Search results

This study examines the association between corporate tax avoidance and the cost of debt (COD). It also investigates the moderating effect of integrated report (IR) assurance on tax avoidance/COD relationship.

Based on a sample of 76 South African companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from 2010 to 2020, the authors built and estimated regression models using the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) method. The authors significantly mitigated the endogeneity concerns using propensity score matching (PSM), difference-in-differences (DID) analysis and fixed effects regression.

The authors found that tax-avoiding firms pay higher costs of debt due to information asymmetries and agency problems. Bankers systematically reflect the increase in tax avoidance by adjusting the COD upward. However, results show that the assured IR disclosure mitigates these problems, which decreases the COD for tax avoidance strategies adopters. Using a quasi-natural experiment, well-grounded evidence was provided showing that the decrease in the COD for debtors who engage in tax avoidance practices is attributed to the availability of an assured IR.

This study provides plausible evidence in favor of the role that an assured IR can play in capital allocation decisions. Consequently, it is likely to push policymakers in South Africa and other countries to set standards for IR assurance.

This is the first study that investigates and validates the role of IR assurance in solving the controversy about the “tax saving effect” vs. “risk exposure effect” that bankers face while identifying debtors with successful (non-risky/cash-saving) tax avoidance practices and those with non-successful (risky) ones.

As the today's world is leading toward the digital dependency and after the world pandemic of COVID-19, the dependency of students and the university is completely through a digital medium, in context with that the higher education according to the demand of the generation is leading towards digital transformation. The digital transformation in the sector of education is the road map for the sustainable management and development of education. The digital transformation is the new pillar of education in which the students are mostly reliable. The digitalization in the field of education will lead to simple and clarified as well as multiple way for acquiring the knowledge. As the integration of the new model of education system is applied and implemented throughout the globe, the digital medium plays a significant role for the smooth and the systemic development of the model. In this chapter, the pathway for the development of the well-stable and well-developed strategies is considered in which the integration of the essential requirements, proper guidance, and advantages of the model is dependent for the transformation to digital medium of the higher education that will be leading to the development of the management and the education system. The foundation of that transformation model is detailed in the paper for the digitalization of higher education.

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) imposes significant costs on organizations, thus antecedents of CWB are of particular interest to both practitioners and academics. The authors examine how one’s own narcissism interacts with co-worker narcissism to influence willingness to engage in retaliatory CWB against a co-worker.

The data for this study were obtained from Amazon Mechanical Turk participants and Master of Business Administration students, representing a cross-section of employee representatives.

The authors find that employees expect narcissistic co-workers to engage in continuing future CWB and this, in turn, increases employees' willingness to engage in retaliatory CWB. That is, non-narcissistic employees are provoked to engage in organizationally-destructive behaviors by peers perceived as narcissists. This affect is attenuated by the employee’s own narcissism. Relative to non-narcissists, narcissistic employees find a narcissistic co-worker more likeable, which reduces their willingness to engage in retaliatory CWB against the co-worker.

For corporations and HR managers, this study demonstrates the caution necessary when considering hiring and operational practices. Specifically, non-narcissists demonstrate increased willingness to engage in organizationally-destructive behaviors after interpersonal conflict with a narcissistic co-worker.

The authors extend prior research about interpersonal drivers of CWB, which primarily considered superior-subordinate dyad, by examining the joint effects of individual and co-worker narcissism in peer-to-peer relationships.

Extrusion width, the width of printed filaments, affects multiple critical aspects in mechanical properties in material extrusion additive manufacturing: filament geometry, interlayer load-bearing bonded area and fibre orientation for fibre-reinforced composites. However, this study aims to understand the effects of extrusion width on 3D printed composites, which has never been studied systematically.

Four polymers with and without short-fibre reinforcement were 3D printed into single-filament-wide specimens. Tensile properties, mechanical anisotropy and fracture mechanisms were evaluated along the direction of extruded filaments (F) and normal to the interlayer bond (Z). Extrusion width, nozzle temperature and layer height were studied separately via single-variable control. The extrusion width was controlled by adjusting polymer flow in the manufacturing procedure (gcode), where optimisation can be achieved with software/structure design as opposed to hardware.

Increasing extrusion width caused a transition from brittle to ductile fracture, and greatly reduced directional anisotropy for strength and ductility. For all short fibre composites, increasing width led to an increase in strain-at-break and decreased strength and stiffness in the F direction. In the Z direction, increasing width led to increased strength and strain-at-break, and stiffness decreased for less ductile materials but increased for more ductile materials.

The transformable fracture reveals the important role of extrusion width in processing-structure-property correlation. This study reveals a new direction for future research and industrial practice in controlling anisotropy in additive manufacturing. Increasing extrusion width may be the simplest way to reduce anisotropy while improving printing time and quality in additive manufacturing.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has increased food delivery service demand, which generates massive amounts of solid waste, specifically plastic material. Therefore, this study aims to examine the determinants of consumers' intention to reuse food delivery containers (ITR) using the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). Moral obligation was included as an antecedent, while behavioral expectation (BE) ahead of behavioral intention was an immediate predictor of consumers' pro-environmental behaviors.

The hypotheses were tested on 348 food delivery service users in Malaysia and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings indicated that consumers' ITR is directly influenced by perceived behavioral control and attitude. Perceived behavioral control and attitude had a positive partial indirect effect on ITR through BE. Meanwhile, subjective norms and moral obligation had a positive full indirect effect on ITR through BE.

The findings can be directly applied to practical situations of food delivery companies and environmental protection organizations managing solid waste among food delivery services.

Understanding consumers' ITR could promote practical environmental sustainability. Practically, the study provides insights to the food delivery service industry, policymakers and relevant stakeholders to encourage consumer behavior change by reusing food delivery containers in line with Sustainable Development Goal 12.

The study enhances the existing literature by extending TPB with two psychological variables: moral obligation (independent variable) and BE (mediating variable). To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to empirically investigate BE in consumers' pro-environmental behavioral intention in a high-context culture and developing economy. This study could benefit food and beverage merchants, food delivery companies, governments, non-governmental organizations and pro-environmental behavior researchers in this industry.

The objective of this study is to investigate the association between audit committee characteristics and audit report lag in the context of listed manufacturing companies in Bangladesh.

Data from 240 firm-year observations for 2018–2022 are collected and analyzed using both the pooled-ordinary least squares (OLS) model with panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) and the Bayesian regression model. The results are explained in line with the agency theory and resource dependence theory.

The study reveals that audit committee size, gender diversity and expertise are negatively and significantly associated with audit report lag. The results remain consistent using the lag model, which indicates that the current year’s audit committee can have an impact on the subsequent year’s audit report lag.

The study has been conducted in the context of Bangladesh and thus cannot be generalized for other countries.

The study implies that companies should form large audit committees and ensure higher participation of female members and expert members in forming such committees. Policymakers and regulators can also play roles in this regard to ensure the timely issue of audit reports.

This is one of the pioneer studies to investigate the link between audit committee characteristics and audit report lag in the context of an emerging economy like Bangladesh. This study advocates agency theory by linking audit committee characteristics to reduced information asymmetry and contributes to resource dependence theory by emphasizing their role in enhancing financial reporting timeliness.

The aim of this study is to analyse the factors that contribute to the disclosure of relational liabilities (RLs) of the US companies.

The study uses content analysis to examine the disclosure of RLs in annual reports of the US companies listed on the Nasdaq-100 index from 2013 to 2015.

The study finds a positive correlation between the disclosure of RLs and gender diversity of the board of directors as well as the education level of the CEO. By contrast, the disclosure of RLs is negatively associated with the age of the CEO. Companies in knowledge-intensive industries also tend to disclose more information about their RLs than those in other industries.

This study focuses on the determinants of RLs, whereas previous research has mainly examined the positive impact of voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital on financial performance. The main objective of this study is to shed light on the factors that influence the disclosure of RLs.