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The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of millennial tourists’ accommodation service experiences (ASEs) on their satisfaction, word-of-mouth (WOM) and revisit intentions (RIs) in an emerging economy.

A survey instrument was used to collect cross-sectional data from millennial tourists, and the 282 valid datasets were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results demonstrated that ASE had a beneficial impact on satisfaction and WOM but not on RI. Significant positive associations between tourist satisfaction, WOM and RI were also discovered. Additionally, WOM research sheds new light on how the ASE of millennial tourists affects their satisfaction, WOM and propensity to return. Furthermore, results show that WOM intentions and satisfaction mediate the relationship between ASE and RIs.

The study presents a unique research context, the application of advanced statistical techniques and the comprehensive investigation of key outcome variables in the context of millennial tourists’ ASEs in an emerging economy. This study contributes significantly to the body of knowledge in the field of tourism research, aiming to meet long-term goals in a sustainable way for the hospitality industry operators by integrating ASE, satisfaction, WOM and RI. Additionally, the study presents the mediating role of WOM and satisfaction in the millennial tourists’ emerging country context.

A successful education system is a great asset for any society. However, what factors make an academic institution successful and how these factors interact with each other are not clear in literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a model that explains success of private universities which entails clarification on theoretical understanding and explains the relationships among relevant variables.

Variables from information systems success models and marketing theories have been adapted in the context of private universities to theorize a conceptual model. In order to validate the model, this study employed quantitative approach. Survey data, collected from 326 respondents, were analysed using partial least squares algorithm.

The results suggest that: “curriculum quality”, “teaching competence”, “service facility”, and “service delivery” provided by a private university are positively related to “perceived value (PV)”, while students’ perceived satisfaction (SPS) is dependent on “service facility”; PV and SPS drive to students’ “intention for continued education (ICE)”, and ICE eventually improves quality of students’ lives. Additionally, PV and SPS are interrelated. The mediating roles of PV and SPS are also identified.

Empirical data analyses confirm that improving quality of life through continued education represents an insightful theoretical lens for investigating success in higher education. To become successful in education business, maintaining both academic quality and service quality are important for a private university because they lead to student satisfaction and the overall PV of education.

This study is the first initiative that develops and validates a success model of private universities. The findings provide some guidelines for top managers in higher education to maximize their abilities to understand customers’ expectations in both strategic and operational settings.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare the influence of the Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act of the USA and the Canadian SOX (C-SOX) through the comparison of corporate acquisitions in these two countries.

The final sample includes 1,187 merger and tender offers undertaken by publicly traded (TSX listed) Canadian firms between 1990 and 2016. The authors use standard event study methodology (Patell, 1976) and Berkovitch and Narayanan’s (1993) seminal method to examine announcement period performance and deal motive, respectively.

The findings support the pro-regulation hypothesis which states that stricter regulations are more useful. Cross-listed acquirers exposed to SOX regime performed much better (both short- and long-term) than non-cross-listed counterparts with only C-SOX exposure. These findings are both statistically and economically significant.

This study has direct implications as it provides evidence to the legislatures of the provinces, as well as to the federal government, that stricter regulations are effective and Canada should enact additional corporate legislation. Canada may have fared well in the past, but dynamics are changing and may further change in the future, and therefore, timely and stricter corporate legislation are more appropriate.

This study has direct implications as it provides evidence to the legislatures of the provinces, as well as to the federal government, that stricter regulations are effective and Canada should enact additional corporate legislation. Canada may have fared well in the past, but dynamics are changing and may further change in the future, and therefore, timely and stricter corporate legislation are more appropriate.

This study contributes to the growing literature of SOX-related studies. This is the first study to investigate comprehensively the differences between the two laws enacted by these neighboring countries. As USA and Canada share largely integrated capital markets and are each other’s biggest trading partner, this genre of research has great value. It is a timely study as the Canadian Federal Government is looking into standardizing corporate legislation across provinces and territories.

The ownership structure of a corporation can alleviate the agency problem that arises between shareholders and managers of a corporation, which implies that the ownership composition of a firm may infl uence the level of voluntary disclosure. This study investigates whether the ownership structure of U. S. based multinational corporations affects the managerial decision to voluntarily disclose quarterly foreign segment data. The empirical results show that the three ownership variables of interest, institutional stock ownership, managerial stock ownership and outside blockholder stock ownership are inversely related to the level of voluntary disclosure of quarterly foreign segment data. Therefore, it is inferred that an increase in the proportion of outstanding common stock held by these ownership groups is accompanied by a decrease in the probability that a U.S. multinational firm voluntarily discloses quarterly foreign segment data.

The purpose of this study is to explore the contributing barriers to corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices. In particular, this study focuses on non-managerial stakeholders’ perceptions of the barriers to CSER practices in a developing country context. The study also investigates the current initiatives undertaken by the different stakeholders, such as government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and regulators.

The study takes a qualitative approach, undertaking semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 participants from NGOs, the media, regulatory authorities, government departments, shareholders, trade union leaders and customers.

The views of stakeholder groups were analysed to identify the contributing barriers to CSER practices. The findings of the study reveal that corruption and politics, lack of coordination, lack of government initiatives and unsatisfactory implementation of laws are perceived as the major barriers that hinder CSER practices in Bangladesh. The study also found a lack of awareness amongst various stakeholder groups regarding the influential role CSER plays in promoting sustainable development. The current initiatives undertaken by various stakeholders to improve CSER practices were limited but growing.

The study utilises the stakeholder theory to examine the role of stakeholders, rather than managers, in relation to CSER practice in Bangladesh. The findings may provide impetus for mitigating CSER barriers in a developing country context.

This study is one of the few engagement-based studies to explore the non-managerial stakeholders’ views on CSER in a developing country context.

We examine whether the social capital of the area where a firm’s headquarters is located affects that firm’s credit rating. Given that credit rating agencies only infrequently visit a firm’s headquarters, it is pertinent to investigate whether this soft information is considered.

In order to test whether social capital affects firms’ credit ratings, we estimate the following model using an ordinary least squares regression: Rating_it = β₀ + β₁ Social Capital_it + ∑ Controls_it + Industry fixed Effects_i + State−year fixed effects_it + ε_it. We follow recent accounting and finance research and measure societal-level social capital at the county level (Jha & Chen, 2015; Cheng et al., 2017; Hasan et al., 2017a, b; Jha, 2017; Hossain et al., 2023). We use four inputs to calculate social capital: (1) voter turnout in presidential elections, (2) the census response rate, (3) the number of social and civic associations and (4) the number of nongovernmental organizations in each county.

W provide evidence that social capital has a causal effect on credit ratings. Interesting is that this effect is not merely localized to firms near credit rating agencies. We also find that the effect of social capital on credit ratings is concentrated among firms with moderate levels of default risk. For firms with extremely low or extremely high default risk, social capital appears irrelevant to credit ratings, suggesting that social capital plays a larger role in more ambiguous contexts or when greater judgment is required. We demonstrate that the effect of social capital on credit ratings disappears when the rating agency has extensive experience in a particular region. This result is consistent with rating agencies stereotyping certain regions of the USA and using that information to inform their ratings when they have less experience in the region. Finally, we find that while social capital is associated with credit ratings, it has no association with future defaults.

Though we cautiously followed prior studies and were confident in our data construction process, it is possible that we are measuring social capital with error.

Our findings suggest that credit rating agencies could benefit from reevaluating how they incorporate non-financial information, such as social capital, into their assessment processes, potentially leading to more nuanced and equitable credit ratings. Additionally, firms could use these insights to bolster their engagement with local communities and stakeholders, thereby enhancing their creditworthiness and attractiveness to investors as part of a broader corporate strategy. The findings also underline the need for regulatory frameworks that foster transparency and the inclusion of social factors in credit evaluations, which could lead to more comprehensive and fair financial reporting and rating systems.

Recognizing that social capital can influence economic outcomes like credit ratings may encourage both communities and firms to invest more in building and maintaining social networks, trust and civic engagement. By demonstrating how social capital impacts credit ratings, our research highlights the potential to address inequalities faced by regions with lower social capital, guiding targeted social and economic development initiatives. Moreover, understanding that regional social capital can influence credit ratings might affect public perception and trust in the impartiality and accuracy of these ratings, which is essential for maintaining market stability and integrity.

Our research provides fresh insights into how social capital, an intangible asset, influences credit ratings – a topic not extensively explored in existing literature. This sheds light on the dynamics between social structures and financial outcomes. Methodologically, our use of the 9/11 attacks as an exogenous shock to measure changes in social capital introduces a novel approach to study similar phenomena. Additionally, our findings contrast with prior studies such as Jha and Chen (2015) and Hossain et al. (2023), by delving deeper into how proximity and familiarity impact financial assessments differently, enriching academic discourse and refining existing theories on the role of local knowledge in financial decisions.

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of innovativeness (INN), proactiveness, (PRC) and risk-taking (RIT) on the export performance of apparel small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the role of differentiation and low-cost leadership (LCL) strategies as mediating effects between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions and the performance of exporting firms. INN, RIT and PRC are considered EO dimensions.

A cross-sectional survey was carried out by providing a questionnaire to the owners, directors and senior managers of the apparel SMEs – the primary data of 550 treated by structural equation modeling (SEM) technique for final data analysis.

The study has revealed the positive dimensional effect of EO on export performance. For the mediation effects of differentiation and LCL, differentiation strategy (DS) positively mediates between INN, PRC and export performance. However, no mediation has been found between RIT and export performance. On the other hand, LCL has found positive effects between INN, RIT and export performance. However, the mediation effect was absent between PRC and export performance.

Limitations/implications- This study has been conducted on only Muslim owners, senior export managers and directors of apparel SMEs in Bangladesh. It has examined the two main competitive strategies as a mediator between EO dimensions and export performance. The findings of this study are based on one country data analysis.

EO, differentiation and low-cost leadership (LCL) strategy are resources and capabilities of an organization to create a competitive advantage to enhance performance. The factors of this research are helpful for SME practitioners.

The direct and indirect effects (differentiation and LCL strategy) of EO dimensions on export performance in an emerging country, i.e. the South-Asia region, is a pioneer study. Therefore, current research has theoretical and managerial implications for the international business and strategic management literature.

The current study aims to investigate how young smartphone users in Bangladesh relate their brand experiences to brand loyalty. In addition, we want to visualize the direct and mediating effects of brand satisfaction, brand love and brand advocacy in our model.

The researchers examined the hypotheses by employing structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS and Decision Analyst STATS, version 2.0, with a sample size of 470 Bangladeshi smartphone users. The authors constructed the conceptual model by drawing upon both theoretical and empirical foundations. The researchers obtained data by utilizing an adopted and self-administered pre-structured questionnaire distributed via an online platform.

The results showed that brand experience greatly influences brand satisfaction, love, advocacy and loyalty, all of which have a significant impact on users’ brand loyalty across the country. The findings also suggested that the function of brand satisfaction as a critical mediator in the link between brand experience and brand loyalty was significant.

This experiment contributes to the body of knowledge by focusing on emotional brand attachments like brand satisfaction, love and advocacy and proposing that they can mediate experience and loyalty in the mobile market. The study also helps managers and executives better understand the primary drivers of smartphones, which are essential for generating and sustaining consumers’ happiness and loyalty in today’s highly competitive consumer market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate organisational accountability to less economically powerful stakeholders in the absence of formal corporate social reporting (CSR) guidelines. In addition, this study emphasises the role of administrative and institutional reforms in empowering stakeholders in a developing country context, namely, Bangladesh.

Consistent with prior literature, this qualitative study collected data through semi-structured interviews with 23 representatives from NGOs, media, civil society, customers, regulators, trade union leaders and employees who are considered as less economically powerful stakeholders. This paper draws on the demand for administrative reforms along with an institutional support structure (Owen et al., 1997) to enhance CSR and corporate accountability.

The empirical evidence shows that there is a need for a stand-alone mandatory CSR to achieve stakeholder accountability. It also shows that there are demands from “stakeholders to right to know” about the company’s social and environmental performance along with stakeholder engagements. There is a perceived demand for administrative reform along with institutional supports that can contribute to the CSR development in Bangladesh. These administrative reforms would encourage transparent corporate social and environmental practices. Given the socio-economic and vulnerable environmental conditions of Bangladesh, stakeholders in this study suggested contextually relevant CSR guidelines towards greater accountability.

This paper is one of the few engagement-based studies which explore the perceptions of less economically powerful stakeholders towards CSR developments in an emerging economy – Bangladesh. The findings of this study using the theoretical lens of accountability with administrative and institutional reforms lead us to conclude that companies in Bangladesh have low level of CSR towards stakeholder accountability and stakeholder engagements.

The paper contributes to the CSR literature by highlighting the needs of CSR from the stakeholder’s accountability perspective.