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This paper considers supranational initiatives ‐ particularly those emanating from the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development, the Financial Action Task Force and the Financial Stability Forum ‐ proposing changes in the regulation of offshore financial centres. The implications of the withdrawal of US support for elements of the initiative are reviewed. The underlying rationales for change are considered, as are the probable and appropriate response for the stakeholders in the offshore centres, including governments, financial institutions and clients.

This study aims to explore the extent to which Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) rely on supranational institution – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – versus host country institutional quality to navigate their foreign location choice.

This study uses a conditional logit regression model using a sample of 1,302 greenfield investments by Chinese MNEs in 54 BRI participating countries during the period 2011–2018.

The results indicate that as a supranational institution, the BRI serves as a substitution mechanism to address the deficiencies in institutional quality in BRI participating countries, thereby attracting Chinese MNEs to invest in those countries. In addition, the BRI’s substitution effect on host country institutional quality is more pronounced for large MNEs, MNEs in the manufacturing industry and MNEs in inland regions.

This study expands the understanding of the BRI as a supranational institution for MNEs from emerging markets and reveals its substitution effect on the host country institutional quality. Furthermore, it highlights that MNEs with diverse characteristics gain varying degrees of benefits from the BRI.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what drives people to show a willingness to mitigate the effects of climate change. To accomplish this goal, this research uses the theory of planned behaviour to examine whether attitude towards climate change, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are potential determinants of a pro-environmental intention and thus a pro-environmental behaviour.

This explanatory paper applies a Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to identify the key drivers of pro-environmental intention and behaviour. A non-probability convenience sample of 481 Egyptian respondents was collected.

This study finds that awareness combined with a willingness to pay to mitigate climate change are key drivers of pro-environmental intention. Moreover, personal responsibility and confidence in the ability to mitigate climate change also trigger climate-friendly intentions. Finally, it is found that societal engagement and willingness to take action increase the propensity to exhibit pro-environmental behaviour.

The results of our analysis cannot be generalized to the Egyptian population as a whole as our sample only comprises a sample of Egyptian students.

This paper is novel as it is the first that applies Qualitative Comparative Analysis to the Theory of Planned Behaviour. By doing so, the paper sheds light on the understanding of key cognitive, social-psychological and behavioural factors which lead to environmental actions. Hence, it provides policy-makers with a framework to support a more sustainable society.

Ideas related to “the Nordic” are important in the reconstruction of national identities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and these countries’ modern national narratives are structurally highly similar. At the same time, there are clear differences between the Nordic countries regarding their national images. The purpose of this study is to a examine the relationship between ideas of the Nordic and national images through a qualitative study of brand manifestations on Nordic web portals for foreign visitors.

The two guiding research questions are: How do Nordic branding strategies and national stereotypes impact on nation-branding content toward visitors in the Nordic region? What traces of the Nordic as a supranational concept can be found when the Nordic is translated into concrete national brand manifestations? The analysis focuses on brand manifestations such as brand visions, codes of expression, differentiation, narrative identity and ideologies.

The analysis shows that clichés about the nations prevail in contemporary brand material and that Nordic branding strategies impact on the portals in diffuse and implicit ways. There are, however, some important common denominators, pointing toward a new Nordic brand related to exotic, untouched yet easily accessible nature, with a focus on pure, fresh and clean food with new tastes, in combination with happy and welcoming people.

The results from the study contribute with insight in how ideas of the Nordic on a supranational level transform when used in concrete and practical branding material. Further, this paper proposes a new Nordic branding focus, which contests traditional Nordic ideas.

With a view to enabling organisations provide a clear understanding of firm value creation, several national and supranational institutions have produced guidelines and frameworks for externally reporting intellectual capital (IC). In many cases regulators, the accounting profession and accounting scholars have driven these initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to summarise, analyse and compare the guidelines and frameworks that have been developed with a focus on externally reporting IC.

The paper analyses the assumptions underpinning 20 guidelines and frameworks that have been developed with a focus on reporting IC using a self-constructed framework.

The review resulted in a comparison of IC reporting guidelines and framework based on target audience, role of IC within the organisational strategic management process and reporting IC indicator. It provides an understanding of the state of the art in relation to external reporting of IC.

The insights provided by the comparison of the guidelines and frameworks are likely to be helpful for practitioners wanting to adopt or develop an IC reporting model for their organisation. Policy-makers will find these insights beneficial when attempting to refine existing frameworks and guidelines for reporting IC and in developing new ones to suit various circumstances. Also, this paper provides a useful review for academics.

This is the first paper to provide a review of a large number of business reporting guidelines and frameworks with a focus on IC. It is a valuable reference for practitioners, policy-makers and academics on IC reporting models.

The paper uses theoretical conceptions of power and orchestration to analyse the role of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue on the global standardisation of sustainability reporting.

The paper adopts an interpretive approach and draws on a qualitative dataset derived from interviews, documentary analysis and observation.

The paper traces how the Corporate Reporting Dialogue was orchestrated by the International Integrated Reporting Council, with the objective of aligning sustainability reporting standards, but moved to become a vehicle for orchestrating standards consistent with the recommendations of the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosure. Collaboration between the Dialogue's five most active bodies forged the blueprint adopted by the International Sustainability Standards Board's vision of sustainability reporting that prioritised reporting only on those socio-ecological issues deemed to materially affect future enterprise value.

The paper explicates the role of collaborative initiatives in the standardisation of sustainability reporting and shows how these initiatives act as vehicles to subtly undermine the GRI position (presented as one standardiser amongst many whose vision appears as an outlier, despite its position as the dominant sustainability reporting standardiser), and establish the prioritisation of a sustainability reporting worldview based on investor-oriented enterprise value creation. The case also draws attention to the specific orchestrators involved in establishing this prioritisation, and reveals the influence of philanthropic foundations. In doing so, it extends our understanding of legitimacy generation in standard-setting by showing how collaborative initiatives offer private standardisers another means to generate input legitimacy for what, in this case, represented a vision of reporting at odds with most sustainability reporting practice. Finally, the paper extends the sites of power to collaborative initiatives and details the mechanisms through which covert power is exercised but also masked where orchestrators use convening power, funding and membership choices to define the boundaries of discussion by influencing who participates, what is on the agenda and what activity is undertaken. Rather than viewing standardisation as a simple pursuit of conquest between individual standardisers, the paper considers how collaboration provides the opportunity for assimilation.

Community initiatives to collate and manage different kinds of cultural forms and resources are a popular way for local people to engage with the heritage of their area. These initiatives are often heavily dependent, however, upon short-term funding and long-term efforts of a few dedicated individuals. This paper aims to explore how community digital archives offer scope to widen participation in cultural activities and to investigate the sustainability of these initiatives.

A case study approach was taken of Hebridean Connections, which is a community managed, online historical resource. This paper is primarily based on interview data with key stakeholders, all of whom are based in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

Participation in Hebridean Connections was reported in positive terms by respondents and many cited that it was a good way to reconnect with diasporic populations and that they believed that this would encourage tourism. It was also reported that the system of linked records added value to the collections as previously undiscovered connections could be made that would not be possible without the electronic resource.

Few studies have been undertaken examining community digital archives. The multidisciplinary nature of the study also brings together different perspectives on the area of enquiry.

States that there has been much debate about the EC’s Social Charter but very little research on the implications for personnel managers. Personnel managers will be responsible for implementing the majority of Social Charter initiatives within their organizations. Based on the results from a postal survey of over 5,000 personnel managers across ten European countries, highlights the impact of the Social Charter on their organizations. Results show that: personnel managers are not as solely positive towards the Social Charter as expected; there appears to be a great deal of uncertainty among managers from a number of European countries – there is no pan‐European perspective at present – and; the perception that the UK is “dragging its feet” seems to be a misconception.

Much has been written about the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the need to assure its importance through formal regulation and reporting requirements. Little reflection has taken place on the role of the market in achieving effective regulation and behaviour changes in this area through an analysis of stock values. This study seeks to fill that gap by presenting an analysis of CSR influences on stock values facilitated by the regulatory methods of the stock markets.

The 90 shares of the US Dow Jones Sustainability Index were chosen as the sample of firms with “value‐generating CSR”. The performance of these individual shares was analysed by comparing their return with the relevant indexes, with the respective industry and on a risk‐adjusted basis, for the six years and the ten years ended 30 June 2006. Several tests were carried out to see whether or not the sample contained a value/growth/core/large cap bias.

The results were impressive: stocks from companies with “value‐driven CSR” clearly outperformed the market and their peers over extensive periods of time, with reasonably low risk.

There are several limitations of this type of analysis ranging from those inherent in the Capital Asset Pricing Model, to the fact that other cultures might define corporate responsibility differently.

The CSR² model introduced suggests how CSR can generate value reflected in the stock market. If so, the markets can prove to be an effective tool in regulating externalities related to pollution or global warming.