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Purpose: The study aims to explore the wider acceptance of blockchain technology and growing faith in this technology among all business domains to mitigate the chances of fraud in various sectors.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors focus on studies conducted during 2015–2022 using keywords such as blockchain, fraud detection and financial domain for Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The SLR approach entails two databases, namely, Scopus and IEEE Xplore, to seek relevant articles covering the effectiveness of blockchain technology in controlling financial fraud.

Findings: The findings of the research explored different types of business domains using blockchains in detecting fraud. They examined their effectiveness in other sectors such as insurance, banks, online transactions, real estate, credit card usage, etc.

Practical Implications: The results of this research highlight (1) the real-life applications of blockchain technology to secure the gateway for online transactions; (2) people from diverse backgrounds with different business objectives can strongly rely on blockchains to prevent fraud.

Originality/Value: The SLR conducted in this study assists in the identification of future avenues with practical implications, making researchers aware of the work so far carried out for checking the effectiveness of blockchain; however, it does not ignore the possibility of zero to less effectiveness in some businesses which is yet to be explored.

Although research on foreign market entry and expansion behavior has attracted significant interest in the literature, there is a general lack of research (either conceptual or empirical) on the exit behavior of international companies. To address this issue, the authors develop a conceptual framework to understand firms’ foreign exit behavior. The objective is to lay the conceptual foundation for subsequent empirical research in this area. A series of research propositions have been advanced that can guide hypothesis generation for future research.

This chapter examines China’s corporate governance and accounting environment that shapes the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards. Specifically, it examines international influences, including supranational organizations; foreign investors and international accounting firms; domestic institutional influences, including the political system, economic system, legal system, and cultural system; and accounting infrastructure. China’s convergence is driven by desired efficiency of the corporate sector and legitimacy of participating in the global market. Influenced heavily by international forces in the context of globalization, corporate governance and accounting practices are increasingly becoming in line with internationally acceptable standards and codes. While convergence assists China in obtaining legitimacy, improving efficiency is likely to be adversely affected given that corporate governance and accounting in China operate in an environment that differs considerably from those of Anglo-American countries. An examination of the corporate governance and accounting environment in China suggests heavy government involvement within underdeveloped institutions. While the Chinese government has made impressive progress in developing the corporate governance and accounting environment for the market economy, China’s unique institutional setting is likely to affect how the imported concepts are interpreted and implemented.

This chapter provides a review of existing research on learning gain and related topics in higher education. The methodology adopted is a form of systematic review. The origins and meaning of learning gain, and its relation to similar terms, are discussed. The ways in which learning gain has been applied in practice and in research are considered. The issues raised by this practice and research are examined, and the various criticisms made are reviewed. Some conclusions are then drawn.

This study investigates the impacts of operational risks and corporate governance on bond yield spreads, examining their impacts on bond yield spreads during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that operational risks significantly raise yield spreads, especially for high-leverage firms. Moreover, a higher independent director percentage reduces debt costs. Furthermore, the results reveal more pronounced effects of operational risks on yield spreads during the COVID-19 pandemic, with these risks increasing the financing costs for large firms. When the effect of the independent director percentage on the yield spreads increases, this consequently raises the debt costs for large firms.

Leaders’ emotional intelligence (EI), personality, and empowering behavior have been heavily studied in the organizational behavior literature. To date, the majority of research on EI and personality has shown their significant influence on personal outcomes. It has also been suggested that empowerment is a fundamental psychological mechanism underlying follower outcomes. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the effect of team leaders’ EI and personality on team outcomes and the potential mediating effect of team leaders’ empowering behavior. In this study, we developed theoretical rationale and empirically tested the effect of team leaders’ EI and personality on team climate and the mediating role that team leaders’ empowering behavior plays in this relationship. The results supported most of our hypothesized relationships, that is, the positive effects of team leaders’ EI and agreeableness on team climate were mediated by team leaders’ empowering behavior, whereas team leaders’ openness to new experience was not related to empowering behavior and team climate. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

As the developing nations grow and experience rapid institutional transformation, research has begun to investigate the roles of culture, cognition and institutional context on entrepreneurship and innovation. This chapter aims to advance the entrepreneurial cognition literature by juxtaposing entrepreneurial effectuation, domain-specific expertise and ambiguity. By conducting a qualitative study of Chinese high-tech domestic and returnee entrepreneurs, the authors propose a spectrum between causation and effectuation and argue that the entrepreneur’s perceived level of ambiguity may better explain differing logic orientations among entrepreneurs, contributing to our understanding of entrepreneurial cognition. The authors theorize that (1) individual actors and the level of institutional development jointly comprise the entrepreneur’s logic orientation; (2) the level of perceived ambiguity mediates the strategy adopted by high-tech entrepreneurs; (3) the entrepreneur’s logic orientation can be regarded as a continual spectrum from effectuation to causation. Finally, the logic orientation concept is applied to the context of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) from a process perspective and the implications and fit of logic orientation with the stages of cross-border M&A are discussed.

This chapter discussed the implementation of the digital twin (DT) idea into construction. Through the adoption of DTs into construction practices, construction professionals have been able to project an identical virtual concept of sections of the project execution right from the onset. In the introduction and discussing of its origin, the DT was further assessed about its applications in construction beneficial in enhancing project delivery. Other sections like barriers, drivers and benefits of the DT in construction summarised what this chapter represents in terms of discussing the new involvement of digital tools in construction execution, management and sustainability.

In the last five years, there has been an increased interest across the globe, and in the United Kingdom in particular, to define, conceptualise and measure learning gains. The concept of learning gains, briefly summarised as the improvement in knowledge, skills, work-readiness and personal development made by students during their time spent in higher education, has been hailed by some as an opportunity to measure ‘excellence’ in teaching. This chapter will review some of the common definitions and the methods employed in research on learning gains. Secondly, we will provide a critical evaluation of the computational aspects of learning gains (e.g., raw gain, normalised gain). Finally, we will critically reflect upon the lessons learnt and what is not yet known in terms of learning gains.