Previous studies show regulation and corporate governance play an important role in affecting CSR processes and outcomes. The stakeholder engagement (SE) process represents a good practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and, at the same time, an aspect of substance over form, within the CSR policies. In spite of its relevance, SE represents a little explored field of research. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the improvements in SE processes are actually driven by regulation rather than by some elements of corporate governance. The study examines the effect of the regulation and some board's characteristics on SE. Specifically, in 2017 the introduction of EU non-financial information Directive (Directive 2014/95/EU) shifts the disclosure of non-financial information from the voluntary to the mandatory realm: in this mandatory context, the quality of the SE process that is indirectly disclosed in non-financial information, could improve. By using a content and statistical analysis, through performing 4 two-way Analysis of Variance, the study reveals that the effects of the introduction of the Directive 2014/95/EU on the stakeholder engagement process have been limited and the improvements in SE before and after the introduction of the Directive link to the Board of Directors characteristics. These findings are interesting for academics, by enriching the academic debate on mandatory versus voluntary disclosure and the relationship between board attributes and sustainability, for policy makers, by providing suggestions to favour organisational change of the firms, and for managers, by identifying the desirable characteristics of the Board of Directors.

Stakeholder engagement (SE) is considered a best practice in sustainability reporting, as it increases companies' social legitimacy and reputation. Companies have to properly communicate the SE activities, paying attention to the social, cultural, and political factors that affect the perception of stakeholders. This is particularly relevant in the tourism sector, which is a typical multistakeholder context. In the academic literature, few studies have investigated the role of the country‐specific determinants of corporate social responsibility, and none of them adopt a cross‐country approach. The objective of this paper is to analyze the disclosure of SE, observing the content of nonfinancial reports and company websites of all companies belonging to the Global Reporting Initiative database. Cross‐country analysis confirms that European and non‐European firms approach SE activities differently. The research offers a contribution to the development and improvement of company relations with stakeholders from a value cocreation perspective, identifying the areas of interest on which firms can work to advance the SE communication process.

PurposeEco-museums safeguard the cultural authenticity and the historical identity of the place in which they operate. Conventional organizational models and management practices are generally employed to achieve this institutional aim. Conversely, innovative solutions – such as digitization – are overlooked. Adopting a service quality management perspective, the article intends to examine the role of managerialization and professionalization in triggering eco-museums' digitization.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical analysis involving 126 eco-museums operating in Italy as of 2018 was designed to investigate the implications of managerialization and professionalization on the eco-museums' propensity to embark on a digitization process. Two different forms of digitization were examined: (1) the presence of eco-museums in the digital environment; and (2) the exploitation of digital tools for service delivery. The mediating role of two “soft” total quality management (TQM) practices, i.e. people centredness and strategic focus on visitors' experience, was contemplated in the empirical analysis.FindingsThe research findings suggest that managerialization and professionalization have ambiguous effects on eco-museums' digitization. Nevertheless, they indirectly contribute to a greater digital presence of eco-museums and to a larger use of digital tools for service delivery through an increased use of soft TQM practices.Research limitations/implicationsManagerialization and professionalization are likely to foster the digital transition of eco-museums, which advances their ability to protect and promote the local cultural heritage. Soft TQM practices intended to achieve people-centredness and to enhance the visitors' experience should be exploited to stimulate the eco-museums' digitization.Originality/valueThe article examines the triggers of eco-museums' digitization, providing some food for thought to scholars and practitioners.

Environmental pollution has become one of the most pressing preoccupations for governments, policymakers, and consumers. For this reason, many companies make constant efforts to comply with international laws and standards on ethics, social responsibility, and environmental protection. Fashion companies are among the main producers of pollution because their manufacturing processes result in highly negative outcomes for the environment. In recent years, numerous fashion industries have been transforming their production policies to be sustainable, while others are already born as sustainable businesses. Based on Resource-Based View (RBV) theory and Natural Resource-Based View theory (NRBV), this paper aims at understanding how internal and external factors stimulate born-sustainable businesses operating in the fashion sector, adopting a multiple case study methodology. Our analysis shows that culture, entrepreneurial orientation of the founders, and the proximity of the suppliers among the internal factors, combined with the increase of green consumers as an external factor, foster the creation of green businesses. At the same time, neither current legislation nor the dynamism and competitiveness of markets have influenced the choice of the companies’ founders to start a business based on green production logic. These results reveal the centrality of the founders’ sensitivity toward green strategies to create a sustainable business. The findings have practical implications because they could support regulatory institutions to introduce some incentives that more clearly encourages companies that choose to adopt sustainable business models from the founding, by acting to the internal and external key factors that drive born-sustainable businesses. This study also provides an extension of the existing literature on sustainable born companies, offering researchers useful information on internal and internal factors that promote the adoption of green policies in the fashion industry.

This paper proposes a systematic literature review emphasising scholars' view on the impact of the adoption of blockchain technologies to fight corruption. Providing a deep understanding of the state of the art, the paper drafts implications and valuable insights to address future research. The connection of anticorruption policies and blockchain technologies has been investigated using Scopus database and ABS journal ranking. The importance assumed by anticorruption policies and the innovativeness of the blockchain technology, thanks to its characteristics of immutability, automatic timestamping and distributed architecture, needs to be investigated in an integrated perspective. This study provides for the first time a systematic connection among anticorruption practices and blockchain towards the lens of the business, management and accounting field, providing valuable implications, insights and emerging issues.