Stakeholder management researchers have recently put a lot of effort into figuring out why organizations facing extensive pressure respond differently to social responsibilities. In particular, ethics researchers believe that senior management must drive corporate social responsibility since their attitudes toward such issues are so important. In line with this sentiment, our study develops a framework of management power, composed of CEOs’ power and the organizations’ power, and explores how managerial power heterogeneity affects the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of a firm. Using sample data from the largest emerging market—China—for the period 2010–2018, we submit that CEOs with structural power and shareholders with the highest concentration tend to show a lower commitment to CSR activities. On the other hand, we recognize that the ownership, expertise, and prestige power of CEOs’, the supervision, monitoring, and political power of the board can improve a firms’ CSR performance. These results are also validated by using a fixed effect model, two stage least square (2-SLS) regression, and the propensity score matching (PSM) technique. Our results imply that the implementation of social policies fundamentally results not only from powerful CEOs, but also from powerful boards and shareholders. Moreover, our study provides useful implications with regard to the social outcomes of power authorized by CEOs and the organizations.

Despite a direct ban on charging interest, interest-based benchmarks are used as a pricing reference by a majority of Islamic banks, due in part to the absence of stable and widely- published alternatives. Benchmarking interest rate exposes Islamic banks to the problems of conventional banks, particularly the interest rate risk. Against this backdrop, the present study empirically examines the dynamic linkage between the interest rate volatility and the financing of Islamic banks. The empirical analysis is carried using evidence from the Islamic banking industry of Pakistan during the time period 2006–2020. The multivariate Johansen and Jusiles Co-integration test and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) are used as the baseline econometric models. Moreover, the DCC-GARCH model is employed for robustness and ensuring the consistency of results. The results indicate that a significant long-term and short-term relationship exists between the interest rate volatility and the financing of Islamic banking industry providing significant evidence for co-movements and convergence. These findings suggest that paradoxical as it may seem, the financing of Islamic banks operating within a dual banking system is subject to interest rate risk, mainly due to benchmarking interest rate, which in-turn makes Islamic banks vulnerable to the rate of return risk and withdrawal risk. Moreover, corporate financing, in particular, is more vulnerable to interest rate risk.

The pandemic outbreak has dramatically changed every sector and walk of life. Specifically, the developing countries with scarce resources are facing unprecedented crises that further jeopardize efforts to achieve sustainable life. Considering the case of a developing country, Pakistan, this study empirically identifies the most important strategies to reduce the socio-economic and health challenges during COVID-19. Initially, the study identified 14 key strategies from the prior literature. Later, these strategies were determined with the help of the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach through expert suggestions. The ISM model represents seven levels of pandemic containment strategies based on their significance level. The strategies existing at the top level of ISM model are the least important, while the strategies at the bottom of hierarchy levels are highly significant. Therefore, the study results demonstrated that “strong leadership and control” and “awareness on social media” play significant roles in reducing pandemic challenges, while “promoting online purchase behavior” and “online education” are the least important strategies in tackling pandemic crisis. This study will benefit government authorities and policymakers, enabling them to focus more on significant measures in battling this ongoing crisis.

Sustainable urban development has come to play an essential role in establishing and growing future sustainable cities, or smart cities, which are urban areas that have an optimum carbon footprint, are nature-friendly, and are smart enough to enhance energy efficiency. This study is based on qualitative research in which data were collected from interviews with real estate development specialists. The interviews were addressed to a total of 30 real estate developers from Romania between July and December 2022 and were conducted using the Zoom interface. The aim of this research was to analyze whether familiarity with the smart green concept influences the decision to implement the IoT on a large scale at the organizational level through the perception of specific determining factors in choosing the development of green building projects considering the operational costs. The results revealed a significant indirect effect of green building knowledge on large-scale IoT implementation through the mediator of the perception of operating cost factors, supporting our hypothesis. The direct effect in the presence of the mediator was not found to be significant anymore. Hence, there is full complementary mediation by the perception of operating cost factors on the relationship between green building knowledge and large-scale IoT implementation.

The implementation of information technology in enterprises develops customer relationship management, which has the role of improving customer satisfaction. By sharing certain information, it is also possible to maintain effective relationships with customers, but also to maximize profit. The use of social media platforms, in parallel with the implementation of information technology, strengthens the trust of customers, through the reviews of the end consumer. In this unique interview-based case study approach, we empirically describe a conceptual model. Production and distribution departments of operational flows, implement digital technology, becoming an artificial intelligence-optimized system. New intelligent manufacturing capabilities are transforming the relationship between the company and customers from one focused on product to one oriented towards creating value and services, even personalization of them.