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This study investigates the determinants of integrated reporting quality in the context of basic materials and industrial companies. The motivation stems from the need to enhance reporting quality and provide guidance to companies and academia. Specific hypotheses were formulated, including the influence of profitability, company size, age, and board size on integrated reporting quality. The research aims to offer insights into these factors' impact. The study employs a mixed-method approach involving quantitative regression analysis and qualitative content analysis. Findings reveal that profitability is not a significant determinant of integrated reporting quality, while larger companies exhibit higher-quality reports. Younger firms tend to present more elaborate reports. The study validates the role of board size in enhancing reporting quality. These results contribute to refining integrated reporting standards, enhancing transparency, and guiding strategic decisions for sustainable development.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, educational mobile games may play a significant role to facilitate students’ learning. Several studies have indicated that these games using mobile phones may improve students’ learning motivation and effectiveness when they are equipped with appropriate learning strategies. However, investigating the impact of learning strategies in students’ utilization of educational mobile games has received little scholarly attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, this research proposed two learning games scenarios to fill this gap. In the first scenario, students were offered an educational mobile game with a learning strategy called ‘scaffolding strategy’; while in the second scenario, the same game was offered without the strategy. To achieve this objective, an experimental design with a research model was developed to examine the role of scaffolding learning strategy in students’ use of educational mobile games. In this experimental study, 43 students from two classes participated in the two learning scenarios. The results indicate that educational mobile gaming with the scaffolding learning strategy significantly influenced students’ utilization of the mobile game. In addition, the adoption of the learning strategy significantly affected students’ perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioural intention to use, compared with the same game without the learning strategy. The results also indicate that the introduction of the scaffolding learning strategy into the educational mobile game will increase students’ learning effectiveness and motivation.

Based on the samples of 207 prefecture-level cities in China from 2002 to 2010, this study uses the exogenous shock of China’s first incorporation of environmental regulations into the assessment of local officials as a quasi-natural experiment, and applies the continuous difference-in-differences (DID) method to examine the impact of environmental regulation assessment pressure on local fiscal revenue. We find that the target pressure of environmental regulations for local officials has contributed to the growth of local fiscal revenue, and for each 0.01 increase in the targets of pollution emission reduction, local fiscal revenue increases by 0.204%. This result demonstrates a strong robustness. Our mechanism analysis further confirms that local governments employ various strategies to alleviate the financial burden induced by environmental regulations. These strategies include (1) not only adopting the “grabbing hand” approach, which involves extracting fiscal revenues from the market by reducing the fixed asset investment of local governments and enhancing the collection of pollution fees from enterprises, (2) but also utilizing the “helping hand” approach to augment financial resources, such as improving tax administration efficiency by cracking down on profit under-reporting and income tax evasion among enterprises. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis suggests that the impact of environmental regulations on fiscal revenue is contingent upon the level of local fiscal self-sufficiency. This article offers empirical evidence to assist governments in devising effective environmental policies that aim to achieve a harmonious balance between economic growth and environmental protection.

A incorporação da educação para a sustentabilidade nos currículos formais, como instrumento que estimule os indivíduos à reflexão e à ação acerca dos desafios da sustentabilidade, tem se mostrado uma tarefa bastante complexa nos mais diferentes campos de conhecimento. Isso se evidencia, particularmente, quando se pensa nas estruturas dos currículos tradicionais dos cursos de administração. Este artigo tem como objetivo identificar desafios para a integração da sustentabilidade em cursos de administração e como esse conhecimento influencia na trajetória profissional de egressos de um curso de Administração com Linha de Formação Específica em Gestão Ambiental. A metodologia empregada incluiu o envio de um questionário para as duas primeiras turmas de formandos do curso e a realização de um grupo focal para aprofundamento dos resultados levantados na primeira fase. Os resultados mostram que os alunos reconhecem as práticas interdisciplinares como elementos centrais em seu processo de formação, considerando que elas contribuem para o desenvolvimento de competências profissionais significativas para um administrador com responsabilidade socioambiental. As competências mais mencionadas pelos egressos foram trabalho em equipe e negociação com atores sociais. Entretanto, a pesquisa indica um grande desafio para esses egressos: o mercado continua a entender os desafios da sustentabilidade como um problema de caráter prioritariamente tecnológico, em detrimento das competências em gestão, levando a uma valorização de engenheiros e tecnólogos para atuar no campo da sustentabilidade. Nesse contexto, o desafio mostra-se muito maior do que apenas incorporar conteúdos de sustentabilidade na formação de futuros administradores - requer também entender como administradores comprometidos com a questão socioambiental podem se legitimar para viabilizar sua efetiva inserção nas organizações.

Recently, the Republic of Korea has experienced natural disasters, such as typhoons and heavy rainfall, as well as social accidents, such as large-scale accidents and infectious diseases, which are continuously occurring. Despite repeated disasters, problems such as inefficient early response and overlapping command systems occur continuously. In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of disaster management systems by foreign countries, and the status of the damages by disasters for the past 10 years in the Republic of Korea, to suggest possible measures to improve the Republic of Korea’s integrated disaster management system. When a disaster occurs in the Republic of Korea, the Si/Gun/Gu Disaster Safety Measure Headquarters, under the command of the local governments, become the responsible agencies for disaster response while the central government supervises and controls the overall disaster support and disaster management. To improve the current disaster management system, we propose to incorporate all disaster types rather than dividing them by type into natural disasters and social disasters. To improve the disaster response and disaster management system, we propose to restructure the current administrative organization, revise the disaster-related laws, and overcome problems, such as inter-ministerial interconnectivity and overlapping regulation.

Globally, the empowerment of women is a critical and challenging issue. In considering the problem, the researchers sought to investigate Women’s Empowerment (WE) in the context of Saudi Arabia. In this study the researchers applied quantitative methods and collected the cross-sectional data through a questionnaire based on a random sampling technique. The study utilized 314 useable samples to conclude the investigation. Using path analysis through Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) version 26.0, the study underlines a positive and significant effect of Economic Empowerment (EE) and Social Empowerment (SE) on WE. On the other hand, Political Empowerment (PE) has a negative effect on WE. Moreover, Self-efficacy (SFY) and Family Support (FS) also positively and significantly affect WE. Regarding the mediating effects, SFY mediates the positive relationship of EE and SE with WE. On the contrary, SFY did not develop a positive relationship between PE and WE. Finally, FS plays a crucial mediating role in developing the association between EE, SE, PE and WE among Saudi Arabian women. This study’s findings support policymakers and planners in developing policies and strategies to boost WE significantly. Finally, through the empirical confirmation between EE, SE, PE, SFY, FS and WE in Saudi Arabia, a Middle East country, this study’s findings add further enrichment to the depth of the literature.

Energy efficiency is an increasingly important dimension of household appliances, which is why they are labeled to indicate their energy consumption. In 2020, the European Union countries changed the labeling system from the previous system: ranging from A+++ to D, to the new system: ranging from A to G, assuming it would be more transparent for the consumer. The aim of the study was to find out the extent to which consumers are aware of the new labeling system, and the impact that the new labels have (compared to the previous ones) on the perception of household appliances and consumer decision-making. For this purpose, the survey was conducted on a nationwide representative Polish sample (n = 1054). The research was partly experimental, where the same appliances were presented with new and previous energy labels. The results showed that currently most people do not identify the new energy classes. Furthermore, products with the new labels are perceived as being less energy efficient in comparison with products with the previous labels, which shows that there is some confusion among consumers in terms of the new energy efficiency labeling system.

In this paper, we investigate how generators’ ownership of financial transmission rights (FTRs) may influence the effects of the transmission lines on competition. In order for concrete analysis, a simple symmetric market model is introduced and FTRs are modeled in two different forms: FTR options and FTR obligations. This paper shows that introducing FTRs in an appropriate manner may reduce the physical capacity needed for the full benefits of competition. Among the competitive effects of ownership of FTRs, we focus on the effects on two possible pure strategy equilibria: the unconstrained Cournot equilibrium and the passive/aggressive equilibrium. We also analyze an extension of the model: asymmetric markets. Finally, a numerical illustration of applying the analysis is presented.