Previous literature which examined relationship between fraud risk factors and occupational frauds occurrence is limited to the setting of a single developed country. This study aims to bridge this gap by examining the moderating role of ethical culture in affecting the relationship between fraud risks and occupational fraud using the sample of regional development banks (RDB) in one of the major developing countries, Indonesia. Our study employs Indonesian RDBs due to their economic significance and their exposure to a higher risk of occupational fraud. Primary data was collected using a survey method involving 355 employees from the 15 largest RDBs in Indonesia. The collected data was analyzed using the Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). We find that occupational fraud in RDBs is associated with opportunity and pressure. A strong ethical culture can weaken the positive relationship between these two fraud risks and occupational fraud. The findings of our paper imply that organizations that face a significant risk of fraud, such as RDBs, should invest in strengthening the organizations’ ethical culture as it could mitigate two out of four fraud risk factors. This study contributes towards development of the fraud diamond theory by examining the effect of ethical culture in mitigating fraud risk in the banking industry which is growing rapidly in a developing economy. This study focuses on a context that has still only been analyzed by previous research to a limited degree, namely RDBs which are known as the “second sector” of the banking industry in Indonesia.

This study analyses the knowledge-sharing process and its outcomes among stakeholders (i.e., academia, industry, government and civil society) in the context of a regional sustainability-oriented project held in Ena City, central Japan, by using the Quadruple Helix (QH) framework. We collected data through interviews with the stakeholders and related documents and employed qualitative content analysis to analyse the data. Our findings imply that there is a gap between the theoretical understanding and practical application of sustainability practices at the initial stage of interaction. However, the project facilitated inter-exchanges of knowledge among stakeholders in the respective helices that could address this gap. Our research suggested the roles of stakeholders in a sustainability-driven collaboration as bridging academics, resource-providing industry, observant government and boundary-spanning civil society which represent the balanced QH model. The current study contributes to the existing literature three-fold. First, few existing studies have employed the QH model in the context of sustainability. Second, most previous studies on the QH model have focused on macro-perspectives. Third, the study clarifies the roles of the stakeholders, which extends the understanding of the QH model. This study suggests a regional sustainability policy that encourages more bottom-up initiatives, in line with the balanced helix model.

Purpose: Greenwashing is defined as the overstatement of companies’ environmental disclosures relative to their performance. This paper aims to develop a greenwashing measure, examines its relationship with environmental performance and investigates the mitigating effects of Japanese firm-level corporate governance characteristics (corporate structure, board leadership, foreign share ownership, ratio of independent directors and ratio of directors’ variable compensation) and third-party assurance of environmental information on the extent of greenwashing. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyzes a sample of 420 firm-year observations from the period between 2018 and 2019 from Japanese listed companies that responded to the CDP Climate Change survey via probit/logit and multivariate panel data regression models. Findings: This paper finds that the probability of engaging in greenwashing is negatively associated with environmental performance, which supports the reliability of the study’s greenwashing measure. Japanese firm-level corporate governance characteristics are ineffective at mitigating greenwashing. This paper also finds that assurance carries a significant risk of being exploited by companies involved in greenwashing to increase the degree of their overstatement. Practical implications: The findings have significant implications for investors, who should increase scrutiny and skepticism of environmental disclosures, particularly from companies with poor environmental track records. Japanese companies should consider strengthening their corporate governance to ensure the effective oversight of environmental disclosure and performance. Regulators and standard setters should implement stricter guidelines for and oversight of environmental information assurance. Originality/value: No empirical study has examined the effectiveness of Japanese corporate governance characteristics and environmental disclosure assurance on the mitigation of greenwashing.

This article discusses the role of academics in knowledge diffusion among various stakeholders using a case study of a sustainability-oriented workshop to address issues of a local forest in central Japan. This research employs thematic analysis through interpreted data from documents, minutes of meetings, workshop interactions among stakeholders, debriefing sessions, questionnaires, and fieldwork findings of participants in a regional business school. The findings show that Bridging Academics (BAs) have effectively facilitated knowledge diffusion amongst global, national and local stakeholder clusters. The interactions among workshop stakeholders resulted in outcomes that enhanced awareness of knowledge gaps, fostered effective communication, enabled knowledge extension, and created shared values. The study contributes towards the understanding of academics’ roles in collaborative settings for sustainability and suggests a multi-node knowledge link model as a collaborative mechanism for knowledge diffusion. The study suggests implications for stakeholders and provides a use case relevant to sustainability-based regional development.

Purpose: Partners are responsible for allocating audit tasks and facilitating knowledge sharing among team members. This study considers changes in the composition of partners to proxy for the continuity of the audit team. This study examines the effect of audit team continuity on audit outcomes (audit quality and report lags), pricing and its determinant (lead partner experience), which have not been thoroughly examined in previous studies.Design/methodology/approach: This study employs string similarity metrics to measure audit team continuity. The study employs multivariate panel data regression empirical models to estimate a sample of 26,007 firm-years of listed Japanese companies from 2008 to 2019.Findings: The study reveals that audit team continuity is negatively associated with audit fees, regardless of the auditor’s size. This finding contributes to the existing literature by showing that audit team continuity represents one of the determinant factors of audit fee. For clients of large audit firms, companies with higher (lower) audit team continuity issue audit reports in less (more) time. The experience of lead partners is a strong predictor of audit team continuity, irrespective of audit firm size. Audit quality is not associated with audit team continuity for either large or small audit firms.Originality/value: This study proposes and examines audit team continuity measures that employ string similarity metrics to quantify changes in the composition of partners in consecutive audit engagements. Audit team continuity expands upon the tenure of individual audit partners, which is commonly used in prior literature as a measure of client–partner relationships.

Firm’s risk structure and audit quality are considered as two of the most important factors which affect earnings management. Thus, this study aims to examine how the risk structure and audit quality affect real earnings management from the context of a developing economy. The risk structure in this study is classified into operational risk and financial risk which are proxied by Degree of Operating Leverage (DOL) and Degree of Financial Leverage (DFL), respectively. Audit quality is measured by Big-N audit firms clients and auditor industry specialization. This study employs the Roychowdhury real earnings management model which comprises of sales manipulation, discretionary cost reduction, and overproduction. This study’s sample is 219 firm-years of manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange between 2014 and 2016. The results show that auditor’s affiliation with Big-N audit firms are more effective than industry specialization in reducing real earnings management practices.