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We expand the recent literature on the dynamics of capital structure decisions by investigating the impact of national culture on firms' optimal debt ratios and their dynamic re-adjustment process. To this end, we aim at estimating firm-specific speeds of leverage adjustment, allowing for heterogeneous dynamics in firms' capital structure.

We use dynamic panel data estimators to analyze the impact of cultural factors on the dynamics of debt ratios.

We show that national culture affects the optimal level of leverage and the dynamic rebalancing of debt ratios, both directly and indirectly, by altering the effect of firm characteristics and macroeconomic factors on firms' financing behavior. Firms converge faster towards the optimal leverage in countries with a stronger attitude to conform with the norm, while they are slower where there is a higher propensity to intellectual autonomy. A higher risk aversion and long-run propensity induce over-levered firms to reduce leverage faster, making the adjustment process strongly asymmetric. Moreover, national culture also produces indirect effects by mitigating the impact of asymmetric information on capital structure decisions. Indeed, firms in more individualistic countries display a lower speed of adjustment and a stronger effect of firm characteristics associated with higher agency costs. On the contrary, firms in countries with a higher tendency to conform to social norms, less individualistic and more long-term oriented have a higher adjustment speed and appear to suffer less from agency issues. Our results therefore highlight how national culture affects agency problems within firms, thus suggesting the adoption of country-specific corporate governance provisions accounting for the effects of local cultural traits on managers' behavior.

We expand the capital structure and governance literature by showing how cultural traits impact on the dynamics of debt ratios. In particular, we show how cultural traits may mitigate or exacerbate the role of agency issues on firms' behavior, hence suggesting that cultural factors may interact with governance rules in shaping firms' decisions. Therefore, our work highlights how policy-makers should include cultural aspects when defining regulation concerning corporate governance.

The paper aims to investigate the importance of leadership – distributed leadership (DL) – for the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and business sustainability (BS).

Extensive literature research was carried out to investigate the relationship among leadership, OL and BS. Two theoretical frameworks of the relationship among DL, OL and BS were formulated and tested on the basis of the empirical studies conducted in 694 Polish and Danish companies. The moderated multiple regression and mediation analysis were used.

In-depth, critical literature analysis has shown that the theoretical foundation of the relationship between leadership and BS is limited and not empirically verified. However, the empirical study has revealed a positive, statistically significant effect of DL on both OL and BS and the mediating role of OL on the relationship between DL and BS (a partial and complimentary mediation).

It would be valuable to simultaneously consider other leadership types (beyond DL) in terms of their impact on OL and BS. Additionally, due to the nature of BS challenges and the specificity of DL, other factors influencing BS should be included for a more profound understanding of the relationships under investigation. Finally, additional contextual factors need to be taken into account.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is one of the first studies that present the relationship between OL and BS with reference to factors influencing BS, i.e. leadership. The value of the paper is the development of two alternative models of the relationship among DL, OL and BS and their verification through large-scale empirical cross-country research. Furthermore, the results obtained in the course of the research open up new research directions with respect to the development of the concept of sustainable leadership and deepen the knowledge of the relationship between leadership types and OL.

This study aims to examine the impact of ESG performance on financial risk (FR) in energy firms from developing countries. It also explores the moderating roles of ESG controversies and board gender diversity (BGD) on this relationship.

The research uses a panel data set of 218 energy firms from 20 developing countries from 2019 to 2024, using two-stage least squares regression to address potential endogeneity. Robustness checks are conducted using fixed-effects estimation and pooled ordinary least squares.

The results indicate that superior ESG performance significantly reduces both total and systemic risk. ESG controversies positively moderate the relationship between ESG performance and FR, suggesting that controversies may weaken the risk-reducing benefits of strong ESG practices. Additionally, BGD significantly strengthens the negative relationship between ESG performance and FR. Robustness checks confirm the consistency of these findings across different estimation methods.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature by examining the role of ESG performance in FR mitigation, specifically within the energy sector in developing countries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to explore these dynamics in this specific context. This study uniquely illustrates how ESG controversies and BGD significantly moderate the ESG–risk relationship, offering fresh insights that extend stakeholder, risk management and legitimacy theories. The findings highlight the importance of integrating ESG factors into corporate governance and risk management, particularly for firms operating in high-risk, high-impact industries such as energy.

Subject searching in the library catalog is a challenge for any user, but may be especially so for members of marginalized groups whose language diverges even further from established systems of subject headings. In this study, researchers employed the concept of code-switching to better understand the linguistic divide that members of the LGBTQ+ community face when formulating subject searches in the library catalog.

Through a set of 15 interviews with adult library users identifying as LGBTQ+, researchers examined the difference between participants’ natural language when discussing books and their suggested search terms for these same items. Analysis of language switching was guided by a linguistic framework of semantic, syntactic and lexical elements.

Results show that LGBTQ+ catalog users employ linguistic shifts when approaching the library catalog, particularly semantic shifts around terminology for genres and LGBTQ+ identities. Almost all participants were aware of their language switching to some extent, with many purposely employing it in an anticipatory attempt to match their perceptions of the catalog’s language.

For libraries looking to better support marginalized communities, this study offers insight into the linguistic perceptions and practices of these users and the disconnect they may face when searching for resources related to their identities. Pluralistic approaches to subject representation may offer one means of addressing this.

This study takes the novel approach of applying the concept of code-switching to better understand the needs and perceptions of library catalog users.

Does societal trust influence short-term financial management? Recent papers uncover the importance of societal trust for financial management in specific countries and large firms. Our paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of societal trust on short-term financial policies of SMEs, namely working capital management and cash holdings.

We rely on a sample of 14,711 privately owned medium-sized manufacturing firms from 26 European countries with a sample period between 2014 and 2020. For estimation, we use pooled OLS and hierarchical linear models and control for several firm-specific and country-specific known determinants of short-term financial management. Moreover, our results are robust to the specific measurement of trust, financial constraints, and corruption.

We show a positive relationship between trust and working capital requirements investment and a negative relationship between trust and the level of cash holdings. Moreover, we show that trust attenuates the negative impact of being a financially constrained firm and the positive impact of national perceptions of corruption. Finally, in higher trustworthy environments, firms operate with relatively higher inventories and relatively lower trade credit granted and obtained.

Results suggest that policies supporting societal trust may also foster business development and that when dealing with clients or suppliers from different trustworthy environments, firms may have to adapt their business models to incorporate trust differences between business environments.

Firstly, the comprehensive analysis of the impact of trust on working capital management and cash holdings while controlling for different firm-level and country-level known determinants of short-term financial management. Secondly, it addresses a European sample of unquoted, medium-sized firms. Thirdly, it studies the combined effect of trust and financial constraints and trust and corruption.

Exploring the entrepreneurial process, particularly the role of the entrepreneur’s psychological aspect in business models, has been less emphasized in previous research. This study aims to introduce a business model influenced by psychological factors.

This study reveals psychological factors in the entrepreneurial process through qualitative interviews, identifying two main categories: negative emotions and moderating effects. This study adopts a grounded theory approach using the constant comparative method, analyzing data through systematic coding procedures.

A new theoretical framework, Business Model for Sustainability by Psychology, is established, integrating business processes and psychological factors, and emphasizing the importance of addressing psychological challenges in the success of self-created brands. Furthermore, this study indicates that entrepreneurs are more likely to acquire resources and maintain a positive innovative attitude in a supportive social and cultural environment.

Future research should expand to include various types of stores and entrepreneurs from different age groups. Expanding the research to include other industries would provide more comprehensive and representative results.

This research reveals interdisciplinary observations to better support entrepreneurs in facing challenges and promoting the success of entrepreneurial activities.

The psychological state of entrepreneurs and the social-cultural background are modeled when designing business integration frameworks to enhance the success of entrepreneurship.

Foreign construction subsidiaries play an important role in the global construction market. How to establish and maintain long-term sustainable performance has attracted increased attention, but only a few studies have considered this issue. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between autonomy and the sustainable performance of subsidiaries and to provide support for their management control modes.

From an institutional logics perspective, empirical research using a questionnaire survey was conducted following the methodological framework of this study. Relevant data were collected from 106 experienced managers of foreign construction subsidiaries, and the hypotheses were tested through a regression model.

The results show that foreign construction subsidiaries have a high degree of operational autonomy, which tends to strengthen their embeddedness in the host country and improve their sustainable performance. However, the role of strategic autonomy is not found to be significant. The moderation results show that the positive impact between operational autonomy and external network embeddedness is strengthened by institutional distance. Institutional distance has no significant moderating impact on the relationship between strategic autonomy and external network embeddedness, respectively.

Geographical limitations may exist as the survey is focused on the Chinese construction foreign subsidiaries. However, based on an institutional logics perspective, this study discusses the management control mode of foreign subsidiaries, which enriches the antecedents of sustainable performance and can provide an in-depth explanation of the effects of the organizational strategies of multinational construction enterprises.

This study provides beneficial information for the sustainable performance of foreign construction subsidiaries. It will provide detailed guidance to managers located in different institutional environments on optimally promoting the sustainable development of subsidiaries.

This study identifies autonomy as an important antecedent, making it one of the first studies investigating autonomy on the sustainable performance of foreign construction subsidiaries. The findings of this study can contribute to the construction subsidiaries' sustainable performance literature and provide novel, comprehensive knowledge for academia and practice.

This study revisits the relationship between environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities and firm performance. More importantly, it tests whether this relationship is moderated by critical yet underexplored factors such as stakeholder engagement, financial constraints, and religiosity.

A wide range of estimation techniques, including pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects, system generalized method of moments (GMM) and propensity score matching-difference-in-differences (PSM-DiD), are employed to investigate such issues in a large sample of firms from 31 countries.

ESG performance has a positive and significant impact on firm performance. While stakeholder engagement positively moderates this relationship, financial constraints and religiosity negatively moderate it. Interestingly, this positive linkage is driven by environmental and social performance rather than governance performance.

Firms should proactively engage in ESG initiatives and consider the intervening influences of stakeholder engagement, financial constraints and religiosity in making decisions to invest in ESG activities. Furthermore, our findings can help policymakers understand the financial consequences of ESG practices, which can be helpful in designing new policies to further promote corporate engagement in ESG practices.

First, our research findings help reconcile the long-standing debate about the value impact of ESG. Second, our paper investigates relatively new aspects of the ESG-firm performance relationship. Third, our study offers more insight into the ESG literature by showing that not all ESG dimensions equally impact firm performance.

Cooperative agreements between universities and firms (U–F) have gained prominence. However, the literature on organisational culture and the formation of cooperation agreements is scarce. This study aims to analyse, from the perspective of the managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and those in charge in universities, the perceptions of the influence of organisational culture on this type of U–F cooperation.

To this end, multiple case studies were adopted, involving cooperation agreements between a Portuguese and eight SMEs incubated in UBImedical. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather information, aiming to understand the meaning, importance and possible obstacles caused by organisational culture in this U–F cooperation agreement.

Content analysis of the results obtained leads to the conclusion that cultural compatibility is a crucial factor for successful U–F cooperation. The exchange of knowledge, mutual trust and flexibility between those involved are identified as key determinants to build shared norms that allow a more productive, assertive union.

The study represents an important tool to support SME managers and those in charge of universities, as the evidence obtained can help them to define policies and actions with regard to the U–F cooperation process. More precisely, these SME and university managers could give more attention to culture in future cooperation agreements.

This study advances understanding of the role of organisational culture in a cooperation agreement since this was a gap identified in the literature on the topic. It also contributes to the existing body of work on U–F cooperation, demonstrating that organisational culture is considered important by partners in these agreements and should be adjusted towards compatible alignment of each party’s expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to review how knowledge transfer, including knowledge integration, absorptive capacity and reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) in cross-border acquisitions, is examined in existing research work. The authors also propose directions to advance research in cross-border acquisitions.

A systematic literature review is conducted, and related propositions are advanced based on scientometric and bibliometric analysis of 146 papers published over 10 years about tacit knowledge transfer, innovation activities, industrial policy effect on merger decisions, top management experience and value creation in cross-border acquisition. First, the authors searched major themes with the help of Scopus, and later, the authors analysed all received literature with the help of VOS Viewer.

This review facilitates us to identify six clusters and main author keywords. These six clusters are the underlying six research streams, including RKT, cultural distances, value creation, absorptive capacity, innovation and reference to India and China.

Despite knowledge transfer constituting important antecedents and critical factors for the success of cross-border acquisitions, knowledge management in the acquired company through proper knowledge transfer and knowledge integration is not given enough attention. Current literature still fails to provide a holistic picture of how firms strategically manage knowledge post-acquisition. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyse the dynamics of knowledge transfer in cross-border acquisitions. The study is a novel attempt to relate current research themes to emerging areas of cross-border acquisitions.