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This study aims to critically investigate various Sharìah adaptations for export bill financing in Islamic banking. This study examines corresponding Sharìah issues and provides recommended Sharìah contracts for export bills financing by Islamic banks.

This study uses the qualitative approach. The focus group discussions method is used to collect the primary data. A content analysis method is applied to delve into the related scholarly works, journal articles and books available in Arabic and English. Besides, with a thematic analysis technique, this study developed a few themes to analyse the qualitative data.

This study finds that export bill financing through discounting is impermissible for Islamic banking because the discounted amount will be interest (riba). This study posits that a musharakah partnership is the most preferred mode for financing through export bills in Islamic banking, provided the partnership starts from the beginning of the export works and not just at the post-shipment stage. Musharakah is suitable for factoring, invoice financing and bill purchase, as the bank can precisely identify the amount in the bill, profit margin, duration, parties involved and potential risk mitigation techniques. Qard is also applied in export bill financing, provided the service charge received by the bank should be up to the actual cost incurred in collecting the bills. The service charge in qard cannot vary depending on the amount and duration of bill maturity; otherwise, it will be riba. Wakalah is another suitable contract for export bill financing. The bank can charge a wakalah fee, which is flexible and can vary based on the bill amount and its maturity. Nonetheless, if the client needs to buy goods instead of cash, then the bill can be exchanged for the goods, and using a murabahah (mark-up) contract, the bank can facilitate the client’s purchase of the goods.

Across the globe, Islamic banks provide a significant amount of financing for export and import business, while, as a brand image, ensuring Sharìah compliance is crucial for Islamic banking. This study contributes to ensuring Sharìah compliance in export bill financing operations, which eventually supports maintaining the credibility and reputation of Islamic banking. Ensuring Sharìah complaint income also accelerates Islamic banks’ profitability. In the event of Sharìah non-compliance, whatever revenue is earned shall be disposed of in charity.

The scarcity of a critical study on Sharìah adaptations of export bill financing in Islamic banking is evident. A few theoretical studies have been found, mainly in Arabic. This study is an unprecedented effort in English to empirically investigate various Sharìah adaptations for export bill financing in Islamic banking and to provide recommended Sharìah contracts. This study will guide all respective stakeholders of Islamic banking to ensure Sharìah compliance in conducting export bill financing operations. As this study is conducted with a small sample size, future studies may be undertaken with diverse contexts to enhance a comprehensive understanding of the issue and investigate further aspects of providing export bill financing through Sharìah-compliant modes.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight and compare insights from research conducted in the field of accounting and reporting for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the public, not-for-profit and hybrid sectors. It is also an introduction to the special issue on “Sustainability Accounting and Reporting for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Progress, Challenges, and Future Research Agenda”.

This paper reviews the findings and reflections in the academic literature on developments in the SDG accounting and reporting practices across public, not-for-profit and hybrid sectors globally.

The findings of the review indicate that SDG accounting and reporting practices of public, not-for-profit and hybrid sectors are still in their infancy. Considerable political and organisational barriers hinder the achievement of SDGs. Nonetheless, aligning local and global goals, engaging stakeholders effectively and implementing robust progress monitoring and review systems can facilitate a meaningful engagement with the SDGs. The special issue articles offer decision-makers valuable insights on the factors enabling the adoption and implementation of SDGs.

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussions on the role of accounting and reporting processes within public, not-for-profit and hybrid sectors in advancing the achievement of SDGs.

Social entrepreneurship is increasingly recognised for addressing complex social issues, yet its definition remains vague. Although social entrepreneurs are often celebrated as virtuous agents of positive change, they experience complex challenges and ethical dilemmas in their daily work. This paper aims to explore the lived experiences of social entrepreneurs in Portugal and to identify the ethical issues influencing their work.

By using a phenomenological research approach, this study conducted 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Portuguese social entrepreneurs. The interviews examine their life experiences to uncover the challenges and ethical issues they face.

This study identifies key areas where ethical tensions arise influencing the emergence of challenges for social entrepreneurs. These areas include the absence of a specific legal framework for social enterprises, complexities in human resource management, partnership dynamics, financial sustainability pressures, issues of transparency and accountability and the risk of mission drift.

This study offers valuable insights into the ethical dimensions of social entrepreneurship, emphasising that social entrepreneurs, like those in non-profit sectors, face significant ethical dilemmas. These findings offer valuable insights for researchers and practitioners to expand their understanding of social entrepreneurship. By recognising these challenges scholars and policymakers can foster a more informed and nuanced discourse on the field.

This study contributes to the underexplored intersection of ethics and social entrepreneurship, providing new insights into the ethical realities faced by social entrepreneurs in Portugal.

This paper aims to propose and conceptualize a five-tier model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that goes beyond the traditional shareholder-focused approach. The model illustrates the evolution of CSR from risk management to social business, reflecting the growing need for companies to integrate the interests of a wider range of stakeholders and act as agents of social change. By integrating frameworks from previous CSR thinkers, this paper provides a comprehensive view of the development of CSR and its potential transformational impact on business and society.

This paper uses a conceptual review approach, using theoretical insights from fundamental CSR frameworks and integrating them into a new five-tier model. The authors develop the tiers by synthesizing key CSR theories such as traditional shareholder protection, philanthropy, stakeholder engagement and social business models. The proposed model is based on the literature and theoretical constructs, offering an analytical perspective to understand the role of CSR in business and its impact on society over time.

This paper introduces a five-tier model of CSR, starting with CSR risk management based on traditional capitalism, which focuses on protecting shareholders. The model then progresses to CSR philanthropy, which balances shareholder interests with donations to society. Strategic CSR aligns with the concept of the triple bottom line and shared value creation, while transformative CSR emphasizes stakeholder engagement and long-term value creation. At the highest level of disruptive CSR, companies prioritize long-term environmental, social and economic impacts as agents of social change. This model shows how CSR has evolved into a strategic and transformational force in modern business.

The main limitation of this paper is its conceptual nature, as it does not include empirical testing or validation of the proposed model. Although still conceptual, the model offers a practical roadmap for businesses looking to improve their level of CSR implementation. Future research could empirically validate the five levels by assessing their impact on business performance and social outcomes across industries. Thus, the application of this model can go beyond theoretical discourse into an actionable, implementable framework. Furthermore, the authors must continue to explore the implications of each CSR tier on business performance and stakeholder outcomes.

The proposed model offers practical guidance for companies looking to improve their CSR strategies. By understanding the progression from risk management to social business, organizations can identify their current position and develop a plan toward more sustainable and stakeholder-centric practices. The model encourages companies to go beyond compliance and philanthropy, with the aim of creating long-term value through proactive engagement with stakeholders and social innovation.

This five-tier CSR model encourages companies to shift from reactive approaches toward actively creating lasting social change. In the early stages, CSR focuses on risk mitigation and donations. As companies move to the strategic and transformative levels, they engage more with stakeholders and create long-term value. At the highest level, disruptive CSR turns companies into proactive agents of social change, integrating social and environmental sustainability into their core business. This model has the potential to improve social welfare, empower communities and build more resilient and innovative societies.

This paper makes an original contribution by offering a new multitier CSR model, which goes beyond existing theories. The model integrates classic and contemporary CSR concepts into a structured progression, emphasizing the shift from risk mitigation and philanthropy to more strategic, transformational and socially impactful CSR practices. The highest level in this model, disruptive CSR, presents a vision of the future where companies are actively involved in social change, providing a new perspective on CSR discourse.

This study explores how companies’ operations and supply networks can induce social impacts such as enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The study focuses on social enterprises’ supply networks and examines the effects of supply network characteristics on the creation and resolution of social–commercial objectives tension.

A supply network that is divided into five embedded cases, where each case is the supply network of a social enterprise, was studied. Forty-eight interviews at social enterprises, corporate customers, distributors, suppliers, non-governmental organizations and charities were conducted.

The study highlights how social enterprises use their supply networks to help disadvantaged people gain employment, truly balance DEI and efficiency objectives and manage paradoxical tensions. The results reveal three types of social purpose supply networks, dichotomized, paired and blended, that hybrid and for-profit organizations can adopt to jointly pursue multiple, potentially competing, objectives and resolve the paradoxical tensions in their supply networks. The creation and resolution of tension are also clarified by considering dyadic, triadic and tetradic tie structures.

The study contributes to the literature by extending the analysis of paradoxical tension between commercial and social welfare objectives such as DEI to the supply network level and revealing three social purpose supply network structures that depict social enterprises’ different ways to resolve paradoxical tensions. The study contributes to social network theory by describing the dynamic interaction between strong and weak ties in multi-tie structures.

This paper aims to identify thematic issues in public sector accrual accounting and financial reporting that learn from the past and provide lessons for the future by reflecting on the warnings in Olson et al.’s seminal 1998 book Global Warning.

Methodologically, this paper takes insights developed by an experienced pool of public sector accounting scholars and refines them via frames of thinking such as accountability, democracy, decision-making and governance. The discussion follows a medical analogy of an organ transplant in which the public sector was diagnosed as an ailing patient and a for-profit accounting system (business accrual accounting and reporting) has been transplanted to it as a cure. We discuss the relation of accrual accounting as a tool of neoliberal policies in the health sector (diagnosis ailment and organ transplant), technical issues regarding accrual accounting and those implementing it (technology of the transplanted organ) and the effects of that accounting on the public sector (the progress of the patient after the transplant).

From the topics and examples addressed, we conclude that the transplantation of business accounting and reporting to the public sector carries wider implications for large-scale accounting change and requires vigilance. Transplanting to new fields of accounting technology that is itself undergoing constant change may be more problematic and challenging than previously recognized.

Critical challenge and assessment of whether Global Warning’s concerns are still valid today and whether the public sector faces new “warnings” regarding its accounting and reporting.

This paper systematically reviewed research on accounting fraud in the non-profit organisation (NPO) sector during 2004–2024 to identify gaps in theory and practice with the aim of producing a new parsimonious global fraud model.

This paper utilised a structured literature review methodology.

We propose a new holistic approach for the NPO sector worldwide, with two foci of “what may contribute to fraud” and “what may prevent fraud”.

The future research agenda for the new holistic approach is provided.

The approach helps donors promote accountability and transparency in the NPO sector worldwide, thereby sustaining the development of this sector.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first comprehensive worldwide fraud research review, making distinct contributions. Globally, the approach is the first dedicated to the NPO sector, including different stages of fraud occurrence (undetected, suspected, actual/detected and future), and using a multi-disciplinary approach to prevent these stages. The approach is also the first to incorporate individual-level, organisational-level, industry-level and country-level factors into predicting future fraud.

To argue current calls to address grand challenges like income inequality are unlikely to succeed until the academy acknowledges how accounting is constitutive of these problems. We demonstrate how accounting is part of the problem because of its adherence to a legal model of the corporation erected on false suppositions.

Using multiple disciplines, e.g. history, economics, law and philosophy, pertaining to the nature of the corporate form, we present a logical argument that the official telos of accounting obstructs any fruitful effort to address grand challenges.

The global legal concept governing corporations (an aggregate of members) makes corporations a major cause of the grand challenges humans face. Adherence to a legal theory of the corporation leads accounting policy to rationalize income and wealth inequality by subsuming the legal powers of corporations to expropriate wealth into a singular maximand labeled “earnings.”

Though accounting is essentially “of” law, scholarly efforts to understand accounting’s social role are based on an information metaphor. We provide reasons for skepticism of any efforts addressing grand challenges until accounting acknowledges the legal nature of its social role as a regulator of business conduct. There are no accounting solutions to grand challenges without acknowledging how the accepted legal nature of the corporate form makes the corporation the cause of the grand challenges we face.

Despite social ministries and enterprises by Catholic sisters being established under stable foundation and for several years, there have been cases of failures or stalled projects. The purpose of this study was to examine whether this phenomenon is simply failure or a case of mission drift.

To achieve this objective, primary data drawn from four African countries, 59 congregations and 172 respondents were subjected to a mixed methods approach to find out what explained this failure. The 172 respondents were drawn from a set of congregational leaders.

The findings revealed some level of inactive projects largely in farming and agricultural production. The authors found that the identified 19 causes of social enterprise failures emanated both from internal, commercially driven to external, pro-social reasons.

The findings of the study revealed the need to strategically review the utilisation of the resources at the disposal of the congregations. Capacity building, proper succession planning and setting the right tone at the top were critical imperatives congregational leaders need to pay attention to minimise project failures and mission drift. Finally, the study called for innovative funding models together with a change in mindset about the sustainability of the social enterprises.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is perhaps the first to focus on social enterprises run by Catholic sisters with a view towards establishing why they tend to fail.

Cooperative enterprises are uniquely different from all other for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises in that the onus of success does not lie on any one team leader, promoter or founder but on all members of the team equally and collectively. This paper attempted to investigate the key enablers of success in the unique context of cooperative enterprises.

Using a combination of focus groups, in-depth interviews, observations and archival data, resulting in interactions with 744 members across 13 rural cooperative enterprises, we uncovered the enablers of team performance in a cooperative setting. The theory of entrepreneurial bricolage emerged as the most appropriate theoretical lens to interpret the findings.

We found empirical evidence to conclude that the emergence of an entrepreneurial bricolage mindset in rural cooperative enterprises acted as an enabler of collective success. On the other hand, the failed rural cooperatives exhibited the absence of the bricolage mindset.

Despite the extent of data collected from a large number of individuals in each team, the number of teams studied is small. Further, most of the data comes from cooperative teams based in similar settings and with similar challenges. Extrapolating these findings in other organizational settings should be done only after replication.

A clear focus and commitment toward the collective accumulation and utilization of resources is imperative for the success of cooperative enterprise teams. Only those teams that actively confront resource scarcity and work toward addressing it are the ones that eventually perform well in cooperative structures.

Large-sized rural cooperative enterprises offer a unique setting to understand rural development. However, due to the challenges of first getting access to a cooperative enterprise context, then collecting data from a significant representation of the large team, and finally the inability to record the conversations due to issues pertaining to team psychological safety, limited attempts have been undertaken to understand team dynamics in such rural settings. The present study is among the first few to study large-sized cooperative teams and explore the enablers of their performance.