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The objective of this study is to present a theoretical framework, which helps ascertain the meanings of the Sharīʿah audit quality and identify the factors that affect it.

The current literature of conventional and Islamic finance on audit quality is critically reviewed to propose the theoretical framework for the quality of Sharīʿah audit.

The paper suggests that for a better Sharīʿah compliance at Islamic banking institutions (IBIs), the role of audit practitioners is very much indispensable. The competency of the practitioner is one of the important factors that affect the quality of the Sharīʿah audit. Assessment and identification of Sharīʿah risk in different financial arrangements, contracts and transactions require a unique competency on the part of the auditor, that is, gripping Sharīʿah law besides traditional assurance skills and techniques.

The Sharīʿah compliance is one of the primary objectives of IBIs, which works at the conceptual level, product development and implementation level, various business models and governance level. Sharīʿah audit function, internal or external, is an important component of Sharīʿah governance framework and provides an independent assessment of IBIs’ compliance with the Sharīʿah rules and principles and helps in managing the Sharīʿah non-compliance risk and ensuring sound internal Sharīʿah control system.

The paper proposes a theoretical framework for defining the Sharīʿah audit quality and determining the factors that are significant in affecting the Sharīʿah audit quality in the IBIs of Pakistan.

The purpose of this study is to develop a method to assess social performance. Traditionally, environment, social and governance (ESG) rating providers use subjectively weighted arithmetic averages to combine a set of social performance (SP) indicators into one single rating. To overcome this problem, this study investigates the preconditions for a new methodology for rating the SP component of the ESG by applying machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) anchored to social controversies.

This study proposes the use of a data-driven rating methodology that derives the relative importance of SP features from their contribution to the prediction of social controversies. The authors use the proposed methodology to solve the weighting problem with overall ESG ratings and further investigate whether prediction is possible.

The authors find that ML models are able to predict controversies with high predictive performance and validity. The findings indicate that the weighting problem with the ESG ratings can be addressed with a data-driven approach. The decisive prerequisite, however, for the proposed rating methodology is that social controversies are predicted by a broad set of SP indicators. The results also suggest that predictively valid ratings can be developed with this ML-based AI method.

This study offers practical solutions to ESG rating problems that have implications for investors, ESG raters and socially responsible investments.

The proposed ML-based AI method can help to achieve better ESG ratings, which will in turn help to improve SP, which has implications for organizations and societies through sustainable development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first studies that offers a unique method to address the ESG rating problem and improve sustainability by focusing on SP indicators.

This study aims to evaluate the quality of transition from child and adolescent services to adult intellectual disability services, using the relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) standard (QS140). In addition, this study also identifies any differences in transition quality between those young people with intellectual disability with and without autism.

Using routinely collected clinical data, this study identifies demographic and clinical characteristics of, and contextual complexities experienced by, young people in transition between 2017 and 2020. Compliance with the quality standard was assessed by applying dedicated search terms to the records.

The study highlighted poor recording of data with only 22% of 306 eligible cases having sufficient data recorded to determine compliance with the NICE quality standard. Available data indicated poor compliance with the standard. Child and adolescent mental health services, generally, did not record mental health co-morbidities. Compliance with three out of the five quality statements was higher for autistic young people, but this only reached statistical significance for one of those statements (i.e. having a named worker, p = 0.02).

Missing data included basic clinical characteristics such as the level of intellectual disability and the presence of autism. This required adult services to duplicate assessment procedures that potentially delayed clinical outcomes. This study highlights that poor compliance may reflect inaccurate recording that needs addressing through training and introduction of shared protocols.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the transition process between children’s and adults’ intellectual disability health services using NICE quality standard 140.

Earned value management systems (EVMS), also called integrated project and program management systems, have been greatly examined in the literature, which has typically focused on their technical aspects rather than social. This study aims to hypothesize that improving both the technical maturity of EVMS and the social environment elements of EVMS applications together will significantly impact project performance outcomes. For the first time, empirical evidence supports a strong relationship between EVMS maturity and environment.

Data was collected from 35 projects through four workshops, attended by 31 industry practitioners with an average of 19 years of EVMS experience. These experts, representing 23 organizations, provided over 2,800 data points on sociotechnical integration and performance outcomes, covering projects totaling $21.8 billion. Statistical analyses were performed to derive findings on the impact of technical maturity and social environment on project success.

The results show statistically significant differences in cost growth, compliance, meeting project objectives and business drivers and customer satisfaction, between projects with high EVMS maturity and environment and projects with poor EVMS maturity and environment. Moreover, the technical and social dimensions were found to be significantly correlated.

Key contributions include a novel and tested performance-driven framework to support integrated project management using EVMS. The adoption of this detailed assessment framework by government and industry is driving a paradigm shift in project management of some of the largest and most complex projects in the U.S.; specifically transitioning from a project assessment based upon a binary approach for EVMS technical maturity (i.e. compliant/noncompliant to standards) to a wide-ranging scale (i.e. 0–1,000) across two dimensions.

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards are amongst the most widely adopted instruments for supporting firms in becoming more accountable, firms who adopt them frequently fail to comply. In this context, the purpose of this study is to explore to what extent CSR standards are designed for accountability. In the analysis, this paper investigates design characteristics related to accountability across different standard types, namely, principle-based, reporting, certification and process standards.

This study reviews the design characteristics of 50 CSR standards in a systematic and comparative fashion. This paper combines qualitative deductive coding with exploratory quantitative analyses methods to elucidate structural variance and patterns of accountability-related design characteristics across the sample.

This study finds that the prevalence of design characteristics aimed at fostering accountability varies significantly between different types of standards. This paper identifies three factors related to the specific purpose of any given standard that explain this structural variation in design characteristics, namely, implementability, comparability and measurability.

Non-compliance limits the effectiveness and legitimacy of CSR standards. The systematic exploration of patterns and structural variation in design characteristics that promote accountability may provide valuable clues for the design of more effective CSR standards in the future.

Better understanding the role of design characteristics of CSR standards is critical to ensure they contribute to greater corporate accountability.

This study strives to expand the current understanding of the design characteristics of CSR standards beyond individual cases through a systematic exploration of accountability-related design characteristics across a larger sample.

The existence of internal control for Sharīʿah-compliance promotes reasonable assurance that the Islamic financial institution’s (IFI’s) objectives are achieved in the following categories, namely, the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, the reliability of financial reporting and the level of compliance with applicable laws and regulations, as well as accounting and auditing standards. Sharīʿah non-compliant income (SNCI) is an important issue in IFIs’ operations. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify issues related to governance and internal control of SNCI in selected IFIs in Malaysia.

This research uses a case study approach to gather data on the measures of governance and risk management in relation to the internal control for SNCI in IFIs. Interviews were conducted with officers of the Sharīʿah and internal audit departments on internal control practices regarding SNCI.

Regulator’s guidelines on SNCI are simple and brief, lacking rigour in terms of governance, risk management and audit procedures. The section on SNCI is only a brief statement within the Bank Negara Malaysia’s Guidelines on Financial Reporting for Islamic Banking Institutions and also in the Operational Risk Integrated Online Network system operated by IFIs. Most of the respondents in the interviews suggested that there should be a proper guideline in determining the classification of SNCI. Second, although IFIs have established the purification account to manage SNCI, the real practice varies from one IFI to another. Third, although there are supposedly documented procedures established in relation to management and administration of SNCI, the following events still occur in practice, namely, no authorisation from the Sharīʿah Committee (SC) on various types of income channelled to the SNCI account; unauthorised use of SNCI for other purposes; SNCI not being reported in the annual financial reports; and distribution of SNCI prior to obtaining the SC’s consent. Fourth, there is an absence of Sharīʿah risk assessment conducted on operational risk by IFIs to identify any potential Sharīʿah non-compliant event.

This research contributes to the importance of Islamic corporate governance theory and Sharīʿah risk management, as well as strengthening the case for reporting SNCI to shareholders. It also contributes to the body of knowledge on the capability of the management in managing the internal control system of IFIs’ SNCI.

A new internal control assessment matrix is proposed for Sharīʿah-compliance in IFIs.

The purpose of the paper is to examine current companies’ compliance with value-added tax (VAT) and the evolving role of the compliance officer in the listed companies at Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX), Oman.

The study has collected various compliance measures set by Capital Market Authority (CMA) from 2011 to 2019. On top of the websites of CMA, MSX, Oman Tax Authority and other related websites, the paper has considered real data of specific compliance or disclosure measures set by CMA on all companies listed under MSX. The focused period from 2011 to 2019 is where CMA has provided disclosure data as part of mandatory disclosure requirements.

This paper identified that there is a lack of timely compliance by companies under the existing law, and these companies may face pressures for compliance with VAT enforcement in Oman. Therefore, to comply with the disclosure requirements of listed companies, there is a growing need to appoint a full-time compliance officer and do a compliance audit.

The results of the study indicate the value of full-time compliance officers and compliance audits. The findings are able to aid in the appraisal of VAT accounting, compliance audit research, and in the selection of proper assessment methods and criteria.

This paper reviews the literature and provides new empirical analysis that are possibly beneficial for both scholars and accounting practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a method to formalize information security control descriptions and a decision support system increasing the automation level and, therefore, the cost efficiency of the information security compliance checking process. The authors advanced the state-of-the-art by developing and applying the method to ISO 27002 information security controls and by developing a semantic decision support system.

The research has been conducted under design science principles. The formalized information security controls were used in a compliance/risk management decision support system which has been evaluated with experts and end-users in real-world environments.

There are different ways of obtaining compliance to information security standards. For example, by implementing countermeasures of different quality depending on the protection needs of the organization. The authors developed decision support mechanisms which use the formal control descriptions as input to support the decision-maker at identifying the most appropriate countermeasure strategy based on cost and risk reduction potential.

Formalizing and mapping the ISO 27002 controls to the security ontology enabled the authors to automatically determine the compliance status and organization-wide risk-level based on the formal control descriptions and the modelled environment, including organizational structures, IT infrastructure, available countermeasures, etc. Furthermore, it allowed them to automatically determine which countermeasures are missing to ensure compliance and to decrease the risk to an acceptable level.

This invited article explores current developments in supply chain risk management (SCRM) practices by revisiting the classical case of Ericsson (Norrman and Jansson, 2004) after 15 years, and updating its case description and analysis of its organizational structure, processes and tools for SCRM.

An exploratory case study is conducted with a longitudinal focus, aiming to understand both proactive and reactive SCRM practices using a holistic perspective of a real-life example.

The study demonstrates how Ericsson's SCRM practices have developed, indicating that improved functional capabilities are increasingly combined across silos and leveraged by formalized learning processes. Important enablers are IT capabilities, a fine-grained and cross-functional organization, and a focus on monitoring and compliance. Major developments in SCRM are often triggered by incidents, but also by requirements from external stakeholders and new corporate leaders actively focusing on SCRM and related activities.

Relevant areas for future research are proposed, thereby increasing the knowledge of how companies can develop SCRM practices and capabilities further.

Being one of few in-depth holistic case studies of SCRM, decision-makers can learn about many practices and tools. Of special interest is the detailed description of how Ericsson reactively responded to the Fukushima incident (2011), and how it proactively engaged in monitoring and assessment activities. It is also exemplified how SCRM practices could continuously be developed to make them “stick” to the organization, even in stable times.

This is one of the first case studies to delve deeper into the development of SCRM practices through taking a longitudinal approach.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Japanese and Taiwanese national quality assurance (QA) agencies, National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement (NIAD-QE) and Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT), transform their respective frameworks in response to social demands, and analyze and compare the respective approaches for the key concepts of autonomy, accountability, improvement and transparency.

Using a qualitative document analysis approach, this paper initially examines the higher education system, major policies and QA developments, after which the methods associated with the QA restructuring transformations are outlined in terms of motivations, expectations and challenges. Finally, the NIAD-QE and HEEACT evaluation policies and frameworks are compared to assess how each has prepared to respond to emerging challenges.

During the QA framework restructuring, both the NIAD-QE and HEEACT struggled to achieve autonomy, accountability, improvements and transparency. While the new internal Japanese QA policy is assured through the external QA, the Taiwanese internal QA, which has a self-accreditation policy, is internally embedded with university autonomy emphasized. The QA policies in both the NIAD-QE and HEEACT have moved from general compliance to overall improvement, and both emphasize that accountability should be achieved through improvements. Finally, both agencies sought transparency through the disclosure of the QA process and/or results to the public and the enhancement of public communication.

This study gives valuable insights into the QA framework in Asian higher education institutions and how QA has been transformed to respond to social needs.