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This paper aims to describe the development and validation of the Prison Fellowship Well-being index (PF-WBI), a new quantitative tool for assessing prisoner and staff well-being within prison cultures.

The PF-WBI was developed through an iterative process of item creation, administration alongside established well-being measures and a series of data analyses. Data was collected from both staff and prisoners (n = 989) across four North Dakota prisons.

Analysis supported a four-factor structure for the PF-WBI measuring motivation/self-esteem, relationships/community functioning, hope/mood and stress-related detriments. The PF-WBI demonstrated excellent internal consistency reliability, convergent validity with established well-being measures and criterion-related validity for both staff and prisoners. Measurement invariance across staff and prisoners was also confirmed.

The PF-WBI offers a new and versatile tool for researchers and practitioners to assess staff and prisoner well-being in correctional settings. It can be used to evaluate prison cultures and the effectiveness of culture improvement efforts.

To study the mediating effect of resilience and the moderating effect of gender on the association between satisfaction with life and self-efficacy.

Participants were 211 HR professionals; mediation and moderation hypotheses were tested using PROCESS macro.

Results revealed a significant association between satisfaction with life, self-efficacy and dimensions of resilience. The mediating effect was significant for three dimensions of resilience: positive acceptance, personal competence and trust in one’s instincts. Gender moderated the relationship between satisfaction with life and self-efficacy through positive acceptance and positive competence but not trust in one’s instincts.

Most literature examines satisfaction with life as an outcome measure despite existing calls and alternate theoretical frameworks. This study considers satisfaction with life as a predictor of self-efficacy and resilience. Linkages with theoretical frameworks and implications are discussed.

The 7th decade manager (7DM) is an overlooked and under-researched group in organisation studies. This paper explores the changes which 7DMs experience in later life through the lenses of age, work and identity.

An interpretivist methodology was adopted and data were obtained via semi-structured interviews with 32 managers across 10 different sectors in England and Scotland. These data were analysed thematically.

Change manifested itself in various contradictory ways across three domains of age, work and identity. Age was experienced dichotomously, with these 7DMs identifying as subjectively younger yet openly (if reluctantly) accepting signs of ageing. They appeared more tolerant and kinder but could be impatient and outspoken. Work remained important, providing structure, a sense of purpose and camaraderie; however, career progression was not. Altruistically, the 7DMs exercised generativity by providing their colleagues with counsel in both work and personal matters. Their sense of self and identity work featured prominently, particularly in the liminality associated with the impending cessation of work. Preparation for the psychosocial transition to retirement was lacking.

This project would have benefitted from a larger and broader cohort demographic. Whether there are any significant gender or ethnic differences in attitudes, values or approaches to work cannot be ascertained from the data obtained. Future studies should therefore include a greater diversity of participants. There may also be merit in investigating if any differences exist for the ex-military 7DM manager compared to others.

Organisations can benefit from greater recognition of the value experienced managers in their later working lives can bring. Both the broader community of managers and their employers would benefit from leveraging the experience, knowledge and attributes of older managers in their passage through their 7th decade and better prepare younger people to succeed them.

Different agencies such as government, employers, professional bodies like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Trade Unions or consultancies may wish to explore the benefits and practicalities of preparing the individual for the transition to retirement. Importantly, this should address the psychosocial connotations associated with ceasing work. Whilst this applies to all 7th decade workers, we suggest that there are some challenges that are peculiar to being an older manager.

Whilst much is known about older workers, research relating to older managers, especially those in their seventh decade, is largely absent. This paper illustrates the changes and challenges they experience in both their professional and personal lives, some of which seem to be unique to this age group and many of which would benefit from being addressed in organisational policy and practice as well as further research.

This paper aims to identify the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the academic job market in North America and the ways in which faculty job applicants altered their applications in response to a changing academia.

The data presented here is the portion relevant to COVID-19 collected in a survey of faculty job applicants at the end of the 2019–2020 job cycle in North America (spring 2020). An additional “mid-pandemic” survey was used in fall 2020 for applicants participating in the following job search cycle to inquire about how they were adapting their application materials. A portion of data from the 2020–2022 job cycle surveys was used to represent the “late pandemic.” Job posting data from the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium is also used to study job availability.

Examination of faculty job postings from 2018 to 2022 found that while they decreased in 2020, the market recovered in 2021 and beyond. While the market recovered, approximately 10% of the faculty job offers reported by 2019–2020 survey respondents were rescinded. Respondents also reported altering their application documents in response to the pandemic as well as delaying or even abandoning their faculty job search.

This paper provides a longitudinal perspective with quantitative data on how the academic job market changed through the major events of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America, a subject of intense discussion and stress, particularly amongst early career researchers.

The objective of the study is to investigate the factors that differentiate long-term shareholder value (LTSV) creating firms from LTSV destroying firms.

Through the review of literature, the hypothesis for the study is developed. To test the hypothesis, the study collects data from S&P BSE 500 companies listed in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Based on the average overall return to shareholders for the period from year 1991 to 2019, the study identifies top 25 LTSV creating and LTSV destroying firms. The top 50 firms form the basis of this study. The study uses descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test to test the hypothesis of the study.

Among the variables investigated such as capital management policy and effective capital management practices, business and financial strategy, intellectual capital strategy, relational capital strategy and human capital strategy, the study found effective capital management and governance as a long-term source of value for shareholders.

The study highlights the importance of inclusion of value-relevant information in the annual report of the company. The study also supports the proposition that discretionary disclosure of intangible assets is relevant for the market to enable market participants to reasonably comprehend the fair value of the firm.

Adoption of a reporting framework that ensures the availability of all value-relevant information including off-balance-sheet resources is in the interest of the investors and policymakers alike.

This is a first such study exploring the value-relevant information and the source of long-term value for listed firms.

Extant literature investigating the tax payment behaviour of politically connected firms largely supports the notion that politically connected firms have tax sheltering incentives, i.e. politically connected firms pay significantly less tax. Our paper adds to this stream of literature by considering the tax payment behaviour of two different groups of politically connected firms in Pakistan, viz. civil connected firms and military connected firms.

The paper sheds light on the tax payment behaviour of politically connected firms and provides evidence that the tax incentives of politically connected firms are shaped by the institutional structure and contextual factors.

The results indicate that civil (military) connected firms pay significantly lower (higher) tax than non-connected firms. The findings hold in the face of a number of robustness tests, including the use of alternative proxies for the tax variable and endogeneity concerns.

These results make a significant contribution to the existing literature examining the tax payment behaviour of politically connected firms by providing evidence suggesting that tax sheltering is not the only viable option for politically connected firms; rather, some groups of connected firms have tax under-sheltering incentives. Our findings add to the political cost hypothesis and the signalling hypothesis in relation to tax payment incentives of politically connected firms.

In India, women encounter twofold challenges – declining labour force participation and a widening gender wage gap (GWG). The study explores the precarious position of women during the third decade of economic reforms. It examines the influence of demographic and job characteristics on wages, uncovering socioeconomic imbalances and disentangling wage disparities attributable to productive and non-productive factors.

Using unit-level data from the NSS EUS (2011–12) and PLFS (2018–19), the study employs OLS and quantile regression methods to estimate the contribution of socioeconomic factors in wage determination. It applied Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition alongside other mean-based decomposition approaches. Furthermore, the counterfactual decomposition proposed by Machado–Mata and Melly is also applied.

Structural and socio-cultural barriers continue to depress women’s LFPR and wages. Women remain concentrated at the lower end of the wage spectrum, earning less than men. However, GWG has slightly narrowed, but discrimination remains substantial, which is primarily driven by employers’ undervaluation of women’s work, rooted in prejudice. Additionally, the sticky-floor phenomenon worsened in 2018–19, further hindering upward mobility.

Leveraging recent survey data helps inform policy discourse to promote gender equality and address workplace disparities. It urges policymakers to re-evaluate anti-discrimination measures to combat socioeconomic challenges.

In today’s knowledge societies, scientific research is tasked to contribute to solving crucial problems, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Epistemic inequality, both in terms of who is able to contribute, and whose voices are being heard, could hamper our ability to develop solutions that meet the needs of all.

We assembled a set of publications published from 2006 to 2019 related to three SDGs (Health/Well-Being, Climate Action, Zero Hunger) by mapping Fields of Study from Microsoft Academic Graph to SDGs. Across this set, we investigate patterns of knowledge production, investigating gender, levels of institutional resourcing and contributions by world region, as well as Open Access availability of research.

Research related to the three SDGs is primarily published by researchers from institutions situated in the global North. Well-resourced institutions contribute disproportionately to the study of the three SDGs. The share of authorships by women is rising, but still far away from equity. We find higher ranked institutions to produce more OA articles, with a declining relationship between institutional ranking and the share of OA. Finally, we find overall higher shares of OA publishing across low- and high-income countries, compared to lower and upper medium income countries.

Mapping research contributions to SDGs by leveraging the comprehensive data available from Microsoft Academic Graph adds an important perspective to the study of SDG-related research.

This study aims to investigate the impact of earnings predictability and truthfulness on nonprofessional investors’ investment willingness.

Earnings predictability is captured by quarterly earnings autocorrelation, and earnings truthfulness is indicated by real earnings management (REM). The average of investment attractiveness and willingness measures investment willingness. The authors use experiments to isolate the impact of quarterly earnings autocorrelation and REM on investors’ investment behaviors.

From the 2 × 2 design, the authors observe that investors weight more on earnings predictability than earnings truthfulness.

The generalization of the findings may be constrained for the following reasons. First, the authors use only one proxy, REM, to measure earnings truthfulness. In addition, the authors provide the participants, Amazon Mechanical Turk, with earnings predictability. Results may no longer hold if each participant has different understanding and analysis of earnings predictability.

In periods of unprecedented and severe financial uncertainty (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic), investors rely more on earnings predictability than on earnings truthfulness. The study assists managers to strategically emphasize the predictability of earnings to attract investors, especially when firms face financial challenges or uncertainty.

This study contributes to understanding investor behavior and the critical role of earnings predictability and truthfulness in shaping investment decisions.

This paper contributes to the literature of earnings properties in financial reporting, particularly by shedding light on the nuanced interplay between earnings predictability and earnings truthfulness. The research also demonstrates that elevated earnings autocorrelation indirectly stimulates investment willingness by enhancing the investors’ perception of earnings persistence of targeted firms.

This study aims to analyze the adoption of open access (OA) publishing in social sciences within central universities in India, focusing on various aspects such as the growth of OA literature, the use of different OA routes and collaboration patterns in OA publications.

Ten central universities were selected based on their rankings in the National Institute Ranking Framework 2022. Data on OA publishing in social sciences were collected from the Social Science Citation Index of the Web of Science (WoS) database using the advanced search query “(CU=India OR AD=India) AND PY=(2003–2022) NOT PY=(2023).” Data analysis was conducted using MS Excel (v16.0), BibExcel (version 2017), Biblioshiny (version 4.1.2) and Google Open Refine (version 3.7).

The study found that 30.40% of total publications were OA, with BHU as leading institute in OA publishing. OA publishing in social sciences saw a consistent increase, peaking in 2022 with 209 publications. “Sustainability” and “Plos One” were among the top ten journals, with 103 and 34 OA papers, respectively. OA publications had a higher mean citation rate than closed access publications. Collaboration with seven and nine authors had higher mean citation rates, while six-author collaborations were lower. Indian researchers received the most citations collaborating with the USA, UK and Australia. The Netherlands and Saudi Arabia received the fewer citations, when collaborating with Indian authors.

The study’s main limitation is its reliance on WoS data, excluding many OA publications from smaller or specialized journals. Additionally, the focus on high-ranked central universities may not represent the entire academic landscape, as OA publishing patterns vary across other institutions and disciplines.

The study’s findings suggest that advancing OA publishing in social sciences at Indian universities requires raising awareness of OA concepts, enhancing institutional support and policies and informing researchers about funding opportunities. Emphasizing Gold OA and funding publication fees can broaden access to research. Universities with low OA ratios should adopt similar policies, mandate public research deposits and develop technical infrastructure. Encouraging multi-author collaborations can boost research impact and citation rates. Insights from the study can help institutions and policymakers shape effective OA strategies, enhancing the visibility and impact of social science research.

This is the first study analyzing the adoption of OA in the field of social sciences in high-ranked central universities in India. It has implications for promoting OA and increasing accessibility to research outputs. Universities with higher OA ratios can lead in this regard and encourage others to adopt similar practices for overall OA growth.