Bill B. Francis, Raffi E. García and Jyothsna G. Harithsa
This paper aims to examine how bank stress tests affect bank tax planning.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how bank stress tests affect bank tax planning.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses US bank stress test bank size thresholds and a regression discontinuity design to investigate the effect of the Dodd-Frank Act and the instituted bank stress tests on bank tax planning. We use different measures of tax planning, including bank-specific measures and measures of tax avoidance, tax aggressiveness, and effective tax planning from recent literature. Our regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences regression analyses include bank and year fixed-effects and lagged bank characteristics to control for potential endogeneity.
Findings
This study finds that stress tests have the unintended consequences of intensifying tax planning and increasing tax avoidance. Stress-test banks increase tax avoidance by accelerating charge-offs, net interest, and non-interest expenses. However, this increase in tax planning is not optimally maximized, leading to lower effective tax planning compared to non-stress-test banks. Banks with a substantial increase in tax avoidance under the Dodd–Frank Act tend to increase their risk, investing in high-risk-weight assets and lending in riskier loan categories. These findings are consistent with tax minimization conditions under added regulatory attention and policy uncertainty.
Originality/value
Literature on bank tax planning is limited. Most tax avoidance literature excludes financial institutions such as bank holding companies mainly due to differences in business practices and regulatory frameworks. This study is the first to investigate tax planning behavior among US banks. The current study thus extends the research field by examining the effect of bank transparency regulations, such as bank stress tests, on bank tax planning activities. Our findings have a direct bank policy implication. They show that stress testing has the unintended consequences of increasing tax planning activities and consequently increasing risk-taking on banks with high tax avoidance, which goes against the goals of stress testing regulations.
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Hendy Mustiko Aji, Norbani Che-Ha and Mohd Zaidi Md Zabri
This study aims to systematically review the literature on intergroup prosocial behavior to uncover key insights and propose future research directions for Islamic marketing.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to systematically review the literature on intergroup prosocial behavior to uncover key insights and propose future research directions for Islamic marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology framework to systematically review past literature based on the most commonly used theories, contexts, characteristics and methods.
Findings
After reviewing 2,675 articles from 2000 to 2023, this study identifies the four most common theories and contexts, seven factors and three primary methods used to study intergroup prosocial behavior. Based on these findings, this study identifies seven research gaps and suggests new theoretical perspectives, themes, constructs and methods for future studies in Islamic marketing.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first systematic literature review to explore intergroup prosocial behavior across disciplines while proposing targeted research agendas and actionable insights to advance the field of Islamic marketing.
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This study investigates the influence of corporate culture on financial reporting transparency within Iranian firms.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the influence of corporate culture on financial reporting transparency within Iranian firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Leveraging a dataset of 1,480 firm-year observations from the Tehran Stock Exchange spanning from 2013 to 2022, the study employs text mining to quantify linguistic features of corporate culture and transparency, specifically readability and tone, within annual financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) reports.
Findings
Our results confirm a positive and significant relationship between corporate culture and financial reporting transparency. The distinct dimensions of corporate culture — Creativity, Competition, Control, and Collaboration — each uniquely enhance financial transparency. Robustness tests including firm fixed-effects, entropy balancing, Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) validate the profound influence of corporate culture on transparency. Additionally, our analysis shows that corporate culture significantly affects the disclosure of business, operational, and financial risks, with varying impacts across risk categories. Cross-sectional analysis further reveals how the impact of corporate culture on transparency varies significantly across different industries and firm sizes.
Research limitations/implications
The study’s scope, while focused on Iran, opens avenues for comparative research in different cultural and regulatory environments. Its reliance on text mining could be complemented by qualitative methods to capture more nuanced linguistic subtleties.
Practical implications
Findings underscore the strategic importance of cultivating a transparent corporate culture for enhancing financial reporting practices and stakeholder trust, particularly in emerging economies with similar dynamics to Iran.
Originality/value
This research is pioneering in its quantitative analysis of the textual features of corporate culture and its impact on transparency within Iranian corporate reports, integrating foundational theoretical perspectives with empirical evidence.
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This paper aims to explore the relevance of theoretical developments from critical disability studies to information practices scholarship, particularly that which is attuned to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the relevance of theoretical developments from critical disability studies to information practices scholarship, particularly that which is attuned to how systems of power and inequality create barriers to information. More specifically, this paper aims to interrogate the solutionist ethos that underlies the narrow focus on information access within research concerning information practices and marginalization.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a critical interpretation synthesis (CIS) review format, which aligns with the overarching interpretivist research objectives. The CIS review method opens up modes of interdisciplinary analysis that question dominant narratives and assumptions within the literature. In the paper, several concepts from critical disability studies are discussed due to their relevance to key concerns of information practices research. These include the political/relational model of disability, bodymind and crip politics. The theoretical framework of political/relational information access outlined in this paper connects and draws comparisons between the above concepts.
Findings
The paper develops the political/relational model of information access, which interrogates dominant narratives that situate information as a resolve for marginalization. Extending insights from critical disability studies and activism, the framework underscores how access to information and information more broadly are sites of collective contestation that are constantly in flux. Political/relational information access situates information and access as political and relational entities through which to collectively refuse the hierarchies of value and normalizing logics attached to them.
Originality/value
The connections between critical disability studies and information practices research have been previously underexplored. The literature review develops the political/relational model of information access, which extends insights from critical disability studies to the growing areas of critical inquiry within information practices scholarship and library and information science research more broadly.
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Riccardo Cimini, Lorenzo Coronella and Alessandro Mechelli
This paper examines the ability of those governmental reforms adopted in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to affect earnings management (EM).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the ability of those governmental reforms adopted in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to affect earnings management (EM).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper focuses on the Italian decision to suspend the recapitalization obligation to guarantee the respect of the going concern’s assumption. By analysing a sample of unlisted entities, this analysis uses different techniques to detect EM before and after the suspension of that obligation.
Findings
The results suggest that EM decreased after the decision to suspend recapitalization obligations.
Research limitations/implications
Accounting quality depends on not only accounting standards but also management practices in response to those government measures instituted during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Originality/value
The results are a novelty in the literature. In terms of the institutional theory, they provide evidence of EM decrease, thereby validating the assumption that regulation can enable and empower social actors – particularly their actions – despite the visions of repression and constraint conjured by that concept. Isomorphism theory supports the thesis and results that indicate that EM decreases not only in emerging markets, where corporate governance mechanisms are less able to obstruct EM, but also in the developed countries. Thus, insightful and novel conceptualizations can still be achieved by using institutional theory. Yet the findings also extend agency theory assumptions and demonstrate that also the issuance of less severe regulation can reduce agency costs and, in turn, also EM.
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T.S. Nanjundeswaraswamy, Sindu Bharath and P. Nagesh
This paper aims to design, develop and validate an instrument to measure employer branding by considering existing employee perceptions.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to design, develop and validate an instrument to measure employer branding by considering existing employee perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach
In this systematic research, the predominant factors of employer branding are identified through Pareto analysis; using structured questionnaire information and data collected from 423 employees. The number of items and dimensions was reduced by conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and validated extracted dimensions using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using statistical software (SPSS-21). The designed scale was verified by applying relevant statistical techniques, including a multicollinearity test, construct validity, content validity, divergent validity, convergent validity and reliability test. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using AMOS, to explore the interrelationship between the dimensions of the scale.
Findings
Considering the perception of existing employees, seven factors along with 24 items scale were designed and developed to measure the employer branding. The identified seven factors are; career development opportunities; compensation and benefits; corporate social responsibility; training and development; work environment; organizational culture; and work-life balance. The proposed model explains a total variance of 70.35% and the model fit indices are within the acceptable range, validity and statistical reliability are established for seven dimensions of employer branding.
Research limitations/implications
Employer branding is studied from existing employee perspective by collecting responses from the employees of the IT sector only.
Practical implications
This validated scale is valuable for practitioners and academicians. The proposed dimensions in the scale may help practitioners explore the impact on the outcomes of organizations such as employee commitment, employee retention, employee satisfaction and total productivity. This novel instrument helps to measure employees' perception of their employers. Further, the authors identify the gaps and accordingly plan strategies to attract and retain the talented workforce.
Originality/value
The authors believe that this novel measuring instrument is comprehensive and the first of its kind. Employer branding has been modeled using SEM analysis by considering the perceptions of the present employees.
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The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the existing literature on women’s leadership in academia by identifying the existing challenges for their…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the existing literature on women’s leadership in academia by identifying the existing challenges for their underrepresentation, and proposing a new-age leadership interventions to address the inherent systemic biases and develop foster an equitable academic climate.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed bibliometric analysis to map the literature by investigating publication and geographical trends. Techniques like citation, co-citation, bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis identified seminal research and emerging themes, providing insights into research developments and facilitating identification of avenues for future research.
Findings
Our study highlights how social, organizational and individual barriers disadvantage women academic leaders. Existing enablers for women in leadership, like mentorship, leadership development and family friendly policies, focus on bringing change within the prevailing academic culture, reinforcing the notion “women need support”, overlooking the influence of systemic barriers. Such interventions are often ineffective in bringing sustainable change. We propose integrating AI/machine learning (ML) technologies in leadership selection to reduce bias arising from subjectivity.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the discourse on gender inequality in academic leadership by offering a robust understanding of the research topic and informing avenues for future research.
Practical implications
Policymakers and higher education institutions can use the findings of the study to aid the formulation of policies, initiatives and institutional procedures to mitigate the prevalent gender bias in academia and cultivate an inclusive culture for growth of women.
Originality/value
The paper analyses women’s under-representation as academic leaders and proposes a novel data-driven intervention using gamification, AI and ML, aiming to reshape gender dynamics in academic leadership.
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Chengli Shu and Keeratinun Srimuang
Despite wide awareness of the importance of digital transformation (DT) for emerging market firms, we have limited understanding of the drivers, the process or the outcomes of DT…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite wide awareness of the importance of digital transformation (DT) for emerging market firms, we have limited understanding of the drivers, the process or the outcomes of DT in emerging market firms.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a qualitative study on 24 case companies in Thailand and embraced thematic analysis to generate our research findings.
Findings
The framework shows that the DT process in emerging market firms proceeds over three stages—market-opportunity sensing, digital technology acquisition and leading DT—which are driven by technological dynamism, business ties and institutional support. Once DT is successfully implemented, emerging market firms can improve their operational efficiency, customer relationship management, business model innovation and human resources management.
Originality/value
This study thus contributes to the DT literature by offering a three-stage model of DT and identifying important antecedents and consequences of DT, which together specify how emerging market firms transform themselves digitally.
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Devaki Rau, Luis Flores and Aditya Simha
This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to examine whether the three most commonly prescribed strategic planning best practices – scanning, communication openness…
Abstract
Purpose
This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to examine whether the three most commonly prescribed strategic planning best practices – scanning, communication openness and participative decision-making – actually strengthen the planning-performance relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses objective performance data and data from a survey of 159 managers from 43 publicly listed US firms to test the hypothesized moderation effects of best practices. The analysis uses hierarchical regression.
Findings
At high levels of planning, firms high in participative decision-making and low in openness and scanning outperform firms low in participation and high in openness and scanning. The results reverse at low levels of planning.
Research limitations/implications
This is a cross-sectional study with a small sample. The response rate was modest; hence, the results should be treated as exploratory. Since the sample is not random, the results may not be generalizable.
Practical implications
While managers may find a best practice label helpful, the best practices implemented within a firm need to fit existing planning processes in order to increase planning effectiveness.
Originality/value
While academic scholarship sometimes struggles with generating actionable prescriptions for improving strategic planning, recommendations by practitioners lack empirical backing. This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to bridge this gap. These results are consistent with both academic and practitioner literature on strategic planning in finding that the best practices of scanning, openness and participative decision-making strengthen the planning-performance relationship at different planning levels, possibly by underpinning the firm’s dynamic capabilities.
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Nessrin Shaya, Rawan AbuKhait, Rehaf Madani and Vian Ahmed
The theoretical landscape surrounding the contribution of digital transformation to sustainability in higher education institutions is lacking in literature. Blended learning has…
Abstract
Purpose
The theoretical landscape surrounding the contribution of digital transformation to sustainability in higher education institutions is lacking in literature. Blended learning has gained popularity and poises for further growth as a sustainable and inclusive mode of learning that will shape the future of education. This study aims to investigate the organizational critical success factors that ensure high-quality blended learning opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected through an online student survey and semistructured interviews with academic leaders and faculty members.
Findings
Exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression revealed five main contributing factors to a successful overall hybrid experience, namely, faculty support, cognitive flexibility, learner self-actualization, student engagement and sense of belonging. In the results, students were satisfied with their gained skills, knowledge and engagement, and have succeeded in developing cognitive flexibility, self-actualization and sense of belonging. Faculty support was the strongest determinant. The presence of certain organizational dynamics, comprising management support of those with sustainability mindset, effective communication, blended leadership qualities and adequate faculty personality traits, presents as a major predictor to quality learning opportunities.
Originality/value
The theoretical landscape surrounding the contribution of digital transformation to sustainability in higher education institutions is lacking in literature, which emphasizes the novel aspects of this study. In particular, it contributes by determining the overall level of research on the subject, theoretical stances in this area and potential avenues for further investigation.