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This study investigates an under-researched yet fundamental question of how a developed country multinational enterprises (DMNE) perceives and manages political risks when undertaking infrastructure projects in the emerging markets (EMs).

The authors use an abduction-based qualitative research approach to analyze six international project operations of a multinational enterprise originating from Finland in five EMs.

The findings suggest that the overall nature of political risks in EMs is not the same, except few political risk factors that are visible in most EMs. Consequently, the applied risk management mechanisms vary between EMs, except with few common mechanisms. The authors develop an integrative analytical framework of political risk management based on the findings.

This paper is one of the first studies to identify political risk factors for western MNEs while undertaking international project operations and link them to reduction mechanisms used by them. The authors go beyond the notion of risk being conceptualized at a general level and evaluate 20 specific political risk factors referred to in extant literature. The authors further link these political risk factors with both social exchange and transaction cost theories conceptually as well as empirically. Finally, the authors develop a relatively comprehensive analytical framework of political risk management based on the case projects' findings that combine several strands of literature, including the social exchange theory, transaction cost theory, international market entry, project management and finance literature streams.

Relying on the agency theory and the financial intermediation theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent risk governance would improve corporate governance and risk management effectiveness. The paper especially investigates the mediating role that would have the risk governance mechanisms in explaining both of the following relationships: the corporate governance–the banks’ performance, and the risk management–the banks’ performance.

This research uses the Baron and Kenny’s (1986) approach to investigate the mediating effect of risk governance; besides, the study refers to structural equation modeling in carrying out the appropriate panel regressions. The data collection was based largely on Bank scope Database, but some missing qualitative data were gathered manually from the banks’ annual reports available on the banks’ websites.

The study findings illustrate the significant role of risk governance mechanisms in improving both corporate governance and risk management’s effectiveness. Especially, this paper finds that risk governance is fully explaining the corporate governance–bank performance relationship, but risk governance would explain partially the risk management–bank performance relationship. Further, findings suggest that the internal corporate governance mechanisms seem to be more relevant than the external ones in improving the sample bank performance, and that risk management mechanisms seem to impede rather the sample bank performance.

The findings would make an important contribution to the current debate on the need to reinvent the optimal organization of the bank’s board and directorates and would allow readers to develop more cost-effective governance and risk-management thinking. Besides, the findings may help bank deciders and boards to rationalize costs and to focus only on the relevant corporate governance and risk management mechanisms. Finally, findings might illustrate to regulatory instance the importance of recommending risk governance in their coming corporate governance guidance.

The global credit crisis of 2008 caused significant difficulties to financial institutions, so it would be worth enlightening practitioners and policymakers, even regulators, on the importance of considering the level of potential risk and risk monitoring as a key component in the decision-making process, to strengthen the stability and resilience of banks in an increasingly uncertain environment.

The issues raised in the paper are important in that Islamic banking is an integral part of the global banking and finance industry. This paper extends the knowledge of the potential importance of the new concept of risk governance with specific reference to Islamic banking industry peculiarities. It also provides a telling illustration of the need for the enhancements of the Basel Committee’s prudential requirements as well as the accounting and auditing organization for Islamic financial institutions and Islamic Financial Services Board set out especially regarding the consideration of risk in the strategic decision process.

This exploratory study attempted to determine the level of formalization and implementation of corporate governance and risk management practices, and the role of human resource management in the design and formulation of such practices. This study also attempted to derive some patterns of association among the variables studied, including the degree to which specific human resource management practices were linked with the overall corporate governance and risk management objectives. Human resource management was consulted from time to time during the formulation of strategic plan, the design of behavioral control mechanisms, and the development of risk management guidelines and formal corporate culture programs. However, it was consulted only during implementation of corporate governance structures at the board level. Generally, human resource management involvement in the formulation of corporate governance and risk management mechanisms was related to the degree of formalization and implementation of such mechanisms, but not to the degree of congruence of human resource management functions with corporate governance and risk management objectives. However, the degree of formalization and implementation of corporate governance structures at the board level was related to the degree of congruence of human resource management functions with corporate governance and risk management objectives and the driver measures of performance. The latter was likewise related to mechanisms of behavioral control.

The world economy has experienced several economic downturns, and each phase emphasised that no industry is immune to inappropriate risk-management practices. Against the backdrop of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which had far more effects than a financial crisis, the existing paper reviewed the state of current research in the realm of corporate governance and risk-management practices.

This study rigorously followed a systematic approach in identifying, selecting and critically synthesising the existing literature on corporate governance and risk management. The review was carried out on the Web of Science and Scopus database until December 31, 2022. In total, 72 research works were examined and reviewed.

This systematic literature review showed that companies with strong governance mechanisms are less exposed to corporate risks. Several attributes, such as higher institutional ownership stakes, concentrated family ownership structures, lower CEO compensation and duality, higher presence of females in the management, better board dynamics in terms of independent boards and gender diversity are all strong mechanisms for mitigating risk. Additionally, socially responsible companies are better positioned to mitigate corporate risks. Furthermore, several themes emphasising the governance risk link have been identified to understand this domain further.

By analysing and synthesising existing corporate governance and risk-management themes, this study ascertained various research gaps that can be addressed in future studies. Furthermore, drawing on this paper's essential cues, researchers can significantly differentiate their work from existing ones in the field.

Over the last 10 years, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developed countries have faced increasingly stiff competition in their local markets, which has put the survival of many of them at risk. To reduce their vulnerability, many SMEs have targeted sales to other countries. Recently, however, the pace and intensity of these firms’ export activities appear to have decreased, as their traditional markets (i.e., the United States and Europe) have been experiencing slow growth. This situation has led some SMEs to explore the possibility of exporting to less traditional countries presenting more opportunities. However, a good number of entrepreneurs remain hesitant to go down this road, in particular given the uncertainty that prevails in those regions and the risks they represent in terms of exports. This study, which was conducted with a sample of 582 Canadian manufacturing SMEs, reveals that two characteristics help explain the fact that some SMEs choose to export to higher risk countries, more specifically to Asia. These characteristics are a positive attitude towards risk-taking among managers and the implementation of certain risk management mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the basis factors involved in the information security management systems of Malaysian public service (MPS) organizations. Therefore, it proposes an empirical analysis which was conducted to identify the antecedents of the information security maturity (ISM) of an organization; and to clarify the relationship between ISM and the social and technical factors identified.

This study uses quantitative approach, convenience sampling and the required data collected from 970 key players' managers in information security, in a total of 722 government agencies, through a self‐administrated survey. Research adopted the Wallace et al. process to develop and validate the study's instrument.

The paper provides empirical insights and reveals a number of underlying dimensions of social factors and one technical factor. The risk management was found to be the formal coping mechanism adopted in the MPS organizations and is the leading factor towards ISM. The social factors have the most influence on MPS organizations' ISM. Findings demonstrate that two independent variables, risk management and individual perception, discriminate between those organizations that have high and low ISM.

The research results may lack generalization; therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further in a different context.

The paper includes implications for the development of a powerful instrument in explaining the ISM. Moreover, it helps internal stakeholders of an organization to formulate a more appropriate policy or give a more effective focus on issues that are really relevant to MPS information security management.

This paper fulfils the identified need to explore determinants of information security maturity.

Firms face critical challenges in managing product quality in a global supply chain. In many cases, these challenges could be regarded as an agency problem which is a result of the goal conflict between the supply chain members. To address such agency problem, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explain how risk and reward sharing practices contribute to firms’ quality performance in the supply chain; and second, to identify the drivers of applying risk and reward sharing.

The hypothesised model, based on agency theory, is empirically verified by original survey data of 200 Chinese manufacturing companies using the structural equations modelling approach in a context of product recall.

Supplier involvement and task programmability are two significant antecedents of risk and reward sharing. Further, the paper shows that risk and reward sharing have a positive effect on quality performance, however, in terms of contribution to quality performance, risk sharing and reward sharing may be substitution practices.

This research explains how managers could embrace better preparedness for risk and reward sharing in their supply chains. It is also suggested that although risk and reward sharing are seen as efficient means to improve quality performance, such practices should not be treated as a bundle.

Building on supply partnership literature, this paper contributes to agency theory by providing a solution to the agency problem, i.e., risk and reward sharing and adding to the limited understanding of the antecedents of risk and reward sharing and examining the effects of risk and reward sharing on quality performance.

This study aims to develop an interface management risk interaction modeling and analysis methodology applicable to complex systems in high-speed rail construction projects, reveal the interaction mechanism of interface management risk and provide theoretical support for project managers to develop appropriate interface management risk response strategies.

This paper introduces the association rule mining technique to improve the complex network modeling method. Taking China as an example, based on the stakeholder perspective, the risk factors and significant accident types of interface management of high-speed rail construction projects are systematically identified, and a database is established. Then, the Apriori algorithm is used to mine and analyze the strong association rules among the factors in the database, construct the complex network, and analyze its topological characteristics to reveal the interaction mechanism of the interface management risk of high-speed rail construction projects.

The results show that the network is both scale-free and small-world, implying that construction accidents are not random events but rather the result of strong interactions between numerous interface management risks. Contractors, technical interfaces, mechanical equipment, and environmental factors are the primary direct causal factors of accidents, while owners and designers are essential indirect causal factors. The global importance of stakeholders such as owners, designers, and supervisors rises significantly after considering the indirect correlations between factors. This theoretically explains the need to consider the interactions between interface management risks.

The interaction mechanism between interface management risks is unclear, which is an essential factor influencing the decision of risk response measures. This study proposes a new methodology for analyzing interface management risk response strategies that incorporate quantitative analysis methods and considers the interaction of interface management risks.

This paper aims to contribute to a growing literature in sustainable and green banking by exploring the views of senior banking representatives towards the implementation of sustainability initiatives through extensive interview research. The authors explore the extent to which such initiatives are embedded within the banking industry, whether they represent risk management mechanisms and whether they are imbued with reputational risk management rather than a genuine response to ethical societal concerns.

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with UK bank managers. The interviewees’ utterances are interpreted through a sociological theoretical lens derived from the study of Giddens and Beck, allowing us to conclude that external initiatives such as the Equator Principles seem to be adopted as re-embedding mechanisms that can rebuild societal trust, as well as representing mechanisms of reputational risk management.

The analysis suggested that internal sustainability initiatives were interpreted as coping mechanisms whereby bank employees can recreate their protective cocoon, reinstating their ontological security in response to the high consequence risks of climate change and other related systemic factors that create overwhelming feelings of engulfment.

Using Beck’s risk society theory as a theoretical lens through which to interpret the interview data allows a number of concluding comments and suggestions to be made. The findings resonate with earlier research into institutional investors’ attitudes towards climate change that found their engagement and dialogue with companies around climate change issues to be imbued with a risk discourse: their initiatives and actions were dominated by risk management motivations.

This paper investigates how companies become resilient to supply chain (SC) piracy through using transactional and relational governance mechanisms to develop strategies effective in environments characterized by weak regulative institutions and mistrust.

This study developed case studies of nine large manufacturers with operations in Brazil.

The companies employed transactional and relational governance mechanisms to learn from past incidents, anticipate, and respond to the threat of SC piracy, becoming more resilient over time. Transactional governance mechanisms reduced risk triggers through technology, while relational governance mechanisms enhanced trust between SC and non-SC members, allowing the members to build social capital.

The authors provide practical guidance for managers and policymakers in developing risk management strategies based on technology and collaboration to reduce SC piracy in environments characterized by mistrust.

SC piracy is a serious problem for global operations and SCs in many low-cost manufacturing locations. Besides the cost and service level consequences, the authors also highlight worker safety consequences, including the potential for kidnapping, psychological trauma, injuries, and death.

This study focuses on the little-researched topic of SC piracy. The authors examine the negative effects of a weak institutional environment, while most prior research focuses on the positive effects of a strong institutional environment. The authors position transactional and relational governance mechanisms as essential elements of SC risk resilience.