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This research employs a behavioural approach to investigate the determinants of CEO disclosure tone inconsistency. By examining CEO characteristics and psychological attributes, the study aims to unravel the complexities underlying tone variations in Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) reports. Through this exploration, the research seeks to contribute to understanding ethical considerations in corporate communications and provide insights into the nuanced interplay between personal, job-related and psychological factors influencing CEO disclosure tone.

The study utilises a dataset comprising 1,411 MD&A reports from 143 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange between 2012 and 2021. Multiple regression analyses with year- and industry-fixed effects are employed to examine the relationships between CEO gender, tenure, duality, ability and psychological attributes such as narcissism, myopia, overconfidence and tone inconsistency. Data analysis involves MAXQDA software for analysing MD&A reports and Rahavard Novin software for document analysis, supplemented by audited financial statements.

The findings reveal significant relationships between CEO characteristics, psychological attributes and tone inconsistency. Female CEOs exhibit reduced tone inconsistency, contrasting with previous research trends. CEO tenure correlates negatively with tone inconsistency, whereas CEO ability shows a positive correlation, indicating a nuanced relationship with performance. However, CEO duality does not exhibit a significant association. Psychological attributes such as narcissism and myopia are positively associated with tone inconsistency, while no substantial connection is found with managerial overconfidence.

This research contributes to the inaugural exploration of CEO disclosure tone inconsistency through a behavioural lens, advancing measurement precision in the field. By delving into CEO characteristics and psychological attributes, the study offers unique insights into the roots of tone inconsistency. Applying comprehensive lexicon and phraseology enriches the methodological approach, fostering dialogue among diverse stakeholders and adding distinct perspectives to the discourse on ethical issues in business. Through its meticulous examination of behavioural underpinnings, this study becomes a catalyst for reflection, dialogue and progress in corporate communications and ethical considerations.

Fairy tales were first transmitted orally to teach the community to adapt and engage with their surroundings (Zipes, 1987, p. 1). Nonetheless, they have also contributed to reproduce traditional gender roles and stereotypes (Meland, 2020, p. 912). Indeed, they encourage ‘females to become passive self-denying, obedient, and self-sacrificial’, and males to ‘be competitive, authoritarian, and power-hungry as well as rational, abstract, and principled’ (Zipes, 1987, p. 3). Likewise, Western fairy tales are characterised by a racial dichotomy manifested through the uses of colour: purity is usually associated with white, while black is related to death. This binary opposition suggests that ‘[w]hiteness is often the invisible, privileged state, whereas any other skin colour is marked and laden with ideological judgments’ (Jorgensen, 2013, p. 56).

Carnival Row (2019–2023) is a neo-Victorian TV series created for Amazon Studios that rewrites Western fairy tales through the lens of postcolonial and gender studies. It is set in a fantastically reimagined Victorian England, where mythological creatures – e.g. fairies or centaurs – are allegorical representations of the ethnic Other. The male protagonist of this series, Philo, is a ‘half-breed’ – half human, half fairy – who passes as human to avoid racial discrimination. However, he evolves from being a male character who rejects his ethnic identity to a heroic figure who eventually embraces his racial origins at the end of Season 1. As I demonstrate in this chapter, Philo's nuanced development arguably subverts traditional depictions of white male heroes in fairy-tale narratives, where they tend to be portrayed as strong, principled and non-complex characters.

Demographic characteristics such as race and ethnicity have long been shown to affect individuals' decision-making and can be associated with various behavioral outcomes. In this paper, we examine the association between the ethnicity of a chief financial officer (CFO) and financial reporting conservatism in a large sample of US public firms. We find that firms headed by CFOs of nonwhite ethnicities exhibit less conservative financial reporting than firms headed by white CFOs; however, this effect is attenuated for firms facing greater external scrutiny. Moreover, nonwhite CFOs in our sample recognize a higher level of discretionary accruals than white CFOs. Our study contributes to the literature on financial reporting and answers the call for more studies on top manager ethnicity effects. More importantly, our findings hold implications for both regulators and investors, given the prevalence and significance of diversity initiatives in today's globalized business environment.

The final chapter of this book captures a diverse range of case studies across teaching and learning and campus stewardship. The five case studies presented here add illustrative insights of global actions, following on from the four case studies presented within previous chapters. These contributions provide compelling and practical insights into how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are broadly addressing SDG2 through student competitions in the first section, and curriculum approaches in subject areas in which ‘food’ and ‘hunger’ might not be expected in the second section. The final section of cases further explores HEIs’ approaches to food security through both a curriculum lens and a student-led campus project. It is a fitting way to close the book since the cases collectively illustrate the potential contribution that any student and/or educator might make to raising awareness of and action towards achieving zero hunger and SDG2.

This article reviews 69 press releases published by the Norwegian Økokrim from June 2022 to November 2023. The presented research applies the theory of focal concerns to identify the main themes in the press releases.

Serious fraud offices such as the Norwegian national authority for investigation and prosecution of economic and environmental crime (Økokrim) are facing many challenges when combating white-collar and corporate crime. Press releases represent an element of facing such challenges, as the messages are an important vehicle for the organization to disclose organizational activities to the public.

Three themes emerged: offender conviction, impression management and crime deterrence. Offender prosecution followed by offender conviction is at the core of Økokrim's business. Impression management serves the purpose of emphasizing the important role of the national authority in society. The subjective perception of detection and prosecution by potential offenders can be influenced by crime deterrence messages.

Press releases are signals that may be interpreted in other ways.

When politicians are to review national authorities, they may want a slightly different serious fraud office.

The deterrence effect is often not real for alleged white-collar crime.

Understanding a national authority in terms of its focal concerns based on press releases from the authority.

This study aims to offer an image-based robust edge detection system that can estimate, identify, locate and label surface flaws during manufacturing for real-time surface issue diagnostics. Of great concern, this methodology extrapolates surface defect information from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of composite fracture surfaces. This study predicts changes in topological intensity of composite fracture surfaces and display them as real-time surface intensity values for the first time.

This work, however, introduces a novel robust edge detection method – based image processing – as it is shown to be effective in locating defects, as measured by SEM images of composite fracture surfaces created using additive manufacturing (AM). SEM images, obtained in this study, are related to previous study considering the fracture surfaces of reinforced thermoset composites created via the AM method. These SEM images are of two types: fracture surface of AM of carbon fiber reinforced thermoset composites and fracture surface of AM of syntactic foam reinforced thermoset composites. Initially, MATLAB environment is used for analyzing the SEM images; the technique used, as well as the validity are explained more in the methodology section.

The robust surface defect inspection approach used herein is found to be capable of predicting, identifying, localizing and labeling surface defects during production, allowing for real-time surface issue diagnosis. Further, this work makes it possible to use image processing and analysis of these surfaces to anticipate fluctuations in the topological intensity of the fracture surfaces of composites and represent them as values of surface intensity in real time.

Rising worldwide company rivalry requires a fast, accurate component failure diagnostic method. To create an efficient feature set, a surface defect inspection system must identify product flaws in real time. Thus, this study proposed an image-based robust edge detection system – based on MATLAB environment – that is capable of estimating, identifying, locating and labeling surface faults during production. This paves the way for an extensive set of high-quality tools for dealing with a wide range of problems associated with digital image processing in composites. As a result, the ability to define methodologies and rapidly prototype prospective solutions typically minimizes the cost and time required to implement a successful system during the design phase of an image processing system.

This paper draws on two studies from a wider research program exploring the long-term graduate outcomes of Australia’s international development scholarships, the Australia Awards. The paper’s focus is on exploring how soft power can be identified through international scholarships and outlines conditions for success in achieving such outcomes.

This article discusses a mixed-methods sequential design that uses a quantitative online survey to identify themes to explore in a case study using a quantitative social networks approach.

The research identified two outcomes linked to the soft power of international scholarships, these are: (1) The value of existing connections – exposure and opportunity for scholarship recipients to build professional networks while in-country, influences the likelihood of alumni actioning these positive experiences by developing partnerships with host-country organisations after returning home; and (2) The value of alumni interconnectivity – the critical mass of peer-to-peer alumni relationships is a soft power asset that donors can harness to influence their international development and diplomacy objectives. Together, these findings also provide evidence that soft power attraction engendered in international scholarship participants can have longevity.

This article builds on early literature examining the effectiveness of international scholarships for developing countries in achieving soft power for scholarship donors. It provides a new view of these outcomes by looking at alumni networks individually and as a critical mass, to demonstrate how these contribute to achieving the diplomacy objectives of this type of state-sponsored student mobility program.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and firm performance in Qatari non-financial firms over a nine-year period, including the period of high uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study uses data from Refinitiv and employs panel data econometric techniques, namely generalized least squares (GLS), to analyze the impact of board characteristics (board size, board meetings, board gender diversity, board-specific skills, board independence), audit committee features (existence of audit committee, audit committee independence), CEO duality and management scores on both accounting and market performance of Qatari firms. Control variables include firm size, age, leverage and industry classifications.

The findings suggest that board-specific skills positively influence firm performance, while board size and gender diversity exhibit a non-significant impact. Audit committee independence enhances accounting performance but does not significantly affect market performance. Surprisingly, management scores show a significant yet negative impact on certain financial measures, indicating the need for further investigation.

These insights provide valuable guidance for policymakers, investors and corporate leaders, emphasizing the importance of tailored governance practices in Qatar's unique business landscape.

This study provides unique insights into the governance-performance relationship in the context of Qatar, a region with limited existing research. The inclusion of the COVID-19 period adds a contemporary dimension to the analysis, highlighting the resilience and adaptability of corporate governance practices during times of crisis.

To assess patient safety culture in a teaching hospital in Jordan, identify the demographic and professional characteristics that impact safety culture, and benchmark patient safety culture with similar studies in the region.

A cross-sectional design was applied. Responses were analyzed using SPSS software. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

In total, 430 (80.5%) participants were nurses and physicians; 300 (56.20%) were females; 270 (50.6%) were in the age group 25–34 years of age. Participants provided the highest positive ratings for “teamwork within units” (60.7%). On the contrary, participants recorded a low positive reaction to the proposition that the response to error was punitive in nature. Of the participants, about 53% did not report any events in the past year.

The average positive response of PSC composites varied from 28.2 to 60.7%. Therefore, patient safety culture in this Jordanian hospital was revealed fragile. This research informs and enables managers and policymakers to plan for future interventions to improve patient safety culture in healthcare institutions.