Potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Kara) was grown in Open‐Top Chambers (OTCs) in Northern Egypt at ambient (ca 350 ppm) or doubled CO2 (ca 690 ppm) either in charcoal‐filtered air…
Abstract
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Kara) was grown in Open‐Top Chambers (OTCs) in Northern Egypt at ambient (ca 350 ppm) or doubled CO2 (ca 690 ppm) either in charcoal‐filtered air (15 nl l‐1) or in non‐filtered ambient air (78 nll‐1 O3) to investigate the changes in physiology and yield under long‐term elevated CO2 and/or O3 throughout 100 days. Ambient O3 level reduced net photosynthetic rates, number and weight of tubers by 18 per cent, 41 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively, whereas elevated CO2 caused the opposite effect where it increased the same parameters by 44 per cent, 37 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. Significant O3 x CO2 interactions were detected. However, O3 caused an increase in GR and POD by 18 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, while CO2 caused an increase in POD only by 46 per cent, and there was no effect of O3 and/or CO2 on other enzymes. The results of this study are discussed in relation to predicted atmospheric changes.
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Abeer Hassan, Ahmed A. Elamer, Mary Fletcher and Nawreen Sobhan
This paper aims to investigate the supply and demand side of sustainability assurance in Bangladesh.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the supply and demand side of sustainability assurance in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on signalling theory, a logistic regression model is used for a sample of 100 of the largest Bangladeshi companies to study the relationships between assurance, sustainability disclosure, industry membership and reporting format.
Findings
Authors’ results show that companies which produce more sustainability information are more likely to get their sustainability assured, to be from non-carbon intensive industries, and are more likely to integrate their sustainability information with the financial annual reports. Authors’ results support the argument that organisations based in weaker legal environments are more likely to secure assurance as this adds to the credibility and reliability of sustainability reports.
Research limitations/implications
This paper has limitations which raise some issues for future research. First, the authors have covered only large companies; therefore, future research could examine the differences between small and large companies in relation to assurance. Secondly, the authors’ data consist of company sustainability disclosure information in the fiscal year 2015. Longitudinal studies are recommended to extend this research. Finally, future research could examine the moderating effects of geographical location on the relationship between assurance (and its providers) and other variables.
Practical implications
The findings of this paper will prove valuable to practitioners and researchers. Practitioners, including assurance providers and sustainability reporting managers will benefit from authors’ study as it covers both the demand and supply side characteristics of assurance. Researchers will benefit from the study as it investigates assurance practices in the developing country of Bangladesh.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine both the supply and demand sides of sustainability assurance in Bangladesh. Authors also introduce reporting format when measuring the relationship between assurance and its determinant factors at micro level. The study also links assurance to signalling theory.
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Abeer Hassan and Xin Guo
The purpose of this paper is to assess whether European companies issue standalone environmental reports in an attempt to gain and maintain legitimacy with relevant stakeholders…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess whether European companies issue standalone environmental reports in an attempt to gain and maintain legitimacy with relevant stakeholders. This is achieved by creating and empirically testing a model of the relationships between corporate reporting format, industry membership, environmental disclosure, and environmental performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are collected from 100 large European companies in carbon and non-carbon-intensive industries. Hypothesis testing is conducted via structure equation modeling.
Findings
Evidence exists that companies which disclose environmental information in standalone environmental reports tend to provide higher levels of environmental information than companies which combine financial and environmental disclosure in annual reports. The findings support greenwashing as a new perspective of legitimacy theory: companies in carbon-intensive industry use standalone environmental reports to pose as good corporate citizens even when they are not.
Research limitations/implications
The sample companies are large European companies and this could limit the generalizability of research findings. The authors call for longitudinal studies examining how the relationship between reporting format and environmental disclosure changes.
Practical implications
This paper suggests that reporting format be considered a proactive, strategic communication-driven activity rather than a decision that managers passively make in response to external scrutiny.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature by adding to the scarce evidence of the relationship between reporting format and environmental disclosure. Greenwashing as a new perspective of legitimacy theory is used to develop research hypotheses.
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Siddharth Patel, Rajesh Desai and Krunal Soni
This study aims to investigate the factors influencing Indian banks’ choice of green loan disclosure practices. The study analyzes the effect of financial and governance variables…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the factors influencing Indian banks’ choice of green loan disclosure practices. The study analyzes the effect of financial and governance variables to understand the sustainable reporting (through green lending) behavior of Indian banks.
Design/methodology/approach
The data on green loan disclosure has been hand-collected from the annual reports using a content analysis approach. Using the data of 26 banks for 12 years (2012–2023), the study uses the panel regression method to control for cross-sectional heterogeneity and generalized methods of the moment to address potential endogeneity issues.
Findings
The empirical results depict that larger banks with sufficient risk capital and a strong corporate governance framework demonstrate greater disclosure of green loans. However, growth opportunities and higher market value impedes the reporting of green lending.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of the study will enhance the extant literature on sustainability disclosure by integrating the financial sector companies in the context of an emerging economy. However, future research may include nonbanking finance companies as well.
Social implications
Banks use societal deposits to invest in productive avenues, and therefore, it is paramount to understand their social and environmental consciousness while evaluating a financing proposal. This research provides a thorough understanding of the sustainable reporting of banks through the lens of green lending.
Originality/value
This research provides unique evidence on the bank-specific determinants of green loan disclosure in an emerging economy context as against the extant literature which primarily focused on sustainable reporting of nonfinancial companies.
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Clean energy stocks are exhibiting signs of increasing volatility reflecting the varied and conflicting strategies employed by nations to pursue energy security objectives. In…
Abstract
Purpose
Clean energy stocks are exhibiting signs of increasing volatility reflecting the varied and conflicting strategies employed by nations to pursue energy security objectives. In this regard, this paper aims to examine the response of NASDAQ clean energy stock returns volatility to the influences of external energy security elements including oil price, natural gas price, coal price, carbon price and green information technology stock price.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses symmetric and asymmetric generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity models (GARCH and TGARCH, respectively), which incorporate external energy security elements as exogenous variables, to estimate volatility models for clean energy stock returns.
Findings
Although, prices of oil, coal and natural gas are negatively associated with NASDAQ clean energy returns volatility, only the effect of natural gas price is significant. While carbon price affects NASDAQ clean energy returns volatility positively, green information technology price affects the volatility negatively. These results are robust to exponential GARCH and lead-and-lag robust ordinary least-squares as alternative estimation methods.
Research limitations/implications
The study lumps the effects of all other external and internal factors, including internal energy security elements, in the autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH) term to predict NASDAQ clean energy returns conditional variance. GARCH method does not disentangle individual roles of the factors captured in the ARCH term in predicting volatility.
Practical implications
Results documented imply that natural gas appears a closer substitute for renewable energy sources than crude oil and coal, such that its price rise is perceived as good news in the NASDAQ clean energy financial market, while a fall is considered bad news. Furthermore, both an increase in carbon price and a decrease in green information technology stock performance are perceived as negative shocks.
Social implications
In assessing risks associated with clean energy stocks, investors and fund managers should carefully consider the effects of external energy security elements.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, the paper is the first to identify external energy security elements and examine their effects on clean energy stock volatility.
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Mueen Ghazi Elmobayed, Hamood Mohammed Al-Hattami, Mohammed A. Al-Hakimi, Walaa Salama Mraish and Ahmad Samed Al-Adwan
This research aims to determine the effect of marketing literacy on the success of entrepreneurial projects (EPS) in Palestine.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to determine the effect of marketing literacy on the success of entrepreneurial projects (EPS) in Palestine.
Design/methodology/approach
To attain the study’s purpose, the researchers employed the questionnaire, which was applied to a random sample of 298 individuals from the owners of entrepreneurial projects in Palestine. The data were analyzed and tested using SmartPls 4 software.
Findings
The study reached a set of results, including that the level of marketing literacy among owners of small businesses in the Gaza Strip was significantly higher for customer service (CS), management style (MS), technology (T) and customer retention (CR). In particular, the results implied that CS, MS, T and CR significantly and positively affect EPS.
Practical implications
This research would help the start-ups in Palestine spread marketing literacy among the workers in entrepreneurial projects.
Originality/value
Today, most countries tend to support entrepreneurs and owners of creative ideas and entrepreneurial projects through various programs. To the best of the authors'' knowledge, this research is distinguished by its modernity and scarcity in the Arab world, particularly in Palestine. Thus, it would help raise awareness of marketing literacy among owners of entrepreneurial projects and provide empirical evidence of success for those who are about to establish an entrepreneurial project.
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Alireza Rohani and Mirna Jabbour
This study investigates whether carbon media legitimacy is influenced by carbon performance and/or carbon disclosure using a direct measure of carbon media legitimacy in UK…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates whether carbon media legitimacy is influenced by carbon performance and/or carbon disclosure using a direct measure of carbon media legitimacy in UK context.
Design/methodology/approach
To test this study's hypotheses, the authors employ Tobit regression analysis of 95 UK companies listed in FTSE350. The authors use balanced panel data (475 observations in total) to reduces the noise introduced by unit heterogeneity.
Findings
The authors find that while corporate carbon performance is not reflected in carbon media legitimacy, carbon media legitimacy is positively and significantly affected by voluntary carbon disclosure (irrespective of its quality). Thus, voluntary carbon disclosure is shown to be an effective tool in legitimising corporate activities.
Research limitations/implications
The results show a certain degree of naivety on the part of the media in assessing corporate carbon behaviour, since it values carbon disclosure (irrespective of its quality) more than carbon performance. Such media behaviour may hinder future improvement in carbon performance of firms.
Practical implications
This study's results indicate that the existing UK carbon disclosure policy does not address the heart of climate change and global warming. Thus, tougher regulations should be considered by policy-makers in relation to voluntary carbon disclosure in the UK.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine whether carbon media legitimacy is associated with both carbon performance and carbon disclosure using a direct measure of carbon media legitimacy, and to use the UK context when addressing this association. It also examines the effectiveness of quality of carbon disclosure as legitimation tool.
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Md. Kausar Alam, Md. Mizanur Rahman, Fakir Tajul Islam, Babatunji Samuel Adedeji, Md. Abdul Mannan and Mohammad Sahabuddin
The purpose of this study is to explore the practices of Shariah governance (SG) systems in terms of their guidelines, current operational procedures, internbal policies and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the practices of Shariah governance (SG) systems in terms of their guidelines, current operational procedures, internbal policies and structures and regulatory framework of Islamic banks in Bangladesh from the viewpoints of Shariah, Tawhidic approach/ontological approach and Shuratic process of Islamic corporate governance and institutional theory.
Design/methodology/approach
A semi-structured interview tactic has been applied to attain the objective. Overall, data has been collected from the regulators, Shariah supervisory board members, Shariah department executives and experts from the central bank and Islamic banks of Bangladesh.
Findings
The study finds that Islamic banks do not follow complete Shariah principles in all aspects of SG nor violate them fully in their overall functions due to less accountability, which contradicts the concept of the Tawhidi epistemological process of Islamic corporate governance. Islamic banks announce that they are following Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) guidelines, but in practice, they do not follow the instructions accurately because all of the standards and policies of AAOIFI and the Islamic Financial Services Board are not applicable in Bangladesh due to its cultural, legal and regulatory structures. It is found that Islamic banks in Bangladesh have a lower practice of maqasid as-Shariah and Tawhidic approach and Shuratic process.
Research limitations/implications
The study significantly contributed to the central bank of Bangladesh and Islamic banks by exploring the SG systems for their further enhancement. The research provides some suggestions for improving existing SG systems and enhancing more application of SG guidelines and Shariah principles in the overall operations of the Islamic banks in Bangladesh.
Originality/value
This research extends the literature regarding the Islamic banks’ SG practices in Bangladesh. The study also contributes to Shariah, Tawhidic approach/ontological approach and Shuratic process of Islamic corporate governance and institutional theory by exploring the Islamic banks’ existing SG practices in Bangladesh.
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The purpose of this study is to propose a centralized Shariah governance framework (CSGF) for the Islamic banks and Shariah governance in Bangladesh as such, the existence and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose a centralized Shariah governance framework (CSGF) for the Islamic banks and Shariah governance in Bangladesh as such, the existence and practices of the Shariah governance framework (SGF) are decentralized and diversified.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper implements a qualitative case study approach to develop a CSGF for the Islamic banks in Bangladesh. The data has been collected from 17 respondents through semi-structured interviews with a combination of regulators, Shariah supervisory board members, Shariah department executives and Shariah experts from the central bank and Islamic banks in Bangladesh.
Findings
This study proposes a CSGF which is comprising two-tier Shariah supervisory boards (SSBs), i.e. institutional SSB and centralized Shariah supervisory board (CSSB) under the central bank to monitor the overall functions of SG. The study recommends the setting up of four departments under the central bank to enhance the functions of CSSB. Besides, the central bank can introduce Shariah rating, external Shariah audit and external Shariah review through Islamic rating agencies and Islamic Chartered Accountant Firms for transparency and quality compliance which are more desired from the public and other stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
The study significantly contributed to the national and global regulatory bodies by providing a structural CSGF for the Islamic banks to perform their functions and activities smoothly.
Practical implications
The study outlines a CSGF for the Islamic banks in Bangladesh as the existing practices are diversified and decentralized. Therefore, this framework would be helpful for the central bank and Islamic banks in Bangladesh to promote unique practices of the SGF.
Originality/value
This is the first research that provides a structure of CSGF for Islamic banks in Bangladesh, while the central bank of Malaysia developed the first SGF. There is no study concerning the demographic figure of CSGF of Islamic banks in the entire literature.
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Over the past few decades, accounting research has received considerable attention from academics and researchers in an effort to understand and interpret accounting events in…
Abstract
Purpose
Over the past few decades, accounting research has received considerable attention from academics and researchers in an effort to understand and interpret accounting events in firms. Environmental disclosure research is featured in those studies because of its effect on the number of groups within society where companies operate. Therefore, many studies, especially in developing countries, have been conducted in order to interpret and reach an understanding of the determinants of disclosure in companies through using accounting and social theories. In the Middle East and North Africa, a substantial number of accounting studies have been undertaken aimed at addressing the environmental disclosure in companies. The purpose of this paper is to examine these studies conducted in the Middle East and North Africa in order to establish an overview of the theoretical approach in the interpretation of the environmental disclosure in companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Review of studies of the environmental disclosure in the Gulf region and North Africa by focusing on a theoretical method that interpreted the environmental disclosure.
Findings
Studies have shown a difference in the theoretical interpretation of the environmental disclosure with emphasis on the theory of stakeholder, the most common in such studies.
Originality/value
The value of this study is to add to the accounting literature in this area which, thus, is considered as a starting point for future studies on the most important theories used in the interpretation of environmental disclosure in the Gulf region and North Africa.