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This study aims to examine the mediating effects of two corporate social responsibility factors – leadership mindset and corporate commitment – on the relationship between sustainable orientation toward Industry 4.0 and environmental decision-making effectiveness.

The research model was tested using structural equation modeling based on survey data from 175 companies serving the Hajj and Umrah sector in Saudi Arabia, a sector recognized for its high level of digitalization.

The results indicate that a sustainable orientation toward Industry 4.0 and digitalization positively influences environmental decision-making effectiveness. Additionally, Corporate commitment was found to have a direct positive effect on environmental decision-making effectiveness, while leadership mindset showed no significant effect.

This study highlights the critical role of sustainable Industry 4.0, driven by digitalization, in enhancing service quality and competitive value in companies serving the Hajj and Umrah sector. These companies see digitalization as an opportunity to improve business outcomes through effective environmental strategic decisions, though its application remains challenging. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing empirical insights into the impact of digitalization on environmental decision-making effectiveness within this specific context.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of the addition of dried lemongrass leaves (DLGL) powder, at different levels, on phenolics content, antioxidant activities, consumer acceptance and the inhibition of lipid peroxidation of roasted coffee (RC).

DLGL powder was incorporated at the levels of 0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5% and 10% of RC weight. The total flavonoids (TF), total phenolics (TP) and antioxidant activity measured using a 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and reducing power assay of RC, DLGL and binary mixture of them determined. The oxidative indices of coffee oil samples during storage were investigated. In addition, the sensory characteristics of RC fortified with different levels of DLGL powder were evaluated.

The TP content of DLGL powder was 1,100.32 mg/100 g DWb, nearly 1.2 times higher than found in RC beans. The TF content of RC enriched with 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5% and 10% DLGL were found to be around 1.05, 1.10, 1.15 and 1.20 times higher than that in the control coffee samples. RC supplemented with various levels of DLGL powder showed higher DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power activities. At the end of the storage period (six months), the acid, peroxide, P-Anisidine and total oxidation value values of RC supplemented with 10% DLGL powder were about 1.94, 2.52, 2.60 and 2.59 times as low as in the control sample without any addition of DLGL powder, respectively. RC containing 2.5% and 5.0% DLGL powder had significantly (p < 0.05) the highest sensory scores. Consequently, the addition of DLGL in coffee at up to a 5% ratio may have potential health benefits.

RC containing 2.5% and 5.0% DLGL powder had significantly (p = 0.05) the highest sensory scores.

Consequently, the addition of DLGL in coffee at up to a 5% ratio may have potential health benefits.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of partial or total substitution of milk fat by various levels of jojoba oil on the nutritional, physicochemical and sensory properties of Domiati cheese during cold storage at 6°C for 45 days.

The fat percentage of milk used for cheese manufacture was standardized to 4% fat. Five formulas were produced by replacing milk fat with 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of jojoba oil, respectively. The physicochemical and sensory properties of cheese samples at 0, 15, 30 and 45th days of cold store were evaluated.

No significant differences in moisture, fat, protein and acidity values amongst the control samples and those samples supplemented with different concentrations of jojoba oil. Significant differences (p = 0.05) in total volatile fatty acids were detected amongst experimental cheese samples. The highest values were recorded for control sample containing 100% milk fat, while the lowest values were recorded for cheese sample containing 100% jojoba oil (p = 0.05). Total nitrogen (TN), water-soluble nitrogen (WSN) and trichloroacetic acid soluble nitrogen (TCA-SN) levels of experimental cheeses were nearly same as for control. The results of fatty acids profile showed that jojoba oil has a unique structure of straight monounsaturated alcohols. Significantly (p = 0.05), the highest cholesterol content was recorded for control sample containing 100% milk fat; however, the lowest (p = 0.05) value was recorded for cheese sample containing 100% jojoba oil. At the end time of storage period, control sample manufactured with 100% milk fat had the highest (p = 0.05) values of free fatty acids, peroxide and thiobarbituric acid, while the lowest values were recorded for cheese sample with 100% jojoba oil as a source of fat. The sensory evaluation results demonstrated that blending milk fat with jojoba oil improved the sensory properties of Domiati cheese.

It is concluded that substitution of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of milk fat by equal amounts of jojoba oil enhanced the nutritional and sensory characteristics of Domiati cheese.

It is concluded that Domiati cheese formulated with substitution of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of milk fat by equal amounts of jojoba oil enhanced the nutritional characteristics and improved the sensory properties of produced cheese.

The effects of incorporation of Locusta migratoria (LM) powder at different levels (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5%) on nutritional, qualitative and sensory properties of baked breads were investigated.

Chemical composition, mineral elements and functional properties of wheat flour, LM powder and their binary mixture systems were determined. The breads were assayed for proximate composition, minerals, amino acids profile, physical characteristics and sensorial properties.

LM powder have relatively high levels of protein (51.97% db), fat (23.15% db) and fibers (13.76% db). LM powder presented significantly (p ≤ 0.05) greater water absorption capacity (WAC), oil absorption capacity(OAC), emulsion activity (EA) and foam capacity (FC) as compared to wheat flour. Blending wheat flour with various levels of LM powder significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved the functional properties of binary mixture systems. Protein, fat, fiber and ash contents of bread samples significantly increased with the addition of LM powder. No significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were recorded in specific volume between control breads and those breads containing LM powder up to 2%. Breads fortified with LM powder contained higher values of essential amino acids than the limits of FAO/WHO pattern, with exception of lysine. Sensory evaluation results showed that bread samples with the addition of LM powder at levels 1–4% had high overall acceptability.

Limitations of our study are the lack of approved and professional programs about management, collection, harvesting, processing, marketing and consumption of edible insects; therefore, these results should be generalized implications for industry. This present study, therefore, provides useful data to support public health nutrition aimed at improving the nutritional health of populations through the promotion of bakery products enriched with LM powder.

The main findings of this study indicated that the addition of 1–4% of LM powder into wheat flour enhanced sensory and nutritional properties of produced breads.

It is concluded that the addition of LM powder improves the nutritional and sensorial properties of the produced bread when the wheat flour is substituted with 1–4% of LM powder.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of firm financial and operational characteristics on the level of forward-looking information disclosure (FLID) by Egyptian-listed non-financial companies. The present research also aims to investigate the moderating role of gender diversity on the board of directors.

The sample incorporates the non-financial companies included in the EGX 100 of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (ESE), whose reports were available during the study period from 2013 to 2018. The final sample comprises 49 companies with 294 observations. Statistical analysis is performed using multiple regression analysis.

This study found a significant positive impact of return on assets, leverage, company size and age on the level FLID, while external audit firm type and industry were found to impact the level of FLID negatively. Further, the board gender diversity (BGD) is found to have a moderating impact as it strengthens the effect of financial and operational characteristics on the level of FLID.

The present study has some implications for Egyptian companies, investors in the Egyptian market and regulators in emerging economies, which include paying more attention to BGD when selecting the board members by companies as well as following up the female representation in all the listed companies by regulators.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the moderating role of BGD and its impact on the level of FLID in emerging markets. This extends the disclosure literature as the present study brings new evidence from an emerging market regarding BGD moderating role as early research concentrated on the direct impact of BGD on the level of FLID.

The study explores the relationship between information overloading and the complexity of reporting. In particular, it investigates whether voluntary information in a firm annual report is associated with its readability. Likewise, it examines how a firm's profitability and earnings management practices impact the nexus of voluntary disclosure and readability.

It uses the annual reports of the Egyptian nonfinancial firms listed in the EGX 100 index from 2010 to 2018. The readability of the annual report is measured automatically using the LIX index, and a predeveloped voluntary disclosure index is used to measure the level of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports.

The results reveal that the readability of annual reports is a negative function of voluntary disclosure, suggesting that Egyptian firms with more voluntary disclosure are likely to have more complex (i.e. less readable) annual reports. Likewise, less profitable firms and firms with earning management practices increase voluntary information in their annual reports, resulting in an adverse impact on their reporting readability.

It focuses only on the annual reports of Egyptian firms and considers a firm’s overall voluntary information rather than a particular area of voluntary disclosure. It introduces a code to measure the readability of Arabic-written texts, which can be applied to different areas of disclosure.

Policymakers in Egypt are encouraged to develop enforceable regulations to control voluntary disclosure in annual reports. Egyptian investors should view the practice of higher voluntary disclosure skeptically as its aim may be to divert attention from a firm's poor performance and earnings management practice.

The study is the first evidence from Egypt on the effect of information overloading, proxied by voluntary disclosure, on the readability of reporting. Likewise, it contributes to methodological development in measuring the readability of Arabic-written annual reports.

This study aims to examine, from a legitimacy perspective, the potential influence of board and audit committee (AC) characteristics on the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure by listed firms in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Throughout a 10-year period (2013–2022), 160 firm-year observations from listed firms in Bahrain are used. Four hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) models are developed to examine the effects of five independent variables and three control variables.

HMR model results show that CSR reporting is determined by only two independent variables: board independence and AC independence. Also, the results of this study partially support the argument that legitimacy theory is a key factor in explaining CSR.

Limitations include a small sample of 160 firm-year observations over a 10-year period (2013–2022) using a small CSR index of 16 items and not considering other board and AC characteristics.

This study assists policymakers in achieving strategic goals and guiding future environmental, social and governance reporting guidelines.

This study reveals that the CSR practices of Bahraini listed firms are not determined by factors like board size, AC size and AC number of meetings. It offers insights for accounting scholars on the importance of including board and AC features in CSR research.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is among the first to investigate this topic in Bahrain and to use board and AC characteristics as independent variables.

This study aims to examine the intricate connections between environmental management accounting (EMA) and environmental performance (ENP) through the mediating and moderating roles of green technology innovation, including green process innovation (GSI), green product innovation (GPI) and environmental strategy (EST). The study uses a mediated moderation model with the lenses of legitimacy theory and the natural resource-based view to explore how these constructs interact. It then offers insights into how organizations can improve ENP by integrating EMA, green technology innovation and EST.

This study uses a quantitative approach and collects data from a survey of 325 senior managers and chief accountants of manufacturing firms in Vietnam. The author conducts validation and reliability assessments using SmartPLS4 software and uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to validate the research hypotheses.

The results indicate significant positive correlations between EMA, GSI, GPI and ENP. Additionally, the findings reveal that two forms of green technology innovation, namely, GSI and GPI, mediate the relationship between EMA and ENP. Finally, this study confirms that EST moderates the connections between GSI and ENP, as well as GPI and ENP.

This study offers novel perspectives on how organizations address the effective harmonization of diverse green assets, such as EMA, GSI, GPI and EST, to enhance ENP. Therefore, the findings of this research provide a valuable understanding of the correlations between EMA, GSI, GPI, EST and ENP for the manufacturing sector in the emerging economy.

The increasing environmental challenges require efforts to expand the scope of accounting to better evaluate organizations’ behaviour/practices. This paper aims to report the results of studying the link between environmental management accounting (EMA), board role performance (BRP), company characteristics and environmental performance disclosure (EPD) of Ugandan manufacturing firms.

The study was correlational and cross-sectional. The results are obtained through content analysis of company reports, websites and a questionnaire survey of 102 large and medium manufacturing firms in four districts of Uganda.

Results indicate that EMA causes significant variances in EPD in manufacturing firms. Also, BRP and firm size explain variances in EPD through EMA.

The research does not control for industry type. Still, the results offer hope on how the reliability of environmental performance information that companies voluntarily provide outside financial statements, can be improved.

Results potentially extend available literature by providing a mechanism through which the environmental performance information is obtained for onward disclosure.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which economically significant Caribbean and African firms provide human resources disclosures (HRD), and the factors related to their disclosure practices. It is motivated by the dearth of studies of HRD among firms in developing countries.

All companies with common shares listed on the main tier of the major stock exchanges in each country examined on December 31, 2013 as well as selected state enterprises were included in the study if their annual report, sustainability report or integrated report was available online. HRD was measured using an unweighted 174-item disclosure index. The research hypotheses were examined using multiple-regression analysis.

The level of HRD in the Caribbean and Southern Africa was relatively low (M=33.7 percent, SD=25.3 percent). The amount of HRD was related to organizational culture, firm size, industry affiliation, national governance environment and foreign influence. Geographical region, gender diversity and director independence were not statistically related to the amount of HRD.

Caribbean and African governments may need to implement incentives for economically significant companies to participate in targeted human resources (HR) development initiatives, to provide more comprehensive HR disclosures and incorporate HR consideration in their strategic decision making.

This is one of the first studies to compare the amount and determinants of HRD by economically significant Caribbean and African companies.