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This paper aims to empirically examine the effects of waste management (WM) practices on financial distress (FD) in a heavily regulated environmental context and investigates the moderating role of green initiatives (GINVs) on the WM−FD relationship.

This study uses a sample of 1,667 firm years of UK-based companies from 2002 to 2021 and applies a panel regression analysis controlling for industry- and year-fixed effects. Data on WM, GINVs and governance are sourced from LSEG (formerly known as Refinitiv Asset4 ESG), whereas financial data are collected from WorldScope. The study also adopts alternative measures for FD and WM practices and uses a two-stage least squares analysis and the Heckman selection model as robustness checks.

The findings reveal that FD levels decrease significantly when waste generation declines and waste recycling increases, suggesting that firms with better WM practices have lower FD levels. The results further show the moderating effect of GINVs on the link between waste generation and FD and suggest that increased GINVs are effective in reducing FD by mitigating waste levels. However, waste recycling and GINVs are found to have a substitutive effect on FD. The findings remain robust to the use of alternative measures and endogeneity issues.

This work is among the first to investigate the WM-FD nexus and highlights the importance of effective WM practices in improving the financial sustainability of UK firms. The study also extends prior research by testing the moderating impact of GINVs and suggests that firms need to carefully balance their GINVs with waste recycling efforts to achieve optimal financial sustainability in a heavily regulated environmental context, such as the UK.

This study examines the effect of political connections on the performance of banks in the MENA region separately and then moderated by family, institutional and state ownership.

A hierarchical regression method was used for a sample of 111 banks operating in 10 MENA countries observed from 2009 to 2019.

The results indicate significant negative relationships between political connections and bank performance. Furthermore, institutional and family ownership moderates this relationship; institutional investors and family shareholders attenuate separately the negative impact of political connections on bank performance. Moreover, state ownership positively moderates this relationship; states as shareholders accentuate the negative relationship between political connections and bank performance. Splitting our sample according to bank-specific features (banks in authoritarian regimes versus hybrid regimes, Islamic banks versus conventional banks) confirms our findings. Our results are robust to an alternative measure of bank performance.

Banks operating in the MENA region have to be aware of the consequence of political connections. In addition, they have to take into account the role of ownership structure when they seek to attenuate the harmful effect of political connections.

This paper offers an in-depth understanding of the impact of political connections on bank performance by drawing from two institutional logics: resource dependence logic and agency logic. Some recommendations on the importance of changing the existing ownership structure are highlighted, encouraging some investors to take part in the capital of banks in this region.

The paper aims to identify the level of support and expand on the issues recently raised in the literature concerning critical mass theory and board gender diversity (BGD).

The authors systematically searched relevant articles on the Scopus database in March 2024, identifying 132 articles. After removing book chapters, conference papers and reviews, the number was reduced to 122. An additional 16 were discarded as they were irrelevant (e.g. political, theoretical or conceptual) to the current study, leaving a final sample of 106 articles. This longitudinal study covers the period from 2016 to 2024.

The paper finds compelling evidence supporting the critical mass theory and underscores the importance of corporate BGD in today’s society. It also offers explanations for the few cases where critical mass theory may not be fully supported. It highlights that the performance benefits of corporate BGD, in many cases, only exist when there is a critical mass of female directors on the board.

It lends support to policymakers in pursuing corporate BGD through quotas, provided that the incentive is not just to fill the numbers.

The paper offers a unique perspective on the level of support for the critical mass theory. It is believed to be the first paper to conduct a longitudinal study to investigate the support for the critical mass theory.

The purpose of this study is to identify, recap and evaluate the state-of-the-art linkage between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and earnings management (EM).

A bibliometric analysis of 249 publications from the Web of Science (WoS) database was carried out, employing both the techniques of performance analysis and science mapping and the Bibliometrix R and VOSviewer tools.

The results of the performance analysis suggest that the publication and citation trends of the interplay of the IFRS and EM fields show an upward trend over time that most of the influential institutions emanate from the US and a significant percentage of articles published in this field emanate from high-quality journals. Science mapping via co-authorship analysis elucidates that more collaborative efforts among authors are needed in the future in this field. Bibliographic coupling analysis bifurcates the studies into six clusters and reveals the major themes and their evolution. Co-word analysis unfolds emerging trends that could be further explored, thus becoming possible future research avenues.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no other study has attempted a bibliometric analysis of research on the relationship between IFRS and EM. This article fills this research gap and makes its contribution to the scientific community by presenting recent developments in this body of knowledge and suggesting future research avenues.

This study reviews and discusses the accounting literature that analyzes the role of auditors and enforcers in the context of fraud.

This literature review includes both qualitative and quantitative studies, based on the idea that the findings from different research paradigms can shed light on the complex interactions between different financial reporting controls. The authors use a mixed-methods research synthesis and select 64 accounting journal articles to analyze the main proxies for fraud, the stages of the fraud process under investigation and the roles played by auditors and enforcers.

The study highlights heterogeneity with respect to the terms and concepts used to capture the fraud phenomenon, a fragmentation in terms of the measures used in quantitative studies and a low level of detail in the fraud analysis. The review also shows a limited number of case studies and a lack of focus on the interaction and interplay between enforcers and auditors.

This study outlines directions for future accounting research on fraud.

The analysis underscores the need for the academic community, policymakers and practitioners to work together to prevent the destructive economic and social consequences of fraud in an increasingly complex and interconnected environment.

This study differs from previous literature reviews that focus on a single monitoring mechanism or deal with fraud in a broadly manner by discussing how the accounting literature addresses the roles and the complex interplay between enforcers and auditors in the context of accounting fraud.

This study aims to examine the impact of board gender diversity on sustainable growth by considering the mediating role of investment efficiency (INVEFF) in this relationship and the threshold effect between board gender diversity and INVEFF. This investigation focuses on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, which is characterized by rapid socio-economic transformations and a recent emphasis on gender diversity.

Panel data regressions are applied to estimate the impact of board gender diversity on INVEFF using companies listed in the GCC in 2013–2022 as a sample. The estimations consider subsamples of underinvestment and overinvestment, as well as the pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic periods.

The empirical results show a nonlinear impact of board gender diversity on INVEFF, a relationship that is more pronounced in the underinvestment subsample. The results indicate that INVEFF mediates the relationship between board gender diversity and corporate sustainable growth, which helps companies optimize their board composition to enhance their sustainable growth strategies.

These findings could inform GCC regulators in mandating further increases in women’s presence on boards of directors to improve INVEFF. This study examined only GCC-listed companies. Future research should investigate other factors influencing INVEFF and conduct comparative studies across Middle Eastern and North African countries to consider different regulatory and economic contexts and to examine compliance with international standards.

This study reveals the significant nonlinear impact of board gender diversity on INVEFF and the mediation of INVEFF in the relationship between board gender diversity and sustainable growth. These findings will help companies optimize their board of directors’ composition by increasing the presence of women on boards to improve their INVEFF and sustainable growth. This study aims to develop knowledge that will not only benefit companies regarding the potential impact of board gender diversity but also help international communities create better gender equality within companies.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to explore the relationship between board gender diversity and INVEFF in the emerging economies of the GCC region. It is also the first to examine the nonlinear relationship between board gender diversity and INVEFF and the mediating role of INVEFF in the relationship between board diversity and sustainable growth. This study contributes to the understanding of the financial impact of board gender diversity in improving corporate INVEFF and sustainable growth.

Considering the growing global significance of intellectual capital, we explore the impact of foreign directors on the effectiveness of intellectual capital.

Using 21,352 firm-year observations of Chinese-listed firms, for 2006–2020, we employ a modified value-added intellectual coefficient model to evaluate intellectual capital efficiency. The author use ordinary least squares regression as the main method, with a variety of methods for endogeneity and ensure robustness, including the fixed-effects method, propensity score matching, Two-step system GMM and Heckman’s two-step model, as well as other techniques.

Our findings indicate that foreign board directors significantly increase aggregate intellectual capital and its components, including capital employed efficiency, human capital efficiency, structural capital efficiency, and relational capital efficiency. Further, foreign directors have more impact on the intellectual capital efficiency of non-state-owned versus state-owned enterprises. We also observe that the impact becomes significantly greater with the presence of three or more foreign directors. Our findings hold up to various measures of board internationalization and a battery of robustness tests.

The research results show that the foreign directors on boards are related to IC efficiency, and IC efficiency is crucial to enterprises' value creation and competitive advantage in the era of the knowledge economy. Our findings are useful for companies and governments that are interested in improving the performance of IC.

This study provides novel evidence by using the MVAIC model to investigate foreign directors on boards and their relationship with IC efficiency among Chinese companies, while most previous studies have linked IC efficiency to financial performance. The findings also suggest that the influence of nationality diversity differs concerning ownership structure and their threshold.

This paper examines the consequences of board diversity in Kuwait. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of gender, age and national diversity on firm performance (FP).

This work uses data from 103 non-financial Kuwaiti listed companies in the period from 2010 to 2017. The data was collected from secondary sources such as annual reports and S&P Capital IQ. FP is measured by return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q. The independent variables are gender diversity, age diversity and nationality diversity.

The findings show mixed results regarding gender, age, national diversity and FP.

Board diversity is a relatively underexplored area in the context of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Kuwait. The originality and value of examining the impact of gender, age and nationality diversity on FP in Kuwait are multifaceted, highlighting unique cultural, economic and regulatory aspects.