Search results

The present study is intended to assess the risk factors associated with digital buying. Also aims to design and develop an instrument to assess the digital buyers risk factor score (DBRFS) in light of pandemic.

Present investigation uses a quantitative approach to achieve the stated objectives. The survey instrument for the purpose of assessing risk factors associated with digital buying was developed in two phases. The present study adopts theory of planned behaviour (TPB), built based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA). The data were collected and analysed considering 500 valid responses, sampling unit being digital buyers using social media platforms in tyre-II city of India. The data collection was undertaken between June 2021 and August 2021. The instrument is designed and validated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

The present research identified six perceived risk factors that are associated with digital buying; contractual risk, social risk, psychological risk, perceived quality risk, financial risk and time risk. The DBRFS of male is 3.7585, while female is 3.7137. Thus, risk taking by the male and female is at par. For the age group 15–30, DBRFS is 3.6761, while age group 31–45 noted as 3.7889 and for the 46–50 age groups it is measured as 3.9649.

The marketers are expected to have the knowledge about how people responds to the pandemic. The outcome of the research helps to understand consumer behaviour but disentangling consumer’s “black box” is challenging especially during global distress. The present study outcome helps the digital shopkeepers to respond positively to meet the needs of digital buying.

The scale development and to quantify the DBRFS. A deeper understanding of about digital consumers during pandemics will help digital shopkeepers to connect issues related digital buying.

This study aims to evaluate and compare the quality of work life (QWL) of nurses, in pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic situations.

The study adopts a descriptive research design. Data were collected during the pre- and post-pandemic periods. The target sampling unit of the study comprises nurses working in Bangalore city, Karnataka, India. The minimum sample size was determined (Bartlett et al., 2001) as 385. The scale validation is carried out. The factors for the present study were explored using exploratory factor analysis and confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Model fitness (proposed measurement model) is ensured by using fit indices. The linear regression method was used to measure the level of QWL of nurses.

The present study noted that key factors that affects the QWL of nursing staff are work condition; work environment; work-life balance; compensation and reward; career development; job satisfaction and security; organization culture; relationship among co-workers and stress. Further, it is noticed that QWL of nurses pre-COVID-19 pandemic is 87.2%, while post-COVID-19 pandemic, it is 67%.

Present study can be extended to address the same research question by considering sampling unit such as therapist, technicians and sanitarians who have equally undergone tremendous pressure during pandemic.

The study outcome provides references for organizations engaged in health services to understand the extreme job conditions posed by pandemic. The constructive inspiration (physio-social and organizational support) reinforces the nurses to continue in their professions by decreasing negative impact.

The research paper extends the contributions of Hwang (2002), Nikeghbal et al. (2021), Howie–Esquivel et al. (2022) and Rania et al. (2023) and add to the existing body of the QWL literature. The outcome of the research records the prevailing conditions of pandemic and its effect on changes in work environment with specific reference to health-care sector.

This paper aims to design, develop and validate an instrument to measure employer branding by considering existing employee perceptions.

In this systematic research, the predominant factors of employer branding are identified through Pareto analysis; using structured questionnaire information and data collected from 423 employees. The number of items and dimensions was reduced by conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and validated extracted dimensions using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using statistical software (SPSS-21). The designed scale was verified by applying relevant statistical techniques, including a multicollinearity test, construct validity, content validity, divergent validity, convergent validity and reliability test. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using AMOS, to explore the interrelationship between the dimensions of the scale.

Considering the perception of existing employees, seven factors along with 24 items scale were designed and developed to measure the employer branding. The identified seven factors are; career development opportunities; compensation and benefits; corporate social responsibility; training and development; work environment; organizational culture; and work-life balance. The proposed model explains a total variance of 70.35% and the model fit indices are within the acceptable range, validity and statistical reliability are established for seven dimensions of employer branding.

Employer branding is studied from existing employee perspective by collecting responses from the employees of the IT sector only.

This validated scale is valuable for practitioners and academicians. The proposed dimensions in the scale may help practitioners explore the impact on the outcomes of organizations such as employee commitment, employee retention, employee satisfaction and total productivity. This novel instrument helps to measure employees' perception of their employers. Further, the authors identify the gaps and accordingly plan strategies to attract and retain the talented workforce.

The authors believe that this novel measuring instrument is comprehensive and the first of its kind. Employer branding has been modeled using SEM analysis by considering the perceptions of the present employees.

This study aims to explore the mediating role of self-efficacy and the relationship between job satisfaction and employee commitment.

The study is designed based on social cognitive theory. To collect the data, survey method is used in the present study. Questionnaires were distributed to the 75 randomly selected textile industry registered and located in Bengaluru city, India. Employees of 71 organizations participated in the survey. Out of 700 employees who received the email survey, 452 valid responses were considered for the data analysis. To examine the defined research hypothesis, a structural equation model is used.

The mediating analysis explored that the direct effect is 0.700, the indirect effect is 0.1730 and the total effect is 0.8731; it indicated that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between job satisfaction and employee commitment. Research also reveals that there is a positive relationship between self-efficacy, employee commitment and job satisfaction of employees working in the textile industry. The proposed measurement model statistics are as follows: CMIN = 2.322; df = 49; GFI = 0.958; AGFI = 0.934; NFI = 0.943; RFI = 0.923; IFI = 0.967; TLI = 0.955; CFI = 0.966. All these indices were nearer to unity.

The research findings provide insights to the management, practitioners and employers about the status of job satisfaction, self-efficacy and commitment of employees in textile organizations which will help make the strategies to increase the overall performance of the organization by enhancing the levels of job satisfaction, self-efficacy and commitment of textile industry employees.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that tests the relationship among self-efficacy, job satisfaction and the mediating effect of self-efficacy of employees in Indian textile industries.

Prior studies suggest that, in an industry in which several public firms operate (i.e. greater public firm presence), uncertainty about business operations within the industry is reduced due to greater analyst coverage and quality of information disclosure. In this study, the authors examine how UK private firms respond to investment opportunities in fixed intangible assets (FIAs) in an environment characterised by greater public firm presence (PFP).

Using data from 61,278 (1,358) private (public) UK firms operating in ten sectors spanning from 2006 to 2016, the authors conduct this analysis by using panel econometric techniques.

The authors observe that private firms are more responsive to their FIA investment opportunities when they operate in industries with more PFP. Also, the authors find that firms in industries with better information quality use more debt and have longer debt maturity security but less internal cash flow. Overall, the findings indicate that PFP generates positive externalities for private firms by lessening industry uncertainty and enhancing more efficient FIA investment. The results are robust to endogeneity concerns.

A key limitation of the study is that it focuses on a single country (the UK) and therefore there is a likelihood that the results found are specific to this setting but not others, particularly developing and emerging economies. Thus, future studies could explore these ideas from the viewpoint of multiple countries.

Overall, the study demonstrates the importance of information disclosure in driving investment decisions of firms.

While this paper builds on the information disclosure and corporate investment literature, it is one of the first attempts, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to explore how private UK firms respond to investment in FIAs in an environment characterised by greater PFP.

This study aims to examine the association between fair value accounting and the cost of corporate bonds, proxied by bond yield spread. In addition, this study explores the moderating role of auditor industry expertise at both the national and the city levels.

This study first examines the effect of the use of fair value on yield spread by estimating firm-level regression model, where fair value is the testing variable and yield spread is the dependent variable. To test the differential impact of the three levels of fair value inputs, this paper divides the fair value measures based on the three-level hierarchy, Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3, and replace them as the test variables in the regression model.

This study finds that the application of fair value accounting is generally associated with a higher bond yield spread, primarily driven by Level 3 estimates. The results also show that national-level auditor industry expertise is associated with lower bond yield spreads for Level 1 and Level 3 fair value inputs, whereas the impact of city-level auditor industry expertise on bondholders is mainly on Level 3 fair value inputs.

The paper innovates by exploring the impact of fair value accounting in a setting that extends beyond financial institutions, the traditional area of focus. Moreover, most prior research considers private debt, whereas this study examines public bonds, for which investors are more likely to rely on financial reporting for their information about a firm. Finally, the study differentiates between city- and national-level industry expertise in examining the role of auditors.

This research has several practical implications. First, firms seeking to raise debt capital should consider involving auditors, with either industry expertise or fair value expertise, due to the roles that auditors play in safeguarding the reliability of fair value measures, particularly for Level 3 measurements. Second, from standard-setting and regulatory perspectives, the study’s findings that fair value accounting is associated with higher bond yield spread cast further doubt on the net benefits of applying a full fair value accounting regime. Third, PCAOB may consider enhancing guidance to auditors on Level 2 fair value inputs, to further enhance audit quality. Finally, creditors can be more cautious in interpretating accounting information based on fair value while viewing the employment of auditor experts as a positive signal.

First, the paper extends research on the role of accounting information in public debt contracting. Second, this study adds to the auditing literature about the impact of industry expertise. Finally, and more generally, this study adds to the ongoing controversy on the application of fair value accounting.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and leverage manipulation and the moderating effects of internal and external supervision.

The authors draw on a sample of Chinese non-financial A-share-listed firms from 2013 to 2020 to explore the effect of ESG ratings on leverage manipulation. Robustness and endogeneity tests confirm the validity of the regression results.

ESG ratings inhibit leverage manipulation by improving social reputation, information transparency and financing constraints. This effect is weakened by internal supervision, captured by the ratio of institutional investor ownership, and strengthened by external supervision, captured by the level of marketization. The effect is stronger in non-state-owned firms and firms in non-polluting industries. The governance dimension of ESG exhibits the strongest effect, with comprehensive environmental governance ratings and social governance ratings also suppressing leverage manipulation.

Firms should strive to cultivate environmental awareness, fulfil their social responsibilities and enhance internal governance, which may help to strengthen the firm’s sustainability orientation, mitigate opportunistic behaviours and ultimately contribute to high-quality firm development. The top managers of firms should exercise self-restraint and take the initiative to reduce leverage manipulation by establishing an appropriate governance structure and sustainable business operation system that incorporate environmental and social governance in addition to general governance.

Policymakers and regulators should formulate unified guidelines with comprehensive criteria to improve the scope and quality of ESG information disclosure and provide specific guidance on ESG practice for firms. Investors should incorporate ESG ratings into their investment decision framework to lower their portfolio risk.

This study contributes to the literature in four ways. Firstly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is among the first to show that high ESG ratings may mitigate firms’ opportunistic behaviours. Secondly, it identifies the governance factor of leverage manipulation from the perspective of firms’ subjective sustainability orientation. Thirdly, it demonstrates that the relationship between ESG ratings and leverage manipulation varies with the level of internal and external supervision. Finally, it highlights the importance of governance in guaranteeing the other two dimensions’ roles by decomposing overall ESG.

Engaged employees assure organizational competitiveness and sustainability. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between job resources and employee turnover intentions, with employee engagement as a mediating variable.

Data were collected from 934 employees of eight wholly-owned pharmaceutical industries. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Construct reliability and validity was established through confirmatory factor analysis.

Data supported the hypothesized relationship. The results show that job autonomy and employee engagement were significantly associated. Supervisory support and employee engagement were significantly associated. However, performance feedback and employee engagement were nonsignificantly associated. Employee engagement had a significant influence on employee turnover intentions. The results further show that employee engagement mediates the association between job resources and employee turnover intentions.

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s pharmaceutical industry focus and cross-sectional data.

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers for stakeholders and decision-makers in the pharmacuetical industry to develop a proactive and well-articulated employee engagement intervention to ensure organizational effectiveness, innovativeness and competitiveness.

By empirically demonstrating that employee engagement mediates the nexus of job resources and employee turnover intentions, the study adds to the corpus of literature.

This program evaluation aimed to investigate the benefits and challenges of an international, intercultural, e-community-engagement experience involving youth and higher education students. The authors sought to understand the meaning that participants would make of an international, intercultural, e-community-engagement experience.

The program evaluation component of this project was qualitative, participatory and action-oriented. It was composed of online reflection sessions with small, international groups of higher education students from Iraq, India, Morocco, South Africa and the USA immediately following each of five interactive exchange sessions with youth from South Africa. It also included one culminating reflection session to which all of the higher education student participants were invited and a written questionnaire that was completed by the youth participants at the conclusion of the project. The reflection sessions were recorded and transcribed. Transcripts and survey data were reviewed for emergent themes.

Cultural exposure emerged as the primary theme with participants valuing the opportunity to learn about different cultures and to connect with individuals from across the globe.

This program evaluation was not designed as a generalizable study. This pilot initiative provides evidence of the potential value and importance of international, intercultural e-community-engagement experiences for youth and higher education students.

The potential value of technology to build exchange opportunities for young people is immense and largely untapped. International, intercultural e-community-engagement initiatives can be made available to students globally with relatively limited resources. A highly structured and focused plan provides clarity about expectations and requirements for students. A high level of commitment is required by all participants, including the faculty coordinators.

Although the project was brief, exposure to numerous countries and cultures allowed participants to challenge their assumptions about different peoples and places in the world. The potential benefits for greater compassion and understanding of communities and cultures in an international context are high.

This program evaluation contributes to and extends the literature on the possibilities and challenges of international e-community-engagement; it demonstrates the potential for e-community-engagement across multiple countries to broaden students' exposure to and interest in global perspectives.

This study aims to develop a model based on the financial variables for better accuracy of financial distress prediction on the sample of private French, Spanish and Italian firms. Thus, firms in financial difficulties could timely request for troubled debt restructuring (TDR) to continue business.

This study used a sample of 312 distressed and 312 non-distressed firms. It includes 60 French, 21 Spanish and 231 Italian firms in both distressed and non-distressed groups. The data are extracted from the ORBIS database. First, the authors develop a new model by replacing a ratio in the original Z”-Score model specifically for financial distress prediction and estimate its coefficients based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Second, using the modified Z”-Score model, the authors develop a firm TDR probability index for distressed and non-distressed firms based on the logistic regression model.

The new model (modified Z”-Score), specifically for financial distress prediction, represents higher prediction accuracy. Moreover, the firm TDR probability index accurately depicts the probabilities trend for both groups of distressed and non-distressed firms.

The findings of this study are conclusive. However, the sample size is small. Therefore, further studies could extend the application of the prediction model developed in this study to all the EU countries.

This study has important practical implications. This study responds to the EU directive call by developing the financial distress prediction model to allow debtors to do timely debt restructuring and thus continue their businesses. Therefore, this study could be useful for practitioners and firm stakeholders, such as banks and other creditors, and investors.

This study significantly contributes to the literature in several ways. First, this study develops a model for predicting financial distress based on the argument that corporate bankruptcy and financial distress are distinct events. However, the original Z”-Score model is intended for failure prediction. Moreover, the recent literature suggests modifying and extending the prediction models. Second, the new model is tested using a sample of firms from three countries that share similarities in their TDR laws.