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Risk information provides information to enable stakeholders to make informed decisions about a company. Corporate communications should be readable and unbiased so as not to hamper disclosure usefulness. This study assesses whether risk disclosures in the integrated reports are readable and unbiased.

The readability and narrative tone of South African listed companies' risk and risk management disclosures as disclosed in their integrated reports are analysed using automated software for the Top 40 JSE listed companies from 2015 to 2019.

The results show that risk and risk management disclosures are unreadable and lack any improvement in readability during the period. Additionally, these disclosures are biased toward narrative tones signalling communality and certainty.

The study adds to the literature on the readability of corporate reports, by focussing on the readability and narrative tone of risk and risk management disclosures during a period of increased scrutiny over the content of such disclosures. Also, by analysing risk disclosure and risk management disclosure separately, and by performing trend analysis to determine whether requirement changes related to content (specifically King IV) affect readability and narrative tones.

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.

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.

This study explored how the use of different social media is related to subjective well-being among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

We surveyed 1,681 university students in the Kanto region of Japan in May 2021 to investigate how social media use relates to subjective well-being. We also examined the effects of self-consciousness and friendship, self-presentation desire, generalized trust, online communication skills, depression tendency and social support from others.

The responses revealed 15 possible patterns of social media usage on four widely used social media in Japan (LINE, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook). We selected users with the top five patterns for further statistical analyses: LINE/Twitter/Instagram/Facebook, LINE/Twitter/Instagram, LINE/Twitter, LINE/Instagram and LINE only. Overall, self-establishment as a factor of self-consciousness and friendship, and social support from others had positive effects on the improvement of subjective well-being, whereas depression tendency had negative effects on their subjective well-being regardless of their usage patterns, of which the results of social support from others and depression tendency were consistent with the results of previous studies. Regarding other factors, they had different effects on subjective well-being due to different patterns. Effects on subjective well-being from self-indeterminate and self-independency as factors of self-consciousness and friendship, praise acquisition, self-appeal and topic avoidance as factors of self-presentation desire were observed.

This is among the earliest studies on the relationship between young generations’ social media use and subjective well-being through social media usage patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

The purpose of this paper is to meet Dr Claude-Hélène Mayer, Professor in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.

This is a qualitative positive autoethnographic case study. Mayer uses positive autoethnography to reflect on mental health, positive psychology and leadership across the life span. The first author also responds to ten questions.

Leadership can be developed and appreciated in others. Leadership can be a positive and transformative force that can assist and contribute to mental health and well-being. Positive leadership can be supported by developing wisdom, creativity, critical thinking and conflict and emotional management.

Qualitative research cannot be generalised. Positive autoethnography reflects the views and experiences of the author, in this case a transdisciplinary and transcultural researcher and practitioner.

Readers will find a range of practical recommendations as to how to develop mental health and leadership and stay positive in challenging times. Academic literature relating to practical recommendations is also shared.

Positive leadership has many social implications. It can be a constructive influence that impacts our lives and benefits our personal development, but also one that impacts the lives and benefits the personal development of other people.

In this original paper, Dr Claude-Hélène Mayer shares mental health, positive psychology and leadership experiences and recommendations. Leadership skills are of particular value in times of complex change.

This study investigated the influence of teachers on undergraduate students’ development of research aspirations and the mechanisms behind this process.

Employing social cognitive career theory, the study gathered data from 232 undergraduates, developed a structural equation model via the maximum likelihood method and executed empirical testing.

The findings reveal that neither direct nor emotional mentoring independently satisfies students’ needs for self-efficacy and aspiration in research nor significantly influences research interest. Specifically, the study demonstrates that (1) research self-efficacy, outcome expectations and research interest significantly shape research aspirations; (2) an overemphasis on direct mentoring might impede research aspiration development and (3) a focus on emotional mentoring, while overlooking direct mentoring, could result in diminished research self-efficacy.

This research pioneers a comprehensive analysis of the role of teachers in shaping undergraduate research aspirations through the lens of social cognitive career theory. It underscores the critical need to both balance mentoring approaches and foster intrinsic research motivation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of political skills of faculty members in Chinese universities on their tendency to obtain knowledge shared by their colleagues, as well as their tendency to share knowledge with their colleagues. Moreover, this study investigated the role of collectivistic culture in a workplace as the moderating variable that may influence the effect of political skill on knowledge sharing.

Survey data were obtained from 387 faculty members across six universities located in the northern and the central cities of China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used as the statistical method for data analysis.

The results provided significant evidence that supported the positive effect of political skill on knowledge sharing. Furthermore, the moderating effect analysis showed that in the workplaces that had strong collectivist culture, the degree to which employees obtained knowledge shared by others, as well as the willingness of employees to share their knowledge to others, was more likely to happen as compared to that in the workplaces that had a weak collectivist culture.

As part of human capital development policies, political skill training could be an intervention to promote knowledge sharing among faculty members. The training may be particularly helpful to promote knowledge sharing in a workplace that adopts individualistic culture more than in a workplace that adopts collectivistic culture.

This study provided new evidence that extended previous studies by unveiling the moderating effect of collectivist culture in a workplace that was found to reduce the effect of political skill on knowledge sharing.

Algorithmic monitoring has been widely applied to the practice of platform economy as a management means. Despite its benefits, negative effects of algorithmic monitoring are gradually emerging.

Based on moral disengagement theory, this research aims to investigate how algorithmic monitoring might affect gig workers’ attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, we explored the effect of algorithmic monitoring on gig workers’ unethical behavior. A three-wave survey was conducted online, and the sample consisted of 318 responses from Chinese gig workers.

The results revealed that algorithmic monitoring positively affected unethical behavior through displacement of responsibility, and the individualistic orientation of gig workers moderated this relationship. However, the relationship between moral justification and algorithmic monitoring was not significant.

This research contributes to the algorithmic monitoring literature and examines its impact on gig workers’ unethical behavior. By revealing the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions, this research furthers our understanding of the negative influences of algorithmic monitoring and provides practical implications.