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Despite the well-recognized importance of recycled water, the study of industry-peer pressure on recycled water is relatively new. This study investigates how organizations experience and react to industry-peer pressure to set recycled water targets. Additionally, this study investigates the role of board chairs involved in sustainability committees in contributing to responses to industry-peer pressure.

Using Eviews 12, this study employed a pooled logistic regression model to analyze data from 1,346 firms on Taiwan and Taipei exchanges (2017–2020).

The findings revealed that frequency-based imitation drives recycled water target-setting diffusion. However, there is no direct relationship between outcome-based imitation and recycled water target-setting. Notably, outcome-based imitation drives the adoption of recycled water target-setting of firms with board-chair membership in sustainability committees.

This study faces certain data limitations. First, this study primarily focuses on water recycling. Future research could explore other ways to reduce water usage, such as using water-efficient equipment. Second, this study gathered information solely on the presence or absence of a board chairperson on the sustainability committee. Future researchers could explore the impact of the composition of sustainability committee on recycled water target-setting. Lastly, the sample used in this study is restricted to Taiwan's corporations that existed during 2017–2020. Future researchers may consider adopting a longitudinal design in other economies to address this limitation.

The findings of this study offer several guidelines and implications for recycled water target-setting and the composition of sustainability committees. It responds to an urgent call for solutions to water shortages when pressure from governments and nongovernmental organizations is relatively absent. The number of industry peers that have already set recycled water targets is indispensable for motivating firms to set their own recycled water targets. In terms of insufficient water-related regulatory pressure and normative pressure, this study found evidence suggesting that the direct motivation for setting recycled water targets stems from mimetic pressures via frequency-based imitation. The evidence in this study suggests that policymakers should require companies to disclose their peers’ recycled water target information, as doing so serves as an alternative means to achieving SDG 6.3.

Recycled water target-setting might be challenging. Water recycling practices may face strong resistance and require substantial additional resources (Zhang and Tang, 2019; Gao et al., 2019; Gu et al., 2023). Therefore, this study suggests that firms should ensure the mindfulness of board members in promoting the welfare of the natural environment when making recycled water target-setting decisions. To reap the second-mover advantage, firms must consider the conditions in which board members can more effectively play their role. Corporations may help their chairpersons in setting recycled water targets by recruiting them as members of sustainability committees. Meanwhile, chairpersons tend to activate accurate mental models when the water conservation performance of pioneering industry peers is strong enough to indicate the potential benefits of adopting recycled water target-setting. Investors’ and stakeholders’ understanding of how the composition of sustainability committees is related to recycled water target-setting may help to identify the potential drivers of firms’ water responsibility. Investors and stakeholders should distinguish firms in terms of the board chair’s membership of their sustainability committee and focus on water-use reduction outcomes in the industry. This study provides insights into circumstances whereby chairpersons help to restore the water ecosystem.

This study explains how frequency-based and outcome-based imitation are two prominent mechanisms underlying the industry-peer pressure concerning recycled water target-setting. Moreover, this study fills literature gaps related to the moderating roles of board-chair membership in sustainability committees concerning industry-peer pressure on recycled water target-setting.

Advocates and critics of target‐setting in the workplace seem unable to reach beyond their own well‐entrenched battle lines. While the advocates of goal‐directed behaviour point to what they see as demonstrable advantages, the critics of target‐setting highlight equally demonstrable disadvantages. Indeed, the academic literature on this topic is currently mired in controversy, with neither side seemingly capable of envisaging a better way forward. This paper seeks to break the current deadlock and move thinking forward in this important aspect of performance measurement and management by outlining a new, more fruitful approach, based on both theory and practical experience.

The topic was approached in three phases: assembling and reading key academic and other literature on the subject of target‐setting and goal‐directed behaviour, with a view to understanding, in depth, the arguments advanced by the advocates and critics of target‐setting; comparing these published arguments with one's own experiential findings, in order to bring the essence of disagreement into much sharper focus; and then bringing to bear the academic and practical experience to identify the essential elements of a new, more fruitful approach offering all the benefits of goal‐directed behaviour with none of the typical disadvantages of target‐setting.

The research led to three key findings: the advocates of goal‐directed behaviour and critics of target‐setting each make valid points, as seen from their own current perspectives; the likelihood of these two communities, left to themselves, ever reaching a new synthesis, seems vanishingly small (with leading thinkers in the goal‐directed behaviour community already acknowledging this); and, between the three authors, it was discovered that their unusual combination of academic study and practical experience enabled them to see things differently. Hence, they would like to share their new thinking more widely.

The authors fully accept that their paper is informed by extensive practical experience and, as yet, there have been no opportunities to test their findings, conclusions and recommendations through rigorous academic research. However, they hope that the paper will move thinking forward in this arena, thereby informing future academic research.

The authors hope that the practical implications of the paper will be significant, as it outlines a novel way for organisations to capture the benefits of goal‐directed behaviour with none of the disadvantages typically associated with target‐setting.

Given that increased efficiency and effectiveness in the management of organisations would be good for society, the authors think the paper has interesting social implications.

Leading thinkers in the field of goal‐directed behaviour, such as Locke and Latham, and leading critics of target‐setting, such as Ordóñez et al. continue to argue with one another – much like, at the turn of the nineteenth century, proponents of the “wave theory of light” and proponents of the “particle theory of light” were similarly at loggerheads. Just as this furious scientific debate was ultimately resolved by Taylor's experiment, showing that light could behave both as a particle and wave at the same time, the authors believe that the paper demonstrates that goal‐directed behaviour and target‐setting can successfully co‐exist.

Standard quality is very highly important parameter in the education sector. Accreditation is a process where standard quality of education is given and the process of continuous improvement is defined. Emphasizing quality of student education is achieved through outcome-based education system (OBE). Program outcomes signify the comprehension, skills and attitude the students should have at the end of the program. At the end of each course, course outcomes signify the knowledge acquired by the students. Course outcomes assessment is one of the key aspects of the OBE model. In this research, the following four factors: subject quality, number of times subject handled by faculty members, faculty experience and student quality with different weightage, are used for analysis of the target setting for individual courses, used for higher education accreditation. This new approach for target setting will improve the teaching and learning process.

Four factors: subject quality, number of times subject handled by faculty members, faculty experience and student quality with different weightage, are used for analysis of the target setting for individual courses, used for higher education accreditation.

Using proposed approach, higher targets can be achieved in teaching and learning.

New approach for target setting will improve the teaching and learning process.

Proposed approach for target setting will improve the teaching and learning process; it should be implemented across all engineering colleges or universities.

All engineering colleges will have impact on teaching and learning process.

The following four factors: subject quality, number of times subject handled by faculty members, faculty experience and student quality with different weightage, are used for analysis of the target setting for individual courses, used for higher education accreditation.

In this article, we examine the link between product development organization and target cost management. More specifically, we investigate the interactive effects of alternative product development organizations, methods for setting target costs, and alternative decision-making authority in assigning targets. Based on the results of a questionnaire survey of Japanese manufacturers, we intend to provide some early evidence on those interactive effects to stimulate further research in this area of target cost management. We find that organizational efficiency is connected with cost reduction performance in target cost management from the two perspectives: (1) the relationship between the simultaneous involvement of project leaders and functional staff and the use of a particular target cost-setting method, and (2) the correlation of the simultaneous project-function involvement with the level of expected cost reduction performance. No particular product development organization shows any preference for the use of a target cost-setting method. The preference, however, is shown clearly when a particular target cost allocation decision authority is aligned with the use of a target cost-setting method. Companies with higher levels of cost reduction performance (expected or experienced) tend to make project leaders and functional staff get simultaneously involved in target cost allocation decisions.

Project goal setting, led by a project proposal development team, is an important operations process because effective goal setting aligned with the operations strategy can enhance project investment decision making, project success and thereby operations performance. The purpose of this paper is to argue that because of the strategic nature of this task, the organizational climate (OC) that the proposal development team works in is critical for the effectiveness of their goal setting.

The authors raise hypotheses regarding the role OC plays in enhancing the effectiveness of the support senior executives provide to project proposal teams. The authors test the hypotheses in a longitudinal survey of 200 managers in the USA.

Results show that a formal organizational process used by proposal development teams for setting project goals is highly effective and that an appropriate OC further intensifies the positive effect of such a process. However, a formal organizational process has no positive effect on effective goal setting if implemented in an environment with a poor OC.

The paper contributes to the literature by finding that a positive OC intensifies the already positive effect of organizational support. In practice, the creation of such a climate can enhance project goal setting, project success, and as a result, operations performance.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

Considers the relationship between the types of targets or benchmarks used and reward structures adopted in two contrasting performance improvement strategies – continuous improvement and radical change. Hypothesises that the process of target setting and the reward structures adopted will be different between the two strategies. The propositions are that organisations involved in continuous improvement of a process will base their performance targets on past performance and internal benchmarking, arrived at through consultation and with a mixture of financial and non‐financial rewards for achieving targets. For processes involving radical change, targets will be based on external benchmarks imposed by senior management, with financial rewards for their achievement. The findings from a semi‐structured questionnaire conducted in 40 UK service organisations reveal that most continuous improvement targets were based on past performance and that processes undergoing radical change made limited use of external benchmarks. In the majority of cases, targets were imposed by managers without consultation, with rewards linked to theachievement of those targets. Financial rewards, particularly financial bonuses, predominated in both improvement strategies. The implications are that the potential benefits of adopting process changes are being constrained. In continuous improvement the lack of participation in target setting could be undermining the team‐based empowerment philosophy of the strategy. The aim of radical change is to achieve a paradigm shift involving revolutionary rather than evolutionary change which is less likely to be fulfilled with targets based on past performance.

Amidst a growing interest in greenhouse gas (GHG) science-based target setting by businesses, it is becoming increasingly urgent to understand how these are set in theory and in practice.

Using a model framework for science-based methods, the authors compare four different science-based target-setting methods: sectoral decarbonization approach, linear emission reduction to target year, GHG emissions per unit of value added and corporate finance approach to climate stabilizing targets. Input and output variables, GHG scopes, allocation principles and mathematical formulations are described, followed by a discussion of the differences and similarities between methods.

The authors show GHG emission mitigation scenarios are as important in the determination of targets as the allocation principle.

For this reason, businesses should apply well-bellow 2ºC scenarios with robust sectoral and regional granularity and the science community should consider the needs of these groups of stakeholders.

Policymakers should actively support efforts by corporations to set science-based targets and ensure that the research they commission can be translated into practical action by non-party stakeholders.

This paper contributes to the understanding of the theory and practice of science-based targets.

The purpose of this paper is to give evidence of effective, large-scale, and time-sustained goal setting through the use of performance indicators (PIs) in managing a fairly large and decentralized social-security organization, despite indications that the motivational effects of goal setting are hard to sustain in the long term.

The authors analyze five years of monthly organizational performance data across 30 regional offices and five activities to identify the links between PIs and productivity.

The authors identify correlations that demonstrate a cycle where low performance scores on indicators increase productivity in the next period, but high performance decrease it, thus renewing the cycle.

While long-term gains in the productivity are not the direct product of goal setting, the close relationship between goals and productivity illustrates the motivational potential of communicable targets and close feedback that led to a culture of performance within the organization.

The case studied demonstrates how a performance management system can be designed and managed so that long-term fatigue is avoided while maintaining a dynamic workforce that adapts in the face of environment change by increasing its efforts as needed.

This paper answers a call to connect management control studies with managerial work done in practical settings.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which a sample of US-based higher education institution’s (HEI’s) climate targets and associated climate action planning efforts align with the definitions of and practices associated with science-based targets (SBTs) that are typically used to organize corporate climate efforts. This analysis will be used to explore similarities and tease out differences between how US-based HEIs and corporations approach sustainable target setting and organize sustainable action.

The degree of intersection between a sample of HEI climate action plans from Ivy Plus (Ivy+) schools and the current SBT initiative (SBTi) general corporate protocol was assessed by using an objective-oriented evaluative approach.

While there were some areas of overlap between HEI’s climate action planning and SBTi’s general corporate protocol – for instance, the setting of both short- and long-term targets and large-scale investments in renewable energy – significant areas of difference in sampled HEIs included scant quantitative Scope 3 targets, the use offsets to meet short-term targets and a low absolute annual reduction of Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

This paper unites diverse areas of literature on SBTs, corporate sustainability target setting and sustainability in higher education. It provides an overview of the potential benefits and disadvantages of HEIs adopting SBTs and provides recommendations for the development of sector-specific SBTi guidelines.