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The authors investigate the relationship between instant messenger (IM) use and work performance, mediated by interruptions and two key indicators of the stress associated with technology use: overload and complexity.

The authors validate this research model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with data collected through a survey of 416 working professionals.

The data reveal that while IM use contributes minimally to work interruptions and to a greater extent to technological complexity, these two constructs fully mediate the direct influence of IM use at work on technology overload, and meanwhile significantly and directly contribute to work performance.

This research provides theoretical insights into the deployment of IM and its actual impacts in the workplace. To improve the generalisation of the findings, the authors call for more IM-related research in other countries, with more native theories and various methodologies in this domain.

The level of stress generated through IM use is moderate, considering IM is not a significant contributor to work interruptions. Thus, despite the potential negative effects of IM communication, the positive effects of using IM at work prevail. As a result, the technology can be promoted as long as employees, their managers and the organisation as a whole are well prepared. Employees can transfer skills and behaviour from the personal setting to their work environment and thus may find an intrinsic motivation to make better use of the IM technology at work.

The authors argue that this research model is novel for its perspective on evaluating the actual impacts of IM use at work instead of the reasons of using it. The authors conceptualise the process to explain how IM contributes to interruptions and other technostress indicators in the working context, and the impact on performance. Contrary to some prior research, the authors find that overall IM applications do not have a negative impact on work performance, and instead may enhance it.

This paper provides insights into the impact of audit quality on restraining earnings management of rural and community banks (RCBs) in an emerging economy.

A two-step generalised method of moments, absolute discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model, and multivariate regression are used to test 215 firm-year observations of 43 RCBs in Ghana.

The findings suggest a positive association between audit quality, proxied by audit firm ranking, in restraining earnings management. Specifically, the association is significant for B1-ranked audit firms and higher than B-ranked audit firms, whose observed discretionary accruals to total assets ratio is 36.6% higher than B1. Also, a negative statistically significant relationship is found between auditor specialization and earnings management, as RCBs that engage specialized auditors are found to have a lower ratio of discretionary accruals to total assets than RCBs that engage unspecialized auditors.

RCB’s annual reports data for the research was from 2014 to 2018. The 2019 and beyond annual reports data could not be added because the study was conducted during 2019 first quarter, by which time the year had not ended, and that constrained the sample size.

Evidence from this study has policy implications for regulators and audit monitors in their efforts to improve AQ and minimise financial misreporting through the ranking of audit firms. As RCBs are encouraged by the findings to engage the services of higher-ranked audit firms, lower ranks will eventually be encouraged to improve quality performance in a bid to improve their ranking, which will consequently help in the minimisation of financial manipulations in RCBs financial reporting. The contemporary approach of ranking audit firms into A1, A, B1, B, C and D increases competition in the audit market space in improving quality audits more than the traditional approach of dividing audit firms into only big-4 and non-big-4. There is also a need for regulators to encourage RCBs to engage auditors who have specialized in the RCB sector so that their experience can be leveraged in minimizing EM.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no academic study that explores the impact of audit quality proxied by audit firm ranking and auditor specialisation, on earnings management using hand-collected data sets from non-listed rural banks in an emerging economy. The paper, therefore, fills a research gap in rural financial institution auditing literature.

Taking instances from extant findings from the literature, the study aims to examine the community perception toward renewable energy (RE) off-grid (mini-grid/microgrid) intervention, the underlying rationales for engagement of communities in RE off-grid projects, the different alternatives/models to engage communities in various phases of RE off-grid project deployment.

The study has followed the structured literature review to explore the identified research question of the study.

Based on findings from the review, the framework for effective community engagement in RE mini-grid projects is suggested. Furthermore, the study also draws suggestions and implications for future research and practice.

Based on such understanding the present study offers the framework which suggests the steps for the engagement of the communities in the off-grid projects. The key steps are managing the perception of the community (including generation of awareness among the community), planning for the benefits of the community, linkage the sustainable development goals (SDG), planning for the inclusion of the community and measuring performance (in the line of social and economic criteria and SDG).

This study finds the gap in the literature on the nexus of community, off-grid energy projects and SDG. Following the findings from the scholars in this field, a few gaps in the policy and practice have been highlighted which could be useful for practitioners and policymakers in this area.

While operational carbon (OC) emission reduction strategies have received substantial attention in past literature, very few studies have focused on embodied carbon (EC) emission reduction in the construction industry. Therefore, this study aims at undertaking a scientometric review of strategies to mitigate EC emissions in the construction industry.

Scopus search engine was used to search for articles. VOSViewer software was used for scientometric analysis using science mapping approach. Using a total of 151 documents, keywords, authors, papers and their sources were analysed. Furthermore, scientometric analysis was undertaken comprising co-occurrence of keywords, documents source analysis and author co-citation analysis.

The significant strategies identified to mitigate EC emissions were: offsite manufacturing/use of prefabricated elements, decarbonisation of energy grid, enhanced policies and regulations by governments, construction sector policies and regulations, guidelines for increased use of low EC materials and reuse and recovery of EC construction materials.

This study identifies practical strategies that contribute to reduction of EC emissions.

This study is significant and contributes to the construction industry’s agenda to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

The main aim of this study was to determine the scope of application for an innovation management assessment framework (IMAF) within innovation management. Two distinct geographical regions: ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) and TMSV (Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam) were chosen to identify and analyse significant comparative differences.

A quantitative research approach was used using empirical data collected through an online questionnaire-based survey. Statistical data analysis, including descriptive statistics, univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Hsu’s MCB (multiple comparisons with/to the best) post-hoc test results, was carried out to identify significant differences and similarities in innovation management capabilities within the two regions.

The descriptive statistics analysis reveals areas for potential enhancement in all the model constructs within both regions under investigation. Significant differences in innovation management capabilities between the two regions are identified, specifically in the design for lean six sigma (DFLSS) and the operation function commercial (COMM). However, when considering the remaining constructs of the IMAF, no significant differences in innovation management capabilities are observed between the regions.

The research is limited by the relatively small size of survey questionnaire responses from the targeted population. Future studies could be conducted on a global scale to increase responses.

The research findings serve as valuable insights into the development of important and useful guidelines for managers and innovation practitioners engaged in innovation planning and management.

The critical analysis conducted in this research, focusing on innovation management capabilities by region, represents a significant advancement in the existing body of work that utilises the IMAF model.

The recruitment and promotion of teaching academics in the UK is constrained by a complex array of career progression barriers. These barriers have led to an increasing trend of horizontal career (lack of) progression. The purpose of this paper is to reveal and discuss linearity and horizontality constrictions, challenges and issues impacting on potential careers in tourism academia.

This study uses a leading UK national academic recruitment website to gather data and insights from across 137 posted jobs related to tourism between 2020 and 2022.

The main findings of this work note the constrictions of the UK academic job market and the consequences it poses for academics within tourism and beyond. It is proposed that future research to further understand the realities faced by academics is needed to prompt action for change to create more enriching career development.

The contribution of this study centres around sense making a phenomenon that exists but is not often talked about within academia (whether in tourism or beyond). For academics and managers, this paper presents an opportunity to reflect more holistically on careers with a view to instigating valuable change moving forward (for oneself or others). There is also a dearth of studies relating to career progression of tourism higher education educators.

Wine is a complicated and difficult product to know, which makes it extremely difficult for people with little knowledge to choose the wine they want. This study aims to analyze whether the vocabulary used in reviews on wine written by experts and amateurs on the specialized website is useful for those consumers who wish to search for information on this website to choose a wine.

The analysis combines text mining, Natural Language Processing and the Biterm Topic model applied to 25,847 reviews, evaluating a total of 13,263 Spanish wines made by 17 selected users of a specialized wine website.

The results show that wine consumers and users of the specialized wine website who write reviews can be divided into expert users and amateur users. Both experts and amateurs use a specific vocabulary related to the wines they review. Unlike amateurs, experts have a broader and more precise vocabulary, and greater consistency in the use of words with the aspects of the wine. For the revised wines, they address fewer and more specific aspects of wine (such as vintages), but they do so with more depth and rigor.

The originality and value of this research work lie in addressing two aspects that have hardly been analyzed: the reviews of experienced consumers and amateur consumers, and the textual information referring to the Spanish language, which distinguishes this analysis from other similar analyses carried out on the English language.