Search results

Drawing on social cognitive career theory (SCCT), this study aims to examine how university students’ attitude towards entrepreneurship education (ATEE) consists of affective, cognitive and behavioral components influences their entrepreneurial intentions. It further examines the role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) as a mediator and social norms as a moderator in the ATEE – entrepreneurial intentions and – ESE relationships, respectively.

A sample of 428 university students from the new generational cohort entering workforce now (i.e. generation Z) from the four main cities of the province of Punjab, Pakistan, were considered using an online administered questionnaire. The study analyzes data using SPSS v25 and AMOS v22 and presents descriptive statistics, reliability, validity analysis and linear regression analysis. Furthermore, to test mediation and moderation hypotheses, Hayes’ PROCESS macro v3.0 was used.

The results confirm that individuals’ ATEE based on affective, cognitive and behavioral components have significant influence on entrepreneurial intentions. The findings also confirm the strong mediating role of ESE between the components of ATEE and entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, the conditional effects results confirm that social norms strengthened the positive relationships between the affective, behavioral and cognitive components of ATEE – ESE at three levels (low, medium and high).

This study is the first of its nature to unlock the missing link between ATEE’s components and entrepreneurial intentions using the theoretical foundations of SCCT. Furthermore, this study provides theoretical and practical implications specifically considering a developing country – Pakistan.

Studies showed that a proactive delivery system employing innovative artificial intelligence (AI) in urban services might perform better. This has become an important national policy for many countries. Thus, this study aims to explore the influence of AI in urban services in Malaysia.

Official documents such as Structure Plan and Government Transformation Programme Policy Document covering various levels of cities in Malaysia, articles related to urban studies mostly written by researchers regarding urban growth in Malaysia and the Urban Development Bulletin from the Federal Department of Town and Country Planning from 1957 to date were reviewed and analysed.

The findings show that the influence of AI in urban services has long existed and been carefully planned by local authorities since colonial times. The development of global digital technology influences the upgrading of AI in urban services in Malaysia. Also, the success of AI in these municipal services is influenced by the rate of information technology literacy among the urban population. These developments have led to the definition of a conceptual city.

This paper's findings and conclusion were based on reviewed literature but did not compromise the strength of this paper. Thus, as part of the implications for future research, mixed-methods research design has been suggested.

As part of the implications, this article intends to promote AI in urban services in Malaysia and other developing countries with similar urban services challenges.

This paper encourages AI applications in urban services because it enhances service delivery performance. This intends to key stakeholders to promote AI via policies across Malaysia's urban services as part of the study implications.

This study aims to examine the influence of voluntary disclosure on bank value in Pakistan, considering the moderating effect of corporate governance characteristics: ownership control, board independence and board size.

The study uses data from 20 listed Pakistani banks for the period 2011–2021. The estimation contains robust fixed effect and its assumptions, and a model of standard error with panel corrections.

The findings revealed a weak positive impact of voluntary disclosure on bank value. However, the increase in the number of independent directors strengthens the positive impact of voluntary disclosure on a bank’s value. Conversely, increasing the ownership concentration, and board size (other than independent directors) may strongly decrease the impact of voluntary disclosure on a bank’s value in Pakistan.

The study’s limitations include its exclusive focus on the Pakistani banking industry. Future research should take into account newer contexts and data. The findings suggest that future research should investigate the topic in various contexts, including a comparison of Islamic and conventional banks.

The practical implications for Pakistani banks emphasize transparency, board composition and ownership structure. In terms of managerial implications, using independent directors, aligning ownership interests and addressing disclosure challenges are highlighted.

Focusing on independent directors, ownership concentration and board size, this study enhances knowledge of the impact of voluntary disclosure on bank value in Pakistan. It contributes to agency theory and the literature in this domain.

This study aims to comprehensively understand market reactions to Bursa Malaysia's announcement on mandatory climate-change-related disclosures, exploring sector-specific dynamics and cross-sectional influences.

The study uses event study methodology on 412 listed firms to analyze market reactions around the announcement date. The sector-wise analysis further delves into variations across industries. Cross-sectional analysis explores the significance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores and firm controls in explaining the differences across sample firms.

The event study reveals initial negative market reactions on the event day, with a subsequent shift from positive to negative cumulative impact, indicating the evolving nature of investor sentiment. The sector-wise analysis highlights heterogeneous effects, emphasizing the need for tailored strategies based on industry-specific characteristics. The cross-sectional findings underscore the growing importance of ESG factors, with firm size and performance influencing market reactions. Financial leverage and liquidity prove insufficient to explain cumulative abnormal return (CAR) differences, while past returns and volatility are influential technical factors.

The economic significance of the results indicates a growing trend where investors prioritize companies with more substantial ESG scores, potentially driving shifts in corporate strategies toward sustainability. Better ESG performance signifies improved risk management and long-term resilience in the face of market dynamics. Regulatory bodies may respond by enhancing ESG reporting requirements, while financial institutions integrate ESG factors into their models, emphasizing the benefits of sustainability and financial performance.

This research contributes to the existing literature by providing a nuanced analysis of market responses to climate-related disclosures, incorporating sector-specific dynamics and cross-sectional influences. The findings offer valuable insights for businesses and policymakers, emphasizing the need for tailored approaches to climate-related disclosure management.

Heightened public concerns for the global environment due to human overexploitation have given rise to many green product initiatives by businesses. Green cosmetics (GC) are products developed and marketed based on ecological sustainability and have shown increasing consumer appeal worldwide. The current research investigates the antecedents of green cosmetics consumption among Indian GC users, hitherto un-investigated comprehensively.

The study is a cross-sectional pairwise comparison of green evaluation criteria for cosmetics using an expert panel of thirty Indian cosmetic users using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) and investigate the impact of a comprehensive list of antecedents on the multi-criteria category consumption decision.

The study results indicate that perceived consumer effectiveness is the most critical factor for green cosmetics consumption in India, followed by brand trust, behavioural control, and environmental effectiveness. The least important factors are price and social norms.

As the GC category is at nascent stage in India the investigation is limited to the GC category innovators – a set of people high in intellectual and financial resources. The study is also limited to women users as the male cosmetic market in the country is still very small.

The study results can help marketers in designing and implementing GC related marketing strategies to deliver higher customer value to the target segment. Academicians can use the study results for better prediction of category related behaviour of consumers.

The study results will help promote GC category adoption and usage which can benefit the environment and consumer health.

The study contributes to literature and practice by assessing a comprehensive set of critical antecedents to GC adoption using a novel approach of F-AHP and an expert user panel. The study results offer insights to marketers that can be used to develop suitable strategies to convert non-GC users into GCs in India and similar markets, improving category penetration and benefitting marketers, retailers, users, and the environment.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the revised Code of Corporate Governance 2017 (CCG-2017) clauses pertaining to board independence, mandatory inclusion of female directors, audit committee (AC) chair independence and directors’ expertise on earnings manipulation.

Using an unbalanced panel of 323 listed companies from 2015 to 2019, this study uses panel data regression models with a robust methodology called difference-in-differences to tackle the potential endogeneity.

This study’s findings show that, as compared to the pre-CCG-2017 period, board- and AC-related variables increased significantly in the post-CCG-2017 period. Furthermore, financial experts on the board and board independence have a negative effect on discretionary accruals (DAs), whereas female directors and DAs are positively related, as is real activity manipulation. The AC-related variables, such as AC independence, expertise in AC, and AC chair independence, are significantly different from the preperiod to the postperiod, whereas their relationship is not according to the hypotheses of the study. Moreover, these results are robust to additional analysis of the alternative proxies for female directorship and the endogeneity problem.

The findings of this study have implications for regulators and practitioners who are concerned with the functions of the board of directors (BOD). The findings of this research study show that earnings management (EM) may be reduced by independent and expert directors. However, board gender diversity is not reducing the EM. Therefore, the decision to appoint female directors to the board should be based on their business and professional attributes rather than simply filling quotas or blindly adhering to regulations. Moreover, the findings of this research may assist the regulator in encouraging listed firms to enhance board governance via independence, diversity and competency, which are useful for effective monitoring.

This study fills a gap in the literature by providing the first evidence of country-specific regulation (CCG-2017), concerning the BOD and AC-related clauses on EM in Pakistan, which is missing in the relevant literature general and in Pakistan in particular.

The purpose of this study is to understand how the level of readiness for artificial intelligence (AI) affects the overall performance of companies, determine the role of organizational flexibility in adapting to new technologies and business models and assess the importance of lean sustainability and value creation for technology-focused companies.

Technology companies working in technoparks in Istanbul were determined, and a questionnaire was applied to senior employees such as experts, engineers and managers working in these companies. The results were processed with a sample of 456 units. SmartPLS program was used for analysis.

As a result of the analyzes, it is supported by hypotheses that AI readiness and organizational flexibility have positive effects on lean sustainability and value creation.

When evaluated in terms of the limitations of the research, it would not be correct to evaluate the results of the analysis in general, since the data were collected from technology-focused companies in technoparks in Istanbul.

Examining the variables that make up the research model in technology-oriented companies helps to understand the critical factors for the future success of companies. At the same time, this research is important for companies to make more informed decisions in their strategic planning, technological transformation processes and value creation strategies.

This research topic offers a unique approach in terms of bringing together topics such as AI readiness, organizational flexibility, sustainability and value creation. These issues play an important role in the strategic planning of technology-focused companies, and when considered together, they are important in terms of examining the critical factors that affect the future success of companies.

Institutional pressures, increased competition and environmental changes demand sustainable business performance. Using the lens of stakeholder theory, this study aims to explore the simultaneous relationships of corporate social responsibility (CSR), green practices and perceived organizational politics (POP) with sustainable business performance, incorporating employee pro-environmental behavior (EPB) as a moderator.

Using a cross-sectional research design, data were collected via a survey of employees (n = 422) from across industries.

Based on hierarchical regression analyses, the findings support stakeholder theory by showing that CSR and green practices positively affect sustainable business performance. The findings also extend stakeholder theory by showing that the CSR-sustainable business performance relationship is moderated by EPB.

The study has practical implications for leaders, managers and supervisors in managing CSR and green practices for sustainable business performance and managing EPB to capitalize on the benefits of CSR.

This study assesses the previously untested simultaneous effects of CSR, green practices and POP on sustainable company performance and the moderating effect of EPB.

This paper has a dual purpose: to produce a clear panorama of microfactors behind the implementation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) in emergent economies, and to identify long-term versus short-term implications of ESG and its impacts on sustainable transformation. In particular, the paper investigates the moderating role of ownership concentration on ESG performance and firm value relationship in Southeast Asia during 2010–2022 and COVID-19 period 2020–2022.

By adopting stakeholder and agency theory lenses, this study analyzes 591 nonfinancial listed companies in Southeast Asia from 2010 to 2022 with 2,673 firm-year observations. Data has been collected from Refinitiv and companies' annual reports. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimators are main strategies.

During 2010–2022, the links between ESG performances and firm value are negative. Ownership concentration negatively moderates the nexus between governance pillar and firm value in both short and long run. In COVID-19, ownership concentration also plays an antagonistic moderating role in ESG combined score-firm value association. The results show a crucial role of blockholders in Southeast Asian firms and their strong support to ESG in conquering crisis period, suggesting that managers develop balancing mechanisms in making ESG-related decisions; policymakers and regulators improve effective control instruments with strong legal systems and enhanced law enforcement to protect minority shareholders.

This is the first study to test the connection between ESG performance, ownership concentration and firm value in Southeast Asia that has: (1) utilized different proxies of firm value and ownership concentration in robustness tests, (2) controlled heteroskedasticity defects, (3) eliminated companies in the Banking and Finance sector from the sample to avoid distorting the conclusions and (4) empirically verified the driven role of governance pillar in ESG performance and ownership concentration reversely moderated the impact of governance pillar on firm value.

In the era of multiple global disruptions, firms are finding it to continue their business. MSMEs are impacted more as they have constrained resources. Organizational flexibility has emerged as an organizational and management principle that would help firms stay competitive even in volatile markets. This study aims to present a set of guidelines and insights for MSME managers to implement organizational flexibility in their organizations.

This study uses total interpretive structural modelling to study how the various factors contributing to organizational flexibility behave together. Behavioural theory is used to explain why organizations need to incorporate flexibility, and systems theory of organization is used to explain why an organization needs to have open boundaries.

Organizational flexibility is a principle that may be supported by the systems theory of organization. The study has shown that it is important for MSMEs to have supply chain collaborations to be more flexible. The study also shows pressure from competitors as the key driver that would make a firm more flexible, and that adequate support from management and technological skills are required to drive flexibility in an organization.

Single respondent bias may have occurred in this study. This can be eliminated by interviewing multiple people from the same organization. Further research around the reasoning for linkages can be explored with theory-driven grounded studies.

This study attempts to use a multi-criteria decision-making technique to present insights to managers to help them make their organizations flexible.