholders to implement targeted risk management strategies to minimize the negative consequences of delays on PPP project performance.

As a pioneering study that provides a better understanding of the impacts of time-based delays on PPP construction projects, this study enhances knowledge of PPP construction project implementation.

This review summarizes the empirical literature dealing with anti-corruption disclosure as this specific type of disclosure has attracted a great deal of attention in accounting literature.

Keywords used to collect relevant papers from numerous electronic databases (e.g. Science Direct, Emerald, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer and Taylor and Francis) include “anti-corruption reporting” “anti-corruption disclosure”. The final sample encompasses a set of 35 empirical studies published between 2015 and the beginning of 2024.

The summary of reviewed studies suggests that anti-corruption empirical studies are mainly cross-country investigations. Two streams of research are identified: (i) the determinants of anti-corruption disclosure and (ii) the economic consequences of anti-corruption reporting. With respect to the first stream of research, six main categories of determinants are identified (corporate characteristics, corporate governance attributes, informal institutions, stakeholders’ pressures, country institutional effect and regulation effect). With respect to the second stream of research, findings show that anti-corruption reporting is negatively associated with profitability, reduces earnings management and enhances corporate social reputation.

With respect to regulators, this review sheds light on the importance of anti-corruption disclosure in the fight against corruption. It also suggests that the adoption of some regulations like the Directive 2014/95/EU in the European Union or the 2010 UK Bribery Act have contributed to more transparency. With respect to investors, the existence of some determinants of anti-corruption reporting (e.g. United Nations Global Compact membership, cross-listing, multinationality, board independence) may signal the adequacy of corporate reporting policy and that management is following an adequate strategy to fight corruption and enhance transparency.

This review offers future research avenues for accounting scholars with respect anti-corruption disclosure literature.

The banking industry has always been vulnerable to cyberattacks. In recent years, Pakistan’s banking sector experienced the most intense cyberattack in its over 70-year history. Due to these attacks, a large number of debit card accounts of major banks were negotiated. This study aims to examine the impact of cyberattack awareness and customers’ commitment levels after these cyberattacks.

The study integrated the commitment–trust theory framework for the relationship of trust and commitment to the usage of online banking services. The partial least square structural equation modeling is being used to explore the relationship between customer’s trust, which is an outcome of continuous usage, and customer perception of affirmative cybersecurity measures the bank.

The findings revealed that customer trust in online banking is positively associated with customer commitment, but customers’ cyberattack awareness negatively impacts customer trust and commitment to online banking.

The study highlights the importance of proactive communication, transparency and robust incident response that helps organizations establish themselves as trustworthy entities while prioritizing customer information and transaction protection.

The authors report on how cyberattacks on the banking sector influence the trust and commitment of the customers in the sector. The variable of cyberattack awareness used in this study is novel in online banking literature.

This study aims to examine the association between anti-corruption corporate disclosure and earnings management practices by bringing evidence from a developed market.

The study uses data from non-financial FTSE 100 Shares in 2016 and 2017. This study develops a disclosure index to capture the anti-corruption disclosures and run pooled, fixed effects and generalized methods of moments regression models to explore the anti-corruption disclosure–earnings management association. This study also disentangles discretionary accruals into positive and negative, use adjusted discretionary accrual computation and take a more conservative view on discretionary accruals computation as an additional analysis.

The results show a negative and significant association between anti-corruption disclosure and earnings management practices. When disentangling discretionary accruals (overvalued/positive and undervalued/negative), the authors found that higher anti-corruption disclosures were negatively associated with positive discretionary accruals, but not associated with negative discretionary accruals. The additional analysis confirmed the previous results, showing that anti-corruption disclosures are perceived as a substantive practice, rather than a mere disclosure practice for legitimacy reasons.

This study contributes to debate on the symbolic versus the substantive uses of anti-corruption disclosures in the UK context.