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This study aims to examine whether and how the presence of co-opted directors (directors appointed after the incumbent CEO) influences corporate climate risk disclosure.

This study comprehensively analyses 2,975 firm-year observations of US-listed companies, using ordinary least squares with industry and year-fixed effects. To confirm the reliability of the study results, the authors used several techniques, including propensity score matching, to address potential issues with functional form misspecification, analysed a subset of companies where co-option persisted over two consecutive years to mitigate concerns regarding reverse causality and difference-in-differences estimation, using the cheif executive officer’s (CEO’s) sudden death as an exogenous shock to board co-option to mitigate endogeneity concerns.

The findings indicate that the presence of a large number of co-opted directors negatively influences corporate climate risk disclosure. Mediation analysis suggests that managerial risk-taking partially mediates this negative association. Moderation analyses show that the negative impact of co-opted directors on climate risk disclosure is more pronounced in firms with greater linguistic obfuscation, limited external monitoring and in environmentally sensitive industries. Moreover, co-opted directors intentionally withhold or obscure the disclosure of transition climate risks more than physical climate risks.

This research has important implications for policymakers, regulators and corporate governance practitioners in designing board structures by highlighting the adverse impact of co-opted directors in contexts with lax regulatory enforcement and managerial discretion. The authors caution against relying on such directors for providing climate-related risk disclosures, especially in companies with poor external monitors and based in environmental sensitivities, as their placement can significantly undermine transparency and accountability.

This study adds to the existing body of knowledge by highlighting the previously unexplored phenomenon of intentional obscurity in disclosing climate risks by co-opted directors. This research provides novel insights into the interplay between board composition, managerial risk-taking behaviour and climate risk disclosure. The findings of this study have significant implications for policymakers, regulators and corporate governance experts, and may prompt a re-evaluation of strategies for improving climate risk disclosure practices.

In this digital age, the rapid technological innovation and adoption, with the increasing use of big data analytics, has raised concerns about the ability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to sustain the competition and innovation performance (IP). To narrow the research gap, this paper investigates the role of big data analytics capability (BDAC) in moderating the relationship between digital innovation (DI) and SME innovation performance.

This research has been carried forward through a detailed theory and literature analysis. Data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models using a two-stage approach in smartPLS-4.

Results highlight that digital service capability (DSC) significantly mediates the relationship between DI and IP. Additionally, value co-creation (VCC) directly affects digital transformation (DT), while DI has a stronger effect on DSC than IP. Furthermore, BDAC significantly moderates the relation between DSC → IP and DT → IP, whereas it has a detrimental effect on the relation between DI and IP. In addition to that, VCC, DSC, DT, DI and BDAC have a direct, significant and positive effect on IP.

This research was motivated by the practical relevance of supporting SMEs in adopting DT and the resource-based view (RBV) and technology acceptance model (TAM). This study shows that all direct and indirect measures significantly affect innovation performance, including BDAC as moderator. These findings refresh the perspective on what DT, DI, VCC, DSC and BDAC can bring to a firm's innovation performance.

This paper has contributed to DT by empirically validating a theoretical argument that suggests the acceptance and adoption of new technology. This paper aims to fill theoretical gaps in understanding BDAC and DT by incorporating the RBV and TAM theories on BDAC and DT.

This study aims to assess the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in Takaful (Islamic insurance) companies.

This study uses a qualitative approach, utilizing a CSR disclosure index and content analysis to examine the annual reports of 33 Takaful companies over the period from 2018 to 2022.

The findings indicated that the mean CSR disclosure score was 30.2% with significant differences in dimensions. The highest disclosure percentage (53.3%) was noted in the customer dimension, proving increased activity in this sphere. However, some of the critical dimensions like environment and Shariah compliance were critically low. The result shows that while Takaful companies are committed to some CSR aspects, there are significant opportunities that can be explored in environmental sustainability and Shariah compliance.

This study highlights the imperative for Takaful companies to elevate their CSR disclosure practices by aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensuring dual compliance with both SDGs and Shariah principles. By prioritizing environmental sustainability and Shariah compliance, these companies can significantly enhance stakeholder trust and fulfill ethical obligations inherent to Islamic finance. The adoption of targeted CSR strategies, complemented by the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, can streamline CSR reporting processes, thereby increasing both efficiency and accuracy.

Enhanced CSR disclosures promote transparency and accountability, fostering trust within Muslim communities and the broader society. Emphasizing environmental sustainability and Shariah compliance supports ethical practices and social cohesion. In addition, investing in community welfare and poverty alleviation initiatives contributes to economic and social development, aligning corporate actions with Islamic ethical values and improving overall quality of life.

This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by offering a robust evaluation of CSR disclosure, focusing on the Takaful industry, contributing to the broader discourse on Islamic finance and CSR.

The purpose of this special issue (SI) lead paper is to examine the role of digital technologies in sustainability accounting, reporting and assurance; review the articles in this SI; and identify future research directions.

This paper draws on academic literature to explore the role of digital technologies in sustainability accounting, reporting and assurance.

Digital technologies can assist in setting disclosure scope and objectives (e-taxonomies); undertaking materiality assessments (digital communication, artificial intelligence and big data analytics); collecting and analysing data (Internet of Things and radio frequency identification); potentially revolutionizing sustainability assurance practices; and disseminating disclosures (interactive reports). Papers in this SI examine a range of digital technologies and issues. Future research can examine the impact of Industry 4.0, barriers to adoption (and overcoming these), use of alternative theories and methodologies, critical examination of the benefits of digitalization and impact of digital technologies on the sustainability reporting and sustainability assurance processes.

This paper seeks to set the agenda for contemporary and future research on sustainability accounting, reporting and assurance and digital technologies.

The findings from this study have implications for regulators, standard setters and practitioners (including sustainability reporting managers and sustainability assurance providers), highlighting the impact of digital technologies on sustainability accounting, reporting and assurance.

Sustainability accounting, reporting and assurance concepts, techniques and practices play a key role in promoting transparency and organizational accountability to stakeholders on sustainability. Understanding how digital technologies can be leveraged to enhance sustainability accounting, reporting and assurance offers benefits to stakeholders and society.

This research offers a holistic view of the entire spectrum of sustainability accounting, reporting and assurance concepts, technologies and practices and the potential role digital technologies can play in them. It also offers insights for future research in a contemporary area.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive exploration of academic research on halal purchasing decisions and consumer behavior by integrating bibliometric and systematic review methodologies.

This study uses a multi-method approach, combining bibliometric and systematic review methodologies, to comprehensively analyze the domain of halal purchasing decisions and consumer behavior. A data set of 184 articles published between 2007 and 2024 was sourced from the Scopus database. The bibliometric analysis was conducted using Bibliometrix in R, facilitating performance analysis, science mapping and network analysis to explore key authors, affiliations, collaborations and thematic trends. Additionally, the systematic review examined the limitations and future research areas discussed in prior studies, providing the basis for formulating potential research questions to address identified gaps.

The study identifies significant contributions within the domain of halal purchasing decisions and consumer behavior, emphasizing the critical roles of religiosity, trust and halal certification as dominant themes. Bibliometric analysis reveals key authors, influential publications and collaborative networks, highlighting Malaysia as a central hub for research in this field. Additionally, the analysis underscores the intellectual structure and thematic evolution, identifying underexplored areas such as non-Muslim perspectives, emerging halal industries and geographic diversity. The systematic review complements these insights by addressing recurring methodological and theoretical limitations, offering targeted recommendations for future research.

This research uniquely combines bibliometric and systematic review methodologies to provide a comprehensive review of the halal consumer behavior literature, identifying limitations and gaps in prior studies and proposing actionable areas for future research.

This study aims to meta-synthesize the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and the financial performance of Islamic banks. Specifically, it examines how different components of IC – human capital, structural capital, relational capital and capital employed – impact key financial performance metrics, including return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q (TQ).

A comprehensive meta-analysis was conducted, following the PRISMA guidelines, to synthesize findings from 29 peer-reviewed journal articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science having accumulative sample size of 8,871. Effect sizes were calculated using Fisher’s r-to-z transformation, and a random-effects model was applied to estimate the overall effect sizes. Subgroup meta-analyses were performed to evaluate the relationships between specific components of IC and various financial performance measures.

The meta-analysis confirms a positive and statistically significant effect size (r = 0.227, p < 0.001) between IC and financial performance in Islamic banks. Human capital shows the strongest positive impact on ROA and ROE, highlighting the role of skilled employees in driving success. Structural and relational capital exhibit weaker and variable effects, whereas capital employed significantly enhances profitability. These findings underscore the complex nature of the IC–financial performance link, emphasizing the need for strategic management to optimize IC benefits.

This study fills a gap in the existing literature by providing a comprehensive meta-analysis focused on Islamic banks, which operate under unique principles compared to conventional banks. By highlighting the significant role of IC, particularly human capital, this research offers valuable insights for academics, practitioners and policymakers aiming to enhance the financial performance and sustainability of Islamic banks through strategic management of intellectual assets.

This study aims to dissect and understand the latent themes of Islamic work ethic (IWE) and explore the driving factors of IWE research.

Structural topic modeling (STM), a sophisticated machine learning technique, was used to analyze a corpus of 205 articles sourced from the Scopus database. These articles cover the 36 years of research on IWE, from 1988 to 2024. Moreover, negative binomial regression was applied to examine the driving factors of IWE research.

The STM analysis unfolds ten topics in conjunction with IWE including individual success, workplace dynamics, organizational work ethics, knowledge management, employee citizenship behavior, financial ethics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance enhancement and leadership. The further STM outputs included word clouds, prevalence proportions, correlation matrix, heatmap, relationship of topics with metadata, topic prominence in the publishing journals and, finally, illustrating trends and future prospects of research on IWE. The results of negative binomial regression reveal that number of authors, article age, journal indexing, authors from multiple countries and number of references are strong drivers of fostering research in IWE, by having significant positive impacts on total citations.

The insights from this study provide valuable guidance for businesses and organizations looking to integrate IWE principles into their operations. By promoting values such as fairness, hard work and ethical behavior, organizations can foster a more inclusive and morally grounded workplace culture. This, in turn, may lead to enhanced employee satisfaction, greater organizational commitment and improved overall performance. Additionally, the emphasis on ethical practices can contribute to broader societal benefits, such as increased trust in business practices and a stronger alignment with social responsibility initiatives.

This is a unique study that explores the latent themes and characteristics of the IWE literature through STM and provides insights on the future research directions. In addition, this study also examines the driving factors of IWE research.

This review paper aims to provide a comprehensive retrospective analysis of the research landscape in the Halal industry through a threefold approach, including bibliometric analysis, latent theme identification and examination of driving factors of research citations.

A total of 2,510 research documents, identified from the Scopus through a systematic search, were considered for review. The review methods included bibliometric analysis of the domain, application of the machine learning structural topic modeling (STM) to identify latent themes and negative binomial regression to estimate the impact of paper, author and geographical characteristics on citation rates.

In addition to bibliometric insights, the STM uncovered 10 key topics within the Halal industry literature, including certification processes, dietary practices, consumer behavior, ethical considerations, supply chain management, market dynamics, Halal tourism, verification methods, regulatory frameworks and Halal food production and marketing. Positive associations with citation rates were found for abstract length, number of keywords, paper age, number of references, funding, number of authors and international collaboration, while a negative association was observed for authorship from Malaysia.

This paper, besides providing insights into research dynamics and citation patterns, also guides future research avenues in the Halal industry.

Given growing concerns about water scarcity, this study aims to investigate the extent and quality of corporate water management disclosures (hereafter water disclosures) in countries and jurisdictions facing extremely high water-stress levels. Contextual factors, at a macro/country, meso/stock exchange and micro/company level, influencing water disclosures, are examined.

The authors adopted an institutional perspective, integrating multi-level organizational fields, including micro/company-level, meso/stock exchange-level and macro/national-level influences while considering factors such as corporate governance (CG), regulatory stringency, cultural traits, advocacy for environmental management, environmental performance and sustainability indices. The authors use a GRI 303-based index to evaluate water disclosures of the top 100 listed companies from 12 stock-exchanges based in extremely high water-stress countries over a five-year period from 2016to 2020. While checking for robustness, the authors evaluate the impact of normative, coercive and mimetic forces on water disclosures at country, stock exchange and company levels.

Overall, water disclosure rates/extent and quality remain low with only incremental improvements observed over the five-year period. In terms of drivers, at a micro-level, the authors find that robust CG positively impacts water disclosure quality. At a meso level, regulatory stringency, environmental advocacy and the presence of a sustainability index positively influence water disclosure quality. At a macro level, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity negatively impact water disclosure quality, whereas long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance positively impact it. Furthermore, countries characterized by robust governance and high environmental performance negatively influence disclosure quality in water sensitive industries.

The findings may prove useful to policymakers and regulators, including stock exchanges, in strengthening water disclosure requirements. Standard-setters may consider introducing more guidelines to assist reporters in improving the quality of their disclosures. Practitioners (managers and assurance providers) may use the findings to benchmark corporate reporting practices.

The research provides insights that can inform policies promoting transparency and accountability around corporate use of societies’ scarce water resources. The study advances responsible water stewardship, aligning corporate actions with global sustainability goals, particularly around water scarcity. In doing so, these findings have implications that extend beyond corporate disclosure practices, impacting broader environmental conservation and resource management efforts.

The study examines corporate water disclosure rates and qualities in extremely high water-stress countries and jurisdictions. The evaluation of these disclosures using a GRI 303-based index generates a unique dataset that is analysed from a multi-level institutional perspective (micro, meso and macro) to provide insights into the factors influencing corporate water disclosure practices.

Excessive digital consumption can lead to a blurring of boundaries between work and leisure. This paper aims to investigate the influence of digital consumption on the work ethic among Muslims, integrating demographic variables like gender and marital status into the analysis.

Using data from the 7th wave of the World Values Survey, this study focuses on a subset of 12,979 employed Muslims to assess the relationships between their engagement with digital media and their work-related values. Multiple linear regression models are used to analyze the effects of various digital platforms, including mobile phones, social media and internet usage, on the perceived importance of work and related ethic principles.

The findings indicate a significant negative impact of over digital consumption on work ethic, suggesting that increased digital engagement and tech-overload may undermine traditional work values. The relationship persists in all models on success inclusion of control variables, which confirms the robustness of the relationship. However, this relationship varies among demographic groups, with males and singles being more susceptible to the negative impacts compared to females and married individuals.

The study contributes to understanding how digital consumption influences traditional work values and offers recommendations for balancing digital consumption to maintain a robust work ethic in modern digital societies.