The present study’s main objective is to assess the impact of non-financial sustainability reporting (NFSR) on corporate reputation and the role of the CEO in the opportunistic behavior of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In total, 178 firms were assessed for this paper during 2013–2020. In this study for calculating the NFSR, environmental sustainability reporting (ESR), social sustainability reporting (SSR), governance sustainability reporting (GSR) and ethical sustainability reporting (ETSR), Arianpoor and Salehi’s comprehensive and conceptual model has been used. In addition, the literature states that a CEO’s power can be classified as an opportunity for discretion and opportunistic behavior in CEOs that is in contrast with stakeholder demands. To this end, in this study, CEOs’ power has been used as an indicator for the CEO’s opportunistic behavior, and the CEO pay slice (CPS) index was used to calculate the CEO’s level of power. The results revealed that NFSR affects corporate reputation positively. In addition, ESR, SSR, ETSR and GSR positively affect corporate reputation. Moreover, the CEO’s power affects the relationship between NFSR/ESR/SSR/ETSR and corporate reputation. Because managers desire to engage in social and ethical activities, they try to hide the company’s errors and increase its reputation. The results revealed that the CEO’s power did not affect the relationship between GSR and corporate reputation. Since companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange are under intensive supervision, such as in governance, the impact of a CEO’s power and the interaction of a CEO’s power and GSR on company reputation in this study might, thus, not apply to these companies. It is crucial to investigate NFSR, corporate reputation and CEO power within Iran-specific conditions because of differences in emerging markets and developing countries such as Iran, which have diverse ownership structures, economic status, legal systems, government policies, and culture.

As the sustainability of the environment is a very much concerning issue for developed countries, the drive of the paper is to reveal the effects of nuclear, environment-friendly, and non-friendly energy, population, and GDP on CO₂ emission for Italy, a developed country. Using the extended Stochastic Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework, the yearly data from 1972 to 2021 are analyzed in this paper through an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. The reliability of the study is also examined by employing Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) estimators and also the Granger causality method which is used to see the directional relationship among the indicators. The investigation confirms the findings of previous studies by showing that in the longer period, rising Italian GDP and non-green energy by 1% can lead to higher CO₂ emissions by 8.08% and 1.505%, respectively, while rising alternative and nuclear energy by 1% can lead to falling in CO₂ emission by 0.624%. Although population and green energy adversely influence the upsurge of CO₂, they seem insignificant. Robustness tests confirm these longer-period impacts. This analysis may be helpful in planning and developing strategies for future financial funding in the energy sector in Italy, which is essential if the country is to achieve its goals of sustainable development.

Purpose: This research examines the influence of business strategy and intellectual capital on firm performance and bankruptcy risk of Oman's non-financial sector companies.Design/methodology/approach: The data comprises 380 firm-year observations collected from 2015 to 2019 for the non-financial sector companies listed on the Muscat Securities Market. This study measures business strategy using the Miles and Snow typologies and Porter's strategies as alternative measures. The study uses the Granger-causality test to measure the bi-directional causality between independent and dependent variables. The authors use alternative measurements of business strategy and 2SLS/IV estimation to validate the OLS results.Findings: According to the Miles and Snow typologies, most of Oman's non-financial firms were analyzers. The empirical results show a negative relationship between business strategy and return on equity (ROE), suggesting defender-type strategy leads to an increase in firm performance. The OLS results show no influence of A-VAIC on firm performance and Altman-Zscore. The structural capital efficiency is positively associated with ROA, and AltmanZscore consistent with the hypothesized relationship. The Granger causality test shows no inference of causality between any independent and dependent variables except forZscore and CEE.Research limitations/implications: The business strategy results from the firm performance and bankruptcy risk models are valuable to the researchers from an emerging market and non-financial companies' perspective. Oman's diversification strategy of its economic activities through non-financial sector companies receives an impetus through the findings of this study. As this study is limited to Oman's non-financial sector companies, future research on business strategy impact can be extended to the financial sector, other GCC, and emerging countries.Originality/value: The findings of this study contribute to the sparse literature on business strategy in an emerging market like Oman. This study enriches the knowledge of business strategy typologies proposed by Miles and Snow, and Porter. It also contributes to the extant literature on firm performance and bankruptcy risk.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditures and firm financial performance in an emerging market.Design/methodology/approach: The authors examine the hypotheses by performing panel data analysis on a sample of 159 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2010–2015.Findings: The findings suggest that the investment in CSR initiatives is significantly and positively associated with firm financial performance as proxied by changes in return on assets. Moreover, the findings confirm a positive and significant association between CSR expenditures and firm financial performance as proxied by both the future changes in return on assets and the future changes in operating cash flows scaled by total assets.Originality/value: The present study has examined the relationship between CSR and firm financial performance in a country where, to the authors’ knowledge as in most other developing markets, such a relationship has not been a subject of empirical research. Besides, the use of a three-dimensional measure of financial performance, primarily considering research undertaken in an emerging market, as a valuable contribution may be observed.

Purpose: The present study aims to assess the potential impacts of board members' characteristics, including connectedness and independence, on the level of the firm's involvement in innovation and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Design/methodology/approach: Variables of board members' interlock and independence are selected for measuring the board characteristics and their association with innovation. The range of disclosure of social responsibility (SR) of the firms inside and outside the industries is also analyzed through descriptive-correlational. The selected sample includes 280 firm-years listed firms on Iraq Stock Exchange during 2012–2017 and 1,026 firm-years on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The hypotheses are examined using multivariate regression models and panel data. Findings: The observations show that board interlock and independence in both countries are willing to improve firms' innovation. Moreover, having controlled the industry index, the authors find that business environment innovation is willing to be transmitted into the firms through outside industry sources in Iran. In the Iraq country, regardless of industry index, the positive association between interlocked boards and firm innovation is established. Further analyses also articulate that board interlock is not considered a mechanism to transmit information and experiences about CSR activities. Originality/value: This paper is a pioneer study to assess the relationship between board member characteristics and the firms' innovation and SR both in Iran and Iraq. Also, it extends the literature by considering the industry index as a significant source of knowledge and experience to gain more precise results. Therefore, the current paper may contribute to the development of knowledge in this field of study.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a deeper understanding about the reasons behind difference in previous studies’ results in the field of audit quality determinants.Design/methodology/approach: A meta-analysis method is employed in which 52 studies including 40 international studies from authentic scientific articles during the year 2000–2015 and 12 national studies out of authentic national scientific articles from 2001 to 2015 are taken to account as sample studies. Audit firm size, auditor tenure and auditor specialization are set as independent variables and audit quality is the only dependent variable in the current paper.Findings: The results indicate that audit firm size and auditor specialization are positively associated with audit quality. In other words, contracting with larger audit firm and specialized auditor results in delivering higher quality audit services.Originality/value: The current study is the first study to be conducted in the field of audit quality determinants. The results may be beneficial both for standard setters as well practitioners in a way that it provides evidence that contributes to basis policy and audit-standard makers about domination and determinants of audit quality.