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Although listed firms in Africa are increasingly establishing board sustainability committees, their impact on corporate outcomes in the region remains relatively understudied. This study investigates the effect of executive compensation (EC) and board sustainability committee initiatives (BSCIs) on both self-reported greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives (SRGI) and actual greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE).

Through the lens of resource-based view and legitimacy and stakeholder theoretical perspectives, the study conducts a fixed-effects model over a dataset of 2,310 firm-year observations from African countries between 2002 and 2022.

The findings show that while EC has a negative impact on SRGI, it does not have a similar effect on outcome-based GHGE reduction. The study observes that SRGI has no effect on actual GHG emissions. We add a fresh dimension to the literature by documenting that BSCIs are associated with greater outcome-based GHGE but do not seem to improve symbolic SRGI. The evidence shows that BSCIs have no moderating impact on the association between symbolic SRGI and outcome-based GHGE. Finally, the study establishes that the predicted associations vary across different periods.

This study helps unpack the role of the board sustainability committee, which Orazalin et al. (2024) show has key economic implications. The findings help stakeholders including corporate boards, executives and regulators to understand how board sustainability committee characteristics and EC are associated with GHG emissions. The results are particularly essential as this study demonstrates the need for specific standards for disclosing GHG emission-related information, notably in the non-existence of mandatory GHG reporting.

This paper provides the latest systematic literature review (SLR) of prevailing studies on the interrelationship among executive compensation, financial performance and sustainable business practices. This SLR is done in three parts: (1) examine the theories employed by previous studies; (2) identify the unique variables employed by researchers in analysing this interrelationship and (3) explore potential opportunities for further study in the field.

This study conducted an SLR analysing studies from the Web of science, Scopus and EBSCO in over 20 countries from 2009 to 2022 published in several top-ranked journals. We utilised various search strings using the key phrases “executive compensation”, “CEO Pay”, “financial performance” and “sustainable business practices”. The initial sample of 27,210 was filtered with our meticulous inclusion and exclusion criteria to produce a list of 161 studies.

Our findings are as follows: first, most studies encompassing this subject area lack multi-theoretical perspectives with agency theory being the most dominant theoretical viewpoint; second, we observed the use of monotonous quantitative research methods, with studies heavily lacking qualitative and mixed-method research approaches; finally, there is a palpable gap in cross-country studies.

There are a few limitations that must be acknowledged. First, the inclusion criteria ensured that only articles published in the CABS journal ranking of three star and above. Thus, this review may not be a precise reflection of the EC, FP and SBPs literature scope. The inclusion criteria also limit our review to only accounting, finance, management and business-related studies about the topic. Therefore, future studies could explore studies ranked three star and below and from other subject areas.

This study contributes to the existing literature by conducting a comprehensive SLR that examines both the theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence on this topic. It builds upon previous research and extends our understanding of the interrelationship among executive compensation, financial performance and sustainable business practices.

We conducted a systematic review to explore the potential for the application of blockchain technologies for supply chain resilience in a small-scale agri-food business context.

As part of the research methodology, scientific databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus were used to find relevant articles for this review.

The systematic review of articles (n = 57) found that the use of blockchain technology in the small-scale agri-food business sector can reduce the risk of food fraud by assuring the provenance of food products.

Only a few papers were directly from a small-scale agribusiness context. Key challenges that limit the implementation of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies include concerns over the disclosure of proprietary information and trade secrets, incomplete or inaccurate information, economic and technical difficulties, low levels of trust in the technology, risk of human error and poor governance of process-related issues.

The application of blockchain technology ensures that the risks and costs associated with non-compliance, product recalls and product loss are reduced. Improved communication and information sharing can increase resilience and better support provenance claims and traceability. Better customer relationships can be built, increasing supply chain efficiency and resilience.

A major topical issue in the 21st century is climate change, and its impact on humanity cannot be quantified, as it affects agriculture, water levels, settlements and more. This study aims to evaluate the effect of climate change on farm technical efficiency in rural Cameroon and suggest ways for improvement.

We employ a two-step approach to assess whether the efficiency of these farms is vulnerable to climate change. In the first step, we calculate efficiency using the stochastic frontier approach with a Cobb–Douglas specification. In the second step, we investigate the effect of climate change on efficiency by applying a Tobit model. The data used come from a questionnaire survey of 419 randomly selected farmers.

The findings reveal that the average level of technical efficiency is 62.9%. This implies that there are existing opportunities to increase technical efficiency if resources are used optimally. The results also show that increases in the climate change vulnerability index have statistically significant negative effects on the technical efficiency of farms. This negative relationship is attributable to the adverse influence of the exposure and sensitivity components of the climate change vulnerability index.

We provide an understanding of the effect of climate change vulnerability on the technical efficiency of farms in rural Cameroon and suggest means of improving it. Additionally, we examine whether the influence of climate change varies across agro-ecological zones.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of online corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting of the insurance industry in Ghana. Specifically, it explores the impact of firm age, size and origin on online CSR reporting using data from 31 private insurance companies in Ghana.

The authors employ ordinary least squares regression analysis in the estimation of the influence of the predictive variables on firms’ online CSR disclosure.

The findings indicate positive insignificant association between online CSR disclosure and firm-specific characteristics (i.e. firm age, size and origin). These findings are robust to different specifications.

Research directed towards online CSR communications amongst private insurance firms in the context of emerging market are almost non-existent. This study therefore makes an important contribution by addressing the imbalances of CSR reporting in Ghanaian insurance firms.

The current study aimed to examine the moderating role of perceived supervisor support in the nexus between employee empowerment and organizational commitment in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.

A quantitative research design was adopted, and data were collected from 274 frontline workers from 4-star and 5-star hotels at two different waves within a 7-month interval. The data received were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V. 23.0) and SmartPLS (V.4.0), respectively.

As hypothesized in the study, employee empowerment was significantly related to organizational commitment. Furthermore, the results revealed that perceived supervisor support moderated the nexus between employee empowerment and affective and continuance commitment but did not moderate the nexus between employee empowerment and normative commitment.

Arguably, support from supervisors has been theoretically identified as a key construct in enhancing subordinates' commitment to an organization. However, less is known in the literature about the moderating role of perceived supervisory support in the nexus between employee empowerment and organizational commitment, especially in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.

Sets out to nvestigate the adoption of and application of the market orientation concept within the small business sector using Michigan, USA, as a study setting.

Following a literature review, a pilot study involving face‐to‐face interviews with owner‐managers, and covert and overt observation of small businesses' marketing practices, was undertaken. The main thrust of the research involved a postal survey based on an adapted market orientation construct. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are employed to assess the reliability of the results.

Reveals four dimensions/factors/strategies underpinning market orientation in the study setting. The paper concludes that the size of the business does not moderate the importance ascribed to, and the application of, the marketing concept (i.e. market orientation).

Future research should be directed at assessing the congruence between owner‐managers' purported marketing practices and consumers' perceptions of their actions. There is the need to develop normative guidelines concerning small businesses' best practice in market orientation.

Insights derived from this study will provide owner‐managers with the building‐blocks for understanding their firm's market orientation capabilities, an important facet in dealing with upstream (suppliers) and downstream (customers) business relationships.

This study responds to a suggestion for marketing scholars to adapt/adopt existing models, constructs, frameworks, definitions, and also to an assertion that the age‐old adage that what does not get measured does not get managed and, as a result, empirical evidence explaining the appreciation and the employment of an extant market orientation construct in the small business environment has been put forward.

Research findings on emerging markets over the last decade indicate that economic reform policies in many developing countries have not only changed the environments of these economies, but also influenced the attitudes of firms towards the marketing concept. This study determines the degree to which marketing activities are practised in foreign and domestic firms in an emerging developing economy and the effects of such practices on business performance. The research instrument comprises five marketing activity components and six performance dimensions. Data were generated from a sample of 200 firms through a self‐administered mail survey. Results of the study reveal that foreign firms perform more marketing activities and perceive all marketing components as important determinants of performance in comparison with their domestic counterparts. To conclude, managerial implications of the findings as well as study limitations and future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factor structure of safety culture construct among engineering students at university context and to examine the measurement invariance of this instrument across different socio-demographic groups in a sample of engineering students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An exploratory online questionnaire was completed by 770 undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students across the UAE. Data were analyzed using a diversified multi-group and a robust and sophisticated cross-validation testing strategy. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test factor structures identified in previous studies. Multi-group invariance testing was conducted to determine the extent to which factor structure is comparable across groups (i.e. gender, educational and experiential background).

Three-factor model was preferred for its parsimony. The results showed that the level of safety awareness and attitude is relatively satisfactory, whereas safety behaviour is inadequate. No significant difference was showed in multi-group invariance between demographic groups.

This research is a cross-sectional study and limited to the views of engineering students (informal group). The study would benefit from both informal and formal groups in assessing safety culture at university for a robust empirical evidence. The research highlights relevant implications for policy and program development, by pointing to the need to promote safety culture and mitigate safety-related accidents among engineering students.

This paper offers insight into benefit of understanding the level of safety culture among engineering students and extend knowledge of informal group involvement in safety-related accidents at university level.

A local company, Briton Electronics, have successfully completed and delivered a vital piece of equipment designed for use on flight simulators for the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford.