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The purpose of this study is to examine how corporate communication of their social programs on their websites affects the ratings of those programs by independent rating agencies. Firms expend resources on corporate social programs (CSPs) to promote their corporate social responsibility and sustainability credentials. Stakeholders, however, often respond to such “self-promotion” with skepticism because they believe that there are inconsistencies between corporate claims and actions. This research draws on attribution theory as a framework to examine how the perceived CSP performance of firms by uncontrollable sources are affected when firms disseminate CSP information on firm websites, i.e. a controllable source, where their claims may not be verifiable.

This study uses a two-step, mixed method study for the analysis using data from Fortune 500 companies. A qualitative content analysis process identifies the interfaces of CSP and their communications on firms’ website. The process allows the authors to collect CSP data systematically from firm websites and to identify relevant variables through the patterns that emerge from the analysis. The findings are used in a quantitative analysis to study how the patterns underlying CSP communication on their websites affect the ratings of firms’ CSP by independent rating agencies.

Results show that the location, the manner, the content and the scope of CSP information dissemination on firm websites, as well as perceived commitment to CSP identified on the website are important drivers of perceived CSP performance. A robustness check using an alternative independent rating of CSP also provides results that are supportive of the findings. In addition, the effects are found to differ by sector of operation, firm age and profitability.

This research suggests that communication of CSPs at controllable sources of firm information dissemination can have a significant effect on the evaluation of CSP at uncontrollable sources when such communication facilitates the assessment of other information from a firm to determine the motive underlying a firm’s CSP.

The findings show that firms and managers can influence the perceived ratings, rankings or scores of their CSP by stakeholders when they put the right information at the right place on their corporate websites. One of the findings shows that even moderate levels of CSP commitment demonstrated on firm websites result in positive perceptions of CSP, which has marked practical implications.

The findings show that integrating even a medium level of commitment to CSP increases the positive perceptions of a firm’s CSP. Thus, society benefits from the firm’s action without a substantial impact on the firm’s profits.

This research shows that firm-controlled sources of CSP information dissemination to stakeholders can affect uncontrollable sources of CSP information evaluation.

The lexicon of corporate governance has ‘transparency’ as a key imperative. Yet transparency as a management principle begs explanation. It also raises several questions: transparent to whom, how and why? Who decides? Is full transparency desirable? What are its merits and benefits? What are the risks of increased transparency? The answers may lie somewhere between the shareholder and stakeholder views of the modern corporation, with the former defending shareholder-owner primacy and firm profit-maximisation, and the latter offering a values-based approach towards balancing the needs and expectations of all stakeholders. While corporate governance broadly addresses the needs of shareholders and investors, driven by the position that companies need to be better governed for stockholder value, the ‘stakeholder’ view of the corporation has gained ground over the past 20 or so years whereby the modern corporation is accountable not only to its owners, but also society.The transparency debate has emerged in parallel, and with it, issues of privacy and/or secrecy on one hand and the notion of ‘sunlight’ on the other. Transparency’s role has been variously described as the promotion of corporate disclosure and protection of the rights of minority shareholders in the information environment (Bushman & Smith, 2003); the promotion of corporate accountability and advancement of the rights of stakeholders (Clarke, 2004; Donaldson & Preston, 1995; Hess, 2007; Mallin, 2002); a tool to limit information asymmetries (Boatright, 2008; Florini, 2007a, 2007b; Hood, 2006; Lev, 1992); a means to create a level playing field through ethics and fairness (Boatright, 2008; Oliver, 2004); the promotion of market efficiency (Bessire, 2005; Heflin, Subramanyam, & Zhang, 2003); and the prevention of abuse through stakeholder activism (Bandsuch, Pate, & Thies, 2008; Roche, 2005). Aspirations aside, there is lack of consensus as to transparency's dimensions, drivers and dilemmas in corporate behaviour. Indeed, its perceived value to stakeholders and corporations alike remains questionable. In this chapter, the author discusses the governance of corporate transparency and argues that clarity and Board policy are needed to manage transparency activism and its resultant risks.

The purpose of this paper is to elicit information about the specific information needs of different stakeholders and end‐users. An essential part of food allergy prevention includes the development of effective communication strategies to all stakeholders and end‐users of this information, including allergic consumers, their carers, health professionals, public authorities (regulators and compliance authorities) retailers, manufacturers, caterers, and the general public.

A stakeholder consultation was conducted to solicit the views of different stakeholders regarding what information they required.

The results of the stakeholder analysis indicated that some information needs were common across all stakeholders and end‐users. An example is the need for information about the causes and symptomology of food allergy. Some specific information needs for different stakeholders were also identified. The industrial sector requires more information about clear guidelines for labelling practices, whereas allergic consumers and health professionals require more information about symptomology, treatment and prevention. Regulators need information from risk assessors regarding issues key to the implementation of an effective regulatory framework, at a more detailed level of technicality than that required by other stakeholders (for example, consumers).

Targeted information strategies may be the most resource‐efficient way to effectively communicate to different stakeholders about food allergy. However, information channels best suited to specific stakeholder needs remain to be investigated and exploited.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how libraries and information centres can play a key role in national development through strategic working partnerships with government and other stakeholders.

The paper is based on literature review and practical examples.

The paper finds that Botswana Government has formulated Maitlamo policy for the development of public libraries and through this policy partnerships have been established by the African comprehensive HIV/AIDS partnerships through the Sesigo project. Another partnership has been between parastatal organisations such as Botswana Technology Centre and Botswana National Library Services.

The paper suggests the potential areas of partnerships that include community development, youth development, music and sports, cultural activities and indigenous knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of the internet as a channel for voluntary communication of financial information by companies listed on two stock exchanges in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It aims to focus on the extent and variety of internet financial reporting (IFR) by these companies. While IFR has become standard practice, rather than the exception, in most western countries, empirical evidence of the phenomenon in the Middle East region is only just emerging. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature by providing evidence of voluntary use of IFR for communication of financial information by UAE‐listed companies.

The 132 companies listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (67) and the Dubai Financial Market (65) in the UAE were investigated to ascertain whether they maintain websites; and if so, whether these sites are being used as a channel for voluntary communication of corporate financial information.

While about 87 percent of UAE‐listed companies were found to operate websites, only 88 of these companies (about 67 percent) use their websites to communicate financial information. However, IFR is not restricted to the publication of annual financial statements only as the companies also disclose financial highlights through their websites using a variety of formats including PDF, flash and html.

The results of this study indicate that, similar to other Middle Eastern countries, IFR is still at an embryonic stage in the UAE and there are considerable opportunities and challenges for all stakeholder parties in corporate communication and reporting. Regulatory authorities may need, at this early stage of development of IFR practices, to develop and establish effective strategies to ensure standard and consistent use of this channel of financial information communication for the benefit of all stakeholders.

The study highlights the challenges and opportunities for IFR in the Middle East Region, where it has been sparsely studied. In particular, it focused on the UAE, where literature on IFR practices is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, not yet available.

The aim of this study is to show the provision of research measures information on the Internet by private non-profit organizations (NPOs) and provide insight on underlying drivers.

This research involves scoring websites of Belgian NPOs on the basis of their information dissemination and applies univariate and multivariate statistical methods to analyze the driving forces. It also provides two illustrating case studies.

The drivers of Internet information provision in our sample organizations show many similarities to those found for for-profit corporations. However, contrary to the latter, NPOs include little financial information and focus on their goals. Furthermore, in line with the notion that insiders-workers may capture the organization, we find that the degree of professionalization has a significantly negative impact on disclosure. Overall, outside pressures as predicted by neo-institutional theory and agency issues are important in shaping communication of information. In fact, the two cases indicate that the pressures, as predicted by neo-institutional theory, may easily lead NPOs to cater to key stakeholders in much the same way as for-profit corporations cater to customers.

The results are indicative of general forces driving NPO behaviour. Of interest would be a more in-depth analysis to link the prevalence of certain forces to specific governance models and to contextual factors.

These findings may give users/visitors of websites better insight into the forces shaping information communication policies of an NPO.

This paper adds to the scant evidence on Internet information provision by private non-profit organizations and its drivers. As such, it offers an opportunity to study the forces that are likely shaping decision-making within NPOs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent and variety of practices of internet financial reporting (IFR) by companies listed on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) in Oman. While IFR is fast becoming the norm in most western countries, there is little empirical evidence of the phenomenon in the Middle East region. This paper attempts to fill some of the gap in the literature by providing evidence of IFR practices in Oman.

The 142 companies listed on the MSM were investigated to ascertain whether they maintain websites and/or if these sites are being used for communicating financial information.

Only 84 of the listed companies were found to operate websites, with even less (only 31) engaging in IFR. However, IFR is not restricted to the publication of annual financial statements only as the companies also disclose financial highlights through their websites.

The results of this study indicate that IFR is still at an embryonic stage in Oman and there are lots of opportunities and challenges for all stakeholder parties in corporate reporting.

The study highlights the challenges and opportunities for IFR in the Middle East Region, as well as a number of areas for further study.

Emotions, understood as evolving mental states, are pivotal in shaping individuals“' decision-making, especially in ambiguous information evaluation, probability estimation of events, and causality analysis. Public–private partnership (PPP) projects represent a confluence of “economic–environmental–social” dimensions, wherein stakeholder behavior follows the sequential progression of “cognition–emotion–action.” Consequently, comprehending the effects of emotional shifts on stakeholder's decision-making processes is vital to fostering the sustainability of PPP projects.

The paper utilizes rank-dependent expected utility and evolutionary game theory to systematically examine the influence of emotional factors on stakeholders' behavior and decision-making processes within PPP projects. The paper integrates three emotional state functions—optimism, pessimism and rationality—into the PPP framework, highlighting the intricate interactions among the government, private sector, surrounding public and the media. Furthermore, the paper amalgamates the evolutionary pathways of environmental rights incidents with the media's role. Through equilibrium analysis and numerical simulation, the paper delves into the diverse interplay of emotions across different phases of the environmental rights incident, assessing the impact of these emotions on the evolutionary game's equilibrium results.

Emotions significantly influence the microlevel decisions of PPP stakeholders, adapting continually based on event dynamics and media influences. When the private sector demonstrates optimism and the surrounding public leans toward rationality or pessimism, the likelihood of the private sector engaging in speculative behavior escalates, while the surrounding public refrains from adopting a supervisory strategy. Conversely, when the private sector is pessimistic and the public is optimistic, the system fails to evolve a stable strategy. However, when government regulation intensifies, the private sector opts for a nonspeculative strategy, and the surrounding public adopts a supervisory strategy. Under these conditions, the system attains a relatively optimal state of equilibrium.

The paper develops a game model to examine the evolutionary dynamics between the surrounding public and private sectors concerning environmental rights protection in waste incineration PPP projects. It illuminates the nature of the conflicting interests among project participants, delves into the impact of emotional factors on their decision-making processes and offers crucial perspectives for the governance of such partnerships. Furthermore, this paper provides substantive recommendations for emotional oversight to enhance governance efficacy.

The authors explore several aspects of communications theory to identify their relevance to managing a project-based productivity improvement intervention. The literature on communication accommodation theory, groupthink and trust appear to have important implications for improvements. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research methodology used in conducting empirical data collection in the field to test the developed conceptual framework. The authors emphasize the importance of management theory to project-based interventions. The focus of this work is summarized by the research question: “what facets of communication impact on the success of a project-based improvement intervention?”.

Following a focused literature review, learnings from specific research were used to identify a series of propositions. The scope of the work was established to limit the range of issues under review. Next, a conceptual framework was designed that allowed a case study to be tested with regard to validity of the propositions. Further testing will be undertaken in a single company.

There is clear evidence showing the relevance of effective communication when executing an intervention to seek performance improvement. In particular, understanding the need of stakeholders’ is paramount that allows the design of a communications strategy. Each phase in a project-based intervention requires different styles of communication. There is also a need to have varying degrees of trust. Total unchallenged trust invariably leads to groupthink that hinders critical decision making.

The work contributes to the understanding of the application of communication theory to project-based interventions – that invariably aim at performance improvement initiatives. While currently the work is in the early stages of research, it does nevertheless show some useful early findings. Clearly further work is needed in international projects in the context of multi-cultural teams and external stakeholders.

With many interventions failing to meet their planned objectives there is a need to isolate possible reasons and to rectify or mitigate the causes. Project management and change management training should include a comprehensive understanding of management theories. This research will contribute to this knowledge base.

Project-based activities are used in most walks of life; the need for excellent management is therefore important. Invariably interventions involve considerable capital investment and their success advances productivity of nations. Understanding and integrating communication theories to their management, therefore, has significant social benefits.

The importance of communications is identified in the project management literature and adjunct disciplines. Professional associations and leading bodies in performance and project management, while emphasizing the need for excellent communication, have not adequately addressed underpinning theories. There is little research focusing on communication accommodation theory, groupthink and risk in the context of project management. The authors’ have not been able to identify any research on an integrated framework that combines these theories with managing a project-based performance improvement intervention.

This paper presents the concerns in agri-food supply chain. Further the research investigates the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in agri-food supply chain and determines the impact of supply chain management (SCM) practices on firm performance.

The theoretical framework was proposed for the study on the basis of existing literature. Data for the study was collected with the help of structured questionnaire from 121 executives and officers of the public food distribution agency. Partial least square (PLS)–structured equation modeling was employed to test the framework and hypotheses.

The results indicate that ICT and SCM practices (logistics integration and supplier relationships) have a significant relationship. Furthermore, SCM practices (information sharing, supplier relationship and logistics integration) have a significant and positive impact on performance of the organization.

Further research could be carried out to test the moderation effect of SCM practices between ICT and organizational performance (OP). Extending the research study to the companies operating in other sectors can enhance the external validity of the study and improve the accuracy of parameters examined.

This study can be of interest to the agri-food industry as well as other industry practitioners interested in improving the performance of the organization from the view of supply chain.

The outcomes of this study have important implications that translate into a series of recommendations for the management of public food distribution as well as other agri-food-based supply chains.