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Audits are an essential part of supply chain management, whether they be of a single supplier's facilities or the whole supply chain. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, auditors mainly conducted supplier audits in-person and on-site. Subsequent travel restrictions have meant that auditors have had to perform these audits remotely. The purpose of this paper is to conceptually describe the emerging phenomenon of remote audits and explore the implications of this change for the future.

This exploratory research used qualitative interviews with key stakeholders (firms, auditors and regulators) to provide an empirical basis for the study. A total of 60 interviews were conducted in two rounds with 40 respondents from 26 organizations. A process perspective lens was used to explore the fundamental changes in supplier audits.

The study provides an interpretative conceptual framework of remote supplier audits grounded in key factors (audit process, use of technologies, document and record sharing) and identifies a set of contingency factors (technological sophistication, reputation for integrity, maturity of internal audit processes, and level of complexities and risk involved) that affect the effectiveness of remote audits.

Remote supplier audits have radically changed how supply chains operate. This paper presents the first empirically-grounded study on remote auditing. It provides a springboard for future research in this domain and practical implications for managers to assist them with the development of remote auditing in their firms and supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the areas in common between strategic quality management (SQM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the literature. Studying these areas is important to develop any further connection between SQM and CSR because of both the potential for benefit to organisations and society, and in order to minimise resources needed for effective action by capitalising on synergies.

Literature review covering a broad range of publications that addresses the synergies of quality management and CSR to identify areas of commonality and thus simplify CSR implementation.

Identification of opportunities for knowledge transfer between SQM and CSR.

Synergies between SQM and CSR may offer attractive opportunities to capitalise on prior actions and learning, to enhance the value added to an organisation and the society in which it operates.

This evaluation is a part of a more in-depth research study investigating the relationship between and integration of SQM and CSR, and its application in specific contexts.

Agrees that the evidence of a vast array of research concerning teamwork is conclusive: teams are capable of outstanding performance and are the primary unit of performance for increasing numbers of organisations. Nevertheless, high performance teams (HPTs) are a rarity. Presents the results of collaborative research aimed at determining the factors affecting successful implementation of HPTs. The factors have been derived from literature on teamwork, quality management, and a review of case study literature. This research has led to the development of a model for the successful implementation of HPTs, which has been tested through a case study organisation. Furthermore, the results were used to develop an implementation program aimed at rejuvenating team performance in UK small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises.

This paper discusses teamwork, development of a team‐based organisation and performance measurement issues. This discussion leads to the formulation of a methodology to measure the organisational journey towards a team‐based organisational paradigm. The TEaM model, a model based on the EFQM excellence model, is suggested as a self‐assessment tool for the measurement of teamwork culture in organisations. Consequently, a five step‐approach aimed at successful acquisition of the proposed model is recommended. The authors demonstrate the usefulness of TEaM, not only in the improvement of teamwork culture in organisations, but also in reducing the resistance to change efforts while supporting the knowledge exchange through continuous self‐assessment of teams.

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is being used increasingly in industry. This paper defines OEE and explores the purpose of this concept in modern operations. The paper discusses OEE as a total measure of performance that relates the availability of the process to the productivity and quality of the product. Therefore, the concept of OEE is appropriate to all operations containing plant and machinery. Research has shown that the most successful method of employing OEE is to use cross‐functional teams aimed at improving the competitiveness of business.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how employee's perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) relate to their perceptions of an organization's orientation toward continuous process improvement orientation (CPIO). In addition, this research considers how employee perceptions of CSR and CPIO relate to work attitudes and behavioral intentions.

Using structural equations analysis, the paper examines survey data obtained from employees of a USA-based financial services firm to test hypotheses regarding employee's perceptions of corporate engagement in CSR and continuous process improvement, as well as their work attitudes.

Employee perceptions of CSR and of CPIO are strongly related. Both CSR and CPIO have similar, but still unique effects upon organizational commitment (OC). CSR and CPIO do not directly impact employee's intentions to leave, but they do have an indirect effect on intentions to leave, which operates through OC.

The design of the study precludes absolute conclusions regarding causality in tested relationships. The study design also limits generalizability.

CSR and CPIO are strongly related, possibly due to shared cultural principles, suggesting that either CSR or CPIO may establish a basis in values that will support the other. Adding CSR to existing CPIO (or the reverse) is likely to enhance employee attitudes.

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the relationship between continuous process improvement activities and CSR. In addition, it conceptually and empirically evaluates how CSR and CPIO simultaneously influence employee attitudes and behaviors.

This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of the COVID-19 epidemic on the relationship between key audit matter (KAM) and auditing quality.

The authors use the ordinary least squares regression on data from 942 firm-year observations of Jordanian non-financial institutions across the period (2017–2022) to test the hypotheses. The authors use content analysis method to measure levels of KAM disclosure.

The investigation’s findings highlight the importance of KAM disclosure in achieving audit quality in line with international standard on auditing no. 701 (ISA-701) requirements. COVID-19 is also found to have a positive relationship with audit quality, further confirming the crisis’s devastating impact on audit complexity and risks and providing evidence for the need for supplementary, high-quality audit services. Due to the correlation between KAM disclosure and increased auditor workload and responsibility, the analysis reveals that the COVID-19 factor strengthens the link between KAM disclosure and audit quality.

This study has the potential to be used as a basis for the creation of a new regulation or standard regarding the reporting of unfavourable events in financial filings. This study’s findings provide standard-setters, regulators and policymakers with current empirical data on the effects of implementing ISA-701’s mandate for external auditors to provide more information on KAM. The COVID-19 crisis offers a suitable setting in which to examine the value of precautionary disclosures in times of economic uncertainty, as well as the significance of confidence interval disclosures and the role of external auditing in calming investor fears. This analysis is helpful for stakeholders, regulatory agencies, standard-setters and readers of audit reports who are curious about the current state of KAM disclosures and the implementation of ISA-701. The results may have ramifications for academia in the form of a call for more evidence expanding this data to other burgeoning fields to have a clear explanation of the real impact of reporting KAM on audit practices.

To the authors’ awareness, this research is one of the few empirical studies on the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on auditing procedures, and more specifically, the effect of disclosures on KAM by external auditors on audit quality. This study’s findings represent preliminary scientific evidence linking the pandemic to business performance. Minimal research has been done on how auditors in developing nations react to pandemic investor protection and how auditors’ enlarged reporting responsibilities affect them. The vast majority of auditing studies have been conducted in a highly regulated system, so this research contributes by examining audit behaviour in a weak legal context.

This paper aims to conduct an in-depth study of any changes that small medium enterprises (SMEs) environmental performance face, in the retailing and manufacturing sector, as well as to identify their main drivers. Furthermore, it seeks to investigate SMEs’ perspectives regarding the environmental management systems and more specifically International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14001 on the one side, whether it is a positive relationship between the implementation of “ISO 14001” by SMEs and their profitability of business on the other.

This study is a qualitative research, which combines secondary data enriched with daily articles and primary data using in-depth interviews with experts from the SME sectors, which attempts to build a sufficient “theory” by answering the research questions.

The business world has started to get widely involved with the environmental issues and even if this, in some cases, happened only for marketing purposes, it is difficult now to be changed. The SMEs have started to realise their responsibilities and act accordingly, but there is a long way to cover until their actions will be actually beneficial for the environment. However, the improvement or stability of SMEs’ environmental performance, meaning the implementation of more environmental activities, depends on the impact that those changes will have in every SME, due to the unique idiosyncrasy that each of it consists.

This paper reveals proper method for documenting monetary rewards to entrepreneurship through maintaining environmental issues accurately using information about profitability of SME’s. After maintaining environmental factors, the premia illustrates about the entrepreneurs concentrating not only profitability but also environmental concern.

The objective of this study is to present novel evidence regarding the impact of the Key Audit Matters (KAM) disclosure requirements of International Standard on Auditing – 701 (ISA) on the auditing profession concerning reimbursement costs in underdeveloped nations, Jordan.

A year-industry fixed-effects OLS regression model has been employed to test the developed hypotheses. The regression analysis of the period from 2005 to 2022 tests the presence of KAM disclosures in Jordanian finance business, while the regression analysis of the period from 2017 to 2022 tests the actual impact of KAM disclosure following the first implementation of ISA-701 in Jordan.

The analysis has verified that the presence and the proportions of KAM disclosures outlined in ISA-701 resulted to significant auditing compensatory expenses. The findings confirmed that KAM disclosures increase auditor workload, responsibility, complexity, and risk, consequently resulting in higher reimbursement expenses.

The findings of this study have the potential to serve as a basis for the development of a novel financial regulatory legislation or a regulated framework for disclosing significant occurrences. This paper provides new empirical evidence to standard-setters and policymakers regarding the requirement of ISA-701 for external auditors to disclose KAM. This study is advantageous for stakeholders, regulatory agencies, standard-setters, and audit report readers who are interested in KAM disclosures and the implementation of ISA-701. The results could inspire the academic community to obtain fresh data from emerging markets to ascertain the impact of KAM disclosure on audit practices.

To the author's knowledge, this study is one of the few empirical investigations into the impact of current additional disclosure rules on the audit profession concerning reimbursement costs. It provides preliminary evidence linking ISA regulations to corporate productivity in Jordan, a developing nation. Little is known about how developing nation auditors react to KAM disclosures' role in stakeholder protection and how their expanded reporting obligations influence them. This study examines audit behaviour in a weak legal setting, unlike most prior studies, which have been done in highly regulated systems.

Certified and non-certified organisations must make strategic decisions regarding ISO 9001 adoption, maintenance, renewal and abandonment. However, the ISO 9001 literature lacks a typology of the strategic options available to these organisations. The purpose of this conceptual study is to develop a framework of the alternative strategies for the stages of the ISO 9001 life cycle (implementation/certification, certification maintenance and recertification/decertification stages).

The research method is based on literature review, selection of relevant variables and synthesis of coherent alternative strategies.

Results include the main variables of relevance for the definition of the ISO 9001 strategies (e.g. life cycle stage, organisational motivations, barriers, benefits, internalisation degree and quality of the certification body), the main situations in which organisations can find themselves (in terms of ISO 9001 certification, maintenance and decertification), the strategic options for each situation (e.g.: certify, maintain certification, try harder, change certification body, intensify learning and experimentation with ISO 9001) and the implications and consequences of such options. Research results are integrated into a strategy framework, composed of three strategy matrices, one for each stage of the life cycle. The matrices present the strategic situations, available strategic alternatives and benefits of the strategies.

This study combines the results of previous research to develop an original strategy framework, which constitutes the main research contribution. As far as the author is aware, there is no such strategy framework in the literature. The framework has relevant implications for theory and practice and helps to identify future research directions.