Search results

This study aims to explore whether corporate governance mechanisms affect environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure by firms across countries. It investigates whether board cultural diversity affects ESG disclosure.

The proposed methodology draws on multidimensional scaling as a multivariate assessment tool to evaluate and prioritize the effect of corporate governance on environmental, social and governance disclosure. This study uses a cross-country sample of 672 listed firms located in 40 countries for the period between 2014 and 2022. We used a panel regression to test the hypotheses. Moreover, we conducted a two-stage least squares regression analysis as an additional robustness check.

The results show that companies can have high-quality ESG disclosure when they have good corporate governance. Interestingly, this study found that board composition and some criteria of corporate social responsibility (CSR) positively affect ESG disclosure for firms.

This study adds to the existing body of accounting knowledge in several dimensions. Indeed, to the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few studies that investigate the effect of corporate governance on the environmental, social and governance disclosure of firms across 40 countries. This study also has important implications for the board of directors’ characteristics and CSR, which strive to improve the index of ESG disclosure.

The impact of climate change (CC) has become the most defining issue of the present times. From an increase in temperature to food and water scarcity, the adverse effect of CC is faced globally by all countries on an unprecedented level. Environmentally polluting industries are considered one of the primary contributors to the problem of CC. This chapter aims to provide an understanding of the emerging global threat of CC and various strategies that environmentally polluting firms could undertake to tackle the climate change crisis.

Based on the review of the literature, this chapter presents deliberation on the climate change crisis and various strategies for environmentally polluting industries to tackle CC issues.

This chapter presents a bird's eye view of the CC issue and various strategies that could be undertaken by environmentally polluting industries to address the CC crisis.

This chapter should be very useful for policymakers, practitioners and corporations to understand the issue of climate change and global warming and its implications. Further, it will also help polluting companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and address the adverse impact of their business activities.

Considering the dearth of sector-specific studies based on climate change, this chapter is one of the few studies that explore CC strategies in the context of polluting industries.

The study aims to identify, summarize and synthesize the theories used in corporate financial reporting (CFR) and propose a conceptual framework based on those theories.

The study applied the systematic literature review approach to achieve the study objectives. So, the researchers systematically collected the relevant documents from the Scopus database with the help of an advanced search string containing keywords to the CFR theories. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses technique was used for the relevant document selection process. Finally, 67 documents were extracted and analyzed spanning from the year of 2017 to 2023.

The major findings of this study indicate a predominance of legitimacy, agency and stakeholder theories in CFR studies. Whereas, this study reveals that neo-institutional, signaling, resource dependency, political economics and impression management theories have been less focused on by scholars in the CFR studies. Those theories need to be reemphasized in this field in future research.

The study’s contributions are significant for academics, policymakers and different parties, as it enhance the understanding of CFR theoretical frameworks and suggest directions for future research to broaden the theoretical landscape. The study maps the motivations of applying a certain theory which will help the researchers to select a specific theory for the underlying context of CFR.

Fire safety is a pivotal requirement in building codes. Prescribed design criteria have been the norm to achieve it, which imposes limitations on engineers, including the inability to accommodate new solutions/materials. The shift towards performance-based design offers the potential to address shortcomings of the prescribed design. However, this shift also significantly increases the workload on structural engineers without a corresponding increase in their engineering fees. Simplified design tools are needed to assist engineers in this transition.

The paper is divided into sections investigating equivalent standard fire duration, thermal deformations, flexural behaviour and shear capacity of flat slabs when exposed to fire. The first section conducts a parametric study correlating equivalent and realistic fire durations using the average internal temperature profile (AITP) method, resulting in statistical equations estimating equivalent fire duration. The second section evaluates thermal deformations and flexural behaviour through a parametric study considering various parameters. This section results in statistical equations estimating thermal deformations and flexural behaviour of flat slab sections during fire exposure. The final section focuses on shear capacity, developing simplified heat transfer formulas and statistical equations predicting compression zone depth reduction. The section presents methodologies predicting flat slab sections' one-way and two-way shear capacities during fire exposure.

Structural engineers can use the proposed methods for daily design work without applying complex heat transfer calculations. When the equivalent standard fire duration is utilized, a flat slab’s thermal deformations, flexural behaviour and shear capacity under an actual fire condition can be calculated. As such, the methods would be highly beneficial in assessing the structural integrity of a building during an active fire incident.

The paper provides engineers with the tools required to evaluate the safety of flat slab sections during fire exposure. The methodologies presented in the paper enable engineers to use performance-based design for slab sections by (1) converting any real fire scenario to a standard fire with an equivalent duration, (2) assessing their thermal behaviour, (3) evaluating their flexural behaviour and (4) evaluating their flexural and shear capacities. The paper concludes with a case study example demonstrating the detailed application of the developed methods.

The purpose of this study is to detect the effect of some natural cellulosic polymers in their nano forms with the addition of zinc oxide nanoparticles on restoring the lost mechanical strength of degraded papyrus without any harmful effects on the inks.

In the current study, the USB digital microscopy, scanning electron microscope, measurement of mechanical properties (tensile and elongation), pH measurement, color change and infrared spectroscopy were undertaken for the samples before and after treatment and aging.

In the current study, the USB digital microscopy, scanning electron microscope, measurement of mechanical properties (tensile and elongation), pH measurement, color change and infrared spectroscopy were undertaken for the samples before and after treatment and aging.

The effect of strengthening materials was studied on cellulose and carbon ink, which makes this study closer to reality as the manuscript is the consistent structure of cellulose and inks, whereas most of the literature stated the impact of consolidation materials on the strengthening the cellulosic supports without attention to their impact on inks.

Companies are increasingly appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) to anchor the need to highlight climate change at the senior management level. This study aims to examine how CSO power and sustainability-based compensation influence climate reporting and carbon performance.

Using one of the largest data sets to date, consisting of 18,834 company years through the author’s observations, spanning an 11-year period (2011–2021) in 33 countries. This paper used quantitative methods – specifically, ordinal logistic regression estimation. This paper measures the level of climate change disclosure based on the carbon disclosure leadership methodology. Carbon performance is based on the intensity of carbon emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2), which is a quantitative and relatively more objective measure.

The results suggest that climate change disclosure continued to increase and the carbon emissions intensity of the companies in this study gradually decreased over the sample period. This paper finds that the presence of the CSO within the top management team has a positive and significant influence on the level of information on climate change of the companies in the sample. This finding confirms the idea that the managerial capacity of CSOs motivates the disclosure of climate change. The empirical results confirm that there are differences in the role that the CSO and sustainability-based compensation play in influencing the quality of climate information disclosure in developed and developing countries.

The recourse on a mixed theoretical framework, which highlights upper echelons theory, argues the understanding of the role of CSOs in explaining the relationship between climate change disclosure–carbon performance relationship. The novelty of the study lies in the approaches adopted to describe the quality of climate change disclosure. To control for endogeneity, this paper uses a difference-in-difference analysis by adding a firm to the Morgan Stanley Capital International index as an exogenous shock.

This study investigates the impact of the fire decay phase on structural damage using the sectional analysis method. The primary objective of this work is to forecast the non-dimensional capacity parameters for the axial and flexural load-carrying capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) sections for heating and the subsequent post-heating phase (decay phase) of the fire.

The sectional analysis method is used to determine the moment and axial capacities. The findings of sectional analysis and heat transfer for the heating stage are initially validated, and the analysis subsequently proceeds to determine the load capacity during the fire’s heating and decay phases by appropriately incorporating non-dimensional sectional and material parameters. The numerical analysis includes four fire curves with different cooling rates and steel percentages.

The study’s findings indicate that the rate at which the cooling process occurs after undergoing heating substantially impacts the axial and flexural capacity. The maximum degradation in axial and flexural capacity occurred in the range of 15–20% for cooling rates of 3 °C/min and 5 °C/min as compared to the capacity obtained at 120 min of heating for all steel percentages. As the fire cooling rate reduced to 1 °C/min, the highest deterioration in axial and flexural capacity reached 48–50% and 42–46%, respectively, in the post-heating stage.

The established non-dimensional parameters for axial and flexural capacity are limited to the analysed section in the study owing to the thermal profile, however, this can be modified depending on the section geometry and fire scenario.

The study primarily focusses on the degradation of axial and flexural capacity at various time intervals during the entire fire exposure, including heating and cooling. The findings obtained showed that following the completion of the fire’s heating phase, the structural capacity continued to decrease over the subsequent post-heating period. It is recommended that structural members' fire resistance designs encompass both the heating and cooling phases of a fire. Since the capacity degradation varies with fire duration, the conventional method is inadequate to design the load capacity for appropriate fire safety. Therefore, it is essential to adopt a performance-based approach while designing structural elements' capacity for the desired fire resistance rating. The proposed technique of using non-dimensional parameters will effectively support predicting the load capacity for required fire resistance.

The fire-resistant requirements for reinforced concrete structures are generally established based on standard fire exposure conditions, which account for the fire growth phase. However, it is important to note that concrete structures can experience internal damage over time during the decay phase of fires, which can be quantitatively determined using the proposed non-dimensional parameter approach.

This study aims to explore the challenges and opportunities of adopting Industry 4.0 technologies in Africa, specifically focusing on the automotive industries in Morocco and Nigeria. By comparing these two leading African countries in Industry 4.0 adoption, the research seeks to identify key factors influencing the implementation of smart manufacturing technologies and to provide insights into the potential benefits and challenges faced.

The research uses a multiple case study design with a quantitative approach, collecting data through structured questionnaires from 167 participants across five automotive companies in Morocco and Nigeria. Regression analysis assessed the impact of opportunities and challenges. Statistical analysis identified significant differences between the two countries.

The study reveals significant differences in the perceived challenges and benefits of Industry 4.0 adoption between Morocco and Nigeria. In Morocco, key challenges include high implementation costs and resistance to change, whereas, in Nigeria, lack of skilled workforce and high implementation costs are predominant barriers. Both countries recognize the benefits of improved productivity, better product quality and enhanced supply chain agility.

While focused on two countries and the automotive industry, the study provides valuable insights into Industry 4.0 adoption in Africa, with potential for expanded future research.

The insights provided by this study can guide policymakers in developing tailored strategies to support Industry 4.0 adoption in Africa. For organizations, understanding the specific challenges and benefits can aid in designing effective Industry 4.0 implementation plans, enhancing competitiveness and achieving sustainable growth.

By providing a comparative analysis of Morocco and Nigeria, the study offers unique insights into the specific factors influencing Industry 4.0 implementation in different African contexts with differences between North and West of Africa.

This study aims to explore the application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in understanding Muslim consumers’ visitation motives to halal hotels. The model tests the impact of additional factors to the TPB such as religious commitment, religious-identification and information seeking behavior on consumers’ attitudes and intentions to visit Halal hotels.

Survey data was collected from 183 respondents to examine the relationships between these factors and customers’ intention to visit halal hotels. The survey participants were selected from diverse backgrounds to ensure a representative sample. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the conceptual model.

This study highlights the significance of attitudes shaped by subjective norms and information seeking behavior, emphasizing their influence on consumers’ inclination to visit halal hotels. In addition, the role of religious commitment is examined, shedding light on the impact of individuals’ strong faith in shaping their attitudes and behaviors toward halal hotels.

These results contribute to the existing literature on Halal consumer behavior and provide practical implications for professionals and policymakers in the hospitality industry. Understanding the factors that influence customers’ intentions to visit halal hotels can assist in developing tailored marketing strategies and creating an inclusive environment.

This study aims to focus on the main materials used in consolidation processes of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather binding.

For each material, chemical structure, chemical composition, molecular formula, solubility, advantages, disadvantages and its role in treatment process are presented.

This study concluded that carboxy methyl cellulose, hydroxy propyl cellulose, methyl cellulose, cellulose acetate, nanocrystalline cellulose, funori, sturgeon glue, poly vinyl alcohol, chitosan, chitosan nanoparticles (NPs), gelatin, aquazol, paraloid B72 and hydroxyapatite NPs were the most common and important materials used for the consolidation of illuminated paper manuscripts. For the leather bindings, hydroxy propyl cellulose, polyethylene glycol, oligomeric melamine-formaldehyde resin, acrylic wax SC6000, pliantex, paraloid B67 and B72, silicone oil and collagen NPs are the most consolidants used.

Illuminated paper manuscripts with leather binding are considered one of the most important objects in libraries, museums and storehouses. The uncontrolled conditions and other deterioration factors inside the libraries and storehouses lead to degradation of these artifacts. The brittleness, fragility and weakness are considered the most common deterioration aspects of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather binding. Therefore, the consolidation process became vital and important to solve this problem. This study presents the main materials used for consolidation process of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather bindings.