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The aim of this paper is to propose a basis upon which accounting reporting can be developed to reflect real values and the real economy. It aims to address the environmental considerations discussed in the UN debate (Bebbington and Unerman, 2020) and the concern for a “better life-world”, which is the theme of this special issue.

Addressing the task involves the application of the philosophy of pragmatic constructivism (which explains how people can relate to their reality in ways that lead to successful action) and the philosophical concept of the “good life” (which establishes the values to be pursued through action and so defines action success). Also, it outlines the necessary characteristics of measurement frameworks if they are to be effective in the development and control of human practices to achieve desired values.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for guiding the measurement of how a sustainable good life has improved and/or deteriorated as a result of organisational activities. It outlines a system of concepts on basic and instrumental values for analysing the condition of maintaining a sustainable good life in real terms. This is related to the financial results and societal regulations to analyse and adjust controls according to the real economic goals. Also, it provides a system of value measurands to produce valid information about the development of a sustainable good life. The measurand makes accounting reporting reflect the conditions of the good life that constitute the real economy instead of merely the financial economy driven by shareholder capitalism. Providing tools to analyse whether the existing practices of business and social regulations promote or counteract the real economic goals of producing a sustainable good life means the measurement system proposed makes the invisible hand of the market visible.

The mechanism proposed to enable accounting reporting to reflect real values and the real economy is a new conceptual framework that will allow accounting to more fully realise its potential to contribute to a “better world”. In aiming to serve a sustainable good life, accounting reporting will inherently foster ethical social practices.

The literature about the dynamics of Muslims' awareness and perception of waqf has been generally scarce,especially in Nigeria. As renewed efforts are emerging to develop a new waqf regime in the country, this study examines this aspect in Gombe metropolis, Nigeria, with a view to identifying the key factors shaping people's perception and awareness towards waqf.

To achieve the objective of this study, primary data were collected through a survey among 494 business owners in the Gombe metropolis. The data were then analysed using probit and Tobit regression models.

The study found that altruistic behaviour, religiosity level, educational level and young age are among the factors that determine people's perception and awareness towards donating to waqf among business owners in Gombe. Altruism and young age embolden businesspersons to recognise the effectiveness of waqf institutions in solving socioeconomic challenges.

The findings of this study imply that waqf has huge potential in the study area and that with well-structured, organized waqf education programmes within the business community using diverse avenues, a robust waqf sector can be developed.

As far as the study area and the entire Nigerian Islamic economics and finance landscape is concerned, the study has explored a novel research area. Given the infant stage of empirical studies on waqf in Nigeria, there are virtually no previous attempts to examine the awareness and perception of businesspersons towards waqf; variables that are key to the development of an effective sector.

This paper aims to explore the common ethical decision-making challenges faced by financial advisers and how they meet these challenges. The purpose is to identify successful decision-making tools used by investment advisers in doing business ethically. Additionally, the authors uncover common challenges and offer decision-making tools to provide support for supplemental ethics training in the future.

Questions were analyzed through a qualitative approach using individual interviews to examine a range of experiences and attitudes of active financial advisers. The sample was represented by 11 practicing financial advisers affiliated with US independent broker-dealers: six women and five men, each with 10 or more years of experience, ranging in age from 35 to 75. Grounded in four ethical decision-making models, this research examines individual ethical decision-making using individual (internal, personal) and organizational (external, situational) factors.

The method used uncovered struggles and revealed strategies used in making ethical decisions. Two research questions were examined: what are the common ethical decision-making challenges faced by financial advisers in the US financial industry? How do financial advisers handle ethical decision-making challenges? Four themes emerged that impacted ethical decision-making: needs of the individual, needs of others, needs of the firm and needs of the marketplace. Financial advisers identified moral obligation, self-control and consulting with others as major considerations when they contemplate difficult decisions.

A limitation of this review is its small sample size. A more robust sample size from investment advisers with a broader range of experiences could have widened the findings from the study.

Investment advisers can use the findings of this study as a tool for improving their own ethical decision-making or designing training for their employees to be better decision-makers.

The study explores the decision-making experiences of investment advisers to reveal multifaceted, often private struggles that qualitative methods can uncover. The study provides support for the development of additional training in ethical decision-making specific to investment advisers.

This paper aims to evaluate the quality of co-production between lived experience practitioners (LXPs) and professionals in an interactive National Health Service webinar series aimed at supporting people who were diagnosed or identified with borderline personality disorder.

Transcripts from the webinars were subjected to mixed-method examination combining Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) and content analysis (CA).

FDA identified nine discursive objects: diagnosis beyond its medical context, diagnosis as a total explanation, being the other, universality, compassion, hope, faking it, mentalisation and co-production. CA demonstrated those nine discursive objects each corresponded with equalised airtime appropriated by professionals and lived experience practitioners.

The sample was limited and if applied to other mental health settings might reveal different findings. More needs to be understood about the attitudes of professionals and LXPs that support discourse sharing. Although this study has offered evidence of the quality of co-production, it can say very little about whether the co-productive approach offers superior outcomes to other forms of treatment.

Further research could employ FDA and CA to further explore how co-production is being enacted in other situations, with different models, where comparable interventions are delivered. Future research could compare outcomes between co-productive and professional-only interventions.

This study examined naturalistic practice to build new theory in an under-researched area for a substantial mental health population.

The current research takes a closer look at the investment intention of Generation Z and its relation to investing in a speculative market. The study applies the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to understand the dominant factors leading to Generation Z investment decisions in speculative markets. The main objective is to identify whether these decisions are learnt decisions or herd behaviours.

Structural equation modelling is used to evaluate the research model, and examine the mediation effect of financial literacy using bootstrapping in AMOS software. Information was gathered from 271 students studying at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences. The questionnaire used for the survey was adapted from previous related studies examining the TPB.

The findings show financial literacy and behavioural outcome (attitude) are key components associated with investment intention. Motivation to comply (subjective norm) affects the intention to invest if mediated by financial literacy. The subjective norm has no bearing on the intention to invest in a speculative market. This implies social peers have no bearing on their intention to invest unless mediated by financial literacy.

The main limitation of the study is that the group from which the sample is drawn consists of all students at a state-funded university who receive stipends. This limits the applicability of related findings. Furthermore, the variables have dynamic properties, which implies their impacts may vary over time.

Generation Z comprises a large number of small investors who can make a significant difference to the overall economic trends of the country. The digital world, which is time- and space-infinite, is shaping the next generation. It is only possible to reach and sway their opinions by conducting extensive behavioural science research.

Academic institutions ought to be viewed as a resource for conducting additional in-depth research on a variety of subjects to assist and shape the current generation for a better future.

Although the TPB has been used by many researchers to explore the behavioural intention of Generation Z, very few have used financial literacy as a perceived behaviour control to study its direct and indirect effects on behaviour intention.

This paper aims to examine the effects of taqwa (God-consciousness) and syukr (gratitude to God) on emotional intelligence (EI) in a Muslim population in Malaysia.

Structural equation modelling tool AMOS was used to test the study’s hypotheses. In total, data were sourced from 302 Muslim employees working in Malaysia's public and private sectors.

Taqwa and syukr positively influence EI, and people with taqwa and syukr demonstrate greater levels of self-emotional appraisal compared with other emotional appraisals. This study also shows that people with taqwa and syukr give increased priority to understanding and distinguishing positive and negative emotions because of their understanding of Islamic teachings. They also exhibit concern with knowing their emotions well before advising or responding to the emotions of others. This may increase their sense of empathy, thereby improving their emotional competency and EI.

The findings indicate that taqwa and syukr predispose Muslims to EI. This study applied the Qur’anic model of self-development, which connects the origin of emotion with the soul, thereby further enriching the literature on the subject. It also highlights the importance of taqwa and syukr to Muslim employees for achieving EI that is useful in creating a harmonious atmosphere in the workplace and prosperous relationships in society.

An ecologically sustainable future calls for fruitful dialogues between spirituality, modern science and policymaking at large. What could be that connects them all? We found out that ideas about holism exist across time, space, culture and thinkers – ranging from mathematics, philosophy, sociology, medicine, education, religion and quantum physics to finding its roots in ancient Indian Vedic tradition and later usage in Greek and Roman cultures.

This chapter takes a look at the history and intricacies of two seemingly distinct but interconnected fields – spirituality and modern science, particularly quantum science – with an aim to uncover what these fields can teach us about the idea of holism. This chapter, therefore, highlights one of the most fundamental and profound spiritual principles of the unity and interconnectedness of the entire universe – encapsulated in the concept of holism – and its practical applications in approaching sustainable development. We hope to ignite further research on this topic.

World Health Organizations (WHO) (2023) states that governments and employers have a responsibility to uphold that right by providing work that simultaneously prevents workers from experiencing excessive stress and mental health risks. The business environment continues to produce a lot of stress on workers, which includes internal pressures to achieve results and employees suffer the consequences. Some companies have turned to mindfulness as a technique that helps mitigate these consequences and have joined Kaizen as a process improvement technique in the work environment. Therefore, this study has a research purpose: “to comprehend the possible linkage between Kaizen philosophy from an individual perspective, with Mindfulness ZEN Buddhism technique to understand the individual benefit (well-being) of each employee in organizations.” The answer to this represents the research gap in this article. The research questions governing this study are as follows: RQ1: Does Mindfulness is used as Kaizen technique of personal-individual improvement in 21st-century organizations? RQ2: What elements and characteristics of Kaizen and mindfulness can be found working together? And RQ3: Which qualitative impact of mindfulness and Kaizen in the workplace outcome (well-being, performance of the job (process)) and relationships with other employees)?

This research used a qualitative approach due to the recent phenomenon studied. In a certain way, it was used a mixed-method (combination of qualitative data – web search secondary data analysis and qualitative research-Convergence Model). First, it was done an intensive web search with the aim to identify companies' corporate mindfulness programs, along with companies which have applied mindfulness and Kaizen programs. It was identified a group of big companies with global and international presence (“famous” for their products and services) in diverse industrial and service sectors, country of origin and business locations; with the purpose of getting a holistic vision of all organizations which have practice Kaizen and mindfulness. Therefore, this study explored secondary data related to both practices, analyzing reports or briefings published in management magazines and official WEB pages and/or business magazines.

As a result of the triangulation of the data with its secondary data convergence model and qualitative research, a theoretical framework was reached that shows the benefits of the two combined twin techniques of Kaizen and mindfulness. The worker experiences a path that goes from concentrating on the execution of their processes, following their operating standards (Standardize, Do, Check, Act [SDCA] cycle), going through the evolution to continuous improvement or Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, experiencing work with concentration-awareness and reducing your daily stress, maintaining high sensitivity to the work process and your environment and finally, discovering an essential life purpose. Finally, worker experiences benefit when there is wide application of both with the SDCA and PDCA cycles such as high motivation, constant learning from your mistakes, day-to-day learning and the Munen Musso (not using the mind).

The main limitation is the qualitative methodological bias and secondary data research. In addition, to have a theoretical sample. However, the richness of the data helps to overcome this limitation. On the other hand, the qualitative research interviews are for a certain geographical area, therefore, the results cannot be generalized.

The results of this research can shed light on operations managers in the use of techniques for continuous improvement and improvement of people's quality of life, such as mindfulness. In Mexico, they are beginning to be used jointly (twin techniques) to comply with Regulation 035 of psychosocial risk, the researchers are sure that in other countries it will be used in the same way to comply with regulations. However, the research findings show the benefits that can be provided to workers in organizations by applying Kaizen and Mindfulness together.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, according to the literature review, this is the first article that explores the relationship between Kaizen and Mindfulness as twin techniques that help improve the individual quality of life of employees in organizations.

The world needs more Eastern knowledge and, ergo, more consciousness. Humanity will unlikely experience a quantum leap in consciousness if we keep ignoring Eastern and other sources of perennial wisdom in the design and development of our socioeconomic and ecological systems. This chapter aims to bridge the consciousness gap by exploring the meaning and application of Buddhist and Taoist systems thinking to regenerative systemic leadership, design, development and sustainable transformation.

This chapter analyses the crucial role that philosophy plays in management education, particularly in promoting responsible education. The author emphasizes the importance of philosophy in addressing a wide range of social and environmental issues that are prevalent in today's business landscape. From the perspective of science and Taoism, the author highlights how philosophy can enhance the effectiveness of management education. Education is a powerful tool that can be used to bring about positive change in society, both economically and sociologically, and has the potential to respond to the rapidly evolving world of the 21st century. However, traditional education systems have failed to equip individuals with the knowledge, experience, skills and values needed to thrive in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. To address this gap, the author argues that philosophy should be integrated into the traditional curriculum as a core element of liberal arts. By blending technical and analytical skills with systems thinking, critical thinking, innovation, creativity and ethical intelligence, students can develop a more holistic understanding of business and society. Philosophy can broaden the reflectivity horizon of future business leaders, enabling them to manage complexity and make sound decisions that align with both the principles of good business and the needs of society. This chapter underscores the importance of philosophy in management education and its potential to drive transformative change in business and society. By encouraging students to ponder questions that extend beyond the scope of business, philosophy can help cultivate a new generation of ethical and responsible business leaders who are equipped to address the challenges of the 21st century.