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Energy consumption in existing office buildings has been growing in parallel with the rise in occupant energy demand. As a result, many building owners have given smart retrofits (SRs) a higher priority. However, the utilisation of suitable SRs from a range of SRs has become a challenging task. The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision-making model to select the most suitable SRs for conventional office buildings and form a set of benchmarks for assessing the performance of SRs.

A qualitative approach with six case studies was used. Content analysis was carried out using NVivo to explore the factors considered for the selection of SR techniques. A decision-making model for selecting SRs in Sri Lankan office buildings was proposed. SR performance benchmarks were developed by referring to established standards and studies done in tropical office buildings.

Out of 18 identified SRs from literature, fan cycling, ventilation control and LED luminaires have been recognised as commonly used SRs in Sri Lankan office buildings. Analysis showed that HVAC retrofits saved more energy, while lighting retrofits could be easily implemented in existing buildings. The proposed decision-making model can explore further improvements to enhance the performance of SRs.

The selection of SRs is a comprehensive decision-making process. Metrics were established to benchmark the performance of SRs. The proposed model offers a tool for building owners and facility managers to optimise facility operations.

This study aims to explore to what extent stakeholder engagement affects the sustainability reporting (SR) process and if it succeeds in facilitating the encounter between demand and supply of accountability, as well as the main challenges of this practice, by focusing on a crucial and under-investigated public sector area, the judicial system.

The study adopts an action research (AR) approach. Specifically, it focuses on a specific phase (i.e. stakeholder engagement) of the broader project that was carried on from 2019 in an Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office. Data were collected from multiple sources, i.e. written notes and reports gathered during meetings, the survey administered to stakeholders and the published sustainability reports.

Stakeholder engagement may be a valuable and effective tool for improving the level of accountability, as it increases the responsiveness of SR to the informative needs of stakeholders. However, the study also highlights some critical points that must be addressed to exploit this fully. Among these is the need to act upstream of the process by working on an accounting system that goes beyond the economic dynamics and can effectively answer the accountability demand.

The study contributes to theoretical and empirical knowledge by exploring a topic and a public sphere still limited investigated, i.e. the stakeholder engagement in sustainability in the judicial sector. The AR approach also presents some originality points, as it is low widespread in management and accounting literature.

This study aims to examine the herding behavior of socially responsible exchange traded funds (SR ETFs) in comparison to conventional ETFs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To test for herding behavior, the authors use the cross-sectional absolute deviation and a quadratic market model.

During the pandemic, investments in socially responsible financial products grew rapidly. And investors in the popular SR ETFs herd during this special period, while holders of conventional ETFs did not.

Investors in socially responsible investments must do their own research and make their own financial decisions, rather than follow the crowd, especially during extreme events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evidence shows that, during the pandemic, socially responsible ETFs behaved in line with theoretical predictions of herding, that is, herding is more significant during extreme market conditions.

Milling is a flexible creation process for the manufacturing of dies and aeronautical parts. While machining thin-walled parts, heat generation during machining essentially affects the accuracy. The workpiece temperature (WT), as well as the responses like material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR) for input parameters like cutting speed (CS), feed rate (F), depth-of-cut (DOC), step over (SO) and tool diameter (TD), becomes critical for sustaining the accuracy of the thin walls.

Response surface methodology was used to make 46 tests. To convert the multi-character problem into a single-character problem, the weightage was assessed using the entropy approach and the grey relational coefficient (GRC) was determined. To investigate the connection among input parameters and single-objective (GRC), a fuzzy mathematical modelling technique was used. The optimal performance of process parameters was estimated by grey relational entropy grade (GREG)-fuzzy and genetic algorithm (GA) optimization.

SR was found to be a significant process parameter, with CS, feed and DOC, respectively. Similarly, F, DOC and TD were found to be significant process parameters with MRR, respectively, and F, DOC, SO and TD were found to be significant process parameters with WT, respectively. GREG-fuzzy-GA found more suitable for minimizing the WT with the constraint s of SR and MRR and provide maximum desirability of 0.665. The projected and experimental values have a good agreement, with a standard error of 5.85%, and so the responses predicted by the suggested method are better optimized.

The GREG-fuzzy-GA is a new hybrid technique for analysing Inconel625 behaviour during machining in a 2.5D milling process.

This research is designed to explore the relationship between social media addiction, student engagement and student retention. Social media addiction is dealt with as an independent variable student engagement acts as a mediating variable and student retention as a dependent variable.

This is a cross-sectional and quantitative research. Primary data are collected from 600 respondents (university students) with the help of a structured questionnaire. Multistage sampling techniques, i.e. simple random sampling and judgment sampling, are used for the selection of respondents.

Results indicate that for direct relationships, social media addiction has a significant positive impact on student engagement and student retention, respectively, while student engagement is partially mediating the relationship between social media addiction with student retention.

In the future, these kinds of research may also be conducted on students of different universities in Pakistan, which are located in other cities of Pakistan besides Lahore. This research provides a practical framework for the higher authorities of the universities of Pakistan and explains how the use of media positively fosters the levels of student retention directly and indirectly through the path of student engagement. It is commonly believed that media addiction is bad but the result of this research indicates that anything is not dangerous but depends upon its use, media addiction itself is not bad but if someone uses this for a good purpose in limitation then it has better outcomes. The result indicates that the media addiction of students has a positive impact on student retention. This means that if someone uses media for a positive purpose then he/she will use it as a supporting tool for success. Longitudinal research on these variables will also help to check the status after a specific interval of time.

The current study will help the practitioners or policymakers (Managers) of higher education institutions by providing practical insights into the positive use of media by students for increasing their knowledge and grades. This research can also help practitioners or policymakers to focus their students on the positive use of social media for fostering the levels of student retention.

To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no previous study has been done to incorporate social media addiction and student engagement in a single model in the Pakistani cultural context. Similarly, the relationship of variables social media addiction with student engagement is rarely checked empirically because the research of Wang et al. (2011) proposed that social media addiction has a relationship with student engagement so that is why this is the rationale of the research is to check this empirically. Moreover, this study is an initial effort to check the mediating effect of student engagement in the relationship between social media addiction and student retention. This research is also proposing the framework of social media addiction, student engagement and student retention based on the social exchange theory (SET).

The incorporation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability is essential for higher education institutions' (HEIs') future development as they deal with more societal and environmental concerns. The current status of research on CSR and sustainability in HEIs is examined in this systematic review, which also identifies major themes and trends for future development. This review emphasizes the complex characteristics of CSR and sustainability in the higher education environment, spanning aspects like university's social responsibility (education, community engagement, research, and internal management and organization), Sustainable Development Goal (environment, social, and economic), student's perceived self-efficacy, students' intention to implement sustainability, students' engagement for sustainability. It does this by assessing a wide range of scientific works. Additionally, it reveals the advantages and disadvantages of applying CSR and sustainability strategies in HEIs. The results highlight the significance of all-encompassing initiatives that cover governance, accountability, and openness in order to promote a sustainability culture inside HEIs. The paper ends with suggestions for further study, highlighting the necessity of interdisciplinary methods and successful collaborations to promote CSR and sustainability initiatives in HEIs and consequently contribute to sustainable development generally.

This study analyses the role of individuals' objective financial knowledge in shaping preferences for ethical intermediaries and sustainable investments in Italy. Another goal of this study is to assess the impact of individuals' misperceptions about their own financial knowledge and to test for gender-related differences in attitudes towards socially responsible investing (SRI).

Using nationally representative microdata from the Bank of Italy’s “Italian Literacy and Financial Competence Survey” (IACOFI), the authors use probit models, extended to account for potential endogeneity issues, to assess the causal effects of financial knowledge and confidence on stated preferences for SRI. Empirical models also allow to explicitly assess the moderating role of gender on the effects of financial knowledge and confidence on attitudes towards sustainable investing.

Results indicate that individuals' preferences for sustainable finance significantly increase with financial knowledge, suggesting that inadequate financial competencies represent a barrier to participation in SRI. At the same time, lack of confidence in one’s own financial knowledge significantly hampers attitudes towards sustainable investments. Furthermore, the authors show that women have a greater preference for sustainable finance than men and point out that financial knowledge and confidence exert heterogenous effects on attitudes towards SRI.

This study provides several contributions to the literature on SRI. First, the authors give evidence of the causal effect of financial knowledge on preferences for both ethical financial intermediaries and sustainable investments. Moreover, this is the first study to investigate the role of financial underconfidence bias in shaping individuals' SRI attitudes. Finally, extending previous research, the authors assess differences in SRI preferences between women and men and provide novel evidence on gender-related heterogeneity in the effects of financial knowledge and underconfidence.

This paper aims to examine the processes of sustainability reporting assurance (SRA) and the influence they have on shaping perception from disclosures. Given the evidence of inconsistencies and ambiguities in assurance processes, this paper examines how legitimacy is attained and maintained at different stages of SRA.

Evidence collected from 23 semi-structured interviews with assurance providers (APs), consultants, professionals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (non-APs) was used to conduct a thematic analysis from the perspectives of interviewees.

APs and non-APs are united in recognising the value of SRA, although, perspectives on transparency between the two groups differ. Experience and industry knowledge are essential to SRA delivery with non-APs preferring accounting APs. Nevertheless, non-APs are concerned about the role of companies in deciding assurance scope, as it can affect scrutiny. APs favour data accuracy (as opposed to data relevance) assurance due to team dynamics and internal review influences, with the latter also restricting assurance innovation. APs are interested in accessing better evidence and stakeholder engagement evaluations. Providing advisory services was not rejected by all APs. The perspectives of APs and non-APs demonstrate how progress in SRA has gained pragmatic legitimacy with noticeable gaps that serve to undermine attainment of moral legitimacy.

SRA is a developing practice that will adopt changes as it continues to mature; some of these changes could impact findings in this research. General perspectives on SRA were sought from interviewees, this affected the ability for an in-depth focus on any of the range of interesting SRA issues that arose over the course of the research. Interviews were conducted with relevant parties in the SRA space that operate in the UK. Perspectives from parties outside the UK were not solicited.

Companies make an important decision to commission SRA. Findings in this research have highlighted specific non-APs issues of concern that can be useful in structuring operations and reporting regimes to facilitate assurance procedures. The findings will also be helpful to APs as they can direct more emphasis on stakeholder concerns towards demonstrating greater stakeholder accountability. Regulatory and standard setters can enact appropriate policies that can potentially drive the practice forward for assessment of cognitive legitimacy.

The findings provide relevant account of stakeholder voices on the quality of corporate disclosures that has a direct effect on the wellbeing of communities and sustainability of societies. Collective stakeholder input on expectations can shape sustainability discourse.

This research demonstrates the applicability of financial audit quality indicators in SRA processes, extends the debate around the effectiveness of new audit fields and highlights the challenges of maintaining legitimacy with different audiences.

This study aims to investigate the association between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and tax avoidance, as well as the effect of earnings performance on this link. We suggest a negative association between CSR and tax avoidance based on the Stakeholder Theory. We also suggest that earnings performance moderates this relationship. Based on a sample of 25 Tunisian firms during the years 2012–2017, data were gathered via annual reports of the companies, and a survey-questionnaire was used to gather CSR information. The research design uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to investigate the association between CSR and tax. In addition, the analysis is performed using panel data to account for heterogeneity at the individual level and over time. Using this research design, the study provides a comprehensive examination of the effect of CSR on tax avoidance among Tunisian companies over a 6-year period. According to our findings, companies that participate in CSR initiatives show less tax avoidance than those that do not. Moreover, in line with the Slack Resource Theory, for businesses with higher earnings, the negative link between CSR and tax avoidance is stronger. Our research demonstrates that businesses may utilize CSR to improve their standing in the community and lower the likelihood of tax avoidance. These results suggest that profitable firms may have more funds available to spend on CSR initiatives and, as a result, are more motivated to maintain a positive reputation by refraining from tax avoidance strategies.

The main aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of Anti-Crack HP 67/36 glass fibre on the mechanical performance of mortars made of cement, with a focus on post-cracking evaluations using the digital image correlation (DIC) technique.

Experimental tests were carried out on 36-mm long fibres at 0.8% by volume and added to the normal strength (NSM), high strength (HSM) and high strength mortar with fly ash (HSMFA) mortars. CEM I 52.5 CP2 NF, CEM II/A-L 42.5 NF and CEM III/C 32.5 N-SR PM were used for each series of mortar to assess the performance of the glass fibres with the types of cement. F-class fly (FA) ash was used to reduce global CO₂ emissions.

The mortar’s strength decreased as the cement types changed from CEM I to CEM II and III. However, due to changes in the portlandite content of the cement, water porosity increased for both types of mortar, without and with fibre. It was also found that using glass fibre increased flexural strength more than compressive strength, regardless of the type of cement used. For all the strength classes, it was found that the mortar mixes with CEM I had the highest critical crack opening (w_c) and fracture energy (G_F), followed by CEM II and III. No significant effects were observed in the mortar’s property by replacing fly ash (12%).

Only mortars were formulated in this study, but the results must be verified at the concrete scale.

Validation of the DIC technique to characterize the post-cracking behaviour of cement-based material. Use of glass fibres to improve the material’s resistance to cracking.

Use of CEM II and CEM III cements with low CO₂ footprint instead of CEMI without altering the mechanical performance of the material.

The work is a further contribution to studying the cracking behaviour of several series of variable mortars depending on the resistance class and the type of cement used.