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Human capital is considered by many to be a firm's most important asset. However, because no international human capital reporting framework exists, firms can decide to include/exclude human capital details on annual reports. Based on legitimacy theory, firms that disclose high levels of human capital information can be considered congruent with the expectations of society. However, firms can also choose to include human capital information on annual reports for symbolic purposes as an image management strategy.

Using 2018 as a sample period, content analysis is used to evaluate the annual reports of the 25 largest British and 25 largest Korean firms to demonstrate the propensity of British/Korean firms to disclose human capital information as numerical and textual data.

The authors report that South Korean firms provide high levels of human capital information using narrative and numerical data, including value added human capital elements included on integrated reports. British firms on the other hand tend to use primarily positive narrative and limited numerical human capital data to present human capital information.

The results imply South Korean firms provide robust human capital information on annual reports as a legitimacy strategy. On the other hand, the UK's human capital reporting requirement can be considered as a form of image management. The results therefore have important policy implications for legislators, labour unions and firm stakeholders with incentives to enhance human capital information transparency.

REM models infer abnormal levels of cashflow from operations (AbCFO), selling, general and admin (AbSGA) and production expenses (AbProd) are opportunistic, based on the supposition that engaging in real activities to meet current earnings targets (t) will negatively influence future performance (t+1). However, from a firm productivity perspective, cost reduction (via AbCFO, AbProd and AbSGA) is interpreted as an efficiency enhancing business strategy. This study therefore differentiates between (1) firms with ineffective management that have engaged in AbCFO, AbProd and AbSGA to achieve an optimal resource-cost mix to generate sales (REMF) and (2) firms with effective management that have not (OEF).

Using a sample of Korean listed firms over the 2000–2016 sample period, the study utilizes data envelopment analysis to capture the capability of management to generate sales from resources that are directly under their control. The study then compares the incremental effect that managerial decision making can have on real earnings management (REM) and future firm performance (period t+1 to t+5).

The study makes two important contributions. First, consistent with the efficiency/productivity literature, but contrary to seminal REM studies, empirical results shows that AbCFO, AbProd and AbSGA improve firm performance in period t and t+1 (to t+5), demonstrating “REM” is not opportunistic by default. Second, OEF have higher financial performance compared to REMF, in periods t and t+1.

The study therefore invokes resource-based theory and data envelopment analysis to integrate managerial effectiveness (human capital) into REM modelling. The study therefore extends the basic REM residual model.

Because no international accounting policy exists to mandate human capital (HC) information must be reported on financial reports, the association between workforce HC and firm performance/efficiency is not well-established. South Korea is a rare example with high HC reporting quality, as well as relatively high national productivity. On the other hand, in some developed countries (such as the UK), HC reporting quality and productivity is low. Moreover, there is an increasing propensity to offer employees non-standard contracts. Thus, because of a divergence in HC reporting quality internationally, the South Korean sample can provide valuable insights to countries with weak HC reporting quality about the association between contract quality and firm performance/efficiency.

Using a sample of Korean listed firms (2010–2015), pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis is conducted to show whether firms that offer employees higher levels of permanent, relative to temporary contacts, demonstrate higher firm performance/efficiency.

Firms that provide employees with increasing permanent (temporary) contracts experience higher (lower) performance/efficiency.

This research is limited due to sample selection. However, the sample represents the population of all firms that report contract type information in South Korea, a market with highly robust HC information reporting.

Because of data unavailability, a positive association firm-level performance/efficiency and permanent employment can only be made in a handful of countries. The study has policy implications and extends the non-financial reporting literature by addressing HC reporting limitations that exist in the mainstream accounting framework. Based on relative operational efficiency/performance, the study offers practical insights to management about the importance of staff retainment. Moreover, the authors also offer an anthropocentric perspective by inferring how low HC reporting quality can have a negative impact on society in Industry 4.0.

Firm management has an incentive to improve credit ratings to enjoy the reputational and financial benefits associated with higher credit ratings. In this study, the authors question whether audit effort in hours can be considered incrementally increasing with credit ratings. Based on legitimacy theory, the authors conjecture that firms with higher credit ratings will demand higher levels of audit effort to signal audit and financial quality compared to firms with higher levels of credit risk.

The authors conduct empirical tests using a sample of Korean-listed firms using a sample period covering 2001–2015.

The results show that firms with higher credit ratings demand higher audit effort in hours compared to client firms with lower credit ratings. The authors interpret that firms with higher ratings (lower risk) demand higher levels of audit effort in hours to reduce information asymmetry and to demonstrate that financial reporting systems are robust based on audit effort signaling audit quality. The authors also interpret that firms with lower credit ratings do not have incentives to signal similar audit quality. The authors also capture the “Big4 auditor expertise” effect by demonstrating that client firms audited by nonBig4 auditors demand additional audit effort with increasing credit rating compared to Big4 clients.

Audit effort is considered a signal of firm risk in the literature. This study’s results show evidence that audit effort is inversely related to firm risk.

The results show that audit hour information is informative and likely managed by firm stakeholders. Internationally, it is not possible to capture the audit demand of clients because listing audit hours on financial statements is not a rule. Given that audit hours can be considered informative, the authors believe that legislators could consider implementing a policy to mandate that audit hours be recorded on international annual reports to enhance transparency.

South Korea is one of few countries to list audit effort on annual reports. Therefore, the link between audit effort and credit ratings is unique in South Korea because it is one of few countries in which market participants likely monitor audit effort.

The current study investigated the relationship between nostalgia, conspicuous consumption, and impulse buying and compared gender differences in the effects of nostalgia on conspicuous consumption and impulse buying.

A total of 307 college students in western Singapore were recruited. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the scales and estimate model path coefficients. A multi-group analysis was conducted to test if the path coefficients in the research model varied across genders.

This study found that nostalgia had a positive influence on consumers’ conspicuous consumption, which in turn had a positive impact on their impulse buying of sport products. The results of the multi-group analysis also revealed significant differences across gender groups in that the impacts of nostalgia on conspicuous consumption and impulse buying were stronger for male consumers.

This study forges new ground by investigating the intricate dynamics among nostalgia, conspicuous consumption, and impulse buying in the context of sport. By delving into the relationships between them and exploring gender disparities in their effects, this study enhances our understanding of the pivotal role nostalgia plays in shaping consumer behavior in sport. In addition, the identification of gender-specific patterns underscores the significance of tailored marketing approaches for effectively engaging both male and female consumers. Overall, this study presents fresh perspectives that can inform the development of targeted marketing strategies for sport marketers and retailers aiming to optimize their offerings and promotional endeavors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), a crime prevention tool, on reducing rates of sexual assault. In addition, the study attempts to understand if CPTED results in crime displacement in non-target areas.

This research utilizes a Weighted Displacement Quotient (WDQ) model to analyze the effects of CPTED, which is an appropriate tool in fields of regional-scale crime prevention and on sexual assault prevention. WDQ is capable of analyzing policy effectiveness while controlling for geographical crime displacement, a known side effect of CPTED in the literature.

The analysis results show that CPTED is an effective tool to prevent sexual assaults in South Korea. The sexual assault occurrence rate decreased in the CPTED implementation zone of Yeomri-dong Mapo-gu. WDQ showed that crime displacement occurred in adjacent areas in Daeheung-dong and Ahyun-dong. But, crime displacement was lower than the policy effectiveness in the target zone.

The policy implications of this research are immense. First, CPTED for the prevention of sexual assaults should be considered as a pre-control tool. Second, a strategic method for more effectively implementing CPTED is required. Third, because CPTED is a policy done on a regional scale, provisions need to be in place to manage crime displacement.

The primary purposes of the current paper are to: provide theoretically clear concepts of the learning organization (LO) and organizational learning (OL) process; and empirically test the relationships among research constructs – environmental aspects of the LO and three types of OL processes at the levels of individual, group/team, and organization – by using structural equation modeling.

A total of 200 cases were collected from 50 small‐medium size for‐profit organizations in the central region of Korea. Structural relationships were examined by using structural equation modeling (SEM), while integrative literature review was conducted to distinguish the concepts of LO and OL.

The results showed that while the LO is composed of the system‐related environmental aspects, the OL has the process‐oriented aspects; and the LO has a significant influence on all three types of OL processes, while it has the strongest impact on individual learning process, followed by group/team‐level learning and the organization‐level learning process. In addition, the individual learning process has a significant impact on group/team‐level learning process; in turn, group/team‐level learning process influences the overall organization‐level learning process sequentially.

The generalization issue still remains one of the research limitations because all data sets were collected from Korean business organizations. More sample diversity needs to be considered for further research in terms of cross‐cultural comparison research, which could strengthen the validity of the current developed measurement.

This research provides clear and theoretical understanding of both LO and OL, which shed light onto future research as a theoretical foundation. In addition, dynamic and systematic relationships among environmental factors and learning processes were examined, which give more theoretical and practical foundations for building learning organizations.

Proposing a strengths-based perspective for innovative work behaviour (IWB), the purpose of this paper is to explore character strengths (CS) as antecedents to IWB. Extending the literature and operating in the framework of positive organisational behaviour, this paper considers creative self-efficacy a crucial link between CS and IWB. The role of growth mindset and learning organisation in facilitating IWB, presented as a conceptual model, contributes to the theory in this field, aiding in developing an overarching theory to understand IWB.

A narrative literature review was performed on the CS, IWB and positive organisational behaviour literature to adapt theories and develop propositions for the conceptual model.

This paper develops a conceptual framework proposing direct relationships between CS and IWB. This study posits creative self-efficacy (CSE) as the mediator between this relationship and growth mindset, learning organisation as the moderators for the link between CS and CSE and CSE and IWB.

The paper presents a conceptual framework focusing on the positive personality traits of employees, precisely their CS. This study explores how leveraging these strengths can enhance their capacity for IWB. The suggested model also prompts additional research in understanding IWB.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the conceptual framework proposed is the first to explore the diverse individual differences factors and the role of contextual facilitation in enhancing employees’ IWB. This study contributes to the growing field of positive organisational behaviour and assists HR managers in tapping into employees’ internal resources. This paper’s theoretical and practical discourse can inspire future research and encourage a strengths-based view of workplace processes.