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The purpose of this study is to develop a set of parameters universally acceptable for assessing design and construction strategies for reducing operational energy usage and its associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Also, the parameters are intended to estimate the quantity of energy and its associated GHG emission reduction over the assessment period.

This study used five steps framework comprising definition of purpose, selecting the candidate parameters, criteria selection and description, selecting proposed parameters and defining the proposed parameters. The criteria used were the parameter’s prevalence, measurability, preference and feasibility toward adaptability to the relevant stakeholders.

This study consolidated 11 parameters. Seven cover designs and construction strategies comprising energy monitoring, natural lighting and ventilation design. Others are building thermal performance, efficient equipments, renewable energy and energy policy. The remaining four consider operational energy consumption, GHG emission quantification and their reduction over time.

Providing suitable indicators for assessing direct and indirect GHG emission with easily accessible data is essential for assessing built environment. The consolidated parameters can be used in developing rating systems, monitoring GHG inventories and activities of building related industries.

This study was conducted at the CEIES UTHM and used 11 existing rating systems open for research purposes, International Panel for Climate Change reports and GHG protocol report and guides and several other standards.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the crucial question of whether gender diversity in boardroom is associated with CEO pay and CEO pay-performance link.

The authors used the data of companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange for a sample consisting of KSE-100 index companies for the period of five years. The authors used the ordinary least square regression technique to test the developed hypotheses. The authors also used the two-step Heckman selection model, two-stage least square regression and propensity score matching method to control the problem of endogeneity.

The authors find reliable evidence of a negative association between gender diversity and CEO pay and of board gender diversity’s strengthening the relationship between CEO pay and firm performance. The authors also find that women director are more effective in setting the optimal contract in non-family-owned firms and firms with dispersed ownership structure as compared to family-owned firms and firms with concentrated ownership structure. Moreover, results also reflect that the influence of board diversity on both CEO pay and CEO pay-performance link is stronger when gender diversity goes beyond tokenism.

The findings have implications in terms of providing the basis for policy makers to accord the same level of importance to gender diversity in the boardroom as well as contributing to the current debate on the desirability of mandating or recommending gender diversity on boardrooms.

This study is among the few studies which investigate the moderating role of boardroom gender diversity on the CEO pay-performance link. In addition, this study contributes to the institutional theory by providing the empirical evidence that the effect boardroom gender diversity on CEO pay and CEO pay-performance link varies by type of ownership.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership and employees' alienative commitment to the organization, both directly and indirectly, via employee social capital. We also test the role of employee political skill as a boundary condition of the indirect spiritual leadership–alienative commitment link.

Time-lagged data were collected from 491 employees in various manufacturing and service organizations. Data were analyzed using structural modeling equation in Mplus (8.6).

Spiritual leadership was negatively associated with alienative commitment, both directly and indirectly, via social capital. Employee political skill moderated the indirect relationship between spiritual leadership and alienative commitment, such that the relationship was stronger when employee political skill was high (vs low).

The demonstration of spiritual leadership's behaviors by both managers and employees can develop employees' social capital at work, which in turn can reduce employees' negative commitment to the organization. Likewise, improving employees' political skills can help leadership diminish alienative commitment.

The present work contributes to the literature on spiritual leadership by foregrounding how and why spiritual leadership undermines employee alienative commitment to the organization. By doing so, the study also enhances the nomological networks of the antecedents and outcomes of social capital and contributes to the scant literature on negative alienative commitment. Given the prevalence and negative repercussions of alienative commitment for employees' and organizations' productivity and performance, our findings are timely and relevant.

The purpose of the study is to consolidate a set of indicators for assessing design and construction phase strategies for reducing operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. They will also estimate the quantity of operational GHG emission and its associated reduction over assessment period.

Five steps framework adopted include defining the purpose of the indicators and selection of candidate indicators. Others are defining the criteria for indicator selection, selecting and defining the proposed indicators. Relevancy, measurability, prevalence, preference, feasibility and adaptability of the indicator were the criteria used for selecting the indicators.

The study consolidated public transport accessibility, sustainable parking space, green vehicle priority, proximity to amenities and alternative modes as indicators for design and construction phase strategies. Transportation accounting and carbon footprint (CFP) and their associated reduction are indicators for operational GHG emission while plan and policy is an indicator for policymakers and stakeholders.

The study shows that providing correct indicators for assessing direct and indirect GHG emission with easy to obtain data is essential for assessment of built environment. Stakeholder can use the indicators in developing new rating systems and researchers as an additional knowledge. Policy makers and stakeholders can use the study in monitoring and rewarding the sustainability and activities of building related industries and organisations.

The study was conducted at the Center for Energy and Industrial Environmental Studies (CEIES) Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia and utilises existing rating systems and tools, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and GHG protocol reports and guides and several other standards, which are open for research.

This study aims to investigate whether the presence of female directors on audit committees affects audit fees in Chinese listed companies. This study also investigates whether the audit committee’s gender diversity moderates the relationship between the firm’s inherent situational factors (e.g. audit complexity and firm risk) and audit fees. Finally, this study investigates whether the effect of the audit committee’s gender diversity on audit fees varies with within-country institutional contingencies (e.g. state-owned enterprises [SOEs] vs non-SOEs and firms that are located in more developed regions vs firms that are located in less developed regions)

This study used the data of all A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for the period from 2009 to 2015. The authors use ordinary least squares regression as a baseline methodology, along with firm fixed effect, Deference in Deference method, two-stage least squares regression, two-stage Heckman model and generalized method of moments models to control for the possible issue of endogeneity.

The study’s findings suggest that the presence of female directors on the audit committee improves internal monitoring and communication, which reduce the perceived audit risk and the need for assurances from external auditors. The results also suggest that female directors demand high-quality audits and further assurance from external auditors when the firm is more complex and riskier. In addition, the results suggest that within-country, institutional factors play significant role in shaping the governance role of gender-diverse audit committee.

The study contributes to the agency theory by providing evidence that the interaction between agency theory and corporate governance “board composition” generates an effective monitoring mechanism and contributing to the institutional theory by finding that role of female directors on audit committee varies from context to another. In addition, this study contributes to literature review of gender diversity in the boardroom by finding the economic benefit of having female directors on audit committee. Finally, this study has implications for policy-makers in promoting regulations to legalize women presence on the board, to external auditors in assessing control risk during planning the audit, to those who responsible for appointing audit committee members.

The authors extend earlier studies by providing novel evidence on the relationship between gender-diverse audit committees and audit fees in terms of both the supply- and demand-side perspectives; that female directors moderate the relationship between firm inherent situational factors (e.g. audit complexity and firm risk) and audit fees; and that the effect of audit committees’ gender diversity on audit fees varies with sub-national institutional contingencies.

In this paper, the authors investigate whether an independent and gender-diverse compensation committee strengthens the relationship between top managers' pay and firm performance in Chinese companies. The authors also investigate whether the independent compensation committee composed of all male directors is effective in designing the optimal contract for executives.

The authors use data from A-share listed companies on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges from 2005 to 2015. As a baseline methodology, the authors use pooled ordinary least square (OLS) regression to draw inferences. In addition, cluster OLS regression, two-stage least square regression, the two-stage Heckman test and the propensity score matching method are also used to control for endogeneity issues.

The authors find evidence that an independent or gender-diverse compensation committee strengthens the link between top managers' pay and firm performance; that the presence of a woman on the compensation committee enhances the positive influence of committee independence on this relationship; that a compensation committee's independence or gender diversity is more effective in designing top managers' compensation in legal-person-controlled firms than they are in state-controlled firms; that gender diversity on the compensation committee is negatively associated with top managers' total pay; and that an independent compensation committee pays top managers more.

The study results highlight the role of an independent compensation committee in designing optimal contracts for top managers. The authors provide empirical evidence that a woman on the compensation committee strengthens its objectivity in determining top managers' compensation. The study finding supports regulatory bodies' recommendations regarding independent and women directors.

The study findings contribute to the recent debate about gender equality around the globe. Given the discrimination against women, many regulatory bodies mandate a quota for women on corporate boards. The study findings support the regulatory bodies' recommendations by highlighting the economic benefit of having women in top management positions.

This study contributes to literature by investigating the largely overlooked questions of whether having a gender-diverse or independent compensation committee strengthens the relationship between top managers' pay and firm performance; whether an independent compensation committee is more efficient in setting executives' pay when it is gender-diverse; and whether the effect of independent directors and female directors on top managers' compensation varies based on the firm's ownership structure. Overall, the main contribution of the study is that the authors provide robust empirical evidence in support of the managerial power axiom.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of corporate governance practices on the post-privatization financial performance of the firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) over the period 2005-2014.

The study uses a two-step dynamic system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation technique for 27 privatized firms by considering a wide range of controlled variables such as managerial shareholdings, board composition, debt financing and stock market development.

The empirical result suggests that the improvement in the firms’ financial performance is attributed to good corporate governance practices through effective board composition, debt financing (leverage) and stock market development. The result further shows no substantial evidence to support that managerial shareholding improves firms’ financial performance.

Therefore, based on the empirical findings of this study, the authors recommend that the firms need to maintain the optimum board composition and the ratio of debt to share capital as well as developing the stock market to function effectively.

This study contributes to the existing literature in several ways: (1) the first time that the role of corporate governance is considered in explaining the post-privatization financial performance of firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange; (2) the paper applies a two-step dynamic system GMM estimation technique, proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998) to control for the serial correlation and heterogeneity, which remain the major weaknesses of the panel data modeling in the literature.

This paper aims to empirically examine the impact of economic development and energy consumption in Saudi Arabia (the leading OPEC giant and the Arab energy icon country) between 1971 and 2015, whilst incorporating globalization, financial development and capital accumulation.

This study uses econometric tools and the analytical framework based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model.

The study found that, unlike economic development, globalization and financial development increased energy consumption. Also, capital accumulation created a boost in the country’s energy consumption. Results of variance decomposition indicate that the innovative shocks in globalization and financial development affected energy consumption at the rates of 15.28% and 28.98%, respectively, over 15 years’ period, while shocks in capital accumulation affected energy consumption at a rate of only about 1.24%. In addition, the results of impulse response function show that globalization and economic development were highly responsive to shocks in financial development, and capital accumulation greatly spurred financial development.

The findings of this study have implication for promoting an efficient and sustainable energy systems that enhance sustainable development based on the accrued benefits of globalization, financial development and capital accumulation.

Given the increasing level of globalization, financial development and energy consumption, our study uses econometric tools and the analytical framework based on the ARDL model to revisit how energy consumption is influenced by economic development in Saudi Arabia by incorporating other determinants of energy consumption such as globalization, financial development and capital accumulation. The results were validated based on the innovative accounting.

The authors examine the impact of audit quality (AQ) on classification shifting (CS) among non-financial firms operating in the UK and Germany.

This paper used various audit committee variables (size, meetings, gender diversity and financial expertise) to measure AQ and its impact on CS. The authors used a total of 2,110 firm-year observations from 2010 to 2019.

The authors found that the presence of female members on the audit committee and audit committee financial expertise deter the UK and German managers from shifting core expenses and revenue items into special items to inflate core earnings. However, audit committee size is positively related to CS among German firms but has no impact on UK firms. The authors also document evidence that audit committee meetings restrain UK managers from engaging in CS. However, the authors found no impact on CS among German firms. The study results hold even after employing several tests.

Overall, the study findings provide broad support in an international setting for the board to improve its auditing practices and offer essential information to investors to assess how AQ affects the financial reporting process.

Most CS studies used market-oriented economies such as the USA and UK and ignored bank-based economies such as Germany, France and Japan. The authors provide a comparison among bank and market-oriented economies on whether the AQ has a similar impact on CS or not among them.