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Quality in the construction industry is an important issue yet ignored during the initial stages of the life cycle of a project, that is, the design and construction stage. The contribution of stakeholders, especially the architects is generally suspended though it has huge significance in terms of cost and time related to quality. This research endeavors to examine the issues related to the design and construction stages of the project from architects' purview, to understand the relative importance of these issues in the Indian construction industry.

The study of qualitative data conducted formed a basis for online quantitative data collection that was further analyzed with the help of cross-tabulation and multiple correspondence analysis methods.

The study concludes that the budget of a project is a corresponding factor related to quality concern for architects. The study also established that the quality issues corresponding to high budgets are closely related to the construction stage and are identified as preparation of checklist, and bidding process of hiring the contractor on the lowest bid.

The study is limited to analyzing the perspective of architects; however, other stakeholders of the construction industry may represent a different opinion.

This research emphasizes the importance of the client's role, and need for integration and coordination among stakeholders in the construction industry for effective quality control and management.

The research presents an exhaustive literature review on quality issues and its importance with respect to cost implications, standard practices, sustainability and the life cycle of the project.

The main objective of this article is to explore the discourses on social inequality in the annual reports of Bangladeshi NGOs.

To fulfil this objective, a discourse analysis was conducted on the latest annual reports of ten renowned NGOs in Bangladesh. The findings were interpreted from the impression management perspective.

It was found that the NGOs of Bangladesh are highlighting several social inequality issues such as poverty, gender inequality, inequality related to getting healthcare, legal and education facilities, etc. in their annual reports. Several impression management tactics were applied in the narratives of the annual reports. The NGOs portrayed themselves as “problem solvers” who are the saviors of distressed people.

This study will facilitate improving the understanding of NGO communication. Policymakers will be able to understand the disclosures of NGOs and consider the necessity to provide guidance that may lead to better information dissemination through reports.

This study will contribute to the limited literature on NGO disclosures from the context of developing economies. In the context of NGO, this research is methodologically novel as it applies discourse analysis and interprets the findings through the lens of impression management.

This study aims to investigate the impact of energy access on foreign direct investment (FDI) in an emerging market.

The study uses the two-stage least square instrumental variables estimation approach to compute the parameters of the model to account for any potential endogeneity and time persistence in energy access.

The results show that energy access significantly influences FDI inflows in Ghana. The results of the study also revealed that natural resources and macroeconomic variables such as real interest rate, gross domestic product growth rate are significant determinants of FDI inflows in Ghana.

The practical implication of this study is that there is a need for energy sector policy reforms in Ghana that would guarantee a secured and continued supply of energy to enhance energy access to boost FDI. Ghana should aim for a cost-effective, stable and environmentally friendly source of energy as an alternative to hydro energy as the main source of its power generation to promote FDI. Also, Ghana should initiate and implement policies aimed at creating an enabling and stable macroeconomic environment, as macroeconomic factors in this study are found to be drivers of FDI.

This study provides firsthand information on energy access and FDI from the Ghanaian perspective.

This paper aims to investigate the relations between employee corporate social responsibility (CSR) attitudes on job satisfaction (JS) and organizational commitment (OC) in the context of Bangladeshi banks in the developing world. Specifically, it examines the relationship of CSR attitudes with the three diverse aspects of OC: affective OC, normative OC and continuance OC.

Comparisons are made via survey data obtained from 502 employees of two banks in Bangladesh using structural equation modeling analysis. The research instrument in four sections illustrates the most common measures in the literature used to evaluate the constructs and their interrelations according to the proposed conceptual model of the study.

The outcomes of the study reveal that there is a positive relationship between employee CSR attitudes, and both JS and OC. In addition to establishing a relationship between CSR attitudes and “Affective OC”, this study also found a relationship with “Normative OC”, which is less common in the existing literature.

The limitations of the study mostly revolve around sample and social desirability. To further test the generalizability and cross-sectional validity of the outcomes, it is suggested that the proposed framework be tested in several other industrial/service sectors of developing countries.

The findings of the present research encourage companies in the developing world to adopt CSR practices to increase rates of JS and OC.

The study contributes to the literature on CSR and positive workplace outcomes, specifically in the developing world context. Additionally, and unlike past research, the results show the significant effect of employee CSR attitudes on both affective OC and normative OC.

This paper aims to determine the significance of tourist walkability on three community-based tourism sustainability indicators, namely, the economic, social and environmental benefits and costs impacting community’s quality of life through the lens of the triple bottom line approach with the institutional theory.

This study views institutions as either enabling or restricting the sustainable community-based tourism because institutions influence resource integration and value assessment by the beneficiary. Moreover, institutions also lead the co-creation of sustainable community-based tourism among various stakeholders. Drawing on this conceptualisation, the notion of sustainable community-based tourism is filtered through the lens of institutional theory. Thus, this work approaches sustainable community-based tourism as a dynamic process of co-creating a tourist destination formed by different actors’ and institutions within the ecosystem of the tourist destination. Meanwhile, the triple bottom line benefits and costs experienced by the overall community would produce net effects on the residents’ perceptions of sustainable tourism.

This paper classifies both tangible and intangible costs and benefits because of tourist walkability and its triple bottom line trade-offs experienced by tourists and residents. This paper penetrates new grounds by reviewing the triple bottom line impacts of tourist walkability on residents’ quality of life. Government policies as mediating variable and national culture and individual personalities of tourists and residents as moderating variables were discussed. A conceptual framework named Tourist Walkability Sustainable Tourism Impact on Residents (TWSTIR) is proposed. Finally, a Sustainable Community-based Tourism Strategic (SCBTS) model which is based on the two dimensions of intensity of tourist walkability and residents’ quality of life is proposed.

Research limitations may include a lack of assessment on political, technological and legal issues, and therefore, future research is warranted in these three areas. Some emotions and attitudes of the residents may not be captured since the Gross National Index (Gross National Happiness) may have its inherent blind spots.

This paper would be of interest to the scholarly world, as its original idea and concluding research agenda are burrowing into a new sub-field of tourism research. In view of growth and degrowth of sustaining community-based tourism, the SCBTS model is presented to provide directions for tourism policymakers and entrepreneurs to formulate and implement appropriate strategy for the tourist walkability activity per se and investment in the accompanying infrastructure.

This paper also presents the sacrifices and inequities in the communities and the relevance of government policies, national culture and individual personalities of tourists and residents, in which the attention of tourism policymakers and the communities that thrive on the travel and tourism industry should not be neglected.

The idea and discussion of this paper is original. This paper burrows into a new sub-field of tourism research. Tourist walkability needs more attention from the scholars, as this tourist activity can have positive and negative effects on residents’ quality of life. The TWSTIR framework is developed to discuss the relationships of tourist walkability, triple bottom line concept and residents’ quality of life within the sustainable community-based tourism scope. The SCBTS model is presented for tourism policymakers and entrepreneurs to perform appropriate strategy for the tourist walkability activity and investment in the accompanying infrastructure.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse changes in community disclosures by listed companies in Mauritius.

The authors carried out a quantitative and qualitative assessment of annual report disclosures over the period 2004-2010. In particular, the authors consider the influence of a corporate governance code and a government intervention to first persuade and subsequently mandate corporate social responsibility investment (known as a “CSR Levy”).

From a predominantly limited and neutral form of communication, narratives of community involvement morph into assertive and rhetorical statements, emphasising commitment, permanency and an intimate connection to the community and a re-organisation of activities and priorities which seek to portray structure and order in the way companies deliver community interventions. Informed by Gray et al.’s (1995) neo-pluralist framework and documentary evidence pertaining to the country’s social, political and economic context, the authors relate the change in disclosures to the use of corporate impression management techniques with a view to maintain legitimacy and to counter the predominant public narrative on the insufficient extent of community involvement by local companies.

The authors find that community disclosures are not only legitimating mechanisms driven by international pressures but are also the result of local tensions and expectations.

This study provides evidence on forms of “social” – as opposed to environmental – disclosures. Furthermore, it examines a unique setting where a government enacted a legally binding regime for greater corporate social involvement.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the competing and overlapping discourses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Egypt, a setting with a serious knowledge gap on CSR.

This study is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with key players in the field of CSR in Egypt conducted in the fall of 2013 and early 2014. Informants included in this study were CSR staff members at major multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Egypt, key partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the field of CSR, media and public relations agents that are partners with MNEs in launching CSR media campaigns about CSR activities.

The paper identifies three themes in the discourse on CSR among some of the key field players including CSR practitioners at MNEs, NGOs and media specialists. First, CSR is seen as a western version of a long standing philanthropic tradition, that is rooted in religion. The comparison between CSR and indigenous religious practices discredits CSR as a vulgarized form of giving that seeks to take more than give. Second, the surmount challenges of poverty and unemployment place heightened expectations on CSR to seriously address these challenges. It is in view of these challenges that CSR is accused of doing “bad” development, which is the third theme identified in the data.

There is a dearth of research on CSR in Egypt, which largely remains a setting less explored in terms of CSR. This paper problematizes the connection between CSR and development. It also highlights the importance of studying CSR in different contexts.

The findings in this paper are relevant for the design of CSR programs in contexts of countries in the south.

CSR is a normative practice, understanding the views of its practitioners and criticisms of the field is central to its development and maturity.

Paper builds on original data collected by the authors. It addresses a lacuna of research on CSR in the Middle East region, particularly Egypt.

End-of-life electronic products exchange (EEPE) program could be an effective approach to e-waste recycling that requires consumers' participation. Thus, it is highly recommended to study factors stirring consumer behavior with regard to EEPE programs, which is largely under-explored in the existing literature. Hence, grounding on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Attitude-Behavior-Context (A-B-C) model, this study attempts to understand the determinants of consumers' EEPE intention by adding contextual and non-cognitive factors to the proposed research model.

Employing a purposive sampling technique, respondents were drawn from university students and general consumers of electronic products in a developing country. Factor analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) and SPSS PROCESS were used to analyze the collected data.

Empirical results confirm that subjective norm has the strongest positive impact on EEPE intention. Following this, attitude toward EEPE and perceived behavioral control play positive mediating roles in determining EEPE intention. Moreover, government initiatives moderate the unsolicited “attitude–intention gap”.

Drawing on this study's outcomes, the study urges to form comprehensive awareness-building campaigns, rules and regulations regarding proper e-waste management, promote “exchange offer” programs and educational programs to encourage EEPE.

This study makes two fresh contributions to the extant literature. First, by coupling the TPB and A-B-C theory, this study showed that both attitude (i.e. attitude toward EEPE) and context (i.e. government initiatives) are essential in eliciting individual-level post-consumption pro-environmental behavior (PEB) (i.e. EEPE). Second, government initiatives elucidate the attitude–intention gap in the reverse logistics context, especially in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the synergy between sectoral output, energy use and CO₂ emission with other factors for a panel of South Asian economies including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The analysis is done using annual panel data from 1980–2019 using dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and Toda-Yamamoto techniques.

Empirical findings reveal the existence of a statistically significant long-run cointegrating relationship between energy use, sectoral output such as agricultural, industry and service gross domestic product (GDP), globalization, urbanization and CO₂ emission. DOLS and FMOLS result posits that in the case of the South Asian region agriculture GDP does not contribute to increasing CO₂ emission while service and industrial GDP is responsible for increasing CO₂ emission along with urban population, energy use and to some extent globalization. More remarkably, the contribution of the service GDP is greater than the other two sectoral outputs in increasing CO₂ emission with a feedback hypothesis.

As CO₂ emission is a global phenomenon with a cross-boundary effect, these empirical findings might contribute to formulating implementable energy and environmental policies to sustain growth, as well as to protect the environment in the regional context.

The study contributes to the literature by providing an empirical investigation of South Asia incorporating the contribution of sectoral output to understand the potential contribution of each sector on energy and emission. This is the first study on the South Asian context from the perspective of sectoral output, energy and emission.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have received much attention as a tool for development for several decades. One way in which ICTs were introduced in developing countries, particularly prior to the advent of smartphones, was through shared access and information centres. Many of these were established as pilots, but were unable to operate without external funding and were often declared failures. And some of them probably were, particularly those that focussed exclusively on ICT as a technology, rather than on how the centres could contribute to improving livelihoods. The purpose of this paper is to explore how some centres, namely “Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) Gonokendra” in three villages of Bangladesh, influenced socio-economic development.

This study was informed by the Heeks and Molla’s extended information chain model and Sen’s “development as freedom”. The field study was undertaken in three BRAC Gonokendras located in different villages in rural Bangladesh.

While the authors found that the centres contributed to socio-economic development, this contribution was limited by social constraints, hindering the well-being of individuals and families. Addressing social constraints thus remains a challenge in order for ICTs to contribute to development.

The extended framework to investigate ICT-led socio-economic development implies that ICT as a catalyst can promote development at micro/community level only by simultaneously addressing social constraints.