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The purpose of this paper is to lay out the data competence maturity model (DCMM) and discuss how the application of the model can serve as a foundation for a measured and deliberate use of data in secondary education.

Although the model is new, its implications, and its application are derived from key findings and best practices from the software development, data analytics and secondary education performance literature. These principles can guide educators to better manage student and operational outcomes. This work builds and applies the DCMM model to secondary education.

The conceptual model reveals significant opportunities to improve data-driven decision making in schools and local education agencies (LEAs). Moving past the first and second stages of the data competency maturity model should allow educators to better incorporate data into the regular decision-making process.

Moving up the DCMM to better integrate data into their decision-making process has the potential to produce profound improvements for schools and LEAs. Data science is about making better decisions. Understanding the path laid out in the DCMM to helping an organization move to a more mature data-driven decision-making process will help improve both student and operational outcomes.

This paper brings a new concept, the DCMM, to the educational literature and discusses how these principles can be applied to improve decision making by integrating them into their decision-making process and trying to help the organization mature within this framework.

Enterprise, Strategy.

This case study is about a used car retailer in an African country, specifically Ghana. Lessons drawn from the case could be applied in societies which are highly socialised; not individualistic.

Ghana is one of the first African countries to be hooked up to the internet. However, there has been a very slow uptake of “traditional” e-commerce applications due to a number of critical factors including a legal framework, and electronic payment system. Despite these challenges, some firms are making strides to use the power of the internet to enhance their operations. For example, the case firm uses social relationships to sell its first stock of cars and to re-design its website. Other findings and lessons from this case could be applied to similar contexts.

An understanding of how society influences business operations, especially in an African or Ghanaian context. Learners can also draw lessons that could be applicable to enhancing and growing the e-commerce capabilities of offline firms.

Teaching notes.

This study aims to examine the link between tax avoidance, corporate governance and narrative disclosure tone using a sample of public companies in Pakistan.

Data for 125 companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) are collected over 10 years from 2011 to 2020. Sentiment analysis is conducted to determine the disclosure tone, and regression analysis is used to test the association between the variables.

This paper finds that firms that engage in tax avoidance tend to use a more positive disclosure tone and are more likely to engage in impression management. Moreover, promoting sound governance through board independence and gender diversity is associated with a less positive disclosure tone. However, firms with more family board members and higher foreign ownership are more likely to use a more positive disclosure tone.

Regulators can use this information to develop better guidelines to protect investors and ensure faithful disclosures to address both positive and negative news.

The study contributes to the literature by examining corporate tax avoidance as a determinant of narrative disclosure tone, a relationship that has not been widely explored. Moreover, as most disclosure tone research has been conducted in developed countries, this paper provides valuable evidence from a developing country.

While service quality, trust and commitment are frequently cited as critical to achieving important firm outcomes, the role of service differentiation in this framework is largely unknown. Yet, differentiation is important because a firm's distinctiveness is linked to client‐perceived value, competitive advantage, and a target market focus. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of service differentiation in business‐to‐business relationships.

Hypotheses were tested using a sample of business clients from a large European financial services firm. The senior primary contact in each client firm was contacted by phone/e‐mail to arrange for completion of the survey. Using the survey instrument, respondents provided information on their relationship with the provider organization.

Results indicated that service quality had an impact on trust, differentiation and relationship outcomes. Trust was found to drive service differentiation. Differentiation, in turn, drove commitment which ultimately had an impact on both satisfaction and word‐of‐mouth. Importantly, it was found that service differentiation is a full mediator of the impact that service quality and trust have on client commitment towards the firm.

The findings clearly show the importance of service differentiation in achieving high levels of relationship commitment and ultimately satisfaction and positive word‐of‐mouth. As the role of differentiation in business‐to‐business relationships has received limited research focus, this paper offers managers new insights into relationship development. Importantly, differentiation is a managerially controlled variable that firms can use to influence relationship outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test a theoretical model of antecedents and consequences of perceived job security of professional accountants. This study contributes to the literature by examining the mediating role of perceived job security between the reward management system and the ethical job performance of professional accountants.

A survey was used to collect responses from professional accountants at small- and medium-tier accounting firms in Pakistan. Of the total 313 circulated research instruments, 270 were completed producing a response rate of 86%. The hypotheses were tested by performing structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation using SPSS 24 and AMOS 25.

Findings specify that the perceived job security of professional accountants partially and fully mediates the relationship between their ethical job performance and intrinsic and rewards, respectively. Additionally, reward management systems including intrinsic and extrinsic rewards have a significant impact on the ethical job performance of professional accountants.

The findings of this study may have significant implications for researchers for examining the subjects' perceived job security in enhancing the overall performance of the firms. The findings may also benefit domestic and international accounting firms for recognizing the importance of rewards and job security for enhancing the ethical performance of accountants.

This study is the first to provide empirical evidence for the importance of perceived job security for professional accountants in Pakistan. The current research also provides sharper insights into establishing the direct impact of both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards on professional accountants' ethical job performance.