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The purpose of this paper is to have a deeper understanding of the nonlinear relationship between the impact of climate change on tourism development. Current studies on the effects of climate change on tourism development primarily rely on linear correlation assumptions.

Based on the New Institutional Economics theory, the institutional setting inherently motivates and ensures the growth of the tourism industry. For a precise evaluation of the nonlinear consequences of climate change on tourism, this paper concentrates on Chinese cities between 2011 and 2021, methodically analyzing the influence of climate change on tourism.

The study findings suggest that there is an “inverse U”-shaped nonlinear relationship between climate change and tourism development, initially strengthening and subsequently weakening. Based on these findings, the research further delves into how institutional contexts shape the nonlinear association between climate change and tourism growth. It was found that in a higher institutional backdrop, the “inverse U” curve tends to flatten and surpass the curve adjusted for a lesser institutional context. Upon deeper mechanism analysis, it was observed that cities with more advanced marketization, improved industrial restructuring and enhanced educational growth exhibit a more evident “inverse U”-shaped nonlinear connection between climate change and tourism evolution.

First, previous studies on climate change and tourism development largely rely on questionnaire data (Hu et al., 2022). In contrast to these studies, this paper uses dynamic panel data, which to some extent overcomes the subjectivity and difficulty of causality identification in questionnaire data, making our research conclusions more accurate and reliable. Second, this study breaks through the linear relationship hypothesis of previous literature regarding climate change and tourism development. By evaluating the nonlinear relationship of climate change to tourism development from the institutional pressure perspective, it more intricately delineates their interplay mechanism, expanding and supplementing the research literature on the relationship mechanism between climate change and tourism development. Thirdly, the conclusions of this study are beneficial for policymakers to better understand and assess the scope of climate change impacts. It also aids relevant departments in clarifying the direction of institutional environment optimization to elevate the level of tourism development when faced with adverse impacts brought about by climate change.

This paper aims to challenge the view of Sweden’s climate leadership by problematizing its domestic climate adaptation governance and highlighting the need for a more holistic view of adaptation. The paper highlights aspects that are troublesome for not only the built environment along coastlines but also the future of Sweden’s standing as a climate leader. The paper concludes with recommendations addressing the key areas of climate adaptation fragmentation in Sweden and calls for a more holistic view of adaptation, and one that takes into account resources, collaboration and coherence of governance vision.

The paper is a comprehensive analysis of internal governance processes in climate change adaptation. It is based on an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews at the local level – i.e. municipalities – who have the primary responsibility for adaptation to climate change in Sweden.

Findings point to three-fold concerns. First, there is a lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities in adaptation among municipalities, regions and governmental agencies. Second, the gap between available finance and actual needs for climate change adaptation presents a major challenge when channels and pathways are not clear either. Finally, some adaptation strategies on both the local and national scales may be maladaptive in the long term.

Sweden consistently ranks highly in different climate performance indices and has acquired an international reputation as a climate leader. The paper challenges this narrative. Through a closer look the paper’s findings reveal a more fragmented picture of climate adaptation governance in the country with a myriad of unresolved questions and ad hoc solutions, where adaptation challenges are more pronounced and manifest in the built environment along the coastlines.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the institutional environment influences auditor reporting.

This study employs China's anti-corruption campaign as an exogenous shock to its institutional environment and compares auditors' issuance of modified audit opinions (MAOs) to small-profit clients before and during the campaign.

This study documents that small-profit clients were more likely to receive MAOs during the anti-corruption campaign period than before, indicating that auditors issued more conservative audit opinions to small-profit clients because of the anti-corruption campaign. Additionally, this study finds that increased auditor conservatism was more pronounced for auditors of large clients.

This study suggests that a weak institutional environment adversely affects auditor conservatism. This offers valuable insights for governments and regulators to improve the audit environment and for audit firms to enhance auditors' integrity and independence.

This study contributes to the research on institutional environments and auditing by observing a unique exogenous event.

The primary objective of this research is to chronicle how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other United States Federal Government Agencies (USFGA) agencies have played a role in shaping the trajectory of financial reporting for sustainability, with a particular emphasis on triple bottom line (TBL). This exploration extends to other indexes reporting sustainability data encompassed within financial, social and environmental reporting.

This study adopts an illustrative methodology, utilizing data sourced from governmental, business and international organizational documents.

Sustainability accounting predominantly finds its place within the framework of TBL. However, it is crucial to note that sustainability reporting remains voluntary rather than mandatory. Nevertheless, accounting firms and professional accounting societies have embraced it as a supplementary facet of financial accounting reporting.

The research highlights the historical evolution of sustainability within the USFGA and corporate entities. Corporations’ interest in accounting for sustainability performances has significantly contributed to the emergence of voluntary sustainability accounting rules, as embodied by the TBL.

To assess which partnerships were most critical during the recovery planning process following Hurricanes Maria and Irma. We discuss the roles and impact of different types of partners, barriers and facilitators to partnerships and lessons in collaboration during the development of the economic and disaster recovery plan for Puerto Rico.

The Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) was tasked with assisting the Puerto Rican government with an assessment of damages from Hurricanes Maria and Irma and the development of the Recovery Plan. During the process, a small team compiled and coded a database of meetings with non-HSOAC partners. The team was divided into sector teams that mirrored FEMA’s Recovery Support Functions. Each sector completed two surveys identifying high impact partners and their roles and contributions, as well as barriers and facilitators to partnerships.

A total of 1,382 engagements were recorded across all sectors over seven months. The most frequently identified high impact partners were federal and Puerto Rican governmental organizations partners. NGOs and nonprofits were noted as key partners in obtaining community perspective. Sector teams cited a lack of trust and difficulty identifying partners as barriers to partner engagement. Given the expedited nature of disaster response, establishing partnerships before disasters occur may help facilitate community input. Early networking, increased transparency and defining roles and responsibilities may increase trust and effectiveness among partnerships.

To our knowledge, this is one of the few studies that quantifies and illustrates the partnerships formed and their contributions during recovery planning, and lessons learned.

This study aims to investigate the extent to which audit committee (AC) members who are formally independent are truly independent in practice, and what challenges they face that undermine their independence.

The study utilizes semi-structured interviews with 18 members of the AC in Jordan.

The responses indicate that AC is mostly labelled as independent but fails to play an effective monitoring role due to different institutional factors. These factors include family ownership, government ownership, culture, compensation package and the lack of qualified directors.

This research addresses this gap by presenting qualitative evidence from a civil law jurisdiction, featured by a developing financial market, a prevalence of family businesses, limited investor protection and a low risk of litigation. Additionally, this study aims to rectify the current imbalance between qualitative and quantitative studies on AC and bridge the gap between research conducted in developed countries and their developing counterparts.

This study offers valuable insights for regulatory authorities to engage in a more profound contemplation of extant governance regulations. Also, this study offers useful feedback for nomination committees of public companies, and it also has an implication for shareholders as they rely on independent directors to protect their investment. Furthermore, implications of the findings derived from this research possess the potential for generalization to other developing nations characterized by akin institutional contexts, notably encompassing the countries situated in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

This research introduces novel qualitative empirical evidence from a distinctive jurisdiction governed by civil law, thereby enriching the existing scholarly discourse. It also contributes to the AC literature by suggesting that it is not only the existence of conventionally independent ACs that affect the integrity of financial statements, but also the absence of social ties and other contextual obstacles.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a framework for the implementation of freedom of information (FOI) legislation in South Africa, against Article 19’s nine principles of FOI legislation.

This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to collect data from six experts selected by means of the snowball sampling technique and content analysis. The study used a modified Delphi design consisting of two rounds of interviews.

The results showed that little effort is made by government officials to demonstrate commitment to the implementation of FOI legislation.

The passing of FOI is expected to reduce corruption, increase public participation, reduce the level of secrecy and increase transparency and openness. This is not the case as the implementation of this socioeconomic right in South Africa is faced by numerous challenges, such as a lack of political will, secrecy laws providing for the opposite of what the FOI legislation seeks to achieve, poor legislative interpretation and a lack of clear policies. The study proposes a framework aimed at addressing these challenges.

The study provides a framework for the implementation of FOI legislation. The framework was developed under the guidance of Article 19 principles of freedom of information legislation.

The mounting focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in business has sparked substantial curiosity in understanding the nexus between ESG and the companies’ strategic decisions. This study aims to investigate the influence of firms’ ESG disclosure scores on their dividend payout. Furthermore, it examines the nuanced dynamics of this relationship by exploring the moderating role of the country’s investor protection regulations and regulatory enforcement.

This study uses pooled ordinary least square regression with year, industry and country effects. It analyzes a balanced panel data set of 192 non-financial firms drawn from the primary equity indices of BRICS nations. This study examined the data of six years spanning 2015–2020.

The findings discover a significantly positive relationship between ESG scores and dividend payout ratio, conveying that firms with higher ESG scores allocate more of their profits as dividends. Furthermore, the finding reveals that country-level robust investor protection and effective regulatory enforcement mechanisms undermine the positive association between ESG ratings and payouts of dividends, suggesting that the ESG disclosure of firms operating in a setting characterized by enhanced investor safeguards and stricter regulatory oversight will exert less influence on their dividend decisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to concentrate on the ESG–dividend nexus in the BRICS countries. Furthermore, this study used each country’s investor protection index and regulatory enforcement scores to comprehend the influence of country-level legal frameworks in shaping the relationship between ESG and dividend decisions, thus adding value to the existing literature on corporate sustainability.

This paper aims to examine the extent to which these reforms address the limitations of Saudi Arabia’s previous investment framework. Long viewed as a hostile environment in which to do business, the Saudi Government has enacted a broad sweep of measures aimed at restoring investor confidence in central aspects of the country’s evolving private law framework.

This paper offers a timely assessment of the raft of foreign investment reforms, both legislative and regulatory, that have been introduced in Saudi Arabia over the last decade.

The paper will proceed by outlining the perceived failings of the old investment regime before going on to reforms.

It will consider the remaining obstacles to the flow of foreign investment in Saudi Arabia in the context of the dual forces that have historically defined the Kingdom’s ambivalent investment law regime.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of budgeting process elements (budget participation, preparation, implementation and evaluation) on budget performance of government.

A cross-sectional survey was administered among budget officers from government agencies, departments, and units in Malaysia. Descriptive and regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between the budgeting process and budget performance.

The findings revealed the significant influence of the two predictors: (1) budget participation and (2) budget implementation and evaluation, on budget performance. Both have positive and significant impacts on budget performance. However, budget preparation appeared to have no significant relationship with budget performance, although there is positive effect.

This study provides empirical evidence on the budgeting process factors that influence budget performance. The findings hopefully are of interest to government officials, especially frontline bureaucrats, who seek to ensure that budget performance meets expectations in Malaysia and other countries.