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The paper uses a relational view of strategy framework to measure and assess the sustainable success of base of the pyramid (BoP) projects. The authors posit that the relational view is a powerful way to determine if a firm's project might lead to sustainable competitive advantage, because if partner resources combine to create relation‐specific capabilities and competences, they may provide sustainable value, and the paper applies this method of strategic analysis to selected BoP projects.

The paper separates the secondary data analysis from the primary data analysis and offers four propositions, based on the combined relational view and BoP criteria. The authors apply the relational view framework to two BoP projects from Michigan‐based organizations. Each case is analysed using the framework, and the authors discuss how the resources of each of the BoP project partners create value, how tailored and scalable the projects are, how BoP end user needs are addressed, what resources partners contribute, and if the relation‐specific combination of resources create project level capabilities that are sustainable.

The sustainable success of BoP projects may be best achieved when the BoP project partners contribute valuable resources and when those resources combine to create relation‐specific capabilities that create sustainable success. It reinforces the importance of scale, BoP user needs, and engaging BoP customers as partners.

This paper tries to help explain why some BoP projects successfully create a sustainable competitive advantage, by building on strategic themes and using a variation of the relational view framework to examine resources and capabilities of the organizations that partner to serve people at the BoP.

This paper proposes that the development of a layoff policy gives an organization a competitive advantage over organizations without such a policy. How an organization communicates concern to employees is often through procedures and policies developed by the human resource department. Survey questionnaires were mailed to 1,400 vice presidents of human resources that held membership and whose names were provided through the Society of Human Resource Management. Over half of the organizations surveyed (57%) did not have layoff policies. By type of organization, healthcare had the greatest number of policies in their organizations with 70% affirming their existence. The study concludes with the following five proposed reasons why layoff policies do not exist: (1) “It can't happen here” syndrome (2) The cover‐up syndrome (3) If you plan for it, people will panic, (4) Managers are trained to focus on growth and to avoid decline, (5) There would be loss of control, and accompanying organizational sabotage, and (6) More policies equal less humane treatment.

The purpose of this paper is to build a model of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) performance drawing from the concept of organizational identity theory. The paper proposes that successful performance of an M&A is dependent upon two things, namely, the alignment of the organizational identities of the two merging firms and the method used to integrate them.

This is a conceptual paper based on current research and uses multiple real-world examples of M&A to elaborate the proposed model and highlight scholarly and practical implications.

The paper explains that the similarity of the identities of the merging organizations has a significant impact on the performance of the combined entity. Furthermore, the integration method used by the merged firms influences the success of the merged entity. The use of an identity approach helps unravel new variables impacting M&A performance.

A limitation of the paper is that it does not address how, over time, identity management can overcome the resistance of two merging entities. In addition to testing the proposed relationships, further research can explore these identity dynamics in unraveling an M&A performance.

This paper highlights the importance of evaluating identity as an element of an M&A due diligence. Practitioners should be aware of the dangers of signaling one identity integration strategy but using contradictory actions in implementation.

Given the importance of identity in a variety of organizational outcomes, the paper is timely in integrating the organizational identity (OI) concepts in understanding M&A performance issues.

Given the importance of identity in a variety of organizational outcomes, the paper is timely in integrating the OI concepts in understanding M&A performance issues.

Wikis, as one of the Web 2.0 tools, has been increasingly used to engage students to learn with others in a collaborative virtual environment. However, there are relatively few studies examining the application of wikis in secondary schools. Therefore, this study aims to investigate factors affecting the use of PBWorks (a popular wiki tool).

The aim was achieved by empirically examining an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) from a sample of 429 junior secondary students in Hong Kong. Specifically, relationships among six latent variables, which were school support, teacher support, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitudes towards use and the intention to use, were posited in the model. The more robust factor-based partial least squares structural equation modelling (factor-based PLS-SEM) was used to test the research model.

The results indicated that most of the hypotheses were supported, which suggested that the extended TAM could explain the rationale behind students’ intentions to use PBWorks for group projects.

This paper extended the original TAM by including two additional variables (school support and teacher support) for explaining behavioural intentions. Because of the increased use of e-learning platforms in secondary schools, more understanding of what motivates secondary school students’ e-learning intentions is necessary.

This paper examined the effects of corporate governance structures on the incidence of corporate illegality by analyzing the relationship between environmental violations and several dimensions of corporate board structure. Results demonstrated that the value of stock owned by corporate officers and directors was positively and significantly associated with serious environmental violations. Outsider dominance, joint CEO‐Chairpersons, social responsibility committees, and attorneys on boards were not significantly related to corporate illegal behavior. The control variables of size, industry profitability, firm profitability, and industry concentration were all significantly related to environmental violations. The findings involving board structure cast doubt on the efficacy of many popular corporate governance reform proposals.

This study examines how women and men in family firms respond differently when asked about perceptions of financial performance. The study poses three research questions around this topic: Are there differences among female and male responses, do those perceptions change if men and women are leaders of the family business and does the family's socioemotional wealth (SEW) influence such responses.

This study uses a quantitative research design to determine if financial performance perceptions of family firms differ based on the gender of the respondents and their leadership position, and second, if SEW's dimensions influence those perceptions, using data from the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) survey in 2015.

The findings indicate that due to the lack of theory regarding gender as a social construct, empirical data collected for family business studies should take under consideration if respondents are women, men, leaders and the family influence in the family business when collecting data from surveys and asking for perceptions of financial performance. Results show that women in family businesses tend to have more positive perceptions of financial performance than men, but if women are leaders, those perceptions not only decrease but become negative. In addition, the family's socioemotional wealth (SEW) exacerbates those tendencies.

This study contributes to the literature by helping to understand the potential limitations of subjective measures of financial performance, as women increasingly become family business leaders. It also contributes to gender studies by demonstrating that there is a lack of gender theoretical perspectives specifically, gender roles, suggesting that differences in self-promotion and self-evaluation between men and women leaders of their family firms. Finally, this study adds to the study of SEW as a multidimensional construct by showing the different effects, or lack of them by each dimension and showing the strong effect of family continuity on the perception of financial performance.

Critical and justice-oriented approaches to leadership are incomplete without attention to racism and racialization. This study employed basic qualitative inquiry to examine racialized legitimation within student affairs leadership education through lenses of whiteness as property and legitimacy. Findings detail how leadership educators sought to gain and/or maintain legitimacy and the ways racialization is embedded in these processes through professional experiences, leadership knowledge, and identity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

This paper aims to understand how the tasks of management accountants (MA) are affected by data analytics (DA).

A qualitative methodology was deemed most appropriate given the exploratory nature of the research questions (RQ). In total, 10 open-ended interview questions were used to gather the evidence. The case study design was inductive, yielding rich data from 29 respondents representing 20 different organizations.

Answers were provided to three interrelated RQs about the use of DA by MA, namely, what are their responsibilities? How does this work support inference, prediction and assurance? And how can they ensure insights from DA can be turned into decisions that add value? The findings also indicate that MA have not taken charge of the data analytic opportunities and at present, their activities remain largely focused on descriptive and financial data analysis rather than more complex activities using external data, operational data and modeling.

The limitation of this research is that it is based on a relatively small, geographically restricted sample (20 organizations in south-central Canada) as well by interviews that were only 60 min in duration.

Provides a base for the existing practice of management accounting with DA.

Explains the social relationship between DA and management accounting.

Documented and explained the extent of actual DA use by MA.

Previous research has explored the link between sustainability disclosure and reputation but produced contradictory results. This study aims to clarify the sustainability disclosure–reputation relationship through a quantitative analysis of the correlations between these variables reported in empirical research papers. The second objective was to determine how various moderators affect the sustainability disclosure–reputation link.

The meta-analysis was based on a systematic review of the literature covering empirical research on the corporate sustainability disclosure and reputation relationship. A total of 92 articles were meta-analyzed to compile their findings on four extrinsic moderators: company size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.

The findings confirm that a significant positive correlation exists between corporate sustainability disclosure and reputation. The moderator analysis also revealed that companies’ different characteristics can explain researchers’ divergent results.

The results have considerable practical relevance for organizational management. First, they can motivate managers to improve and disclose their company’s social and environmental impacts to strengthen their reputation, which in turn will help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, the findings can ensure organizations develop disclosure and reputation management strategies adapted for each firm’s size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.

The results have considerable practical relevance for organizational management. First, they can motivate managers to improve and disclose their company’s social and environmental impacts to strengthen their reputation, which in turn will help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, the findings can ensure organizations develop disclosure and reputation management strategies adapted for each firm’s size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this meta-analysis is the first to clarify the link between disclosure and reputation, which makes a unique contribution to the field of social and environmental accounting. A larger sample of primary research was collected, and key extrinsic moderators were examined to explain prior studies’ contradictory findings.

Theorizing in the extant sustainability assurance literature is limited. This paper aims to identify apposite organizational theories from related fields which scholars could apply to sustainability assurance research. Through the introduction of theoretical perspectives new to the field, the authors seek to extend current research.

A literature review was undertaken and papers using theory to examine research questions concerned with sustainability assurance and business sustainability issues more broadly were categorized by theory and sub area of focus. The authors then considered how organizational theories used in other areas of business sustainability research might augment the current paucity of theorizing applied in sustainability assurance research, thereby opening up new research possibilities.

The review identified gaps in current theorizing in sustainability assurance research and theoretical frameworks which have the potential to augment research avenues in sustainability assurance, enhance the way researchers interpret their data and increase the understanding of sustainability assurance decisions.

Innovation in sustainability assurance research may lead to developments in sustainability assurance practice, which enhances the credibility of sustainability reports. It will inform ongoing debate regarding whether sustainability assurance should be mandatory, whether a specific reporting format and level of assurance should be prescribed, how the practice can be developed and whether alternatives to enhancing the credibility of sustainability reports need to be found.

Enhanced theorizing may shed light on whether sustainability assurance enhances the credibility of sustainability disclosures and whether it leads, or fails to lead, to real improvements in preparers' sustainability-related practices.

By identifying theories which could be applied to sustainability assurance research, this paper facilitates the development of new avenues of research and new ways of interpreting data from the field.