EDITORIAL: Current issues in corporate governance and sustainability

Debates on current issues of governance and sustainability remain open dialogues among scholars, practitioners, regulators, and policymakers towards a good balance between ecological, social, and economic return of strategic investment decisions (Alkaraan, 2018). Such dialogues are matters of critical issues relevant to Sustainable Development Goals (Alkaraan, 2021a). The five papers published in this issue add to our knowledge and offer a better understanding of the influence of contextual factors surrounding governance and sustainability issues in different contexts and settings

Corporate governance and sustainability issues

Governance and sustainability issues are still subject to debates among scholars, practitioners, regulators, and policymakers. They are matters of critical issues relevant to companies’ commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR), climate change, and sustainable performance towards circular ecosystems and sustainable development goals (SDGs).Future studies on corporate governance and sustainability include but are not limited to, the impact of innovation strategies (Radicic & Alkaraan, 2022), governance, sustainability and culture, corporate environmental engagement and investment in environmental projects (Alkaraan, 2020; Zhang et al., 2021; Kong et al., 2023), pollution, human capital, and CSR performance (Liu et al., 2021), the influence of governance mechanisms on nexus between Industry 4.0 and circular economy and sustainable strategic investment decision-making practices (Alkaraan, 2021a, 2021b, 2022a, 2022b; Alkaraan, Elmarzouky et al., 2023; Alkaraan, Albahloul et al., 2023). Yet, corporate governance and sustainability research remain open for debate from different perspectives, contexts, and settings

EDITORIAL: Recent debates on corporate governance and sustainability

Debates on current issues of corporate governance and sustainability are an ongoing journey towards good governance practices (Alkaraan, 2018). Corporate governance and sustainability issues created dialogues among researchers, practitioners, regulators, and policy-makers. This is not surprising due to the impact of such debates on organisational performance, environmental and social issues relevant to Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs)

Relative effectiveness of open innovation strategies in single and complex SME innovators

This study examines the impact of inbound and coupled open innovation (OI) strategies in single and complex innovators, whereby the former concerns firms that engage in either product or process innovation, while the latter encompasses firms that simultaneously engage in product and process innovations. Moreover, the relative performance effects of OI strategies in complex and single innovators are largely unexplored. Data are derived from the German innovation survey. It focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing sectors. Logit regression is used to measure the impact of breadth and depth of inbound OI and the breadth of coupled OI strategy on innovation performance of complex and single innovators. Empirical findings suggest that among single innovators, search depth is more effective in stimulating product than process innovations. Besides product innovators, complex innovators also benefit from search depth relative to single process innovators. With respect to other dimension of OI, search breadth has no differentiating effect among single and complex innovators, while cooperation breadth is more effective in complex innovators relative to single innovators, whether product or process

Carillion’s strategic choices and boardroom’s strategies of persuasive appeals: ethos, logos, pathos

Companies documents such as annual reports incorporate narratives of repetitive rhetorical strategies as effective mechanisms adopted by companies’ boardrooms to promote strategic change and strategic choices. These mechanisms can be viewed as persuasive appeals to facilitate boardroom discourses. Yet, such persuasive appeals are instrumental in releasing significant signs regarding the outcomes of unsuccessful strategic choices that led companies to collapse such as Enron (USA) and Carillion (UK). Despite the contribution of previous research through narrative analysis domains, conceptualization of narrative practices remains a relatively a neglected area in the extant accounting literature. This study attempts to offer insights to boardrooms discourses through critical discourse analysis of persuasive strategies embedded in company’s annual reports. Findings of this study show how persuasive strategies and repetitive slogans trigger the discourses of Carillion’s annual reports by drawing on perspectives from upper echelon theory, impression management and communication patterns. Our analytical framework is rooted in Aristotle’s three pillars of rhetorical proofs; ethos (credibility/trustworthiness), pathos (emotion/identification through cultural domains) and logos (reason/rationale) in investigating narrative extracts regarding persuasive appeals strategies adopted by Carillion’s board through annual reports that facilitate discourse regarding Carillion strategic choices. Further, we emphasis on repetitive rhetorical slogans strategies embedded in the annual reports regarding Carillion’s acquisitions strategy. We viewed acquisitions narratives as rhetorical communication artefacts and analyze the repetitive rhetoric slogans in these corporate documents. Findings reveal that Carillion’ board strategically use repetitive rhetoric slogans to shape optimistic corporate future performance which might be different from the feasible reality. Finally, we argue that corporate executives are striving to construct an alternative reality stem from their initial unrealistic aspiration to lead their sector of less controlled market share. Findings of this study have theoretical and managerial implications

The moderating effects of corporate governance and investment efficiency on the nexus between financial flexibility and firm performance

Purpose Financial flexibility, investment efficiency and effective corporate governance mechanisms have been issues of concern to stakeholders. Yet, little empirical evidence on the combined moderating effects investment efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms on the nexus between financial flexibility and firm performance. This study aims to address this gap and extend the extant literature by examining the moderating effects of corporate governance and investment efficiency on the nexus between financial flexibility and financial performance. Design/methodology/approach The empirical study is based on progression analysis using a sample of 13,865 US listed companies selected from BoardEx (WRDS) for the period (2010–2022) with 89,198 firm-year observations. Findings – Findings of this study indicate that financial flexibility improves firm value as well as accounting performance. Furthermore, the results reveal that both investment efficiency and corporate governance moderate the effect of financial flexibility on firm performance. The authors complement and extend the literature on the optimal investment strategies domain by showing that the combined impact of corporate governance mechanisms and investment efficiency strengthens the nexus between financial flexibility and firm performance. Research limitations/implications Key limitations of this study due to the characteristics of the sample selection: country-specific context and proxies used by this study. Practical implications – Findings of this study have managerial and theoretical implications for firms’ boardrooms, institutional and individual investors, regulators, academics and other stakeholders regarding behavioural aspects of investment decision-making. Originality/value – The authors’ novel contribution to the extant literature is articulated by the conceptual framework underlying this study and by the new evidence regarding exploring the combined

Carillion’s strategic choices and boardroom’s strategies of persuasive appeals: ethos, logos, pathos

Companies documents such as annual reports incorporate narratives of repetitive rhetorical strategiesas effective mechanisms adopted by companies’ boardrooms to promote strategic change and strategicchoices. These mechanisms can be viewed as persuasive appeals to facilitate boardroom discourses.Yet, such persuasive appeals are instrumental in releasing significant signs regarding the outcomes ofunsuccessful strategic choices that led companies to collapse such as Enron (USA) and Carillion (UK).Despite the contribution of previous research through narrative analysis domains, conceptualizationof narrative practices remains a relatively a neglected area in the extant accounting literature. Thisstudy attempts to offer insights to boardrooms discourses through critical discourse analysis ofpersuasive strategies embedded in company’s annual reports. Findings of this study show howpersuasive strategies and repetitive slogans trigger the discourses of Carillion’s annual reports bydrawing on perspectives from upper echelon theory, impression management and communicationpatterns. Our analytical framework is rooted in Aristotle’s three pillars of rhetorical proofs; ethos(credibility/trustworthiness), pathos (emotion/identification through cultural domains) and logos(reason/rationale) in investigating narrative extracts regarding persuasive appeals strategies adoptedby Carillion’s board through annual reports that facilitate discourse regarding Carillion strategicchoices. Further, we emphasis on repetitive rhetorical slogans strategies embedded in the annualreports regarding Carillion’s acquisitions strategy. We viewed acquisitions narratives as rhetoricalcommunication artefacts and analyze the repetitive rhetoric slogans in these corporate documents.Findings reveal that Carillion’ board strategically use repetitive rhetoric slogans to shape optimisticcorporate future performance which might be different from the feasible reality. Finally, we argue thatcorporate executives are striving to construct an alternative reality stem from their initial unrealisticaspiration to lead their sector of less controlled market share. Findings of this study have theoreticaland managerial implications

A New Era of Strategic Investment Decision-Making Practices in UK Companies: Towards Sustainable Supply Chains and Circular Economy

Emerging global governance issues include economic, social and environmental problems. The COVID-19 pandemic and policies such as EU Green Deal and Brexit have led to great concerns about supply chains. Proactive strategies, adaptation and resilience are issues of significant importance for companies regarding seizing opportunities for business transformation. The evolution of crises associated with supply chains has been complex and resulted in widespread problems. Companies have enormous opportunities to revisit their business model and their strategic investment decision-making practices to play an active role in society. Industry 4.0 mechanisms, including big data, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics, have brought unprecedented standards of ethics, governance, accounting, and accountability to the new era of supply chains. Successful strategic investment decision-making practices require a proper understanding of stakeholders’ interests and expectations. Such understanding enables organizations to achieve effective planning and control of organizational and policy resources and successful value creation. Business model transformation towards a circular economy enables companies to achieve potential objectives, including increasing production efficiency, productivity, and quality, supplementing operational flexibility, contributing to safety issues and operational sustainability, and amalgamating the production system with stakeholders. The increasing concern about supply chain issues has raised a call for boardrooms to revisit their strategies toward sustainable supply chains. This paper aims to shed light on the contextual factors surrounding the new era of strategic investment decision-making practices in UK companies towards green sustainable supply chains and sustainable performance maximization

Reinforcing green business strategies with Industry 4.0 and governance towards sustainability: Natural‐resource‐based view and dynamic capability

The study explores the influence of contextual factors surrounding production planning and green strategic investment decision‐making practices (GSIDMP) in UK companies. We utilize a mixed‐method approach as a research methodology to study the current trend of production planning and GSIDMP. This study's conceptual model is rooted conspicuously in the resource‐based theory (RBT), natural‐resource‐based view, and dynamic capabilities. We empirically examine the nexus among GSIDMP, technological innovation, dynamic capability, and companies' performance. Our study was based on a sample selected from UK‐listed companies, FTSE ALL‐Share Index for the period (2012–2021). Also, the study utilizes data from the UK Innovation Survey (2018–2020) and corporate disclosure through companies' annual reports as a complementary approach for data collection. Findings of this study explore the interdependencies among company dynamic capability, advanced technological innovation and governance mechanisms, and their mediation influence on the nexus between GSIDMP and companies' performance. This study sheds lights on current business innovation strategies. Findings reveal how current practices of production planning and GSIDM in large UK companies shaped by boardrooms absorptive and adaptive capabilities, knowledge‐generating and knowledge‐collaboration capabilities, technological adoption, and corporate governance mechanisms. This study offers insight regarding boardrooms proactive engagement in exploration and exploitation activities to strengthen ambidexterity through various innovation trajectories associated with green production and GSIDMP towards sustainability. We provide managerial implications for decision‐makers, regulators, investors, scholars, and other stakeholders

A survey of shipping finance research: setting the future research agenda

Financing shipping related investment projects has always been a focal area of debate and research within the international maritime industry since access to funding can determine the competitiveness of a capital-intensive business as well as its success or failure under adverse market conditions. This paper provides, for the first time, a comprehensive and structured survey of all published research in the area of shipping finance and investment. The review spans approximately four decades (1979-2018) of empirical evidence, including 162 studies published in 48 scholarly journals, complemented with select books and book chapters. The study provides a bibliometric analysis and comprehensive synthesis of existing research offering an invaluable source of information for both the academic community and business practice, shaping the future research agenda in shipping finance and investment