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This study aims to examine the challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions for audit processes in India and explore the perceptions of the profession on how technology was leveraged to conduct audits during this period. The opinions of auditors on future changes in post-COVID-19 audit practices and processes are also explored.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior auditors working in various audit firms in major business centers in India and subjected to content and thematic analysis using the institutional theory perspective.

The auditing profession used technology to respond to COVID-19-imposed disruptions of established audit process and practices while maintaining the legitimacy of audit reports. The findings indicate that auditors now seem to strongly support the integration of emerging technologies into their auditing practices post-COVID to ensure data accuracy and transparency. The interviewees displayed keen interest in continuing remote and in-person audits to maintain audit quality in the future. The experience of COVID-19 appears to have forced the auditing profession to overcome their reluctance to adopt technologies that were previously used by only Big 4 and large audit companies.

The results will be of particular interest to various stakeholders concerned with aspects of the acceptance of technology-assisted audit reports such as legitimacy, required infrastructure, cost involvement and resistance to change. The findings will also assist professional bodies and policymakers in both developed and developing economies in devising useful strategies to promote technology-aided auditing during and after COVID-19. Limitations posed by inadequate infrastructure and resistance to changes must be overcomed before implementation of technology-aided audits.

As COVID-19 pandemic is a recent phenomenon, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first few studies that have examined the use of technology to facilitate audits during the COVID-19 period, more specifically from a developing economy perspective.

This study aims to address three research questions pertaining to climate neutrality within the supply chain of metal and mining industry: (1) How can an organization implement practices related to climate neutrality in the supply chain? (2) How do members of the supply chain adopt different measures and essential processes to assist an organization in responding to climate change-related concerns? (3) How can the SAP-LAP framework assist in analyzing and proposing solutions to attain climate neutrality?

To address the proposed research questions concerning climate neutrality, this study employs a case study approach utilizing the SAP-LAP (situation, actor, process–learning, action, performance) framework. Within the SAP-LAP framework, adopting a natural resource-based perspective, the study thoroughly examines the intricacies and interactions among existing situations, pertinent actors and processes that impact climate initiatives within a metal and mining company.

The study's findings suggest that organizations can achieve the objective of climate neutrality by prioritizing resources and capabilities that lead to reduced GHG emissions, lower energy consumption and optimal resource utilization. The study further proposes key elements that significantly influence the pursuit of climate neutrality within enterprises.

This study is one of the earliest contributions to the development of a holistic understanding of climate neutrality in the supply chain of the metal and mining industry.

The study will assist practitioners and policymakers in comprehending the present circumstances, actors and processes involved in enterprises' supply networks in order to attain climate neutrality in supply chains, as well as in taking the right steps to enhance performance.

This study presents a climate neutrality model and provides valuable insights into emission management, contributing to the achievement of the climate neutrality objective.

This study aims to examine the perceptions of accounting practitioners and users about implementation challenges with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) at the pre-implementation stage. Under institutional pressures, India conveyed its decision to implement IFRS beginning 1 April 2016, despite initial reluctance to adopt IFRS. It specifically explores the responses of accounting professionals (preparers) and the banking industry professionals (users) in India to challenges in IFRS implementation, rather than more widely researched dimensions of IFRS implementation such as reasons for adoption, experience effects and diversity in practice.

A quantitative research approach was adopted, using a questionnaire survey that provided 192 responses from accounting practitioners and banking professionals working in India.

The findings convey IFRS implementation preparedness perceptions of participants with respect to education, training and information technology (IT) infrastructure. Respondents acknowledged the efforts and capability of the accounting body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, but expressed reservations about training, cost, interpretation, IT infrastructure and staffing. The accounting practitioners and the users have similar perspectives on the subject of awareness and preparedness challenges of IFRS implementation.

The study heightens awareness of the challenges facing jurisdictions who express initial reluctance, although they ultimately decide to adopt IFRS on account of institutional pressures. The analysis suggests that the International Accounting Standards Board should increase focus on implementation issues, in addition to updating and making IFRSs.

The study is distinct from the studies in abundance on the creation of accounting standards, implementation benefits and their implication in a specific geography.

This paper aims to explore the awareness of terminology related to intellectual capital (IC) among executives of Indian banks and the sources in which they mostly find IC-related terminology. The paper also explores relative and specific contributions of each selected source of information in creating IC awareness among bank executives in India and determines difference among the executives from the public and private sector.

This research paper follows a survey-based approach to capture the perceptions of Indian bank managers working middle and top management across different banks. Regression analysis and ANOVA were applied to data from 166 responses.

The study finds that IC awareness among Indian banking executives is reasonably high and is equally spread across the three sub-categories of capital (external capital, human capital and internal capital), though the relative awareness of external capital is on the higher side. However, the sources of awareness of IC terminology differ among executives from the public- and private-sector banks.

The sample was limited to middle and top managers in the Indian banking industry and suffers from the usual limitations of survey-based research such as the design of the survey instrument and the personal biases of the respondents. Some limitations may also have arisen because of the definitions of IC elements adopted by this study.

This research adds a new dimension to the IC research by exploring the practical application and awareness of IC that deviates from traditional annual report-based disclosure and valuation studies. No existing literature has examined the survey-based awareness study, particularly on the banking industry. This paper provides a foundation for future studies that examine the operational awareness and application of IC in the service industries.

This empirical study explores the intricate relationships between Industry 4.0 (I4), Lean practices and sustainable operational performance (SOP) within the dynamic context of the services sector. Rooted in the theoretical framework of Resource Orchestration Theory (ROT), the research investigates the nuanced interplay between these paradigms and their collective impact on firm performance.

The research methods included creation of a structural model, hypothesis formulation and advanced data analysis. Primary data were gathered through an online questionnaire distributed among service sector professionals. Analysis was completed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using the Smart-PLS software.

The results underscore the mediating role of Lean practices between I4 and SOP, emphasizing the imperative of harmonized integration to enhance overall firm performance. In alignment with ROT principles, the study illuminates the positive influence of Lean practices on sustainable operational outcomes.

The study contributes to the scholarly discourse on I4, Lean and Services, emphasizing the strategic necessity of integrating I4 capabilities with Lean practices. Practical insights guide practitioners in orchestrating a balanced adoption of I4 and Lean practices for SOP. This research offers actionable insights for industry leaders seeking to cultivate SOP within their organizational contexts.

This study contributes to the evolving understanding of the interplay between I4, Lean practices and SOP within the services sector, offering novel insights for both academia and industry practitioners.

This paper aims to examine the presence of impulsive and compulsive buying among consumers. It studies the various factors that affect and moderate the impulsiveness and compulsiveness of buying.

Literature review resulted in four constructs – social media influence, social media preferences, hedonic motivation and shop in COVID-19. On conducting factor analysis in statistical package for the social sciences, the variables were divided under the influence of social media, social commerce, electronic word of mouth (EWOM) of social commerce, hedonic happiness, hedonic fun and shopping in times of COVID-19. Structural equation modeling is conducted in AMOS (statistical software) for a diagrammatic representation of the relationship between the variables. Regression analysis is used to re-affirm the above relationship. Testing of hypotheses is done with the help of the chi-square test.

All six latent variables are significantly related to impulsive and compulsive buying. However, the regression analysis shows social media influence as the strongest predictor for impulse buying and hedonic happiness for compulsive buying. Also, the presence of the pandemic COVID-19 leads to impulsive buying as well as compulsive buying in the apparel and accessory segment.

Marketers should capitalize on spontaneous buying in both forms – impulsive buying and compulsive buying. Social media influencers, as well as more consumer engagement on social media, can promote impulsive buying. However, compulsive buyers will be more attracted towards great in-store experiences or hedonically driven advertisements, as they do not just shop for buying the product; they shop for the experience of shopping.

This study uncovers the difference in factors that affect impulsive and compulsive buying. Though both behaviours seem points of the same scale, they are inherently different and can be predicted with social media influence and hedonic happiness.

Over the past years, business strategies have been designed to improve ‘firms' financial and non-financial performances and achieve sustainable development, leading to corporate sustainability. This article is a bibliometric analysis of two decades of the relationship between corporate sustainability and firm performance, identifying the research focus and the gaps for future research.

The bibliometric review of corporate sustainability and performance research is between January 2004 and June 2023. As per the Web of Science database, the theme's research commenced around 2004, growing gradually till 2023. Five hundred thirty-nine published articles by peer-reviewed ABDC-indexed A and A* journals in English have been reviewed. The bibliometrix package in R software is used with VOSviewer for the bibliometric analysis.

The study's findings indicate a lack of research on the theme from developed and underdeveloped nations. Further, the analysis reveals five clusters of research: (1) business sustainability, (2) corporate sustainability reporting, (3) corporate sustainability, strategy, and innovation, (4) stakeholder and corporate sustainability, and e) corporate sustainability assessment.

The future research areas proposed are on two major themes, namely, corporate sustainability and organizational competitive advantage, including sub-themes such as “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and financial performance” and “greenhouse-gas emissions” and “market orientations,” respectively. There is a need for more research in developing markets, a comprehensive definition of corporate sustainability, and further exploration of the theme linking strategy and innovation.

On 12th June 2015, a strike by contract workers was declared at Rampur terminal, All India Business in oil corporation (ABC) Ltd. The strike had disrupted the normal services of the terminal. Under such circumstances, Mr Ravi Sharma (Head human resources of the eastern region, ABC Ltd.) was unable to decide how to save the company from such a disorderly situation without any increased loss of production and manpower cost liabilities. Could Mr Ravi Sharma resolve the issue of strike through an approach of strategic rapprochement when the disruptions made by workers and local miscreants went out of control?

In-depth interview in the year 2019 was conducted with the protagonist Mr Ravi Sharma and the trade union members at the regional office of ABC Ltd., Kolkata and Rampur Terminal, respectively, to convert the narratives in the form of a fictitious case study. Four rounds of interviews were conducted by the author to complete the data collection procedure. The company™s-related information was sourced through a secondary database furnished by company™s officials. However, the data about the company, the key characters and other recognizable information have been disguised to preserve the confidentiality of information.

The strike was called by the contract workers at Rampur terminal for two primary reasons, namely, wage increase and giving preference to local people for employment whether regular or contract. Mr Ravi Sharma could pacify the unforeseen situation by adopting two-pronged strategies, namely, first, he could successfully gain the confidence of the union leader and secondly, set the environment for the conciliation proceeding so that agreement settled will not be failed to be implemented.

The case uses a system perspective of Industrial relation proposed by Dunlop (1958) to highlight the interplay between employer, government and trade unions influenced by politics and mafia that determine eventually the industrial peace in the organization.