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This study aims to analyze the effect the liberalization of industrial relations in Germany has had on trade unions’ influence on companies’ decisions. Particular attention is given to European measures of flexibilizing company law and how they affect industrial relations in Germany.

After presenting a theoretical basis regarding industrial relations and corporate governance, the paper then demonstrates, via a case study, the effects of the flexible European company law. It examines the strategic avoidance of trade union activity at SAP, a case that ended up before the European Court of Justice.

The flexibility of European company law allows companies to limit the influence of trade unions on company decisions. Limiting trade unions' internal participation weakens their position overall. Precautionary measures to protect employees’ rights help to reduce the dangers of this process.

The influence of European law brings a new perspective to the transformation of the German industrial relations model. The analysis of the strategy of using the legal type of the European company (Societas Europaea) to limit the internal activity of trade unions demonstrates the connection between institutional settings and corporate governance.

This study aims to examine the awareness of the inhabitants regarding energy consumption in relation to comfort in Tlemcen and analyze the paths of influence and the effects of individual objective and subjective characteristic factors. This determines the factors' level of perception of the importance of energy retrofitting.

As part of an exploratory empirical study, this paper further discusses accompanied survey data from a sample of 208 properties, through a triangulation of in-depth qualitative studies and quantitative studies developed and analyzed by SPSS software (the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

Analysis of the results of the survey shows that the respondents have a level of awareness on comfort linked to energy savings but they lack guidance and recourse to specialists. The conclusion is that resident awareness is crucial and beneficial and that the key socio-demographic characteristics to determine the perception factors are related to age, occupation, household size and time lived in the house.

By exploring some of the key insights from the survey, this research improves residents' perception of the importance of energy retrofitting in the residential sector, highlighting the importance of priorities. This influences public attitudes and contributes to raising awareness in order to provide useful results for developing, in future studies, motivational strategies for these inhabitants. The present research is expected to add value to existing studies academically and methodologically and provide policy guidance to policy makers and other energy efficiency (EE) practitioners in the Maghreb region and beyond.

This perspective article aims to summarise the understanding of the link between regional development and family business and explore potential pathways for further investigations.

This study employed a scoping review methodology which attempts to explore a new topic of study and unveil its main concepts and relationships.

This study emphasises the need to enhance the cross-fertilisation of knowledge to bridge the gap between studies on regional development and family business. In addition to the traditional research pathways towards discerning the impact of formal and informal institutional contexts and economic and geographical locations on family business behaviour and performance, this perspective article encourages future researchers to delve into the regional-level mechanisms through which family businesses can influence and contribute to regional economic and social outcomes.

This perspective study employs a context theorising lens to examine the connection between regional development and family business.

The world is experiencing democratic backsliding such that the situation is down back to 1986. This has resulted in the global shrinking of civic space for civil society organizations (CSOs). NGOs engaging in advocacy activities are seen to be among the CSOs affected. Using four NGOs cases from Tanzania, the study contributes to the civic space debate by uncovering how advocacy NGOs become resilient.

The study is anchored in interpretivism and a cross-sectional case study design, following a qualitative approach path. Data were collected through interviews and a documentary review.

Results show that several strategies such as complying, building community back-up, collaboration, strategic litigation, using digital media and changing the scope are applied. However, strategies face obstacles including scope limitations, expected democratic roles, high cost, changes in the scope and being outsmarted by the government, and hence their effectiveness is questionable.

This study focused on advocacy NGOs. More studies can be conducted for other advocacy-related CSOs on how they become resilient.

While NGOs are allowed to exist in the country, their freedom continue to be curtailed. Even the effectiveness of resiliency becomes temporary and depends on the political will of the existing regime.

Tanzania NGOs have to build strong bonds with citizens, expand the scope of strategies and use deliberative democratic principles to educate the government to change laws and tolerate plural political culture. Also, NGOs in other countries with confined civic space can apply the same.

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the relationships between the different types of ownership structure and tax avoidance activities and examine the moderating effect of audit quality.

This study used secondary data from the listed companies in Amman Stock Exchange (2009–2020). To obtain additional robust findings, this study used various proxies for measuring tax avoidance (effective tax rate [ETR] and cash flow effective tax rate [CFETR]).

Relying on various proxies for tax avoidance, the results reveal that family and managerial ownership lead to exacerbating tax avoidance activities. Although institutional and board ownership have a positive impact on ETR and CFETR, which indicate that these type of ownership have a negative impact on tax avoidance. Audit quality also has a significant role in moderating the ownership structure–tax avoidance relationships. Besides, the results reveal that audit firm size is not merely symbolic words, but it contributes to reducing and restricting tax aggressiveness.

This study has policy implications related to the policymakers in creating future tax policies to minimize and avoid tax avoidance activities. Results of this study can be used to improve awareness among the various owners and to reduce the tax avoidance practices in the developing countries. It also determines a good agenda for research in the relationships between ownership identities, audit quality and tax avoidance, which also can be used to encourage and guide future studies.

This research extends the existing literature by examining both the direct and indirect influence of ownership structure on tax avoidance in Jordanian firms by including audit quality as a moderating variable. This is a pioneering and unique study examining the joint influence of the different forms of ownership on tax avoidance. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that examines the interaction influences between the various identities of ownership and audit quality on the tax avoidance activities in the Jordanian context.

This study aims to review the results of relevant studies to shed light on social trust-building in different contexts and the factors that affect it in disaster risk management.

This systematic review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses model. The study keywords were searched for in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases on August 2021. The inclusion criteria were English-written articles published in social trust and disaster relief efforts. Exclusion criteria were lack of access to the full text and article types such as nonoriginal articles.

Out of 1,359 articles found, 17 articles were included in the final analysis using four general categories: six articles on the role of local government in trust-building (local governments), five articles on the role of social media in trust-building (social media), four articles on the role of social capital in trust-building (social capital) and two articles on the importance of community participation in trust-building (community participation).

Understanding the role of social trust and the factors which influence it will help the development of community-based disaster risk management. Therefore, disaster management organizations and other relief agencies should take the findings of this study into account, as they can help guide policymaking and the adoption of strategies to improve public trust and participation in comprehensive disaster risk management. Further studies recommended understanding people’s experiences and perceptions of social trust, relief and disaster preparedness.

Industry 4.0 is characterised by systemic transformations occurring exponentially, encompassing an array of dynamic processes and technologies. To move towards a more sustainable future, it is important to understand the nature of this transformation. However, construction enterprises are experiencing a capacity shortage in identifying the transitional management steps needed to navigate Industry 4.0 better. This paper presents a maturity model with the acronym “Smart Modern Construction Enterprise Maturity Model (SMCeMM)” that provides direction to construction enterprises.

It adopts an iterative procedure to develop the maturity model. The attributes of Industry 4.0 maturity are obtained through a critical literature review. The model is further developed through knowledge elicitation using modified Delphi-based expert forums and subsequent analysis through qualitative techniques. The conceptual validity of the model is established through a validation expert forum.

The research defines maturity characteristics of construction enterprises across five levels namely ad-hoc, driven, transforming, integrated and innovative encompassing seven process categories; data management, people and culture, leadership and strategy, automation, collaboration and communication, change management and innovation. The maturity characteristics are then translated into assessment criteria which can be used to assess how mature a construction enterprise is in navigating Industry 4.0.

The results advance the field of Industry 4.0 strategy research in construction. The findings can be used to access Industry 4.0 maturity of general contractors of varying sizes and scales and generate a set of recommendations to support their macroscopic strategic planning.

Organizational diversity training is designed to enhance employees' skills and competencies regarding diversity and its management. The question of its effectiveness, and the conditions under which it thrives, remains a matter of debate. Unlike previous studies that have predominantly focused on the perspective of training participants, this study shifts the lens to the viewpoints of diversity training providers in Germany – a country where the formal requirement for diversity management was implemented relatively recently. The primary objective is to ascertain the critical factors influencing training effectiveness from the providers' perspective.

This research draws upon case studies based on document analysis and qualitative interviews with diversity training providers across Germany.

The investigation reveals that the effectiveness of diversity training, as perceived by providers, hinges on several key factors: the organizational environment (including the widespread recognition of diversity issues and the presence of an organizational diversity framework), the attributes of diversity trainers (notably their personal familiarity with diversity) and the setting and design of the training (such as venue, duration and a blend of instructional approaches). A notable barrier to achieving effective training outcomes is the lack of supportive conditions within client companies, exemplified by limited training budgets, which impedes the accurate assessment of training effectiveness.

This study marks a novel contribution to the field by explicitly focusing on the perspective of diversity training providers in Germany. It provides new insights into the importance of the organizational context surrounding diversity education within the private sector.

This study aims to investigate causes of sustainability failures of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems in Botswana.

The research employed qualitative and quantitative methods, including literature review and secondary data analysis to understand trends relating to Botswana, and a survey to identify gaps leading to certification sustainability failures, focusing on; motives for certification, causes of decertification and issues in the certification process.

ISO 9001 adoption in Botswana is slow, with low acceptance rate in the public sector at 13% compared to the private sector at 87%. Termination rates have been high at 55% over two decades. Manufacturing dominates certification with 45% of total certification. While micro and small companies struggle to sustain certification, often failing within 2 years, medium-sized companies demonstrate better sustainability, lasting beyond 6 years. Product/service quality and process improvement drive certification while decertification is influenced by management factors, financial constraints, and process management. The study recommends a model for effective integration of ISO 9001.

Integrated systems are crucial for consistent process performance and continual improvement in all sectors for sustainable organizational success. Although the ISO 9001 Quality Management System has shown positive impacts globally, the impact of its adoption in Botswana remains questionable with high failure rates post implementation. There appears to exist a significant gap in development, implementation, and maintenance of the QMS. The public domain has no evidence of any past investigation on causes of sustainability failures of ISO 9001 post certification. The current study sought to close that knowledge gap.

This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging interests of office workers for the purpose of addressing work ethical and business ethical issues of professional collaboration, competition, and power in future hybrid work models.

Based on 28 qualitative interviews conducted between November 2020 and June 2021, and through the theoretical lens of phenomenology, the study develops explanatory hypotheses conceptualising four basic intentions of professional interaction and their corresponding preferences for video conferences and working on site.

The four intentions developed on the basis of the interviews are: the need for physical proximity; the challenge of collective creativity; the will to influence; and control of communication. This conceptual framework qualifies a moral ambivalence of professional interaction. The authors identify a connectivity paradox of professional interaction where the personal dimension remains unarticulated for the purpose of maintaining professionality. This tacit human connectivity is intertwined with latent power relations. This plasticity of both connectivity and power in direct interaction can be diminished by transferring the interaction to video conferencing.

The application of phenomenology to a collection of qualitative interviews has enabled the identification of underlying intention structures and the system in which they affect each other. This research identifies conflicts of interests between workers relative to their different self-perceived abilities to persevere in competitive professional interaction. It is therefore able to address consequences of future hybrid work models at an existential and societal level.