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This paper aims to examine sites of dissonance or consensus between global investor responses to the draft standards, International Financial Reporting Standards S1 (IFRS) (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information) and IFRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures), issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

A thematic content analysis was used to capture investor views expressed in their comment letters submitted in the consultation period (March to July 2022) in comparison to the ex ante position (issue of draft standards, March 2022) and ex post summary feedback (ISSB staff papers, September 2022) of the ISSB.

There was investor consensus in support of the ISSB and the development of the draft standards. However, there were sites of dissonance between investors and the ISSB, notably regarding the basis and focus of reporting (double or single/financial materiality and enterprise value); definitional clarity; emissions reporting; and assurance. Incrementally, the research further highlights that investors display heterogeneity of opinion.

The ISSB standards will provide a framework for future sustainability reporting. This research highlights the significance of such reporting to investors through their responses to the draft standards. The findings reveal sites of dissonance in the development and alignment of draft standards to user needs. The views of investors, as primary users, should help inform the development of sustainability-related standards by a global standard-setting body apposite to current policy and future reporting requirements, and their usefulness to users in practice.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper makes an original contribution to the comment letter literature, hitherto focused on financial reporting with a relative lack of investor engagement. Using thematic analysis, sites of dissonance are examined between the views of investors and the ISSB on their development of sustainability reporting standards.

This paper aims to integrate insights from the behavioral theory of the firm and the dynamic capabilities perspective to explain how the historical and social attainment discrepancies motivate firms to change. Specifically, this paper proposes that a negative historical attainment discrepancy encourages the firm to engage in strategic change to solve its performance problems. In contrast, this paper advanced that a positive social attainment discrepancy motivates strategic change as a mechanism to bolster the firm’s position within the industry. Further, this paper integrated the moderating effects of industry dynamism and industry munificence.

This paper tests hypotheses using panel data on 2,435 US public firms over the years from 1996 to 2018. This paper uses a fixed-effects regression model to empirically test these hypotheses.

This paper finds empirical support for the effects of both the negative historical attainment discrepancy and the positive social attainment discrepancy on the firm’s tendency to engage in strategic change. As for the hypothesized moderating effects, this paper finds that industry munificence accentuated the effects of both attainment discrepancies on the firm’s tendency to engage in strategic change. However, the results do not support the hypothesized moderating effect of industry dynamism on either of these attainment discrepancies.

This paper contributes to the research on the separate effects of historical and social comparisons within the context of strategic change. Further, the paper bolsters our understanding of how performance feedback increases the firm’s tendency to change. Finally, the paper integrates theoretical views from the behavioral theory of the firm and the dynamic capabilities perspective on how socially high-performing firms may build and sustain their competitive advantage through organizational change.

This paper seeks to explore the effect of performance duration (rather than intensity) on the subsequent initiation of strategic change by firms. Specifically, the effect of outperformance and underperformance duration on strategic change, as well as the moderating effect of environmental dynamism, is studied.

Using a fixed-effects model, analyzing a sample of 34,907 firm-year observations from 1980 to 2018 across 112 industries mostly supported proposed hypotheses.

Results revealed a U-shaped relationship between outperformance duration and strategic change and an inverted U-shaped relationship between underperformance duration and strategic change. The moderation role of environmental dynamism was only partially supported.

This study examines a new dimension of performance feedback, namely duration, rather than the widely used intensity of performance feedback, to enhance our understanding of the behavioral theory of the firm.

The main goal of the article is to determine the mediating role of HRM outcomes in the relationships between staffing the organization and company performance results and to establish whether there are any identifiable regularity in this scope in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period in the HQs and foreign subsidiaries of MNCs.

The empirical research included 200 MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. To capture the actual relations between the variables under study the raw data in the variables were adjusted with the efficiency index (EI). The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to verify the research hypotheses and assess the mediating effects.

The research findings show that, with the exception of the HQs in the pandemic period, when staffing had a negative effect on the company performance results in quality, in other cases it had a positive effect on results in HRM, finance, innovativeness and quality, both in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period, although this effect was not always statistically significant. Furthermore, the company's performance results in HRM mediate positively the relationships between staffing and the other three categories of company performance results, regardless of the organizational level (HQs' or subsidiaries') and time period under consideration. Additionally, during the pandemic, the company's performance results in HRM mediate the relationships between staffing and the other company's performance results stronger than in the pre-pandemic time.

In addition to confirming the results of some other studies, the article also provides new knowledge. It determines the mediating role of HRM outcomes in the relationship between staffing and company performance results in finance, innovativeness and quality. Moreover, it identifies certain regularities in the four studied contexts, which is a novelty in this type of research. It also uses an innovative approach to including employee KPIs as the efficiency index in analyzing the relationships between the variables under study.

In February 2018, Jerome Powell had taken over as chair of the FOMC. At first glance, the macroeconomic conditions inherited by Powell appeared favorable for continued stability: unemployment and inflation were low, and the economy had been steadily growing for nearly a decade. Yet despite the appearance of stability, the economy faced significant risks that required the Federal Reserve's attention. Was an uptick in inflation imminent, and if so, should Powell raise rates to limit any inflationary pressure? Or was the economy still operating below capacity, and if so, should the Federal Reserve take a more accommodative stance? To gain perspective, Powell needed to look back at the past fifty years of monetary policy in the United States.

This study aims to investigate the impact of extensive board diversity on firm performance from the perspective of resource-based view (RBV) theory in the context of Pakistan.

The analyses are made using a panel random-effects model and generalized method of moment (GMM) across 188 non-financial firms listed in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) over the period of 2009–2020. The robustness of findings is checked through alternative measurements of the variables and alternative estimation techniques.

The results show that board members' nationality, ethnicity and educational level diversities are significantly positively related to firm performance. In contrast, age and educational background diversities negatively affect firm performance. However, gender and tenure diversities have an insignificant relationship with firm performance.

This study is conducted in the context of Pakistani firms; thus, the findings may not be generalizable to other economies because different economies have different institutional settings and governance structures.

The policy-makers should encourage the inclusion of board members' nationality, ethnicity and educational level diversities having relevant educational backgrounds to improve firms' competitive performance. The suggested structure of the corporate board may improve firm performance by attracting multiple stakeholders and fulfilling their expectations.

The appointment of a director should be based on merit rather than on political connections or personnel relationships to improve social welfare and avoid their negative impact on firm competitive performance.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the impact of board diversity on firm accounting-based performance and market-based performance in the emerging economy of Pakistan. This study uses RBV theory to provide a unique corporate governance structure based on board diversity, particularly in Pakistan.

The main goal of the article is to determine the mediating role of human resources management (HRM) outcomes in the relationships between shaping employee work engagement and job satisfaction (SEWE&JS) and company performance results and to establish whether there are any identifiable regularities in this scope in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period in the headquarters (HQs) and foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs).

The empirical research included 200 MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. The raw data in the variables were adjusted with the efficiency index (EI) to capture the actual relations between the variables under study. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to verify the research hypotheses and assess the mediating effects.

The research findings show that the HRM outcomes positively mediate the relationships between SEWE&JS and the company performance results. HRM outcomes turned out to be a stronger mediator between SEWE&JS and company performance results in finance and quality in the HQs during the pandemic. By contrast, in the local subsidiaries, they were a stronger mediator of the relationships between the results in innovativeness and quality during the pandemic.

In addition to confirming the results of some other researchers, the research findings also provide new knowledge. They determine the mediating role of HRM outcomes in the relationship between SEWE&JS and the three categories of company performance results, namely finance, innovativeness and quality. In addition, they identify certain regularities in the four studied contexts, which is a novelty in this type of research. A novelty is also the use of employee key performance indicators (KPIs) in the data analysis as the efficiency index in analyzing the effect of the variables under study. The value of the research is also the fact that it covers HRM in MNCs established in Central Europe, which, compared to MNCs from the Western world, is not a frequent subject of research.

Neurodiversity refers to a spectrum of neurological differences. Little is known about the benefits and challenges of employing neurodivergent individuals in the retail industry and how knowing neurodivergent individuals/neurodiversity practices are linked to benefits/challenges. This study provides these insights using the lenses of the value-in-diversity perspective, stigma theory and intergroup contact theory.

Data were collected from an online survey of retail supervisors and co-workers from Australia, resulting in 502 responses from various retail organizations.

The findings indicate that supervisors have higher awareness of neurodiversity and perceived benefits of neurodivergent employees. Knowing neurodivergents was positively associated with perceived benefits and disclosure challenges and negatively associated with equity and inclusion challenges. Neurodiversity practices were positively associated with benefits of neurodivergent employees, negatively associated with disclosure challenges and equity and inclusion challenges in small stores, and positively associated with equity and inclusion challenges in large stores.

Current empirical research on workplace neurodiversity is scarce. This study provides pioneering evidence for awareness of workplace neurodiversity in the retail industry and the impact of knowing neurodivergent employees/neurodiversity practices on benefits and challenges. It differentiates between supervisors' and co-workers’ perceptions, highlighting the importance of exposure to information in reducing stigma.

Regarding human resource and labour relations management, academia focuses mainly on cities; however, rural areas are an integral part of China's economic structure. This study focuses on the movie projection industry in China's rural areas and explores how human resource practices (HRPs) are transformed and the labour process is reconstructed in digital transformation.

We adopt a case study of a rural movie projection company. The company's HRPs reconstructed the labour process of movie projection, and they have been promoted as national standards. Data were collected from in-depth interviews, files and observations.

Rural movie projection companies combine high-performance and paternalistic HRPs in the media industry's digital transformation. HRPs and digital technology jointly reconstruct the labour process. First, the HRPs direct labour process practices towards standardisation. Second, the digital supervision platform guides the control style from simple to technical, placing projectionists under pressure while increasing management efficiency. Third, rural movies made using digital technology have disenchanted rural residents. Accordingly, the conventional relationships between the “country and its citizens,” “individuals themselves,” and “models and individuals” have been removed, and a new relationship between “individuals themselves” is formed thanks to the novel HRPs.

This research plays a crucial role in exposing researchers to the labour process of rural movie projection, which is significant in China but often ignored by Western academia and advances the Chinese contextualisation of research on labour relations.

Construction sustainability (CS) is a strategic reaction to the sustainability expectations of the construction industry's external stakeholders. The extant literature has viewed the environmental, social and economic dimensions of CS as having independent effects on financial performance. Due to the influence of common stakeholders, however, interactions in these dimensions will be present in their effect on financial performance. Accordingly, this study identifies the mechanisms of the interactions between the three CS dimensions and how they jointly affect financial performance.

Content analysis of GRI reports of 60 large construction organisations, followed by a hierarchical regression analysis was used to identify the interactions between environmental, social and economic CS in their effect on financial performance.

Economic CS was found to indirectly, and not directly, affect financial performance, the effect being mediated by both environmental and social CS. Environmental CS was found to have a strong negative effect on financial performance, whilst social CS was found to have a strongly significant positive effect on financial performance.

The motivation for engaging in CS is that investment in economic CS will have a positive effect on both environmental and social CS outcomes, which, in turn can have a combined effect on financial performance.

This is one of the first studies investigating the effect of interactions between the environmental, social and economic CS dimensions on the financial performance of construction organisations. It is also one of the first studies that applies a sociotechnical framework to this relationship.