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To provide an economic view on the costs and benefits of anti‐money laundering (AML) efforts.

Based on a international, comparative study conducted in Switzerland, Singapore and Germany, the authors outline the impact of AML measures on banks and the financial services industry. The paper discusses possible reasons for the failure of AML to fight the predicated crimes. It also discusses the collateral damage caused by AML.

Compared with the monetary and non‐monetary costs of money laundering prevention for the society and the economy, the benefits are small. Instead of broadening and deepening the current AML framework, a thorough review of the current approach should take place.

Costs and benefits of AML measures are hardly quantifiable. The authors resort to a qualitative approach, stylising possible outcomes and side effects of money laundering prevention.

Useful set of arguments for discussing the benefits and shortcomings of the current and upcoming AML measures.

Money laundering measures and their impact are examined using basic laws of economy and financial intermediation.

Since employees are considered to be one of the most important sources for innovation, the purpose of this study is to create a change management framework for implementing an innovation culture by means of internal communication.

First, an interdisciplinary model was derived from research and existing literature. It was then tested in a case study with qualitative expert interviews and a quantitative online survey among all employees of a sample firm.

Instead of a linear change, as implied by the theoretical model, different identification levels existed simultaneously within the firm's culture. A typology summed up the corresponding perceptions of the innovation culture: innovation culture, innovation pioneers, mediocrity, standstill, and refusal. Significant correlations between identification and internal media (r=0.405), as well as identification and action (r=0.158) underlined the importance of internal communication.

This study only explores the topic from a communication science perspective. However, examining its link to other important factors like organisational structure would provide further insight. Also, research in different countries and fields is needed, since the results of this case study cannot be considered representative.

The goal of communication managers should be to lead employees through the phases of identification by specifically targeting their identification levels and using the appropriate media to address the findings.

The developed framework helps as a management tool for assessing how employees perceive messages of an innovation philosophy and internal media. By linking the internal, innovation, and change communication, it identifies new essential aspects for creating a communication mix and specifically communicating with the target‐group.

The article sets out to formulate a theory of the so-called New Middle Class (Neuer Mittelstand) which is drawn from the writings of the German sociologist Emil Lederer. To this end, prior to formulating this theory, the article briefly mentions contributions by other fellow German sociologists to this field of studies. Subsequently, Lederer's theory is being set in the context provided by contemporary formulations in stratification theory, such as those by Giddens, Parkin, Murphy, Goldthorpe, and Wright. The comparison has shown the presence of continuities, but also of fundamental differences, between such theoretical formulations. Based on Lederer's related work, an alternative theory of the Neuer Mittelstand, then is being put forward. This alternative theory, which has been reformulated as a set of mutually consistent statements, should not encounter the objections that may be raised against previous formulations. It concurs with Lederer's position in stressing the New Middle Class's expectations and requests of social honor as a status group and its inner heterogeneity as a cause of its social and political weakness. It adds, however, that the absence or scarcity of property of the means of production might carry more weight than insufficient social status for those Neuer Mittelstand members who aspire to social recognition and power.

Research on customer-perceived relationship value (CPRV) in business-to-business (B2B) markets has flourished over the past two decades. This paper aims to meta-analytically take stock of this research stream. It creates a comprehensive overview of the theoretical bases of CPRV research and establishes CPRV in its nomological network. The latter includes relationship benefits and sacrifices, offer quality, trust, switching costs, satisfaction, commitment, loyalty and salience of alternatives. Meaningful boundary conditions of the links to and from CPRV emerge from this research.

To locate suitable primary studies for inclusion in this meta-analysis, a comprehensive literature search was performed. Selection criteria ensured that only suitable B2B samples were included. Meta-analytical random and mixed-effects models were performed on a sample of k = 83 independent data sets from 94 primary publications, with a total n = 22,305.

All constructs are strongly related to CPRV in the expected direction, except for switching costs and salience of alternatives with a moderate relationship and relationship sacrifices with a non-significant mean association. Firm type (manufacturing, non-manufacturing), key informant role (purchaser, non-purchaser), supplier offering type (goods, services) and measurement approach (reflective, formative) function as boundary conditions in the moderation analysis.

This study is one of the very rare meta-analyses that draws exclusively from B2B marketing primary studies. It summarizes and solidifies the current theoretical and empirical knowledge on CPRV in business markets. The novel inclusion of boundary conditions offers additional insight over primary studies and makes for interesting new research directions.

This study aims to address the unanswered question of whether corporate sustainability has an impact on auditors’ overall judgment and to provide incremental evidence that corporate sustainability reporting has significant effect on financial auditors’ judgment.

Following prior research, the authors, respectively, apply auditors’ decisions on going-concern opinions and three discretionary accrual measures as proxies for auditor conservatism over financial risk and financial reporting risk. The authors collect corporate sustainability reporting and sustainability assurance data of U.S. firms from the global reporting initiative (GRI) database to construct and measure firms’ sustainability reporting activities.

The authors find that nonreporting firms are more likely to receive going-concern opinions than the reporting firms. In addition, reporting firms have a larger scale of discretionary accruals than their nonreporting counterparts. The authors also obtain consistent findings that sustainability assurance or accounting assurance providers strengthen the effect of sustainability reporting on auditors’ judgment.

First, using discretionary accruals as measures of auditor conservatism is controversial, as accruals are the joint product by auditors and clients. Second, binary variables as a measure of sustainability reporting activities limit the inference. Lastly, the findings based on limited samples may weaken the external validity.

The findings imply that firms engaging in sustainability activities are lower in financial or financial reporting risk. Firms can influence audit practitioners’ overall judgment through sustainability reports. Sustainability commitments and reporting have become a part of firms’ risk management.

The findings imply that sustainability reporting could become an integrated part of regulated corporate disclosure. Sustainability assurance reduces social costs by lending credibility to sustainability reports.

This paper provides incremental evidence that sustainability reports provide useful information and signals that influence auditors’ professional judgment. The findings also suggest that sustainability assurance strengthens auditors’ confidence in using sustainability information, thus amplifying the effect of sustainability reporting on auditors’ judgment.

Heeding the call for insights into the Sub-Saharan African international marketing context, this study aims to empirically examine consumers' desires and motivations for buying counterfeit luxury goods. It examines influences on consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions related to counterfeit luxury goods in Rwanda, one of Sub-Saharan Africa's fastest-growing economies and growing luxury markets, developing and testing a model examining the effect of social context on personal attributes, providing evidence on economic and social-status factors as drivers for counterfeiting.

The data were collected using an online survey administered in Rwanda to consumers who had previously purchased luxury goods and counterfeits. A total of 312 valid responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This study found that normative and informational influences had a positive effect on Rwandan consumers' attitude toward purchasing counterfeit luxury products, with attitude influencing purchase intentions directly and indirectly, through mediating variable desire for status or through value consciousness and desire for status.

The study contributes to academic research − one of the first empirical studies to examine consumers' desires and motivations for buying counterfeit luxury goods in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing insights that benefit scholars and practitioners seeking to better understand a market where more than half of the world's fastest economies are located.

This study examines the critical role of central banks, specifically the Croatian National Bank (CNB), in promoting environmental sustainability within the financial sector. While banking activities may seem unrelated to environmental concerns, they are pivotal in supporting the green transition and mitigating climate change. Building on Weber (2019) argument that sustainable development should be integral to banking strategies, this paper explores how the CNB communicates its environmental responsibilities. This study aims to examine how the CNB frames its environmental communication (EC) and explore the broader implications of such communication in fostering systemic change toward a low-carbon economy. By addressing this, the study fills a theoretical gap in understanding the role of central banks in EC within the context of sustainable development.

The research adopts a qualitative approach, including an in-depth interview with the CNB’s Deputy Governor and a content analysis of the CNB’s Climate Strategy based on the media and visual framing theory (Entman, 1993; Messaris, 1997). The analysis focuses on the framing of EC through key dichotomies such as anthropocentric vs. biocentric, local vs. global, pragmatic vs. constitutive, instrumental vs. intrinsic and techno-centric vs. eco-centric. Additionally, the study examines the targeted audience of these communications to understand the CNB’s approach to fostering broader engagement with sustainability goals.

The study reveals that the CNB’s EC incorporates both pragmatic and constitutive dimensions, emphasising a balance between immediate, practical financial considerations and broader systemic ideological shifts. The CNB’s Climate Strategy highlights a clear focus on reducing negative environmental impacts, supporting socially responsible business and promoting a low-carbon economy. However, while some elements of the communication are globally oriented and techno-centric, the findings suggest a need for deeper engagement with eco-centric and intrinsic value-based messaging to support a truly transformative green transition.

A limitation of the paper is that analysis may be constrained by the lack of longitudinal data, making it difficult to assess the long-term effectiveness of these communication efforts. Finally, the study focuses solely on one institution, which limits the generalisation of the findings to other banks or industries within the European Union and Western countries, where EC strategies might differ significantly.

Practical implications of the research include highlighting the need for central banks and financial institutions to adopt more comprehensive and balanced EC strategies, as well as that by refining EC strategies, central banks can play a key role in raising public awareness of climate change issues.

This study contributes to the limited literature on central banks' role in climate change communication by offering a critical examination of how environmental responsibilities are framed within the financial sector. It underscores the importance of a systemic shift in EC strategies to move beyond pragmatic concerns and drive long-term ideological change. The paper provides valuable insights for policymakers and financial institutions on how to align communication strategies with the broader goals of sustainable development and the green transition while offering avenues for future research on the evolving role of central banks in sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine practicing mathematics teachers’ learning through parallel lesson study in China. Lesson study in China has been practiced for decades. Parallel lesson is an enriched mode of lesson study to address the implementation of new curriculum.

The expansive learning perspective has been used to explore the ways practicing teachers learned to improve teaching through the transformation of learning objects and boundary crossing.

Two cases are illustrated and compared to highlight features of teachers’ learning through parallel lesson study. The practicing teachers developed their competence in transforming instructional objectives and task selection and implementation. In addition, they also developed professional vision in alignment with the reform-oriented curriculum.

This study makes significant contribution to understanding teachers’ learning through lesson study in China. Meanwhile, it also demonstrates how the theory of expansive learning could be used as a conceptual framework to examine teachers’ learning through lesson study.