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We aim to empirically investigate the effect of affiliated banker directors (ABDs) on corporate tax avoidance. Furthermore, we conduct cross-sectional analyses on the impact of ABDs and explore the underlying mechanisms through which ABDs might influence corporate tax avoidance.

Using a large sample between 1999 and 2016, we empirically examine the impact of ABDs on corporate tax avoidance. We address the endogeneity concerns through an instrumental variable approach and robustness tests with alternative measures of ABDs and corporate tax avoidance.

Our results demonstrate that firms with ABDs exhibit lower levels of corporate tax avoidance. This negative association persists after controlling for potential endogeneity issues and is robust to alternative measures. We further document that the negative effect is stronger when firms are more bank-dependent and financially constrained. Our results indicate that ABDs limit corporate tax avoidance by strengthening corporate governance, mitigating information risks and protecting their reputational capital.

This research extends the existing literature by exploring the influence of ABDs on corporate accounting policies, particularly tax avoidance. These findings enhance our understanding of how directors’ banking experience bolsters corporate governance, information transparency and reputation, ultimately safeguarding stakeholder interests. This paper offers valuable implications for both financial practitioners and policymakers.

This study has three objectives: (i) to examine whether using a Big 4 auditor reduces loan interest rates; (ii) to analyze how loan interest rates differ between smaller firms, which face more acute asymmetric information problems, and larger firms; and (iii) to investigate whether the negative relationship between Big 4 auditors and loan interest rates is a function of client size.

The sample comprises all publicly traded nonfinancial companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange from 2007 to 2020. Pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) regression tests the hypothesized relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

The study offers three notable findings. First, borrowers audited by Big 4 auditors receive significantly lower interest rates than those audited by non-Big 4 auditors. Second, banks offer lower interest rates to larger firms (i.e. firms with fewer informational problems) than to smaller ones. Third, no conclusive evidence exists that the beneficial effects of Big 4 auditors (in terms of reduced interest rates) differ significantly between larger and smaller firms. This finding is attributable to the idea that Big 4 auditors do not report more favorably for larger clients or more conservatively for smaller clients. The results remain robust, even after addressing the endogeneity arising from auditor self-selection bias, which is validated by the results of two econometric tests: Heckman’s two-stage procedure and propensity score matching.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relationship between auditor size and bank loan contracting in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this research is to understand how leaders are adapting to the changing situation after the pandemic and what are the big challenges they must overcome to increase team productivity and effectiveness in a hybrid working model. The study highlights the leadership strategies and abilities needed to succeed in the hybrid working style. It can be inferred from this thesis’ qualitative research of 10 Indian leaders that they have adapted successfully to the hybrid culture of working. They are evaluating various ideas and operating according to their organisational context and employee needs, even though they do not yet have a fixed framework for new working arrangements. Some organisations have 1–3 days of varied working styles, while some organisations are calling employees on a need basis. The major issues with the hybrid work model in terms of team effectiveness are: deteriorating team cohesion, work–life boundaries, challenges in communication, hindered innovation, and excessive or insufficient monitoring. The best leadership strategy for hybrid work combines servant and democratic leadership. Employees need to have excellent self-management abilities, effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills, and the capacity to create priorities and work–life boundaries to be productive and experience work satisfaction. The future scope of this research is to look at the overall picture of leadership tactics and their impacts from the viewpoint of the workforce.

Unpredictable economic landscapes have led to a continuous escalation in global economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Improving risk management and sustainability in an environment with high macro risk is critical for business development. This study aims to explore the impact of corporate sustainable development on corporate tax risk.

After using a sample of companies that were A-share listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2011 to 2021, this paper applies ordinary least squares and a moderate effect model.

Better environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance can weaken corporate tax risk by improving green innovation capability, reputation and information transparency. Meanwhile, the restraining effect of ESG on tax risk was more significant amid high EPU. These impacts were amplified amid higher market competition, lower tax supervision and a lower degree of corporate digital transformation.

The findings emphasize the need for the government to establish a healthy business and tax environment so that enterprises can improve sustainable development and increase their risk management abilities, especially post-COVID-19.

This study guides enterprises and the entirety of society to in paying attention to and promoting ESG practices, which can enhance enterprise tax management.

This study expands the research on the economic consequences of sustainable development and the factors influencing corporate tax risk and EPU.

Controversy has long swirled over the claim that Donald Trump's base has deeply rooted authoritarian tendencies, but Trump himself seems to have few doubts. Asked whether his stated wish to be dictator “on day one” of second term in office would repel voters, Trump said “I think a lot of people like it.” It is one of his invariable talking points that 74 million voters supported him in 2020, and he remains the unrivaled leader of the Republican Party, even as his rhetoric escalates to levels that cautious observers now routinely call fascistic.

Is Trump right that many people “like” his talk of dictatorship? If so, what does that mean empirically? Part of the answer to these questions was apparent early, in the results of the 2016 American National Election Study (ANES), which included survey questions that we had proposed which we drew from the aptly-named “Right-Wing Authoritarianism” scale. Posed to voters in 2012–2013 and again in 2016, those questions elicited striking responses.

In this chapter, we revisit those responses. We begin by exploring Trump's escalating anti-democratic rhetoric in the light of themes drawn from Max Weber and Theodor W. Adorno. We follow this with the text of the 2017 conference paper in which we first reported that 75% of Trump's voters supported him enthusiastically, mainly because they shared his prejudices, not because they were hurting economically. They hoped to “get rid” of troublemakers and “crush evil.” That wish, as we show in our conclusion, remains central to Trump's appeal.

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 study aims to critically discuss and reorient the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) debate toward the idea of addressing and rectifying the pervasive structural inequalities that DEI, in its undiluted form rooted in social justice (SJ), aims to combat. Drawing on Bourdieu, the study first examines the diffusion and contestation of DEI into international business (IB). It then proposes a Bourdieu-inspired agenda to advance the transposition of SJ principles into IB.

The study interpretively reconstructs the process of DEI’s ideational diffusion. It examines how the interplay between ideas and field dynamics in IB shapes ideational processes and outcomes.

In response to rising global inequalities – to which multinational enterprises (MNEs) have significantly contributed – SJ movements have propelled DEI into the wider social and political arena, including corporate boardrooms. Within IB, a diluted version of DEI – IB-DEI – emerged as a paradigm to improve MNEs’ performance, but failed to address underlying structural inequalities. As the social impacts, utility and legitimacy of DEI have been challenged, the DEI debate has come to a flux. The study proposes conceptual and contextual extension of DEI within IB and advancing socially engaged research and practice that help reinforce DEI’s core SJ purpose – tackling structural inequalities.

The study is one of the few to openly tackle SJ-IB contradictions on DEI, while advancing the application of Bourdieu to critical studies of IB.

This paper aims to examine the impact of tax avoidance on the cost of debt. It also investigates the effect of tax risk on the relationship between tax avoidance and the cost of debt.

Two hypotheses are tested on a sample of nonfinancial French firms listed in the société des Bources Françaises 120 index from 2010 to 2022 using the feasible generalized least squares. To ensure the robustness of the findings, the authors changed the measures of tax avoidance and tax risk and used instrumental variable regression to effectively address concerns related to endogeneity. Additional analysis is conducted to examine if the relationship between tax avoidance and the cost of debt varies based on the magnitude of tax risk.

The authors found that tax avoidance negatively affects the cost of debt. However, when tax avoidance is associated with a high risk, it impacts positively the cost of debt.

This study’s findings are relevant to firms, creditors and French lawmakers. Creditors must make their decision to grant credit based simultaneously on proxies of tax avoidance and tax risk. Managers must effectively manage tax risks to protect their financial decisions, urging French policymakers to implement new regulations on corporate tax risk management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to have investigated the joint impact of tax avoidance and tax risk on the cost of debt in the French context.

Korea was an oppressed country colonized by Japan and is a divided country confronting North Korea. Nevertheless, it has established the capitalism faster than any other countries and has repeatedly underwent acculturation and adaption. In such a society, the national football team has served as a national center. Hence, Korean football fans did not allow any diaspora in organizing athletes for the national football team. They instead forced national athletes to make self-sacrifice for the nation and even asked them to be morally solemn. Their perceptions on the national team, however, seem to be changed. It is, therefore, necessary to explore the meaning of the national football team in terms of changes of the “nation” and the “nationalism.” The use of the national team as a measure for pursuing a profit, by escaping from the existing recognition of them as warriors fighting for their country, the adoration for football powers actively accepting naturalized athletes and the active support for our own athletes to advance the European leagues deviate from the existing concepts of the nation and the nationalism, which the Korean society has preserved. This study attempts to explore changes in the meanings of the national football team perceived by football fans based on the concepts of the nation and the nationalism and to predict the future changes in those of it.

This paper examines the influence of accounting practices on financial performance with an application to farms. In response to the yield, price and weather risks they face, farms have strong incentives to manipulate their earnings.

We measure earnings management and performance using data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), which is representative of French professional farms over the period 2000–2022.

Our results show that, on average, regardless of year and specialisation, farms use two competing strategies to manage their earnings and deal with uncertainty. In the short run, timely reporting of bad news can help them to access public support. In the long run, farms also smooth their earnings, which is justified by the need to maintain their access to credit and to cope with climatic and economic shocks.

Further research could provide more precise evidence of the impact of climatic, geopolitical or market events on farm accounting practices. In addition, the analysis could be extended to other industries that are also exposed to risks.

The results shed new light on the observed volatility in farm profitability and their ability to manage risk. Accounting practices play an important role in helping farmers to cope with risky production and volatile market conditions. While farmers may appear to be in a difficult situation due to reduced and low-quality earnings, we believe that they are in fact resilient in ensuring the sustainability of their operations and financing.

This work highlights the key role of earnings management in risk management. Farms are a relevant example of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) exposed to natural and economic risks.