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Drawing insights from institutional theory, this paper aims to examine whether and to what extent banks have reconfigured their management control systems (MCSs) in response to growing institutional pressures towards sustainability, understood as environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

The authors conducted an exploratory study at the three largest Italian banking groups to shed light on changes made in MCSs to account for ESG issues. The analysis is based on 12 semi-structured interviews with managers from the sustainability and controls areas, as well as from other relevant operational areas particularly concerned with the integration process of ESG issues. Additionally, secondary data sources were used. The Malmi and Brown (2008) MCS framework, consisting of a package of five types of formal and informal control mechanisms, was used to structure and analyse the empirical data.

The examined banks widely implemented numerous changes to their MCSs as a response to the heightened sustainability pressures from regulatory bodies and stakeholders. In particular, with the exception of action planning, the results show an extensive integration of ESG issues into the five control mechanisms of Malmi and Brown’s framework, namely, long-term planning, cybernetic, reward/compensation, administrative and cultural controls.

By identifying the approaches banks followed in reconfiguring traditional MCSs, this research sheds light on how adequate MCSs can promote banks’ “sustainable behaviours”. The results can, thus, contribute to defining best practices on how MCSs can be redesigned to support the integration of ESG issues into the banks’ way of doing business.

Overall, the findings support the theoretical assertion that institutional pressures influence the design of banks’ MCSs, and that both formal and informal controls are necessary to ensure a real engagement towards sustainability. More specifically, this study reveals that MCSs, by encompassing both formal and informal controls, are central to enabling banks to appropriately understand, plan and control the transition towards business models fully oriented to the integration of ESG issues. Thereby, this allows banks to effectively respond to the increased stakeholder demands around ESG concerns.

This study aims to investigate the implementation of lean human resource management (HRM) practices in manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and explore how various factors interact to influence their successful adoption. By exploring the interplay among these factors, the research seeks to identify key drivers affecting the adoption of lean HRM in manufacturing SMEs. Ultimately, the research intends to provide insights that can guide organisations, practitioners and policymakers in effectively implementing lean HRM practices to enhance operational efficiency, workforce engagement and competitiveness within the manufacturing SME sector.

The study combined total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) and Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) analysis. TISM helped in understanding the hierarchical relationship among different factors influencing lean HRM implementation, whereas MICMAC analysis provided insights into the level of influence and dependence of each factor on others.

The research revealed that “top management support” emerged as the most independent factor, indicating that strong support from top management is crucial for initiating and sustaining lean HRM practices in manufacturing SMEs. On the other hand, “employee involvement and empowerment” was identified as the most dependent factor, suggesting that fostering a culture of employee engagement and empowerment greatly relies on the successful implementation of lean HRM practices.

While the study provided valuable insights, it has certain limitations. The research was conducted within the specific context of manufacturing SMEs, which might limit the generalizability of the findings to other industries. Expert opinions introduce subjectivity in data collection. Additionally, the study may not cover all critical factors, allowing room for further exploration in future research.

The findings have practical implications for manufacturing SMEs aiming to implement lean HRM practices. Recognising the pivotal role of top management support, organisations should invest in cultivating a strong leadership commitment to lean HRM initiatives. Furthermore, enhancing employee involvement and empowerment can lead to better adoption of lean HRM practices, resulting in improved operational efficiency and overall competitiveness.

This research contributes to the field by offering a comprehensive exploration of the interplay among factors influencing lean HRM implementation. The use of TISM and MICMAC analysis provides a unique perspective on the relationship dynamics between these factors, allowing for a nuanced understanding of their roles in the adoption of lean HRM practices in manufacturing SMEs. The identification of “top management support” as the most independent and “employee involvement and empowerment” as the most dependent factors adds original insights to the existing literature.

Research on the underlying mechanisms that transfer the effects of performance appraisal (PA) on employees’ behaviors and intentions remains scarce. The social exchange view of performance appraisal can be a source of deeper understanding about these underlying mechanisms. This study aims to investigate how psychological empowerment (PE) and organizational commitment (OC) explain the link between performance appraisal and three important distal outcomes: voice behavior (VB), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and turnover intentions (TOI).

The current study utilizes two wave – two source data from a sample of 250 employees and their supervisors from private organizations in Pakistan and tested the mediation model using SMART-PLS.

Results demonstrated that organizational commitment mediated the effects of performance appraisal on VB, OCB, and TOI, whereas psychological empowerment mediated the effects of performance appraisal on VB and OCB. These results have significant implications for theory and practice.

This study adopts the social exchange perspective to examine the mediation mechanisms linking PA with the three distal outcomes: VB, OCB and TOI. The paper identifies two novel mediators of PA – outcome relationship, i.e., psychological empowerment and organizational commitment.

In spite of intensive research that explained the strategic flexibility-performance and information technology (IT) strategy-performance relationships, there is a little insight regarding how these notions ideally affect business performance. Accordingly, this study attempts to investigate how businesses can translate IT directions and strategic practices into actual increases in business performance. More precisely, the primary purpose of this paper is to explore the influential role of strategic flexibility and IT strategy on business performance considering balanced scorecard (BSC) dimensions in the context of the tourism industry.

An empirical investigation of 331 tourism businesses was performed to explore the relationship between strategic flexibility, IT strategy and business performance. A non-probability convenience sampling was applied to select the sample. Factor analysis, descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were used to analyze the data.

The findings include the clustering of the studied businesses in terms of strategic flexibility and IT strategy. A cluster analysis based on strategic flexibility indicates that businesses can be divided into four main clusters, and based on IT strategy, they can be classified in three main clusters. The results show that businesses with a high level of strategic flexibility and a high level of IT strategic practices have high performance. More importantly, it was known that proactiveness and strategic use of IT have more predictor role on performance.

A review of the strategic management literature reveals a lack of empirical studies that adequately explore the significant roles of strategic flexibility and IT strategy on business performance in the tourism industry. This paper provides actionable insights into these two main determinants that explain why some tourism businesses outperform others. The primary contribution of this study is to address the gap in our understanding of the interconnections between strategic flexibility, IT strategy and business performance through cluster analysis in the tourism industry.

This study examines the sequential mediating role of employee organisational commitment (EOC) and innovation on the relationship between budgetary participation and competitive advantage. Data were collected from a mail survey questionnaire of 86 Australian organisations with PROCESS applied to analyse the data. The study's findings make a significant contribution to the budgetary participation and behavioural management literature and practice. Specifically, the study provides a theoretical insight into the role of an important employee behavioural factor, EOC and innovation in mediating the relationship between budgetary participation and competitive advantage. In particular, the findings inform practitioners that budgetary participation influences the EOC of employees and subsequently influence competitive advantage through exploratory innovation.

Governments of the developing countries across the globe have been serious in designing social protection policies to address vulnerabilities faced by workers in the informal sector. Such a form of public intervention is expected to preserve livelihoods of these workers while mitigating the negative impacts of environmental degradation which exposes them to risks on which they do not have any control. This chapter develops a tractable theoretical framework to analyze the efficacy of Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT), a popular form of social protection, in addressing both the issues affecting the well-being of the informal sector workers. A simple three sector trade theoretic general equilibrium structure is constructed with an informal manufacturing sector producing a pollution intensive commodity. UCT given to the informal sector workers is modelled to improve the efficiency of these workers which again is negatively related to the output of the informal manufacturing sector. In such a setup, contrary to the conventional wisdom, UCT can depress livelihood opportunities while raising pollution at the same time since direct effect of the transfer on efficiency of the workers will dominate over the indirect effect generated through exposure to pollution. A negative impact of UCT on livelihood of workers can be avoided using an accommodative investment policy, however, it will call for more pollution.

This study examines the effect of Human Resource Management (HRM) policies in respect to workplace flexibility and employee empowerment on two employee behaviour related outcomes (employee organisational commitment (EOC) and collegiality) and organisational resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data were collected using an online survey questionnaire managed by Qualtrics. The questionnaire was distributed to the lower, middle and senior managers of 1,000 Australian organisations with 337 responses used in the analysis.

The findings indicate that workplace flexibility exhibits a direct and indirect (through collegiality) significant positive association with organisational resilience, and employee empowerment exhibits a direct and indirect (through both EOC and collegiality) significant positive association with organisational resilience.

The results highlight the importance of implementing desirable HRM policies in respect to empowering employees and enhancing workplace flexibility due to their role in facilitating organisational resilience both directly and indirectly through their influence on employee behaviour related outcomes, specifically EOC and collegiality.

In smart cities striving for innovation, development, and prosperity, hydrogen offers a promising path for decarbonization. However, its effective integration into the evolving energy landscape requires understanding regional intricacies and identifying areas for improvement. This chapter examines hydrogen transport from production to utilization, evaluating technologies’ pros, cons, and process equations and using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool to assess these technologies based on multiple criteria. It also explores barriers and opportunities in hydrogen transport within the 21st-century energy transition, providing insights for overcoming challenges. Evaluation criteria for hydrogen transport technologies were ranked by relative importance, with energy efficiency topping the list, followed by energy density, infrastructure requirements, cost, range, and flexibility. Safety, technological maturity, scalability, and compatibility with existing infrastructure received lower weights. Hydrogen transport technologies were categorized into three performance levels: low, medium, and high. Hydrogen tube trailers ranked lowest, while chemical hydrides, hydrail, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, hydrogen pipelines, and hydrogen blending exhibited moderate performance. Compressed hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen, ammonia carriers, and hydrogen fueling stations demonstrated the highest performance. The proposed framework is crucial for next-gen smart cities, cutting emissions, boosting growth, and speeding up development with a strong hydrogen infrastructure. This makes the region a sustainable tech leader, improving air quality and well-being. Aligned with Gulf Region goals, it is key for smart cities. Policymakers, industries, and researchers can use these insights to overcome barriers and seize hydrogen transport tech opportunities.

Kerala reported the first COVID-19 case on January 30. In order to stop the disease's spread in a heavily populated nation like India, the government declared a lockdown on 25 March 2020. Unexpected lockout caused wages for workers in the unorganised sector to stagnate, which led to reverse migration in India. During the first round of lockdowns organised by COVID-19, 43.3 million interstate migrants working in the informal manufacturing sector actually went back to their homes. This background encourages us to investigate how the COVID-19 epidemic affected male labour employment, with a primary focus on the unorganised manufacturing sector. The study takes into account the employment situation of male CWS in rural, urban and overall India. To investigate the aforementioned objectives, Poirier's Spline function approach has been used in the study. Relying on secondary data aggregated from ‘The Periodic Labour Force Survey’, Annual Report (2018–2019), (2019–2020), (2020–2021), the research comes to the conclusion that the work scenario for male CWS is more negatively impacted by pandemic in urban than rural areas. The paper ends with appropriate policy recommendations.