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We aim to provide a systematic literature review of the determinants and consequences of labor investment efficiency in an international context. First, we offer a theoretical discussion of labor investment efficiency, followed by an examination of its measurement. Next, we review the determinants of labor investment efficiency, categorizing them into firm fundamentals including financial reporting quality, governance and controls, corporate social responsibility/environmental regulation and macroeconomic determinants. Finally, we review the limited empirical literature on the consequences of labor investment efficiency. We also provide some suggestions for future research.

We perform a systematic literature review using the Preferred Reporting Items for a Systematic Review of Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to examine archival studies investigating the determinants and consequences of labor investment efficiency. Using a Boolean search strategy on the Scopus and PRISMA selection criteria, we review 86 published archival research articles from 2014 to the end of August 2024.

Our review highlights that firm-level fundamental factors including financial reporting quality have profound implications for labor investment efficiency. Effective governance mechanisms also help mitigate agency conflicts and information asymmetries and alleviate labor investment inefficiencies. Furthermore, the influence of regulations including ESG-related regulations and macroeconomic factors play a crucial role in shaping labor investment decisions. We find very little research on the consequence of labor investment efficiency.

Our review has highlighted that well-functioning corporate governance tools are effective in mitigating inefficient labor investments. Stakeholders, therefore, should ensure that firms have effective internal governance mechanisms in place and that external governance regulations complement and where necessary act as substitutes for internal governance mechanisms to optimize labor investments.

To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first systematic review of extant research on labor investment efficiency. Our review highlights some research gaps, particularly about the consequences of labor investment efficiency and offers some suggestions for future research.

Efforts and initiatives aimed at poverty reduction are motivated by the ultimate objective of reducing the prevalence of people living in poverty. The primary goal of such efforts is to ensure that individuals and families living in low-income households have fair access to basic essentials such as food, vital resources and critical services. According to the World Economic Forum, poverty is a significant loss of well-being that can appear in a variety of ways. Two instances of this are low wages and the difficulty of accessing the necessities for daily living in the form of goods and services. Poor physical and mental health, insufficient access to sanitary services, lack of a voice and a lack of resources to improve one's situation are all characteristics of poverty. The goal of this study is to provide insight into the various poverty eradication programmes undertaken in India and the Middle East, i.e. Yemen. This exploratory study aims to give an overview comprising an analysis of more than 52 published research articles on this topic. The evaluation covers papers from prominent publications as well as general management journals with significant links to the topic. This chapter makes a significant contribution to theory by understanding different challenges leading to poverty, giving insights into the various programmes taken to eradicate poverty and suggesting measures to mitigate poverty through various literature reviews; this study is a general review in the context of the paper type. This study will give discernment for academicians and executives of different organisations.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of audit seasonality on the association between audit fees and audit quality in Nigerian deposit money banks.

The sample comprises 14 banks with annual financial statements between 2008 and 2020. The modified Baron and Kenny’s (1986) causal mediation model by Iacobucci et al. (2007) through the use of bootstrapped partial least square structural equation modelling and Sobel’s (1986) z-test is adopted to achieve this study’s objective.

The results of the causal mediation analysis show evidence of a fully mediating role of c between audit fees and audit quality in the Nigerian banking industry.

This study extends the body of knowledge by demonstrating how audit fees influence audit quality through audit seasonality as a mediator in line with the job demands-and resources and conservation of resources theories. Regulatory authorities should be wary of policies that will further increase the workload of already burdened personnel of audit firms as the uniform fiscal year-end of 31 December introduced in the Nigerian banking system has unintended consequences on audit fees and audit quality.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies to provide evidence on the indirect association between audit fees and audit quality.

Pregnant employees experience considerable interpersonal discrimination. This study explores the range of possible reactions of observers to pregnancy self-disclosure, interpersonal discrimination and various allyship interventions, and the attentional processes that lead to those reactions. Consequently, it uncovers socio-cognitive processes underlying support for and backlash toward pregnancy in the workplace.

This study used a thought-listing technique to explore observers’ spontaneous thoughts related to pregnancy. Working adults were randomly assigned to read through one of the six scenarios depicting pregnancy self-disclosure, interpersonal discrimination and male allyship interventions (i.e. stating the organization’s anti-discrimination policy, confronting the transgressor by calling out sexism, pivoting the conversation to highlight the strengths of the pregnant employee and a hybrid intervention combining highlighting strengths and confrontation) after which participants listed the top three thoughts that came to their mind (1,668 responses). Responses were thematically analyzed to explore spontaneous reactions toward the pregnant employee, transgressor and ally in the scenario.

Surprisingly, across all scenarios, the most sexist thoughts emerged during pregnancy self-disclosure, even in the absence of any transgression. After a transgression occurred, any allyship intervention was better than none in eliciting lesser sexist backlash against the pregnant employee. Stating the organization’s anti-discrimination policy was most beneficial for the pregnant employee in eliciting the least sexist backlash but at the cost of generating unfavorable impressions of the ally. Calling out the transgressor’s bias elicited the most sexist backlash toward the pregnant employee, yet it created favorable impressions of the ally. In contrast, highlighting the strengths of the pregnant employee created the most favorable impression of the ally while eliciting a few sexist thoughts about the pregnant employee. Overall, the hybrid intervention was the most effective at balancing the competing goals of generating support for the pregnant employee, creating favorable impressions of the ally, as well as holding the transgressor accountable.

This study demonstrates that the type of allyship intervention critically redirects the attentional focus of observers to certain aspects of a discrimination episode and relevant schemas which can generate support or backlash toward targets, transgressors and allies, thereby advancing or obstructing equity and inclusion in organizations.

This study used post-occupancy evaluation (POE) to assess the performance and effectiveness of student housing by examining occupants’ satisfaction with the facility across three performance elements: technical, functional and behavioral. This study aims to address a significant gap in the existing research concerning the POE of university student housing facilities, particularly in understanding how well these facilities fulfill occupant needs across the aforementioned three elements.

This study assesses the existing literature, examines the dormitory’s physical parameters through walkthrough inspections and measures occupant satisfaction through surveys and focus group sessions. The study analyzed questionnaire responses using a four-point Likert scale, using Microsoft Excel software to determine the weighted average response for each performance element.

The analysis indicated that students were satisfied with most housing condition parameters. However, noise management, lighting control, air circulation, washroom facilities, cleanliness, power sockets for equipment and several study rooms and furnishings require improvement to enhance student well-being and performance.

This study provides significant information to aid in making informative decisions on building maintenance, retrofitting and facility upgrading. It also contributes to enhancing the field’s knowledge about POE in student housing facilities. It emphasizes the importance of using physical building attributes and user-centric features to fulfill students’ needs and expectations regarding facilities.

Celebrity endorsers are usually considered to bring positive effects to associated nodes, such as brands and corporations. However, limited evidence suggests that brands and corporations are equally responsible for affecting celebrities and their credibility. Drawing on associative network theory, this study explores the effects of brand credibility and corporate credibility on celebrity credibility, both directly and through the mediating and moderating effects of advertising credibility. The research addresses three main issues: (1) whether brand credibility, corporate credibility and advertising credibility have significant effects on celebrity credibility; (2) whether advertising credibility has a significant mediating effect on the effects of brand credibility and corporate credibility on celebrity credibility and (3) whether advertising credibility has a significant moderating effect on the effects of brand credibility and corporate credibility on celebrity credibility.

The study used a quantitative approach involving structural equation modelling. Data were collected from 675 participants from London and focussed on four leading international brands, corporations and celebrity endorsers.

The findings show that brand credibility and advertising credibility have positive direct effects on celebrity credibility; and that advertising credibility mediates the effects of both credibility constructs on celebrity credibility. Furthermore, moderating effects of advertising credibility are also found.

This study will help managers to understand the reverse effects, i.e. the effects of brand credibility and corporate credibility on celebrity credibility. They will be able to understand that a credible brand and corporation like a credible celebrity can also bring significant effects on the associated elements. This will help them to recruit celebrity endorsers who have historically earned their credibility from previous endorsements of credible brands and corporations. Further, these findings will help managers to understand that credibility of the brand and corporation can also affect the credibility of the associated advertising, resulting in having a significant effect on the credibility of the celebrity. This on the consumers’ side will enhance their preferences, attitudes and behaviours, while for the corporation, it will enhance their economic and commercial performance.

This is the first study in the literature, where a conceptual model based on the reverse effects of both credibility constructs on celebrity credibility is examined, directly and based on the moderating and mediating effects of advertising credibility. Hence, the contributions to the literature are threefold: first, the study examines the reverse effect of celebrity endorsement, whereby the credibility of a brand or corporation is transferred to a celebrity endorser; second, the study examines the mediating and moderating effects of advertising credibility on this reverse effect and finally, associative network theory is used to examine the importance of the model.

Unlike previous research that primarily utilized structural equation modelling (SEM) to evaluate safety hazards in subway projects, this research aims to utilize a hybrid approach to investigate and scrutinize the key indicators of safety hazards leading to accidents, thereby hindering the progress of subway projects in China, taking into cognizance the multiple stakeholder’s perspective.

By administering a survey questionnaire to 373 highly involved stakeholders in subway projects spanning Changsha, Beijing and Qingdao, China, our approach incorporated a four-staged composite amalgamation of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) to develop an optimized model that determines the causal relationships and interactions among safety hazards in subway construction projects.

The optimized model delineated the influence of individual safety hazards on subway projects. The feasibility and applicability of the model developed was demonstrated on an actual subway project under construction in Changsha city. The outcomes revealed that the progress of subway projects is significantly influenced by risks associated with project management, environmental factors, subterranean conditions and technical hazards. In contrast, risks related to construction and human factors did not exhibit a significant impact on subway construction progress.

While our study provides valuable insights, it is important to acknowledge the limitation of relying on theoretical approaches without empirical validation from experiments or the field. In future research, we plan to address this limitation by assessing the SEM using empirical data. This will involve a comprehensive comparison of outcomes derived from CB-SEM with those obtained through SEM-ANN methods. Such an empirical validation process is crucial for enhancing the overall efficiency and robustness of the proposed methodologies.

The established hybrid model revealed complex non-linear connections among indicators in the intricate project, enabling the recognition of primary hazards and offering direction to improve management of safety in the construction of subways.

Referral marketing can be identified as the commercial form used to encourage word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. It has become popular in recent times, supporting organisations to attract new customers towards making strides in how customers are pursued to purchase certain types of products/industries. However, some factors impact the success of referral marketing programmes. This study focuses on analysing the impact of such factors as brand, rewards and celebrity endorsement on user engagement in social media referral marketing programmes.

Further, this study discusses the moderating impact of social ties on this relationship mainly focusing on the cosmetic industry. The data were collected from respondents with exposure to referral marketing programmes through the social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Instagram. The structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data collected.

The results of the study revealed that brand, reward and celebrity endorsement significantly impact the participation willingness of customers in social media referral marketing programmemes. Moreover, it showed that the social tie moderates only the brand impact on the participation willingness of customers, whereas it does not moderate the impact of rewards and celebrity endorsement on the participation willingness of customers. In doing so, the study looks extensively into the elements that drive or shape customer behaviour within this specific market niche by investigating the effect of brand, incentives and endorsements by celebrities on customer engagement.

Accordingly, this study sheds light on the complex relationship among brands, rewards and celebrity endorsements, while also considering social ties within the context of social media referral marketing initiatives. It also delivers useful information for academics as well as practitioners. Limited studies have been conducted in this field, and therefore, this study adds some knowledge, also highlighting the moderation effect of social ties.

The effects of integrated reporting quality (IRQ) have been debated in increasing empirical studies. Several IRQ measures, different theoretical approaches and multiple contexts have been adopted and investigated, leading to mixed results. By using the meta-analytic technique, this study aims to contribute to the accounting literature, reconciling the conflicting results on the effects of IRQ and providing objective conclusions to complement narrative literature reviews.

A sample of 45 empirical papers from 2013 to 2022, with 653 effect sizes, was used to assess the effects associated with IRQ. The papers were clustered into five groups (market reaction, financial performance, cost of capital, financial analysts’ properties and managerial decisions) based on the different consequences of IRQ investigated in the primary studies. A random-effects meta-regression model was used to explore all sources of heterogeneity together.

The meta-regression results confirm that IRQ positively influences firms’ market valuation and financial performance and hampers opportunistic managerial behaviour by improving corporate transparency, mitigating information asymmetry and encouraging accountability. Moreover, differences in the study characteristics affect the strength of the relationship object of interest.

Through meta-analysis, this study provides a broader overview of the effects of IRQ by enhancing the generalisability of the findings. The results also pave the way for additional evidence on the outcome variables affected by the quality of integrated disclosure.

A learning-focused culture promotes creativity, innovativeness and the acquisition of novel insights and competencies. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource development (HRD) practice and employee competencies using organizational learning culture as a mediating variable.

Data were collected from 828 employees of 37 health care institutions comprising 24 (internationally-owned) and 13 (indigenously-owned). Construct reliability and validity was established through a confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Data supported the hypothesized relationships. The results show that training and development and employee competencies were significantly related. Career development and employee competencies were significantly related. Organizational learning culture mediates the relationship between training and development and employee competencies. However, organizational learning culture did not mediate the relationship between career development and employee competencies.

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s health care focus and cross-sectional data.

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers to policy makers and stakeholders of health care institutions in developing system-level capacities that promote continuous learning and adaptive learning cultures to ensure sustainability and competitive advantage.

By evidencing empirically that organizational learning culture mediates the relationship between HRD practices and employee competencies the study extends the literature.