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The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, good corporate governance (CG) practices among UK publicly listed firms and consequently ascertain whether board characteristics and ownership structure variables can explain observable differences in the extent of voluntary CG compliance and disclosure practices.

This study uses one of the largest data sets to-date on compliance and disclosure of CG practices from 2008 to 2013 containing 120 CG provisions drawn from the 2010 UK Combined Code relating to 100 UK listed firms to conduct multiple regression analyses of the determinants of voluntary CG disclosures. A number of additional estimations, including two stage least squares, fixed-effects and lagged structures, are conducted to address the potential endogeneity issue and test the robustness of the findings.

The results suggest that there is a substantial variation in the levels of compliance with, and disclosure of, good CG practices among the sampled UK firms. The authors also find that firms with larger board size, more independent outside directors and greater director diversity tend to disclose more CG information voluntarily, whereas the level of voluntary CG compliance and disclosure is insignificantly related to the existence of a separate CG committee and institutional ownership. Additionally, the results indicate that block ownership and managerial ownership negatively affect voluntary CG compliance and disclosure practices. The findings are fairly robust across a number of econometric models that sufficiently address various endogeneity problems and alternative CG indices. Overall, the findings are generally consistent with the predictions of neo-institutional theory.

This study extends, as well as contributes to, the extant CG literature by offering new evidence on compliance with, and disclosure of, good CG recommendations contained in the 2010 UK Combined Code following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. This study also advances the existing literature by offering new insights from a neo-institutional theoretical perspective of the impact of board and ownership mechanisms on voluntary CG compliance and disclosure practices.

This study aims to propose a model that delineated the diffusion process of product-harm misinformation on social media. Drawing on theoretical insights from cue diagnosticity and corporate associations, the proposed model mapped out how consumers' information skepticism and perceived content credibility influence their perceived diagnosticity of the product-harm misinformation and corporate ability (CA) associations with the company being impacted, which in turn influenced their trust toward the company and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) intention.

A survey was conducted with 504 US consumers to empirically test the proposed model. Following the survey, in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 communication professionals regarding the applicability of the model.

When exposed to product-harm misinformation on social media, consumers' perceived diagnosticity of misinformation was negatively impacted by their information skepticism and positively impacted by perceived content credibility of misinformation. Perceived diagnosticity of product-harm misinformation negatively impacted consumers' CA associations, which then led to decreased trust and increased NWOM intention. Findings from the interviews further supported the diffusion process and provided insights on strategies to combat product-harm misinformation. Strategies shared by the interviewees included preparedness and social listening, proactive outreach and building strong CA associations as preventative measures.

This study incorporates the theoretical frameworks of cue diagnosticity and corporate associations into the scholarship of misinformation and specifically addresses the unique diffusion process of product-harm misinformation on social media. This study provides insights and tangible recommendations for communication professionals to combat product-harm misinformation.

The purpose of this paper is to apply the situational theory of publics and framing theory in the context of environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication research to determine how message frames impact information seeking and processing.

Using a 3 (message frame: diagnostic, prognostic, or motivational) × 2 (environmental issue: general vs specific) plus control between subjects experimental design, the study examines the attitudes, cognitions, and behavioral intentions different publics may form about two different environmental responsibility issues presented in this study. Furthermore, the study aims to examine how different types of message frames (diagnostic, prognostic, or motivational) and topics may impact how a company can move a public toward information seeking behaviors.

Based on theoretical considerations, structural equation modeling was used to examine significant paths between variables, thus creating a proposed new theoretical model that can be applied to CSR, public relations, and strategic communication literature.

The study offers a proposed new integrated theoretical model that can be applied to strategic communication literature and used to assist companies with enhancing their CSR communication and strategic communication planning efforts to determine how to move a public toward information seeking behaviors.

The principal purposes of this paper are to provide normative advice in terms of managing the British Monarchy as a Corporate Heritage Brand and to reveal the efficacy of examining a brand's history for corporate heritage brands generally.

Taking a case history approach, the paper examines critical events in the Crown's history. It is also informed by the diverse literatures on the British Monarchy and also marshals the identity literatures and the nascent literature relating to corporate brands. Six critical incidents that have shaped the monarchy over the last millennium provide the principal data source.

In scrutinising key events from the institution's historiography it was found that the management and maintenance of the Crown as a corporate brand entail concern with issues relating to: continuity (maintaining heritage and symbolism); visibility (having a meaningful and prominent public profile); strategy (anticipating and enacting change); sensitivity (rapid response to crises); respectability (retaining public favour); and empathy (acknowledging that brand ownership resides with the public). Taking an integrationist perspective, the efficacy of adopting a corporate marketing approach/philosophy is also highlighted.

A framework for managing Corporate Heritage is outlined and is called “Chronicling the Corporate Brand”. In addition to Bagehot's dictum that the British Monarch had a constitutional obligation to encourage, advise and warn the government of the day, the author concludes that the Sovereign has a critical societal role and must be dutiful, devoted and dedicated to Her (His) subjects.

This is one of the first papers to examine the British Monarchy through a corporate branding lens. It confirms that the Crown is analogous to a corporate brand and, therefore, ought to be managed as such.

The conflict between institutionalism and neoclassicism in the 20th century has been investigated by scholars over the years. Many of them believe that in the postwar period, neoclassicism triumphed while institutionalism largely disappeared. The present chapter takes a very different view. The late 20th century represents a broad synthesis of neoclassical and institutional themes in a methodology we call pragmatic empiricism. That approach combines the mathematical model building and theoretical formalism of neoclassical economics with the institutional economist’s data-driven statistical analysis and concern for developing institutional forms. We use as a case study the history of American locational economics from the 1930s to the present. The mixing of institutional and neoclassical themes is quite evident in the work of three young scholars at Harvard who effectively initiated American locational economics. In the postwar period, we find a series of outstanding, well-published papers that capture the spirit of the “founders.” These papers do use more modeling, but they also focus on major institutional developments. A broader review of locational works is consistent with the pragmatic empiricism label. The history of locational economics supports the claim that institutionalism, far from disappearing, continues to provide fundamental questions and techniques for modern pragmatic empiricism.

Although grounded theory (GT) was introduced in 1967, GT remains widely misunderstood as scholars incorporate a limited spectrum of the GT techniques and fail to integrate GT's full potential into academic research. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to discuss divergences between four GT strategies and by doing so to provide criteria for making an informed choice between one GT approach or another.

The study offers a comparative analysis of four GT approaches by relying on a recently completed empirical work focused on the practice and perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in non-Western context conducted by the author.

As a result, the study outlines the main points of divergence between the four GT strategies and discusses how their differences impact the research outcomes, theoretical products and application of the proposed theories in organisational and management research.

As a result of the comparative analysis, the study will help researchers make an informed choice when selecting one GT approach or another.

The study demonstrates the potential of GT in organisational and management research by utilising a practical example of GT's implementation from a recently completed empirical study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate assortative mating processes inside Internet-dating-service settings. Unattached consumers traditionally sought to satisfy their need for love through conventional search processes, including old-fashioned match-making. That was then, this is now; dozens of internet-mediated dating websites promising romantic-love-matches currently operate internationally. These dating services cultivate dating-exchanges by offering new-fashioned match-making processes. Despite these trends, theoretical and practical questions related to how and why dating services marketers might induce superior romantic exchanges between customers by managing assortative mating processes remain unanswered until now.

A survey-based approach was used to test hypotheses. Pretests were conducted to develop reliable measures of assortative mating propensity. Seven subconstructs of assortative mating were identified by analyzing data from a representative sample. The measurement model was validated before hypotheses testing. The focal assortative mating construct was measured formatively; assortative mating subdimensions functioned as indicators. The model was tested by structural equation modeling.

Assortative mating processes facilitated superior preference-selection outcomes for individuals seeking consumer-to-consumer romantic relationships inside internet-mediated service settings. Insights were generated about how and why assortative mating processes exercised positive effects on consumers’ attitudes toward online dating and about how dating services marketers might leverage assortative mating tendencies to benefit consumers.

A novel concept was introduced to the services marketing literature, as were several theoretical implications. The study simultaneously measured consumers’ propensities to engage in assortative mating and captured the effects of various physical/behavioral consumer characteristics. This study develops new and practical insights about how dating service marketers could manage the effects of assortative mating processes.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute towards understanding how entrepreneurial learning might be understood as being socially situated, embedded in everyday practice in the context of family business. The study is framed by three main principles drawn from situated learning theory. First, the family and the business are examined as overlapping communities of practice, as sites of practice‐based knowledge. Second, the concept of legitimate peripheral participation is explored in relation to members of the family business. Finally, how practice is both reproduced and transformed over time is examined in the context of two generations' participation in a family business.

The paper draws on an empirical study of two generations from five families, the founders of a business and their successors. The interview approach adopted phenomenological techniques. A thematic analysis identified conceptual frameworks to make sense of the data in a “quasi grounded” approach. Finally, the three main principles introduced from situated learning theory – communities of practice, legitimate peripheral participation, and cycles of reproduction and transformation provided a conceptual framework to analyse the empirical material.

This is an interpretive, qualitative study based on a small sample of families based in the North West of England. The findings are not intended to be generalised to a population, but to offer empirical insights that extend theoretical frameworks in order to better understand the entrepreneurial phenomenon.

The experience of the second generation both in the family business and in overlapping contexts of learning‐in‐practice brings innovation and change as well as continuity. The study also suggests that the complex process of succession might be informed by the understanding of the importance of the nature and extent of participation in the family business over time.

This paper introduces conceptual frameworks that capture the social complexity of intergenerational entrepreneurial learning and contributes an empirical illustration of situated learning theory within the context of family business. The situated learning perspective contrasts with much of the existing entrepreneurial learning literature, which has tended to focus on “the entrepreneur” and individual learning processes. This study demonstrates that applying a learning lens brings theoretical insights to the study of family business.

This paper aims to investigate the association among trustee board diversity (TBD), corporate governance (CG), capital structure (CS) and financial performance (FP) by using a sample of UK charities. Specifically, the authors investigate the effect of TBD on CS and ascertain whether CG quality moderates the TBD–CS nexus. Additionally, the authors examine the impact of CS on FP and ascertain whether the CS–FP nexus is moderated by TBD and CG quality.

The authors use a number of multivariate regression techniques, including ordinary least squares, fixed-effects, lagged-effects and two-stage least squares, to rigorously analyse the data and test the hypotheses.

First, the authors find that trustee board gender diversity has a negative effect on CS, but this relationship holds only up to the point of having three women trustees. The authors find similar, but relatively weak, results for the presence of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) trustees. Second, the authors find that the TBD–CS nexus depends on the quality of CG, with the relationship being stronger in charities with higher frequency of meetings, independent CG committee and larger trustee and audit firm size. Third, the authors find that CS structure has a positive effect on FP, but this is moderated by TBD and CG quality. The evidence is robust to different econometric models that adjust for alternative measures and endogeneities. The authors interpret the findings within explanations of a theoretical perspective that captures insights from different CG and CS theories.

Existing studies that explore TBD, CG, CS and FP in charities are rare. This study distinctively attempts to address this empirical lacuna within the extant literature by providing four new insights with specific focus on UK charities. First, the authors provide new evidence on the relationship between TBD and CS. Second, the authors offer new evidence on the moderating effect of CG on the TBD-CS nexus. Third, the authors provide new evidence on the effect of CS on FP. Finally, the authors offer new evidence on the moderating effect of TBD and CG on the CS–FP nexus.