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This study aims to examine the relationships among senior managers’ reports of bribery practices, ethical awareness and firm productivity in Thailand. Bribery pervasiveness is examined as moderating the relationship between bribery practices and ethical awareness. Ethical awareness is examined as a mediating effect of bribery practices and managerial perceptions of firm productivity.

This study uses a mixed-method approach consisting of interviews with more than 20 senior managers and surveys collected from more than 200 senior managers in Thailand’s manufacturing and construction industries. Hierarchical regression is used to test the hypotheses.

Senior managers report that their firms are more likely to flout ethical principles when they perceive that their industries feature widespread bribery practices. However, the tests fail to support the hypothesis that the flouting of ethical principles leads to less productivity.

This study contributes to transaction cost economics theory by extending the concept of illegal transaction cost minimization to managerial perceptions of firm productivity. This study also integrates research on bribery rationalization by considering how managerial rationalization and justification of bribery practices impact managerial perceptions of firm productivity and ethical awareness. This research provides managers with an understanding of how attitudes toward ethical conduct and unethical actions impact perceptions of firm productivity.

This study’s purpose is twofold: First, to investigate the relationship between managerial competences and Integrated Reporting (IR) practices; Second, to test whether all the managerial competences attributes are significantly related to IR practices.

This study adopts a correlational research design, and is also cross-sectional. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey of 188 manufacturing firms in Uganda. Data were analyzed with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

The study finds that significant associations between managerial competences of knowledge and experience exist with IR practices except for skills. However, experience is the most significant predictor of IR practices. This experience is manifest, among others, in the managers’ ability to get the word out to the public including why the public should be proud of what the company does and about what the company offers and works to make it better.

This study did not control governance variables and yet governance and IR are inextricably associated. Future research should aim at testing the efficacy of investing in governance aspects potentially improving IR. This is because Environmental, Social and Governance investing is predicted to make capitalism work better and deal with the grave threat posed by climate change. The study also focuses on manufacturing firms, and these results may be only applicable to the manufacturing firms in Uganda. More research is therefore needed to further understand the effect of managerial competence attributes on IR in manufacturing firms in other contexts. Well, the results imply that more experienced managers are better placed to embrace IR practices than their less experienced counterparts.

The authors find that managerial experience explains IR practices more than competences and this makes intuitive sense since, for example, better experiential communication potentially minimizes the challenges such as lack of comparability, difficulty in communicating entity-specific information, information not available in a usable format and data errors normally encountered by IR (especially electronic) users. Hence, this study enhances our understanding of the role of managerial competences in the improvement of IR practices using perceptions of report preparers from a developing country where IR is voluntary and where the size of the stock market is small.

This paper examines the ways in which Chinese university middle managers evaluate subordinate performance in response to the Chinese Double First-Class University Plan, a national project that ranks the performance of universities. In exploring compromise arrangements, the hybridised valuing activity of middle managers is found to be shaped by emergent and extant macro-foundations.

The qualitative data from 49 semi-structured interviews at five Chinese public universities were conducted. Drawing on macro-foundational studies and the sociology of worth (SW) theory, the analysis helps to identify socially shared patterns of actions and outcomes.

The findings elucidate the interplay between diverse economic, social, political and institutional values and the compromise-making by middle managers. The authors find that contextual factors restrict Chinese academic middle managers' autonomy, preventing workable compromise. Through the selective adoption of international and local management practices, compromise has evolved into a private differential treaty at the operational level.

A nuanced explanation reveals how the macro-foundations of Chinese society influence middle managers who engage with accounting when facilitating compromise. This study helps outsiders better understand the complex convergence and divergence of performance evaluative practices in Chinese universities against the backdrop of global market-based forces and the moral dimensions of organisational life. The findings have wider implications for the Chinese government in navigating institutional steps and developing supportive policies to enable middle managers to advance productive but also sustainable compromise.

This paper is one of the first studies to examine specificities, including limits of mindfulness at work in an African organisational context, whilst dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It specifically addresses the role of organisational and managerial support systems in restoring employee wellbeing, social connectedness and attachment to their organisations, in order to overcome the exclusion caused by the ongoing pandemic.

The study uses a qualitative research methodology that includes interviews as the main data source. The sample comprises of 20 entrepreneurs (organisational leaders) from Ghana and Nigeria.

The authors found that COVID-19-induced worries restricted the practice of mindfulness, and this was prevalent at the peak of the pandemic, particularly due to very tough economic conditions caused by reduction in salaries, and intensified by pre-existing general economic and social insecurities, and institutional voids in Africa. This aspect further resulted in lack of engagement and lack of commitment, which affected overall team performance and restricted employees’ mindfulness at work. Hence, quietness by employees even though can be linked to mindfulness was linked to larger psychological stress that they were facing. The authors also found leaders/manager’s emotional intelligence, social skills and organisational support systems to be helpful in such circumstances. However, their effectiveness varied among the cases.

This paper is one of the first studies to establish a link between the COVID-19 pandemic and mindfulness limitations. Moreover, it is a pioneering study specifically highlighting the damaging impact of COVID-19-induced concerns on leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) relationships, particularly in the African context. It further brings in a unique discussion on the mitigating mechanisms of such COVID-19-induced concerns in organisations and highlights the roles of manager’s/leader’s emotional intelligence, social skills and supportive intervention patterns. Finally, the authors offer an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of organisational interventions and supportive relational systems in restoring social connectedness following a social exclusion caused by COVID-19-induced worries.

Repeat customers play an important role in the restaurant sector. Previous studies have confirmed the positive effect of managerial responses on customer relationship management. However, the practice of managerial response strategies toward repeat customers in the restaurant sector remains unclear. This study aims to explore how social influence and the revisit intention of customers affect the responding behavior of restaurant managers.

This study collects information of 251,944 customer reviews and managerial responses from 1,272 restaurants on Yelp (a leading restaurant review website around the world) and builds four econometric models (with restaurant and month fixed effects) to test the hypotheses empirically.

The empirical results show that restaurant managers are less likely to respond to reviews posted by repeat customers (10% lower than that of new customers). This effect is moderated by customer social influence, which entails that repeat customers with great social influence are more likely to receive managerial responses. Moreover, reviews from repeat customers who have had a longer time since their last consumption are also more likely to receive managerial responses.

The results present implications for restaurant managers in business practice regarding managerial response. Managers should take advantage of platform designs and tools (i.e. customer relationship management programs to keep track of repeat customers) to locate repeat customers and avoid the potential negative effects caused by their selected response strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first attempts to examine empirically how restaurant managers respond to reviews generated by repeat customers in real business practice and reveals what drives such activities from the perspectives of social influence and revisit intention.

This study addresses the gap in research concerning student attitudes toward ethics and social responsibility (E&SR) within diverse organizational contexts, specifically as they transition into managerial and non-managerial roles.

A total of 425 business students from four universities participated. To determine statistically significant differences between potential managers and non-managers (M&NM), a paired comparison inferential t-test was employed.

The study revealed positive E&SR attitudes among business students. However, it differed from existing literature by finding a significant difference in perceived E&SR importance between aspirants in managerial and non-managerial positions. Notably, non-managerial students exhibited significantly stronger support for these principles.

This study, conducted in an emerging economy, offers a unique perspective by analyzing E&SR perceptions across both potential management and non-management employees. Given the direct and indirect influence employee perceptions have on business performance, this research sheds light on the crucial role of E&SR in management practices. The findings are further substantiated by robust data and include implications for human resource management, along with suggestions for future research directions.

The authors' study aims to examine to what extent managerial religiosity does influence human resource (HR) managers' attitudes towards women as managers (ATWM), and whether such posi(nega)tive attitudes can facilitate or impede the adoption of supportive HR practices (SHRP).

This study empirically examines a theoretical model by employing partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using quantitative survey data from 182 HR managers in Bangladesh.

The authors' findings reveal that individual religiosity may adversely affect HR managers' attitudes towards recognising women as managers, and such stereotyped attitudes, in turn, may attenuate the adoption of supportive HR practices in organisations operating particularly in highly religious socio-culture environments.

The findings of the authors based on self-report, cross-sectional survey data collected from HR managers/equivalent working in the Bangladeshi organisations may unlikely to predict the ATWM held by the top leaders in organisations and other employees in similar socio-cultural settings.

The authors' findings suggest that religiosity cannot be ignored in management development and recruitment processes for HR managers, particularly in a society characterised by relatively weaker formal institutions and people with a higher degree of religiosity.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt explicating how top management's religiosity interacts with the attitudes towards the acceptance of women as managers and how such attitudes can influence the adoption of supportive HR practices.

The study aimed to explore the core competencies that make educators competent in delivering and achieving the purpose of business/management education effectively.

An exploratory-cum-descriptive approach has been used. Educators at different academic levels in university-led B-schools were the participants of this study. For data collection, a structured questionnaire was developed and implemented.

This study has explored ten core competencies that educators must possess. These competencies have been described based on their attributes and relevance in an educator's academic role.

This study was limited to university-led B-schools of South Asia, thus further validation may more adequately generalize the findings.

This study is raising awareness of the current state of educators in university-led B-schools in South Asian countries and the need for educator competencies toward responsible management education. This study would help educators to develop core competencies, and university-led B-schools to make and manage a system for their educators to keep them competent and performing.

Business/management education is expected to offer the required competencies and opportunities to learn the intricacies of business and management, so students can readily enter into corporate life. It exhibits the significance of educators' competencies. University-led South Asian institutions have seldom tried to develop a standardized framework for the sensitization and development of their educators. It is a key challenge to identify, understand and define a diverse range of competencies and methods of competency development.

This study aims to explore the instructional leadership practices implemented by academic professionals and leaders to enhance the curriculum of Islamic economics and finance (IEF) in two public universities in Saudi Arabia.

This study used a qualitative approach, using a case study methodology that focused on two meticulously chosen universities in Saudi Arabia. A total of 21 academics from two public universities in Saudi Arabia who worked in IEF schools were selected for semi-structured interviews.

The findings showed that two universities in Saudi Arabia that offer degrees in IEF exhibited limited instructional leadership. The findings indicate four apparent barriers that may explain the lack of involvement in instructional leadership and fair practices in the IEF curriculum at Saudi Arabian universities. According to this study, a positive collegial climate in Saudi universities’ IEF promotes shared instructional leadership.

The use of a limited qualitative method and small sample of respondents in this study may not provide enough evidence to generalise the findings to all universities and higher education schools in Saudi Arabia. Although a case study was used to describe IEF curriculum management and implementation at the two universities, caution should be exercised when applying these findings to other institutions.

IEF schools in Saudi universities need to leverage their positive, collaborative and relationship-building environments to develop activities that promote shared instructional leadership.

The research findings can offer valuable insights and examples for school leaders to develop instructional activities and promote the concept of “shared instructional leadership”. This approach involves delegating responsibilities and actions to others to enhance the IEF curriculum’s quality. Policymakers and university officials can use these findings to enhance strategic policies.