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This study was aimed at examining the motivations, elements and channels of sustainability reporting of a multinational mining company that operates a subsidiary in Ghana. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among the company’s key stakeholders. These informants were drawn from the case company, a public regulatory agency, members and the opinion leaders of the company’s host community. In addition to the primary data, secondary documents were relied upon to corroborate the views shared by the interviewees. We discovered that while the sustainability reporting mechanism was necessary for gaining internal legitimacy with the parent company, to a large extent, the host community did not appreciate the importance of that report. In place of that the management of the mining subsidiary employed less-formal channels of communication to engage the community representatives on matters relating to sustainability. Our findings suggest that the sustainability reporting process must be adaptable and not always communicated formally. Therefore, the process needs to be re-organised to meet the expectations of all key stakeholders within the subsidiary companies’ jurisdictions. To meet the expectation of stakeholders and gain legitimacy, those charged with the governance of subsidiary companies need to contextualise their sustainability reporting strategies.

Although leadership style plays a critical role in succession planning practices and succession success, empirical examination of its influence on the relationship between succession planning and success of succession in family-owned SMEs has received little attention in the literature. This study examines the interactive effect of the various types of leadership styles as internal branding mechanisms on the success of succession in family-owned SMEs.

We analyzed the data from 124 managers/CEOs of family-owned SMEs that have at least transitioned beyond one incumbent leader using SPSS Version 29.

The result shows that succession planning practices are positively associated with succession success. It further shows that leaders who brand themselves as transformational and participatory leaders have a positive, significant interactive effect on the relationship between succession planning activities and succession success. The positive relationship between succession planning activities and succession success is dampened when managers rely too heavily on a transactional leadership style. Both autocratic and laissez-faire types of leadership have no significant interactive effect on the relationship.

The study is distinct from past studies. Until now, knowledge about the interactive effect of the various leadership styles as internal branding mechanisms on the relationship between succession planning practices like coaching, mentoring, job rotation and training and succession success in family-owned businesses remains limited. Theoretically, the study is pioneering in the sense that it is among the first studies that extends internal branding to succession planning in family-owned businesses. The study enlightened our understanding of how the various leadership styles and internal branding mechanism influence succession success in family-owned SMEs.

With the recent increasing relevance of sustainability, multinational enterprises are faced with divergent stakeholder demands and persistently shifting priorities. This study aims to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of the sustainability performance of a gold mining subsidiary in Ghana.

Using a purposive sampling technique, the authors interviewed managers and employees of the case enterprise, officials of regulatory institutions and host community members on their perceptions of the case enterprise’s sustainability performance. The authors triangulated the opinions expressed by these stakeholders with data from annual reports. The data were analysed through the lens of stakeholder theory.

The authors found that while members of the host community and the regulatory institutions were keenly interested in the case enterprise’s social and environmental activities, they perceived their performance as unimpressive, considering the economic benefits derived from the mining operations. On the contrary, the managers and employees of the case enterprise were satisfied with their environmental compliance and social intervention programmes, even though the company’s economic position had declined. The authors submit that the variations in the sustainability performance perceptions among the stakeholders are due to the lack of a deeper understanding of the other stakeholders’ expectations.

To equitably satisfy diverse stakeholder expectations, the study highlights the role of stakeholder collaborations in understanding the expectations of more salient stakeholder groups such as community members and employees, as well as the lesser salient groups such as academics. It also demonstrates the fluidity of sustainability and its benefits in designing a consensual sustainable management strategy. This implies that managers of the case mining enterprise make the necessary efforts to meet the diverse stakeholder needs while attaining their primary objective of creating wealth for shareholders.

Compared to advanced economies, studies on sustainability performance in emerging economies are limited. Nonetheless, these limited studies leave out stakeholder perceptions, focusing more on quantitative performance indicators. Using thematic and content analyses, the authors investigate stakeholder perceptions on the sustainability performance of a case mining subsidiary operating in Ghana. The study focused on Ghana because it is ranked with South Africa as the top two producers of gold in Africa. Nonetheless, unlike South Africa, Ghana faces more sustainability challenges from the mining sector due to weak institutions in enforcing sustainability standards.

Using a subsidiary of a multinational mining company in Ghana as a case, the purpose of this study is to examine the formal and informal forms and channels of sustainability reporting in the emerging economy’s context.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted amongst managers and employees of the mining company and members of their host community. Based on the interview themes, archival data were extracted from the 2020 Integrated Annual Report of the case company to corroborate the results from the interviews.

The authors found that most of the stakeholders from the host community interviewed were not aware and, to an extent, not interested in formal sustainability reports. In place of that, the management of the mining subsidiary uses informal channels of communication, including meetings and durbars, to verbally engage the local community and their representatives on sustainability matters. Whilst the formal sustainability reports met the internal requirements set by the parent company, the informal engagements were critical for gaining external legitimacy from the host community and other interest groups. Hence, the authors argue that mining companies and their subsidiaries, particularly in developing economies, need to consider informal forms of sustainability reporting alongside the formal channels to engage local communities to address sustainability issues and avert disruptions to their operations.

Sustainability reporting studies have focussed mainly on annual reports published in print or corporate websites, ignoring informal forms of sustainability reporting. This study sheds light on the informal forms of sustainability reporting. This is important as formal forms of sustainability reporting may be less useful for engaging local mining communities in developing economy contexts.

Drawing on both the stakeholder theory and Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid, this chapter explores sustainability practice challenges of a gold minning multinational enterprise in Ghana. Primary data was collected through observation and the interviewing of multi-stakeholder groups. We found that internal stakeholders perceive sustainability expenditure as costly. However, while employees of the case enterprise see the cost as depleting shareholders’ wealth, managers view them as investment with possible long-term benefits. Meanwhile, the external stakeholders perceive the gold mining enterprise’s sustainability expenditure as meagre and that beneficiary communities are not economically empowered to sustain those investments. Again, we found that government’s inability to clamp down illegal gold mining threatens economic and environmental sustainability. Additionally, members of the host community identify the lack of adequate employment opportunities within the entity as a hindrance to their economic empowerment. We submit that the resolution of the sustainability challenges would contribute to the balancing of stakeholders’ expectations: the conduct of ethical business through compliance to environmental laws; promotion of host communities’ social well-being; and improved economic returns for shareholders. By meeting the needs of stakeholders, gold mining enterprises could gain acceptance in their host communities and boost corporate reputation.

This paper explores stakeholder perceptions on the nature and extent of sustainability reporting on the websites of technical universities (TUs) in Ghana.

The authors collected data from the websites of the 10 TUs in Ghana and interviewed the stakeholders of the TUs. In analyzing the data, the authors used thematic analysis for the interview responses. The authors also adopted the global reporting initiative (GRI) guidelines and campus sustainability assessment tools for the presentation and analysis of the sustainability disclosures on the websites of the TUs.

The authors found that due to weak institutional coercions, there were limited disclosures on the websites of the TUs, which aimed at gaining stakeholders' legitimacy; the disclosures were more focused on organizational profile, governance and educational aspects of sustainability. To a large extent, while some external stakeholders such as parents, regulators and alumni appear to be less interested in the disclosures on the TU's websites, internal stakeholders such as employees (teaching and non-teaching staff) and students who frequently visited the TU's websites perceived limited reporting and were not impressed with the extent of sustainability disclosures on these websites.

The findings of this study are intended to assist policy-makers in the educational sector to appreciate the importance of sustainability reporting on their websites. The results of this study will assist higher educational institutions (HEIs) in increasing the success rate of sustainability implementation by overcoming the lack of sustainability disclosures on their websites. Thus, the results of this study have implications for sustainability implementations, particularly those in emerging economies and policy-makers of universities worldwide.

This study could provide two significant values. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has explored stakeholder perceptions of sustainability reporting in implementing sustainability within the education sector. Second, the results were arrived at by combining stakeholder consultations with content analyses, which could be a good guideline for sustainability implementation in the educational sector of developing countries.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between green human resource management (GHRM), corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational performance (OP) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by examining corporate reputation (CR) and employee engagement (EE) as mediators in Vietnam.

This study used the quantitative method with 458 valid responses from mid- to senior-level managers and chief executive officers (CEOs) were obtained and used for data analysis. To analyze and explore the relationships between constructs and mediators, SmartPLS version 4.0 structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data of the SMEs of Vietnam in 2023.

The results showed strong and positive relationships between GHRM, CSR and OP in SMEs, with CR and EE serving as significant mediators.

This research provides new insights into how GHRM and CSR enhance OP by using an integrated model that examines how CR and EE mediate this relationship. It demonstrates that businesses implementing GHRM and CSR can promote sustainable development among stakeholders, leading to improved OP in Vietnam’s dynamic economic environment. The findings have practical implications for executives and managers, emphasizing the need to balance stakeholder, environmental and social interests to optimize GHRM and CSR initiatives and foster sustainable growth. This study’s insights could significantly influence SMEs in the Vietnamese economy.

Sustainability assessment of risk-management policies has been needed to analyze their corporate social impact on stakeholders in terms of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) accountability aspects. Thus, weather index insurance (WII) is a significant risk-management policy; there is a need to explore the corporate socio-environmental impact of WII on stakeholders. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical framework for theorizing the sustainability reporting aspect of WII.

This study performs qualitative exploratory research using in-depth interviews with ten experts. It has been carried out through semi-structured interviews with academic and professional experts and analyzed the interview transcripts using qualitative analysis.

This study’s outcomes contribute a new paradigm in the ESG and CSR accountability domain from the perspectives of stakeholder theory. The findings of this study reported a novel conceptual framework for integrated sustainability reporting of WII based on ESG and CSR constructs. The thematic content analysis of interview transcripts and WII literature exposed the significant accountability of WII towards human, ecological and financial capital.

This study provides valuable insights into the theoretical development of WII sustainability domain by developing a theoretical framework that provides a further pathway for future researchers.

This study attempts to analyze the WII exposure toward ESG and CSR dimensions that are helpful for insurers, farmers, managers and governments.

This study firstly bridges the gap between WII theoretical knowledge and professional practice in terms of sustainability assessment of WII.

This paper aims to present a dynamic model for strategic and personalized decision-making in human resources (HR), using data mining techniques to enhance corporate social sustainability (CSS). The focus is on the interconnectedness of employee engagement (EE), enablement and the quality of work life.

The proposed model integrates various HR data, including demographic information, job specifications, payment and rewards, attendance and absence, alongside employees’ perceptions of their work-life quality, engagement and enablement. Data mining processes are applied to generate meaningful insights for senior and middle managers.

The study implemented the model within a production organization, revealing that factors influencing EE and enablement differ based on gender, marital status and occupational group. Performance-based rewards play a significant role in enhancing engagement, regardless of the reward amount. Factors such as “being recognized for competency” influence engagement for women, while payment has a greater impact on men. Engagement does not directly influence the quality of work life, but subcomponents like perceived transparency and the organization’s processes, particularly the “employee performance evaluation system,” improve work-life quality.

The findings are specific to the studied organization, limiting generalizability. Future research should explore the model’s effectiveness in different cultural and organizational settings.

The proposed model provides practical implications for organizations that enhance CSS. Organizations can gain insights into factors influencing EE and enablement by using data mining techniques, enabling informed decision-making and tailored human resource management practices.

This research addresses the societal concern regarding the impact of business activities on sustainability. Organizations can contribute to a more socially responsible and sustainable business environment by focusing on work-life quality and EE.

This paper offers a dynamic model using data mining and machine learning techniques for sustainable human resource management. It emphasizes the importance of customization to align practices with the unique needs of the workforce.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of ESG practices on green innovation with the moderating effect of innovation orientation in Malaysian manufacturing listed companies.

This study employed a quantitative research approach by using a well-structured questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was distributed to 204 Malaysian manufacturing listed companies in consumer products and services sector. Finally, partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to examine the relationship between constructs.

Based on stakeholder theory, results indicated that environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices significantly improve green innovation. The insignificant moderating effect of innovation orientation was identified between the relationship of environmental and social practices and green innovation. Interestingly, results affirmed the negative moderating effect between the relationship of governance practices and green innovation.

This study is limited to Malaysian manufacturing companies of consumer products and services sector in Bursa Malaysia. Hence, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to manufacturing companies of other geographical contexts.

This work provides constructive implications to management and policymakers of Malaysian manufacturing companies in strategic planning toward enhancing green innovation and developing business competitiveness to achieve sustainable business performance.

This research magnifies valuable insights into the literature through a comprehensive model that simultaneously investigates the relationships between ESG practices, innovation orientation and green innovation. In addition, this is the first attempt to investigate the influence of ESG practices on green innovation with a moderating effect of innovation orientation, which indeed strengthens the originality of this study.