Sustained Commitment Research Articles

Facilitators and challenges in partnership research aimed at improving social inclusion of persons with disabilities

Purpose To identify partnership research challenges and facilitators, as experienced by members of the Inclusive Society (IS) initiative. Materials and methods A case study was conducted on all partnership research projects conducted between 2017 and 2019 under the IS initiative through surveys, interviews with the IS community, logbooks, and focus group. Thematic analysis and descriptive analysis were undertaken. Results To work effectively with a diversity of stakeholders, winning conditions must be created for the project from the outset. These include determining the team functioning, project objectives, the expectations of each party, and agreeing on a realistic action plan. Project implementation with concern for sustained stakeholder commitment, good working relationships, and achieving project objectives requires organizational planning that favours partner involvement, shared leadership, agreed methods for communicating, conflict resolution methods, recognition of each participant’s expertise, and creating a climate of trust. Upon concluding a partnership research project, it is essential to devote time to implement project results in local environments and to ascertain their usefulness to partners. Conclusions: IS partnership research challenges and facilitators are similar to those identified in past research. Despite this knowledge, challenges persist. Future research could explore tools and practices from other domain to overcome partnership research challenges.

Goal-Based Private Sustainability Governance and Its Paradoxes in the Indonesian Palm Oil Sector

In response to stakeholder pressure, companies increasingly make ambitious forward-looking sustainability commitments. They then draw on corporate policies with varying degrees of alignment to disseminate and enforce corresponding behavioral rules among their suppliers and business partners. This goal-based turn in private sustainability governance has important implications for its likely environmental and social outcomes. Drawing on paradox theory, this article uses a case study of zero-deforestation commitments in the Indonesian palm oil sector to argue that goal-based private sustainability governance’s characteristics set the stage for two types of paradoxes to emerge: performing paradoxes between environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals, and organizing paradoxes between cooperation and competition approaches. Companies’ responses to these paradoxes, in turn, can explain the lack of full goal attainment and differential rates of progress between actors. These results draw our attention to the complexities hidden behind governance through goal setting in the corporate space, and raise important questions about the viability of similar strategies such as science-based targets and net-zero goals.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC DISPARITIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: A REVIEW OF EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA AND THE UK

Early childhood education serves as the cornerstone of lifelong development, shaping individuals’ cognitive, social, and emotional foundations. However, disparities in access, quality, and outcomes persist, posing a significant challenge to achieving equitable educational opportunities for all children. This comprehensive review paper explores socio-economic disparities in early childhood education, focusing on Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK). Drawing from a systematic examination of research studies, government reports, and policy documents, this paper synthesizes key findings and compares the experiences of these two diverse regions. In both Nigeria and the UK, access disparities in early childhood education are evident. Nigeria grapples with a pronounced rural-urban divide, while the UK experiences regional variations in access. Quality disparities are also prevalent in both countries, with Nigeria facing infrastructure and teacher training challenges and the UK encountering funding and resource allocation issues. Furthermore, socio-economic factors influence parental engagement in early education, impacting children’s development in both contexts. The implications of these disparities are far-reaching, affecting individual children, families, and society as a whole. Addressing these disparities requires a multifaceted approach encompassing equitable policies, targeted interventions, and a sustained commitment from policymakers and stakeholders. This paper underscores the critical importance of early childhood education as a lever for promoting equity and social cohesion. The conclusion outlines policy imperatives, future research directions, and the imperative to create a brighter and more equitable future for the next generation. Societies can create an environment where every child can thrive regardless of socio-economic background by addressing disparities comprehensively. This review paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the global challenge of early childhood education disparities. It offers insights to inform policy and practice in diverse contexts.

Democracy, Agony, and Rupture: A Critique of Climate Citizens’ Assemblies

Stymied by preoccupation with short-term interests of individualist consumers, democratic institutions seem unable to generate sustained political commitment for tackling climate change. The citizens’ assembly (CA) is promoted as an important tool in combatting this “democratic myopia.” The aim of a CA is to bring together a representative group of citizens and experts from diverse backgrounds to exchange their different insights and perspectives on a complex issue. By providing the opportunity for inclusive democratic deliberation, the CA is expected to educate citizens, stimulate awareness of complex issues, and produce enlightened and legitimate policy recommendations. However, critical voices warn about the simplified and celebratory commentary surrounding the CA. Informed by agonistic and radical democratic theory, this paper elaborates on a particular concern, which is the orientation toward consensus in the CA. The paper points to the importance of disagreement in the form of both agony (from inside) and rupture (from outside) that, it is argued, is crucial for a democratic, engaging, passionate, creative, and representative sustainability politics.

Do Lenders Value a Corporate Sustainability Structure?—Evidence from the Cost of Bank Loans

In response to pressures placed on a firm by its stakeholders, managers may initiate various corporate sustainability activities. In such cases, they need to make decisions not only about the level of sustainability commitment, but also about the way to structure it. There are numerous ways to structure corporate sustainability activities with different financial consequences. In this paper, we investigate the separate and joint effects of the corporate sustainability level and the corporate sustainability structure on a firm’s bank borrowing cost. We test our predictions by conducting multivariate regression analysis on a sample of 1417 US bank loan facilities over the period 2006–2011. We find evidence that high-quality borrowers with a high level or diversified structure of sustainability activities benefit from lower loan interest rates. Also, our analysis of the joint effects shows that only high-quality borrowers with a high level and diversified sustainability activities enjoy lower bank loan costs. Overall, these results reveal that lenders value how firms structure their sustainability activities. Therefore, they have important implications for managers and bankers.

Investigational studies on the impact of Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCM) for identifying the strength and durability characteristics in self curing concrete

For optimal heat of hydration and high strength, conventional concrete requires optimum curing and moisture levels for a minimal of 28 days. The durability and strength may decline if the curing is inadequate. Self-curing concrete (SCC) is a specific type of concrete that reduces inadequate curing resulting from human error. Water scarcity in arid regions, difficulty in accessing buildings in challenging terrain, and locations where the concentration of fluorides in the water may adversely impact the concrete's mechanical properties. Developing concrete using Supplementary Cement Materials (SCM's) that have pozzolanic qualities in nature as well as self-curing additives would be seen as a prospective enterprise for meeting sustainability commitments. Industrial wastes like as Silica Fume (SF), Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), Fly Ash (FA) and Alccofine (AF) are used as SCM. Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) is an instance of a self-curing compound. Throughout the study, FA and SF will be used as cement substitutions, and Polyethylene Glycol (PEG 400) will be used as a self-curing agent, with just a focus on quantifying the influence mostly on hardened qualities of concrete. To test the qualities of concrete, different ratios of cement were substituted for the cement with varying percentages of SF at 5%, 10% and 15% and FA at 30%, 25%, 20%. Different dosages of PEG varying from 0%, 0.1%, 0.5% and 1.0% are used to understand the optimal dosage of self-curing agent.

Consensus on Prioritisation of Actions for Reducing the Environmental Impact of a Large Tertiary Hospital: Application of the Nominal Group Technique

Hospitals are the largest greenhouse gas producers within the Australian healthcare sector due to the large amounts of energy, resource utilization, equipment and pharmaceuticals required to deliver care. In order to reduce healthcare emissions, healthcare services must take multiple actions to address the broad range of emissions produced when delivering patient care. The goal of this study was to seek consensus on the priority actions needed to reduce the environmental impact of a tertiary Australian hospital. A nominal group technique was utilized within a multidisciplinary, executive-led environmental sustainability committee to find consensus on the 62 proposed actions to reduce the environmental impact of a tertiary Australian hospital. Thirteen participants joined an online workshop during which an educational presentation was delivered, 62 potential actions were privately ranked according to two domains of 'amenability to change' and 'scale of climate impact' and a moderated group discussion ensued. The group achieved verbal consensus on 16 actions that span staff education, procurement, pharmaceuticals, waste, transport and advocacy on all-electric capital works upgrades. In addition, the individual ratings of potential actions according to each domain were ranked and shared with the group. Despite a large number of actions and varied perspectives within the group, the nominal group technique can be used to focus a hospital leadership group on priority actions to improve environmental sustainability.

Board Sustainability Committees, Climate Change Initiatives, Carbon Performance, and Market Value

AbstractWe examine the interrelationships among board sustainability committees, process‐based climate change initiatives, outcome‐based carbon performance, and market value through the lens of economic‐ and social‐based theoretical perspectives. Using a panel dataset of 8408 observations from 35 countries between 2002 and 2019, we find that higher levels of actual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are negatively associated with market value. Further, we reveal a positive association between process‐based climate change initiatives and market value. We then provide evidence that process‐based climate change initiatives are positively related to increased levels of GHG emissions. We also observe that the presence of a board sustainability committee has a positive impact on market value, but does not seem to improve outcome‐based carbon performance. Finally, we show that the predicted relationships vary across different country‐groups, sector‐groups, and periods. Our empirical findings are robust to alternative measures, endogeneities, and sample selection bias. Overall, our evidence supports the symbolic legitimation/greenwashing view, in that firms are likely to employ process‐based climate change initiatives under a symbolic approach to create positive impressions among stakeholders and protect their legitimacy.

A “Wild and Ambiguous Medium”: Democracy, Interiority, and the Early American Epistolary Novel

AbstractThis essay argues that early American novelists’ sustained commitment to epistolary fiction reflects their recognition that the mediated access it offered to inner life made it a potent vehicle for highlighting the limits of our ability to decipher the concealed interiorities of other people. Faced with the question of how novels might best prepare readers for republican social and political life, novelists such as Charles Brockden Brown and Susanna Rowson turned to this increasingly outmoded form because it foregrounded the uncertainties inherent in reading inner life. Eschewing third-person fiction’s fantasy of direct access to another mind, these novels foster an epistemological humility regarding other interiorities that would be valuable in negotiating civic life in the early republic. While early American novels have long been regarded as encouraging sympathetic identification as a means of establishing political union, novels such as Brown’s Clara Howard and Rowson’s Sincerity instead harness the epistolary novel’s partial, uncertain revelations of interiority to highlight our inability to access fully someone else’s thoughts or feelings. These novels warn readers that successfully navigating the epistemological challenges of this new democratic social order requires resisting the fantasy that another person’s true feelings can ever be fully known.Rowson and Brown saw epistolary novels as a means of not just teaching Americans how to read inner life, but also of cautioning them that they could never do so with certainty.

Determinants of Sustainability Disclosure Quality among Plantation Companies in Malaysia

This paper aims to examine the determinants of sustainability disclosure quality among plantation companies in Malaysia. Data analysis is based on all 44 listed plantation companies on Bursa Malaysia between 2016 and 2018. The study utilizes a content analysis adapted from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)—G4 guideline, Sustainability Accounting Standard Board guidelines, and Bursa Malaysia Guidelines 2018, to measure sustainability disclosure quality (SDQ). Results from ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis corrected for standard errors indicate that shariah-compliant status and internal mechanisms (board size, the presence of women directors, the existence of sustainability committees, and CEOs with business knowledge) significantly improve SDQ. Firm size, firm age, leverage, growth, and Big 4 auditors also significantly improve SDQ. The study provides useful insights into the importance of women directors and the presence of sustainability committees towards SDQ. This study contributes to the discussion that internal mechanisms (board size, independent boards, women directors, sustainability committees) and firm characteristics (shariah compliant, family ownership, CEO ownership, foreign ownership) can increase sustainability reporting and disclosure quality. The measurement of SDQ is novel in Malaysian context even though the methodology is often used in the literature.

Exploring the determinants of corporate green bond issuance and its environmental implication: The role of corporate board

The exponential growth of the green bond market has generated an incipient debate in the literature about the causes and implications for companies employing this green financing. An unexplored issue is the role of the board. In this context, the aim of this research is two-fold. Firstly, we analyse whether companies that have issued green bonds during the 2013–2021 period are characterised over the previous two years by having certain corporate governance characteristics, such as having a sustainability committee or a board with a higher percentage of women. Secondly, we examine whether these companies improve their environmental performance post-issuance by considering these governance characteristics, as well as the certification of green bonds and the purpose of the funds. For this purpose, we employ up to five alternative environmental performance variables. Our overall results indicate that companies that issue green bonds have a higher environmental score, a lower volume of CO2 emissions, a board with a higher percentage of women and a sustainability committee. Moreover, such companies continue to perform certain environmentally friendly actions in the years after issuance. Furthermore, the results reflect that companies with poorer environmental scores may be using external certification of their emissions to improve their image.

Board Characteristics and Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

This paper investigates the impact of board characteristics (such as board size, board independence, CEO Duality, board meetings, and committee) on corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) in China. Unlike previous studies, we examine this relationship in light of the three pillars of corporate sustainability reporting: economic, environmental, and social. Using both the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamics Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) empirical models, our data, which comprises 9842 firm-year observations from both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges covering the 2006–2019 fiscal periods, reveals that board independence, a larger board size, and a board sustainability committee promote CSR in the three CSR pillars. However, the study shows that CEO duality is more likely to impede CSR. While the current study seems to provide some understanding regarding the relationship between board characteristics and corporate sustainability reporting to corporate boards, regulators, and practitioners interested in advancing the course of CSR, some significant knowledge gaps still need to be explored in future studies. Future research may consider other board characteristics as well as explore other CSR indices like integrated reporting and triple-bottom-line approaches.

Spurring sustainability commitment strategy of family-owned SMEs: A multi-analytical SEM & ANFIS perspective

The study seeks to understand the impact of leadership styles on the organizational strategy of sustainability commitment, utilizing the mediator role of employees' eco-friendly practices in family firms in Malaysia. To achieve this aim, dual-stage structural equation modeling (SEM) and neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) were employed to analyze the leadership style of Malaysian family firms. This study collects empirical data from 427 employees belonging to Malaysian family firms via a structured questionnaire. Results demonstrate supportive, authentic, and paternalistic leadership styles affect the sustainability commitment strategy of organizations. Moreover, employees' eco-friendly best practices fully mediate the link between leadership styles and the organizational strategy of sustainability commitment. Findings of non-compensatory relationships also indicated employees' eco-friendly best practices is the most determinant of the strategy of sustainability commitment, followed by authentic leadership, supportive leadership, and paternalistic leadership.

Does democracy fuel corruption in developing countries? Understanding Ghanaians’ perspectives

ABSTRACT Whether democratic governance breeds corruption, especially in developing countries that practice democracy, is highly debatable. Using primary data from interviews and relevant secondary data from media reports and scholarly work, this article aims to address a fundamental question: Does democracy fuel corruption in Ghana’s Fourth Republic? Although 20% of participants believed that democracy breeds corruption, about 80% disagreed. The study indicates that democracy does not necessarily bring about corruption; rather, what fuels corruption is how democracy is practiced. Based on the stage/age of democracy thesis, this study does not suggest less corruption in a dictatorship compared to democracy. Instead, the study indicates that despite its democracy being over 29 years old, corruption is still prevalent because Ghana has a flawed democracy that has failed to establish and implement robust accountability mechanisms to control corruption effectively. The theoretical and policy implication is to avoid a lengthy period of the flawed/electoral democracy phase and move to the mature democracy phase by, for example, ensuring a sustained political commitment to combatting corruption and strengthening the rule of law and accountability institutions such as the judiciary. This study extends the theoretical and empirical understanding of the relationship between democracy and corruption.

Transparency, traceability and deforestation in the Ivorian cocoa supply chain

Cocoa production has been identified as a major global driver of deforestation, but its precise contribution to deforestation dynamics in West Africa remains unclear. It is also unknown to what degree companies and international markets are able to trace their cocoa imports, and satisfy their sustainable sourcing commitments. Here, we use publicly-available remote-sensing and supply chain data for Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer, to quantify cocoa-driven deforestation and trace 2019 cocoa exports and the associated deforestation from their department of origin, via trading companies, to international markets. We find 2.4 Mha of cocoa deforestation and degradation over 2000–2019, i.e. 125 000 ha y−1, representing 45% of the total deforestation and forest degradation over that period. Only 43.6% (95% CI: 42.6%–44.7%) of exports can be traced back to a specific cooperative and department. The majority of cocoa (over 55%) thus remains untraced, either indirectly sourced from local intermediaries by major traders (23.9%, 95% CI: 22.9%–24.9%), or exported by untransparent traders—who disclose no information about their suppliers (32.4%). Traceability to farm lags further behind, and is insufficient to meet the EU due-diligence legislation’s proposed requirement for geolocation of product origins. We estimate that trading companies in the Cocoa and Forests Initiative have mapped 40% of the total farms supplying them, representing only 22% of all Ivorian cocoa exports in 2019. We identify 838 000 hectares of deforestation over 2000–2015 associated with 2019 EU imports, 56% of this arising through untraced sourcing. We discuss issues of company- and state-led traceability systems, often presented as solutions to deforestation, and stress the need for transparency and for the sector to work beyond individual supply chains, at landscape-level, calling for collaboration, stronger regulatory policies, and investments to preserve the remaining stretches of forests in West Africa.

Imitation is the sincerest form of institutionalization: Understanding the effects of imitation and competitive pressures on the reporting of sustainable development goals in an international context

AbstractCompanies integrate Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their sustainability reports for various reasons. This paper examines whether and how imitation and competitive pressures drive the SDG reporting in an international context. Drawing on institutional theory and employing data collected from 36 countries over 6 years (from 2015 to 2020), we found that, at the industry level, the extent of SDG reporting is associated with (a) the average extent of SDG reporting, (b) the extent of SDG reporting of the largest company, and (c) the average extent of SDG reporting of the companies awarded for their sustainability commitments. Additionally, we provide evidence of a positive effect exerted by competitive pressures, as well as evidence that the interaction between various forms of imitation and competition negatively affects SDG reporting. Our results are robust to different subsamples and have key implications for practitioners, regulators, and policymakers.

Autonomous Motives Foster Sustained Commitment to Action: Integrating Self-Determination Theory and the Social Identity Approach.

Social change movements may take years or decades to achieve their goals and thus require ongoing efforts from their supporters. We apply the insights of self-determination theory to examine sustained collective action over time. We expected that autonomous motivation, but not controlled motivation, would predict sustained action. We also examine whether autonomous motivation shapes and is shaped by social identification as a supporter of the cause. Longitudinal data were collected from supporters of global poverty reduction (N = 263) at two timepoints 1 year apart. Using latent change score modeling, we found that increases in autonomous motivation positively predicted increases in opinion-based group identification, which in turn predicted increases in self-reported collective action. Controlled motivation (Time 1) negatively predicted changes in action. We concluded that autonomous motivation predicts sustained action over time, while promoting controlled motives for action may backfire because it may undermine identification with the cause.

Market dynamism and sustainability in heritage tourism destinations: The enhancing role of bridging capital

PurposeIn recent years, interest in analysing the conceptualisation, measurement, determinants and consequences of sustainability orientation (SO) has intensified. The authors respond to a growing demand for research that delves into external and relational factors of SO in the context of hospitality and tourism industry. This paper aims to analyse how market dynamism (MD) influences the SO of firms in heritage tourism destinations (HTDs) and how bridging capital affects this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe authors empirically analysed a sample of 238 companies in the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Peru. The proposed hypotheses have been tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.FindingsThe results show a curvilinear relationship between MD and SO. Furthermore, bridging capital enhances the effects of MD, reducing the focal width of the U-shaped curve. Specifically, when hospitality and tourism firms (HTFs) in tourist destinations operate in environments with low-medium levels of dynamism, the diverse links generated slow down the development of an SO. However, the more dynamic the environment, the greater is the SO of firms with large amounts of bridging capital.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the importance of conducting an analysis based on a contingent approach that considers the coherence between external elements of the environment and internal factors. Such an approach helps to understand how HTFs in developing countries establish their SO. Managers should be aware of changes in demand and seek coherence between the level of MD and their inter-organisational relationships, and so be able to assess potential opportunities through developing an SO.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a better understanding of the sustainability commitment of HTFs in the sustainability of HTDs. This study connects the population ecology and social capital approaches, explaining this relationship from a disaggregated perspective – social and environmental – in the context of a developing country.

Green Governance and Sustainability Report Quality: The Moderating Role of Sustainability Commitment in ASEAN Countries

This study aims to examine the role of green governance in the quality of sustainability reports. We also examine the moderating role of sustainability commitment between green governance and the quality of sustainability reports. This research is a quantitative study by using unbalanced data panels. The study retrieves the samples from the companies listed on the ASEAN Stock Exchange that published sustainability reports from 2015 to 2019. The research finding shows that the board’s independence, board diversity, and sustainability commitment are significantly associated with the quality sustainability reports. Moreover, the board size indicates a low effect on the reliability and the chief sustainability officer on the conciseness of sustainability reports. Meanwhile, it has not been possible to prove that the presence of sustainability committee can lead effect on the report quality. The sustainability commitment also moderates female directors and the quality of sustainability reports. Other findings are obtained from the company’s characteristics where company size and type of industry are positively correlated with the quality of sustainability reports. This study has several limitations. First, some companies that are under observation spend money on social costs, but the amounts are not clearly disclosed. Second, this research only focuses on three quality aspects: conciseness, clarity, and reliability. These research findings contribute to the following scopes. First, how green governance and commitment to sustainability help improve the quality of corporate reporting. Second, the investors should invest in companies that apply good green governance and sustainability commitment. Third, companies with strong commitments to sustainability and good corporate governance are competitive resources that support businesses in growing, attracting more investment, and earning stakeholders’ trust. Lastly, this research also contributes to the agency and the resource-based view theories related to the green governance and the sustainability reports’ quality of ASEAN countries.

Nigerian Pentecostal Megachurches and Development: A Diaconal Analysis of the Redeemed Christian Church of God

The Nigerian social, public, political and religious landscapes have changed significantly over time with the emergence and proliferation of Pentecostal megachurches. The majority of these churches are structured and characterized with a peculiar missional focus, ritual, religious and ecclesiastical distinctiveness. Many of these Pentecostal megachurches have been criticized for their economic motivations, exploitation and commercialization of the Christian faith. However, Nigerian megachurches are ‘Progressive Pentecostals’ on the basis of their sustained commitment to diaconal services towards the development of their communities. Divergent views have emerged over time in relation to the nexus between religion and development. This study argues that religion is one of the motors of development in Africa; this challenges the Western secular framework of development. Hence, the study examines development from below, using the diaconal services of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), a Pentecostal megachurch that illustrates the importance of faith-based organizations’ roles in development. A descriptive research method is employed in the study with social capital theory and pneuma-diaconal mission theory to examine the concept of development from below. This study concludes that faith-based organizations such as the RCCG‘s social responsiveness contributes to the overall development of its various communities.