Since Gray’s extension of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions into the accounting domain, culture has become one of the most influential explanations for international differences in financial reporting. However, the widespread adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has raised questions regarding the continued relevance of cultural explanations in increasingly harmonized accounting environments. This study revisits four decades of Hofstede–Gray-based accounting research through a theory-building systematic literature review. Based on a sample of seventy peer-reviewed studies published between 1988 and 2024, this review synthesizes evidence on the mechanisms through which culture continues to influence accounting outcomes despite regulatory convergence. The findings reveal three dominant channels of influence: financial reporting transparency and disclosure behavior, professional judgment in the interpretation and application of accounting standards, and managerial reporting incentives associated with earnings management. The review shows that culture remains a significant determinant of accounting outcomes, although its influence has shifted from the development of national accounting systems toward behavioral and organizational processes. Furthermore, institutional quality, enforcement mechanisms, and governance structures are found to moderate cultural effects. Based on these findings, this study proposes a revised Hofstede–Gray framework in which culture influences accounting outcomes indirectly through behavioral mechanisms operating within harmonized reporting environments. The article contributes to the literature by integrating fragmented findings across multiple accounting domains and offering a contemporary theoretical perspective on the persistence of accounting diversity in the post-IFRS era.
In this article, we examine the relationship between CEO pay and firm performance in the medical technology sector across cultures, via agency and efficiency wage theories. Specifically, as CEO pay increases, firm performance will also increase. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, including individualism, masculinity, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and indulgence, are used as moderators in the focal relationship. We found that cultures high in individualism and indulgence strengthen the relationship, while cultures high in power distance weaken it. These results indicate that agency and efficiency wage theories are supported across cultures, but only when using fixed and total CEO compensation and return on assets as the measure of firm performance. Variable compensation, measured as the value of option grant awards and restricted stock awards, was insignificant in the relationship across all cultural dimensions. These findings suggest that fixed CEO pay may be more strongly linked to firm performance than previously thought.
This study examines caste within the Indian diaspora in the United States (US), focusing on attitudes toward caste-based Affirmative Action (AA), cross-caste interactions, and Islamophobia. We use a sample of the Indian diaspora (n = 421) in the US and based in cognitive framework; the research explores how caste identity, caste centrality, and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) influence these attitudes. The findings reveal that while caste affiliation did not directly impact support for AA, high-caste (HC) individuals were more likely to object to AA on meritocratic grounds, reflecting a justification of privilege. Low-caste (LC) individuals with caste centrality also opposed AA, likely due to internalized stigma and aspirations for social mobility. US-born participants exhibited greater cross-caste closeness, and people with high SDO showed less closeness. We examine attitudes toward Muslims as influenced by caste and cultural factors. These insights underscore the complexity of caste and identity within diaspora communities, with implications for workplace initiatives.
Malaysia’s introduction of a Social Enterprise (SE) accreditation framework represents a significant step toward institutionalizing the SE sector. While cooperatives, given their long-standing commitment to member welfare, collective action, and community development, appear conceptually aligned with SE principles, many remain unable to obtain Basic Social Enterprise (SE.Basic) or Accredited Social Enterprise (SE.AC) recognition. This study explores the underlying factors that limit Malaysian cooperatives from achieving SE accreditation. Adopting a qualitative research design, structured interviews were conducted with key policymakers and cooperative leaders directly involved in accreditation procedures. Thematic analysis identified five principal categories of constraints: fundamental structural limitations, leadership challenges, procedural and technical complexities, misalignment within the standardized accreditation model, and deficiencies in managerial competencies. A total of eleven specific thematic barriers were identified across these categories. The study advances scholarly understanding of the positioning of cooperatives within the SE landscape. It highlights the need to recalibrate accreditation criteria so that they more accurately reflect cooperative organizational logics and operational realities, thereby improving coherence between cooperative practice and SE classification. This study also contributes to the broader discourse on SE accreditation by illustrating how standardized frameworks may inadequately capture organizational diversity, particularly in emerging institutional contexts where formal legal recognition remains underdeveloped.
Innovation ecosystems are essential for fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders to drive technological advancement and support sustainable development. This study systematically investigates stakeholder engagement and value creation within innovation ecosystems to deepen understanding of their structural attributes and dynamic interactions. The study employed a PRISMA-based systematic literature review methodology, beginning with electronic database searches in Web of Science and Scopus conducted in 2023, resulting in the selection of twenty-two peer-reviewed articles closely aligned with the innovation ecosystem concept. The review identifies key attributes of innovation ecosystems, including openness, value co-creation, sustainability, and interconnectivity, and examines how these attributes contribute to the effective functioning of the ecosystem. Furthermore, the study highlights how diverse actors, as stakeholders, from multiple sectors engage and co-create value while managing inherent challenges. The findings underscore the innovation ecosystems’ capacity to generate synergies across sectors, thereby supporting the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and amplifying economic and social benefits.
In a global context characterized by consumers increasingly aware of ethical, social, and environmental implications of their purchasing decisions, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and brand authenticity have established themselves as strategic factors for differentiation and loyalty. Based on this premise, the study aimed to analyze the relationships among perceived CSR compliance, brand authenticity, purchase intention, and consumer loyalty, while also evaluating the mediating role of perceived authenticity. A cross-sectional, quantitative experimental design was used. Participants were divided into three groups, each exposed to a fictitious advertisement for a cosmetics brand with varying levels of reference to CSR practices (high, moderate, and none). Data were collected using a thirty-nine-item structured questionnaire with high internal consistency (α > 0.90), which assessed four dimensions: CSR, brand authenticity, purchase intention, and loyalty. The results showed that the group exposed to the highest level of CSR obtained the highest scores in all dimensions, while the group with no references regarding CSR compliance showed the lowest values, revealing positive and significant relationships between all variables (ρ ≥ 0.791), especially the link between CSR and purchase intention (ρ = 0.924). It was confirmed that CSR explains 96.5% of the variability in brand authenticity and that this, in turn, explains 95.3% of repurchase intention. Furthermore, the mediating role of authenticity in the relationship between CSR and purchase intention was demonstrated, and it was concluded that CSR, when perceived as authentic, constitutes a powerful catalyst for purchase intention and loyalty, which reinforces the need for coherent, culturally adapted, and sustainable strategies.
Neo-institutionalism asserts that organizations must demonstrate legitimacy in their surrounding institutional environment to survive. Based on this assertion, foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations, which are embedded in the institutional environments of the host country and the parent organization, must secure legitimacy in both institutional environments simultaneously. This condition encountered by the subsidiaries is called “institutional duality.” Prior studies on institutional duality have focused exclusively on private-sector organizations, primarily the foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations. However, public-sector organizations have been ignored. Consequently, the characteristics of institutional duality faced by these organizations remain unrevealed. This study, which targets an overseas office of a bilateral development cooperation agency, fills this knowledge gap. The researcher conducted nineteen semi-structured in-depth interviews with the expatriates and locally hired employees of the overseas office located in Central Asia. Through Reflexive Thematic Analysis, three themes emerged. They are (1) powerful headquarters/home-country but weak host-country regulative institutional pressures; (2) mixed headquarters/home- and host-country normative and cultural-cognitive institutional pressures; and (3) divergent perceptions of institutional duality between expatriates and locally hired employees. Research implications are threefold. First, the nature of institutional duality experienced by public-sector organizations can vary significantly from that faced by private-sector organizations. Second, because the perceptions of institutional duality differ between expatriates and locally hired employees, further research on intra-organizational behaviors is needed. Third, the effects of geographical distance may be undermined since the subject office faced powerful institutional pressures from its distant home country and headquarters.
The role of government policy (GP) on public sector entrepreneurship as a prominent predictor of increasing the number of entrepreneurs has attracted a number of scholars in developed and developing countries. GP really determines the growth and development of entrepreneurship, with more entrepreneurs taking part in entrepreneurship. The goal of this research is to reveal the effect of GP and Islamic spiritualism (IS) on entrepreneurial intentions, with the role of entrepreneurship education (EE) in Islamic boarding schools as a mediating variable. A total of 227 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Islamic boarding schools based in West Java, Central Java, and East Java were involved in this research. The conceptual research model was empirically examined through Structural Equation Modeling using the Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM) approach. The results of our study indicate that GP and IS have a direct influence on the business intentions of Islamic boarding school-based SMEs entrepreneurs, as well as indirectly through EE in Islamic boarding schools. Our study also offers theoretical and practical insight into how public sector entrepreneurship policies can trigger an increase in the number of SMEs in Islamic boarding school circles.
This article examines how different government funding schemes affect the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria from 2005 to 2024, using annual time-series data. By applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing technique, we measure the influence of four funding channels: commercial bank credit, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention programs, Bank of Industry (BOI) credit lines, and equity financing, all in relation to SMEs’ contribution to national GDP. The results show that different sources of finance lead to markedly different impacts on firm performance: bank loans from commercial lenders produce a robust and statistically significant effect (β = 0.370, p < 0.001), as do the CBN’s intervention programs (β = 0.693, p < 0.001), both delivering gains that materialize swiftly. Conversely, equity finance has a delayed but powerful influence, with a substantial significant lagged effect reported (β = 0.915, p < 0.001). Loans from the BOI, in contrast, exhibit a positive but statistically weak effect, suggesting that while the direction of effect is encouraging, the evidence falls short of conventional significance thresholds. Long-run cointegration is supported by the ARDL bounds test (F-stat = 6.604, surpassing the 4.01 critical threshold), indicating that the funding effects are durable. When placed alongside funding frameworks in advanced economies, the Nigerian model, though effective, appears less refined; adjustments are needed to achieve the level of sophistication seen in the United States and United Kingdom financing systems.
In the context of increasing consumer concern for environmental and sustainability factors, this study contributes to clarifying the impact of greenwashing perception on green purchase intention in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Using a quantitative approach, the study collected and analyzed data from 403 customers who have or are using FMCG products in Vietnam. The data were gathered using Google Forms and processed in two steps using SmartPLS 4.0 software. The results show that greenwashing perception negatively affects green trust, which in turn reduces green purchase intention. Green trust plays a crucial mediating role in the relationship between greenwashing perception and green purchase intention. Green authenticity and green transparency reduce the negative impact of greenwashing perception on green trust. Based on these findings, the study offers managerial implications and practical policy recommendations for businesses in the FMCG sector, aiming for a more transparent, honest, and sustainable consumer environment. This study contributes to expanding the academic understanding of green consumption behavior and proposes practical implications for businesses in their sustainable development strategies.
