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Continual improvement for competitive advantage is not the primary policy of organisations, either in theory or practice. A deductive rationale is presented for the emerging need to make “continual improvement for competitive advantage” the primary policy of any organisation. This is based on the inexorable acceleration of technical change and the Darwinian selective pressures of competition. Giving primacy to continual improvement naturally gives a different slant to company policies, strategies and objectives by subordinating them. Systematic continual improvement policy generates particular emphasis on people, planning, performance measures and procedures. Inductive study reaches similar conclusions but lacks the cogency of a rational framework. A continual improvement policy is a touchstone for the choice and use of planning and operational practices. A game plan for continual improvement is illustrated that integrates the planning, operation and evaluation of performance for the whole operation, its divisions and their personnel. The self‐assessment questionnaire technique offers a quick insight into an organisation′s preparedness for gaining competitive advantage through continual improvement.

This study aims to measure the impact of the Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and US PATRIOT Act Section 311 blacklists on external deposits from blacklisted jurisdictions into BIS reporting countries in 1996–2008, a period when anti-money laundering-related actions were consistently less stringent than post-2010, to see whether they had an effect even absent the threat of sizable financial fines.

The study uses descriptive statistics and bivariate and multivariate regressions to analyze the probable impact from blacklists on non-bank external deposits. The country sample is divided into offshore financial centers (OFCs) and non-OFCs and includes 158 non-listed countries. The impact of the blacklists is tested both jointly and individually for the respective blacklists.

The authors find mixed impact from jurisdictions being blacklisted on the growth rate of stocks of deposits into BIS reporting countries. Effects are often zero, negative in several cases and positive in some cases. This is consistent with the “stigma effect” and the “stigma paradox” in the literature. An overall impact from blacklisting is difficult to discern. Different blacklists had different effects, and the same blacklist impacted countries differently, illustrating the importance of disaggregating the analysis by individual countries.

Interpretation of these data is limited by the absence of comparable data on non-resident deposits in blacklisted jurisdictions.

The impact of a blacklist depends in part on the structure of the listed jurisdictions’ economies, implying that country-specific sanctions may be more effective than blacklists.

This is one of the very few papers to date to rigorously test the impact of blacklists on external deposits.

Some researchers regard discretionary accrual (DA) as one of the factors that drive corporate managers to conduct tax planning (Scott, 2009; Basri and Buchari, 2017). Based on agency theory and positive accounting theory, corporate managers can transform accounting information and manipulate firm earnings to reduce tax liability. There is a lot of research concerning earnings management and tax planning in the developed economy. These studies include Wang and Chen (2012) and Pettersson and Wu (2015). In the emerging economies, it includes Jamei and Khedri (2016), Kurniasih and Sulardi Suranta (2017), Prastiwi (2017), Almashaqbeh et al. (2018), Bayunanda et al. (2018), Rani et al. (2018) and Kałdoński and Jewartowski (2019). It is important to note that none of the research mentioned above has evaluated the impact of real earnings management (REM) on tax planning in Nigeria. While in the developed economy only Kałdoński and Jewartowski (2019) used REM as an explanatory variable, while the majority of studies used DA. Consequently, no study has used REM to moderate the relationship between financial attributes and tax planning. Despite the widespread notion, as well as positive accounting theory, tax planning theory that financial attributes (profitability, leverage, liquidity and firm growth), REM and DA motivate tax planning, previous investigations have produced mixed results (Dwenger and Steiner, 2009; Wang and Chen, 2012; Chen and Zolotoy, 2014; Aghouei and Moradi, 2015; Pettersson and Wu, 2015; Ribeiro, 2015; Chen et al., 2016; Jamei and Khedri, 2016; Ogbeide, 2017; Yuniawati et al., 2017; Chen and Lin, 2017; Firmansyah and Febriyanto, 2018; Prastiwi, 2018; Rani et al., 2018; Kibiya and Aminu, 2019; Kałdoński and Jewartowski, 2019 and Siyanbonla, 2021). This study aims to use REM as a moderator to examine the relationship between financial attributes and tax planning whether it will strengthen or weaken the relationship.

The study examines the impact of financial attributes on the corporate tax planning of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. It also tests for the moderating effect of REM on the relationship between financial attributes and tax planning. Data for the study was sourced from the annual reports of sampled manufacturing firms. The study used the panel data methodology for analysis. The study used fixed effect estimation to interpret the parsimonious model and random effect was used to interpret the moderated model. The study documented that financial leverage has a positive significant influence on the tax planning of the sampled manufacturing firms. While firm growth has a negative significant impact on the tax planning of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. REM has a positive significant impact on tax planning. Also, REM moderate significantly the relationship between financial attributes on one hand and tax planning on the other. The study recommends that firms should go for more debt to take advantage of the tax shield of interest on the debt. Also, firm management should use non-current debt to finance non-current assets and use current debt to finance current assets to avoid the risk of taking over or liquidation. The study also recommends that firm management should engage in intercompany and intracompany transactions by selling their goods to affiliates in countries with low prices and low tax rates. A firm should also overproduce goods to have high production costs and high closing inventory since real earning management significantly reduces tax liabilities by deferring income into a later year.

The study documented that financial leverage has a positive and significant influence on the tax planning of the sampled manufacturing firms. While firm growth has a negative but significant impact on the tax planning of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. REM has a positive and significant impact on tax planning. Also, REM moderate significantly the relationship between financial attributes on one hand and tax planning on the other.

There is a lot of research concerning earnings management and tax planning in the developed economy. These studies include Wang and Chen (2012) and Pettersson and Wu (2015). In the emerging economies, it includes Jamei and Khedri (2016), Kurniasih and Sulardi Suranta (2017), Prastiwi (2017), Almashaqbeh et al. (2018), Bayunanda et al. (2018), Rani et al. (2018) and Kałdoński and Jewartowski (2019). It is important to note that none of the research mentioned above has evaluated the impact of REM on tax planning in Nigeria. While in the developed economy only Kałdoński and Jewartowski (2019) used REM as an explanatory variable, while the majority of studies used DA. Consequently, no study has used REM to moderate the relationship between financial attributes and tax planning.

Depending on the research approach one uses, the development of particular bodies of knowledge over time is the result of a combination of agency, chance, opportunity, patronage, power, or structure. This particular account of the development of geographies of tourism stresses its place as understood within the context of different approaches, different research behaviors and foci, and its location within the wider research community and society. The chapter charts the development of different epistemological, methodological, and theoretical traditions over time, their rise and fall, and, in some cases, rediscovery. The chapter concludes that the marketization of academic production will have an increasingly important influence on the nature and direction of tourism geographies.

What kinds of support do interstate rivals provide to domestic actors in ongoing civil wars? And how do domestic actors utilize the support they receive? This chapter answers these questions by comparing Iranian and Saudi military and non-military (mediation, foreign aid and religious soft-power promotion) support to the Houthis and to the Government of Yemen (GoY) during the Saada wars (2004–2010) and the internationalized civil war (2015–2018). It also focuses on the processes through which the GoY and the Houthis have utilized this support for their own strategic purposes. This chapter applies a structured, focused comparison methodology and relies on data from a review of both primary and secondary sources complemented by 14 interviews. This chapter finds that there were less external interventions in the conflict in Saada than in the internationalized civil war. During the latter, a broader set of intervention strategies enabled further instrumentalization by domestic actors, which in turn contributed to the protracted nature of the conflict. This chapter contributes to the literature on interstate rivalry and third-party intervention. The framework of analysis is applicable to civil wars that experience intervention by rivals, such as Syria or Libya.

Informal payments in health care exist in many countries around the world. However, the prevalence of informal payments varies between countries. A distinction between illegal or unethical informal payments like bribes and corruption, and legal and ethical forms of informal payment like giving gifts is not always easy to make. Illegal and unethical practices include, for example, buying medical certificates, bid rigging during procurements, or selecting service-providers for a hospital based on personal connections. A conceptual global definition of informal payments in health care is not feasible because informality depends on local regulations, values, and traditions. In this chapter, we provide an up-to-date understanding of informal payments in health care (including corruption, fraud etc.) by distinguishing micro, meso, and macro levels of informal payments. We argue that informal payments that occur at these levels cannot be unified under one umbrella of corruption because the various forms of informal payments in health care differ in nature, scope, and damaging effects.

The assumption of wealth creation as the dominant motive underlying entrepreneurial efforts has been challenged in recent work on entrepreneurship. Taking the perspective that entrepreneurship involves emancipatory efforts by social actors to escape ideological and material constraints in their environments (Rindova, Barry, & Ketchen, 2009), researchers have sought to explain a range of entrepreneurial activities in contexts that have traditionally been excluded from entrepreneurship research. We seek to extend this research by proposing that entrepreneurial acts toward emancipation can be guided by different notions of the common good underlying varying conceptions of worth, beyond those emphasized in the view of entrepreneurial activity as driven by economic wealth creation. These alternative conceptions of worth are associated with specific subjectivities of entrepreneurial self and relevant others, and distinct legitimate bases for actions and coordination, enabling emancipation by operating from alternative value system perspectives. Drawing on Boltanski and Thévenot’s (2006) work on multiple orders of worth (OOWs), we describe how emancipatory entrepreneurship is framed within – and limited by – the dominant view, which is rooted in a market OOW. As alternatives to this view, we theorize how the civic and inspired OOWs point to alternate emancipatory ends and means through which entrepreneurs break free from material and ideological constraints. We describe factors that enable and constrain emancipatory entrepreneurship efforts within each of these OOWs, and discuss the implications of our theoretical ideas for how entrepreneurs can choose among different OOWs as perspectives and for the competencies required for engaging with pluralistic value perspectives.