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Since 2013, the Indian Companies Act Section 135 has mandated corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting by Indian central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). CSR reporting is regulated by multiple Government of India ministerial agencies, each requiring different formats and often different data. This study aims to understand the impact of these multiple regulatory bodies on CSR reporting by Indian CPSEs; evaluate the expectation gap between regulators and the regulated; and investigate the compliance burden on CPSEs.

An interview-based approach was adopted to evaluate the perspectives of both regulators and regulated CPSEs on the impact of the new regulations on CSR reporting quality. The authors use the lens of institutional theory to analyse the findings.

Driven by coercive institutional pressures, CPSEs are overburdened with myriad reporting requirements, which significantly negatively impact CPSEs’ financial and human resources and the quality of CSR activity and reports. It is difficult for CPSEs to assess the actual impact of their CSR activities due to overlapping with activities of the government/other institutions. The perceptions of regulators and the regulated are divergent: the regulators expect CPSEs to select more impactful CSR projects to comply with mandatory reporting requirements.

The findings of this study emphasise the need for meaningful dialogue between regulators and the regulated to reduce the expectation gap and establish a single regulatory authority that will ensure that the letter and spirit of the law are followed in practice and not just according to a tick-box approach.

The study aims to examine the relation between corporate reputation and a firm’s systematic risk for top performing Indian companies.

The paper uses Panel regression analysis of the data from the top 500 listed Indian companies constituting the BSE500 index over a 15-year period from 1 April 2002–31 March 2017. Firm age and shareholders’ return have been used as proxy of firm reputation. This paper use signalling theory to explain the impact of corporate reputation on market risk where proxy for the corporate reputation is seen as an information available to the market.

The findings show a significant positive impact of corporate reputation on systematic risk, indicating that a firm’s systematic risk increases with its reputation. Specifically, the findings suggest that reputed firms experience increased levels of market risk and scrutiny from stakeholders.

The results will help corporate managers from developing economies where corporate reputation plays an important role in determining the investment behaviour.

This study deploys two broad approaches to measure reputation and discern its impact on risk, such as reputation among financial stakeholders and reputation among public stakeholders on market risk, specifically on fast emerging Indian market.

This study aims to examine the challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions for audit processes in India and explore the perceptions of the profession on how technology was leveraged to conduct audits during this period. The opinions of auditors on future changes in post-COVID-19 audit practices and processes are also explored.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior auditors working in various audit firms in major business centers in India and subjected to content and thematic analysis using the institutional theory perspective.

The auditing profession used technology to respond to COVID-19-imposed disruptions of established audit process and practices while maintaining the legitimacy of audit reports. The findings indicate that auditors now seem to strongly support the integration of emerging technologies into their auditing practices post-COVID to ensure data accuracy and transparency. The interviewees displayed keen interest in continuing remote and in-person audits to maintain audit quality in the future. The experience of COVID-19 appears to have forced the auditing profession to overcome their reluctance to adopt technologies that were previously used by only Big 4 and large audit companies.

The results will be of particular interest to various stakeholders concerned with aspects of the acceptance of technology-assisted audit reports such as legitimacy, required infrastructure, cost involvement and resistance to change. The findings will also assist professional bodies and policymakers in both developed and developing economies in devising useful strategies to promote technology-aided auditing during and after COVID-19. Limitations posed by inadequate infrastructure and resistance to changes must be overcomed before implementation of technology-aided audits.

As COVID-19 pandemic is a recent phenomenon, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first few studies that have examined the use of technology to facilitate audits during the COVID-19 period, more specifically from a developing economy perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree of persistence of firm performance for publicly listed firms in Indonesia. The study also explores the impact of marketing expenditure on firm’s performance.

The data comprise 165 listed firms operating in Indonesia over the period 2007–2016. Dynamic panel regression estimations using Arellano and Bond (1991) and Blundell and Bond (1998) techniques have been deployed to generate the results.

The findings show the existence of positive persistence and sub-optimal level of competition in the performance of Indonesian firms. The results highlight that marketing intensity has a positive and significant impact on firm performance. The positive persistence hints at creation of substantial entry and exit barriers by the Indonesian firms and also indicate that Indonesian firms are able to create behavioral inertia among their consumers by properly directing their marketing efforts.

There is a need on the part of management to strengthen the short-term profit capabilities to nurture long-term benefits of profit maximization. On the regulators part, the authorities should frame the policies to foster long-run competition.

The current study contributes to the sparse literature on persistence of firm performance in the context of emerging economies like Indonesia. This is the first study on persistence of firm performance for publicly listed firms in Indonesia.

This study aims to examine the perceptions of accounting practitioners and users about implementation challenges with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) at the pre-implementation stage. Under institutional pressures, India conveyed its decision to implement IFRS beginning 1 April 2016, despite initial reluctance to adopt IFRS. It specifically explores the responses of accounting professionals (preparers) and the banking industry professionals (users) in India to challenges in IFRS implementation, rather than more widely researched dimensions of IFRS implementation such as reasons for adoption, experience effects and diversity in practice.

A quantitative research approach was adopted, using a questionnaire survey that provided 192 responses from accounting practitioners and banking professionals working in India.

The findings convey IFRS implementation preparedness perceptions of participants with respect to education, training and information technology (IT) infrastructure. Respondents acknowledged the efforts and capability of the accounting body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, but expressed reservations about training, cost, interpretation, IT infrastructure and staffing. The accounting practitioners and the users have similar perspectives on the subject of awareness and preparedness challenges of IFRS implementation.

The study heightens awareness of the challenges facing jurisdictions who express initial reluctance, although they ultimately decide to adopt IFRS on account of institutional pressures. The analysis suggests that the International Accounting Standards Board should increase focus on implementation issues, in addition to updating and making IFRSs.

The study is distinct from the studies in abundance on the creation of accounting standards, implementation benefits and their implication in a specific geography.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of perceived implications of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on the willingness to adopt IFRS.

The study analysed the causal relationships between perceptions and the willingness of the accountants to adopt IFRS.

The findings revealed that perceived benefits drove the willingness to adopt IFRS whereas the perceived disadvantages and challenges diminished the willingness. Knowledge of IFRS enhanced the willingness towards IFRS adoption. Also, legitimacy desire enhanced the association between the perceived implications and the willingness to adopt IFRS.

The study contributes significantly to theory and practice as Vietnamese policy makers recently announced their strategic planning to full IFRS adoption by 2025.

This paper aims to explore the awareness of terminology related to intellectual capital (IC) among executives of Indian banks and the sources in which they mostly find IC-related terminology. The paper also explores relative and specific contributions of each selected source of information in creating IC awareness among bank executives in India and determines difference among the executives from the public and private sector.

This research paper follows a survey-based approach to capture the perceptions of Indian bank managers working middle and top management across different banks. Regression analysis and ANOVA were applied to data from 166 responses.

The study finds that IC awareness among Indian banking executives is reasonably high and is equally spread across the three sub-categories of capital (external capital, human capital and internal capital), though the relative awareness of external capital is on the higher side. However, the sources of awareness of IC terminology differ among executives from the public- and private-sector banks.

The sample was limited to middle and top managers in the Indian banking industry and suffers from the usual limitations of survey-based research such as the design of the survey instrument and the personal biases of the respondents. Some limitations may also have arisen because of the definitions of IC elements adopted by this study.

This research adds a new dimension to the IC research by exploring the practical application and awareness of IC that deviates from traditional annual report-based disclosure and valuation studies. No existing literature has examined the survey-based awareness study, particularly on the banking industry. This paper provides a foundation for future studies that examine the operational awareness and application of IC in the service industries.

This paper systematically analyzes the literature on environmental, social and governance (ESG). It explores the antecedents, decisions and outcomes (ADO) influencing ESG investments; theories used in the literature; publication years, geographical locations and journals of publication of ESG-related articles; notable gaps in research on ESG investments; theoretical and managerial implications and prospective research avenues within the ESG field. All ESG components are interconnected with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The PRISMA framework was employed to screen articles from the Scopus database. A total of 386 articles spanning 2011–2024 were included. The search terms used to screen the articles for inclusion were “sustainable finance,” “ESG,” “environment, social, corporate governance,” “green finance,” “green bond,” “social bond,” “blue bond,” “social finance” and “corporate social responsibility.”

The findings indicate that organizations utilize green bonds, blue bonds and green loans to mitigate environmental concerns. To address social issues, companies issue social bonds and sustainable bonds and engage in socially responsible investing. To address concerns about corporate governance, companies emphasize corporate social responsibility and intellectual capital.

The findings can be used to inform policymakers on the implementation of comprehensive regulatory frameworks in the realm of ESG. Tax benefits and subsidies should be extended to firms fostering ESG practices.

This study offers a comprehensive synthesis of the ESG literature by examining the ADO framework, which has not been systematically applied to ESG investments before. It integrates diverse components of ESG investments with the United Nations’ SDGs, providing a unique perspective on how these investments align with global sustainability objectives.

This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance, in particular board diversity, and corporate social performance (CSP) amongst the top 500 listed companies in India.

Data from the top 500 listed Indian companies constituting the BSE500 index for a five-year period from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2019 are used to test the impact of the proportion of women directors, proportion of women independent directors, female CEOs and other corporate governance variables on CSP.

The results of panel regression analysis suggest that firms characterised by high proportions of women directors, independent women directors or a female CEO spend more on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Furthermore, CEO duality, board size and board independence are positively related to social performance. These findings are of relevance to the policymakers and board of directors who are engaged in meeting corporate governance requirements.

This is one of the initial studies to document the impact of executive-level female representation on CSP following India's 2013 regulations on mandatory women representation on boards and CSR expenditure. The study reveals that greater gender diversity on corporate boards significantly boosts CSP, offering strategic advantages in governance and CSR. The study offers practical benefits for various stakeholders including corporate regulators, policymakers and corporate managers.

The paper contributes to the corporate governance and CSR literature by showing that good governance practices and high women representation on boards promote social performance. Our study is one of the preliminary efforts to document the level and impact of female representation at the executive level on CSP after the regulation of minimum women representation on corporate boards and mandatory CSR expenditure requirement introduced in India in 2013.