Today it is obvious that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is more than just a volunteer activity, it is also related to the operation of the firms and to competitive advantages. Many factors influence CSR and CSR-competitiveness relations; firm size could be the most crucial one. Originally CSR is related to large companies, although smaller firms can be active in CSR mainly in different ways with different background. Based on this idea the paper aims to explore the correlation between small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitive advantages. An interview research was conducted among thirty SMEs in a Hungarian city of Győr in 2021/22 to reveal how owner-managers interpret CSR, competitiveness and their relations. As SMEs cannot provide exact data on this topic the personal perception method was used to explore the CSR-competitiveness relation. A moderate relation was observed between CSR and competitiveness and the research revealed that different methodologies have to be applied for SMEs than large companies which results from the fact that SMEs’ CSR is less formal and lacks exact data.

In this study, the author investigates the evolving role of women in corporate boardrooms historically dominated by men, aiming to discern whether their inclusion merely serves as symbolic representation or carries substantive impact. Using a narrative literature review methodology, the author meticulously examines the historical impediments women faced in leadership positions. The findings suggest that deep-seated societal biases, rather than a lack of capability, traditionally constrained women’s leadership trajectories. While some studies suggest that corporations with genuine gender diversity in leadership may outperform in financial outcomes and innovation, this advantage is not consistently observed across all contexts and industries, necessitating a cautious interpretation of these mixed and context-dependent findings. The study argues that women’s inclusion in boardrooms is a strategic imperative for modern corporations striving for resilience, adaptability, and sustained growth in an intricate global landscape, yet also recommends further research to fully understand the broader impacts of such diversity. Furthermore, the study offers practical strategies for enhancing gender diversity in corporate leadership.

This paper explores how Saudi managers perceive the role of corporate heritage in achieving the employment goals of heritage organizations operating in Saudi and, in turn, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 in relation to the Nitaqat program. Using an exploratory qualitative method, the study involved fifteen in-depth semi-structured interviews with HR managers from ten heritage-rich organizations. The analysis identified five key organizational identity traits with heritage—proficient, shelter, responsive, advancing, and centrality—that can be leveraged in employer branding to attract potential employees and enhance the employer brand of organizations operating in the Saudi market. This study is significant as it is the first to investigate corporate heritage from an employer branding perspective and in relation to national employment goals in emerging markets.

This study aims to elucidate the digital transformation process in Tunisian companies, identify its driving factors, and explain its key success factors. We examine a sample of 70 companies across various economic sectors using a Multinomial Logistic regression to assess the impact of digital strategy, corporate culture, and leadership on digital transformation success. The dependent variable “digital maturity” is categorized into low, medium, and high, with medium serving as the reference category. The results indicate a significant and positive effect of digital strategy on digital transformation success. Leadership influences companies at a low level of digital maturity but does not significantly impact those at a high maturity level. Corporate culture does not significantly affect digital transformation. Digital strategy is crucial for the success of digital transformation in Tunisian companies, while leadership plays a role primarily at lower maturity levels. Corporate culture, however, does not significantly contribute to digital maturity. The study provides insights for Tunisian companies and policymakers to focus on developing robust digital strategies and leadership qualities to enhance digital transformation efforts. This research expands the theoretical base on digital transformation in the Tunisian context, identifying critical success factors and barriers, and confirming the significant role of digital strategy in successful digital transformations.

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the cash holdings behaviour on sectoral level for South African firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The accounting cash ratio is used to identify abnormal (excess) cash holdings for the firms listed on the JSE. This informed the panel regression analysis to identify cash holdings determinants on a sectoral level. The sample data included 255 firms of which 102 represent Financial Firms and 153 represent Non-Financial Firms for 2005 to 2019. The findings show the significant internal and external determinants of cash holdings. Comparing coefficient sizes, this research finds that financial and non-financial sectors with abnormal (excess) cash holdings exhibit higher coefficient sizes as opposed to sectors without. As a result, the higher coefficient size shows that the internal and external determinants of cash holdings have a greater effect on the cash holding levels of these sectors. The implications of the findings of this study are that each sector operates differently and that each firm within each sector has differing cash management policies and procedures. Therefore, analyzing cash holdings behaviour on an aggregated level and assuming that all sectors and firms within the collective operate the same is an erroneous assumption, as shown by this study. This research firstly contributed by introducing the use of the accounting cash ratio to indicate the presence of abnormal (excess) cash holdings. Most research focus on cash holdings of Non-Financial Firms. Therefore, the second contribution of this research is that both Non-Financial and Financial Firms with and without abnormal (excess) cash holdings were included to identify determinants of cash holdings, this was also done on a sectoral level.