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Seeking transparency makes one blind: how to rethink disclosure, account for nature and make corporations sustainable
Abstract
Purpose
Financial and nonfinancial disclosures are still anchored to conventional notions of transparency, whereby corporations “push” information out to various stakeholders. Such information is now “pulled” from various sources and addresses aspects of corporate behavior that go well beyond those envisioned by the disclosure framework. This shift makes notions of values, measurement and accountability more fragmented, complex and difficult. The paper aims to bring the accounting scholarly debate back to what and how transparency can be achieved especially in relation to issues of social inequality and sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
After an analysis of the limitations of current approaches to disclosure, the paper proposes a shift toward normative policies that profit of years of critique of positivism.
Findings
Drawing on the notion of value-added, the paper ends with a new income statement design, labeled as Value-Added Statement for Nature, which recognizes Nature as a further stakeholder and forces human stakeholders to give voice, or at least acknowledge the lack of voice, for non-human actors.
Originality/value
The author proposes a shift in the perspective, practice and institutional arrangements in which disclosure occurs. Measurement and transparency need to happen in communication exercises, which do not presuppose what needs to be made transparent once and for good but define procedures on how to make fragmented, complex, multiple and volatile notions of value transparent. Income statements and accounting more in general is to be reconceived as a platform where stakeholders will have to continuously negotiate what counts as the common good in the interest of all, including Nature.
... As this example shows, different values are embedded in, and made visible, through risk metrics that may then not be equally valued by other parties to the risk that they construct. It is, therefore, important to understand the entanglement between values (whose values), how they shape what is selected for quantification (Kemp, Owen, & Lèbre, 2021;Quattrone, 2022), and how the subsequent metrics shape what becomes visible to and valued by both risk managers and risk scholars. ...
... Metrics as representations of risk are not totally new, since accounting and finance have long used metrics to reveal matters of importance to organizations (Morgan, 1988;Quattrone, 2022). ...
... For example, if we revisit MacKenzie's (2011) study of subprime mortgages, one pertinent question is how epistemic values of stabilizing home ownership can remain at the forefront of managing such risks, rather than being transformed into values of profit maximization through the metrics that are applied. Recognizing that values are embedded in methods of quantification and in the expertise associated with managing risk, we need to understand how values shape which phenomena are selected for quantification and which are hidden Quattrone, 2022). ...
Risk studies have rapidly expanded in the last few decades. Yet this growth is characterized by fragmentation in the literature despite it being a central concept for a vast array of organizations, where their success or failure to manage risk is considered central to thriving, surviving or collapsing. We take this opportunity provided by the Perspectives format to engage with a selection of six diverse papers published in Organization Studies over four decades. Drawing from these papers, we trace the evolution of risk research in relation to its epistemic bases in either metrics or values and the strategic focus on risk as either harm or opportunity. Inspired by the tensions between each of these bases, our review of the selected articles illustrates the dynamic entanglement of these ostensibly distinct and polarised strategic and epistemic bases of risk studies. We then develop a conceptual framework to map the field of risk research and propose avenues for future research. Our framework enables us to propose a stronger focus on risk taking for opportunity, warn against becoming overly focused on the metrics for controlling harm especially in the face of enticing visualizations of harmful risk, and strongly assert values as an important epistemic basis for risk studies. As these values may be hidden or visible, we emphasize the importance of understanding whose values are foregrounded in proposing a research agenda for reclaiming societal benefit. This latter focus is a neglected area of risk studies yet vitally important in addressing the big societal issues of our time.
... By integrating visual elements with the traditional use of textual and numerical content in a synergistic manner to construct a captivating narrative, organisations can weave a multifaceted story that resonates with stakeholders on both rational and emotional levels (Achilli et al., 2023;Busco et al., 2024;Davison, 2007Davison, , 2015Hopwood, 1996;Oliveira et al., 2024;Quattrone, 2022). Currently, annual and sustainability reports transcend mere financial purposes; they are dynamic documents that both reflect and shape reality (see Hines, 1988;Quattrone, 2022) but also instruments of impression management (Cooper and Slack, 2015). ...
... By integrating visual elements with the traditional use of textual and numerical content in a synergistic manner to construct a captivating narrative, organisations can weave a multifaceted story that resonates with stakeholders on both rational and emotional levels (Achilli et al., 2023;Busco et al., 2024;Davison, 2007Davison, , 2015Hopwood, 1996;Oliveira et al., 2024;Quattrone, 2022). Currently, annual and sustainability reports transcend mere financial purposes; they are dynamic documents that both reflect and shape reality (see Hines, 1988;Quattrone, 2022) but also instruments of impression management (Cooper and Slack, 2015). Consequently, the way readers interpret the disclosed information and use it can generate social impacts. ...
... Concurrently, given the complexity associated with using visuals in accountability contexts, accounting and reporting visualisations do not always offer a comprehensive and accurate representation of organisational responses to social and environmental challenges (Busco et al., 2024;Quattrone, 2022). Nevertheless, despite their imperfections, such visualisations can play a significant role in shaping social behaviours and mindsets. ...
Purpose
Based on the comprehensive definition of accounting of Carnegie et al. (2021a, 2021b), this study examines how visual imagery can expand and enhance accountability to stakeholders and create room for more human-centric accounts. This study aims to understand how this use can elucidate and prompt interpretations of rhetorical features aimed at envisioning legitimacy and being perceived as accountable.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a methodological interpretative approach, this paper draws on a qualitative case study based on a Portuguese charity, the Santa Casa da Misericordia do Porto, from 2019 to 2021, including the COVID-19 crisis period, analysing visual rhetoric in annual and sustainability reports.
Findings
The study illuminates how the visual images interact and evoke shared cultural understandings, shaping meanings that can symbolically foster organisational legitimacy and envisions accountability. These symbolic and emotive elements capture and make visible social impacts and reflect broader societal concerns.
Originality/value
The study of visual images within the accounting context can enrich the understanding of accounting as a technical, social and moral practice, while expanding the scope of accountability and promoting a more human-centred approach to accounting. It also adds to the literature on the persuasiveness and rhetoric of accounting and reporting visualisations and on charities’ accountability in crisis period.
... Performance measurement has been identified as a key accountability process for tracking national and local contributions to the SDGs (Abhayawansa et al., 2021). The SDGs are also one of the globally recognised sustainability performance frameworks (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018), defining the measurable aspects of sustainability via financial, societal, and environmental metrics (Quattrone, 2022). They are one of many devices, that is, 'frameworks, tools, and templates' (Ruff, 2021, p. 332) used in sustainability performance assessment, which have proliferated both in practitioner and academic sources (Gasparatos et al., 2009). ...
... However, attempts to create a universal performance assessment device for sustainability (see Cagno, 2023) are problematic because of the need to adapt general schemes to diverse local contexts and multiple dimensions that characterise sustainability (Ruff, 2021). Indeed, even by seemingly expanding the realm of what is measurable to social and environmental issues (Quattrone, 2022), the SDGs limit the debate and inclusion of different priorities and understandings of sustainability, as 'any single perspective involves the non-reporting of others' (Brown, 2009, p. 317). This is the case for most devices suggested for sustainability performance assessment; these devices have been labelled as 'reductionist' because they only consider a single perspective (Gasparatos et al., 2009). ...
... The UN SDGs, the largest global sustainability framework, are a key example of this trend, with many more devices suggested by organisations and governments (see Bebbington, 2007;Bebbington et al., 2021). Although sustainability performance assessment devices, such as the SDGs, seek to expand the view on what is measurable within economic, social, and environmental aspects (Quattrone, 2022), they are inherently 'reductionist' in nature (Gasparatos et al., 2009) and limiting when it comes to inclusion of diverse voices and perspectives. In the context of collaborative governance (Grossi and Argento, 2022), particularly visible in city initiatives, sustainability performance should be accounted for based on participatory approaches that stimulate dialogue and support information flow (Thomson and Bebbington, 2005;Almqvist et al., 2013). ...
Purpose
Existing performance assessment frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), struggle to incorporate diverse voices and representations of heterogeneous contexts. Cities, in particular, present a challenging context for sustainability performance assessment as they pursue new forms of governance based on the multiplicity of actors and inter-organisational collaboration. This study explores how sustainability performance accounts are created at the urban level within collaborative forms of governance and amidst the plethora of available devices for performance assessment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a case study approach. Qualitative methods are mobilised to study a large European project focused on the urban transition to a circular economy in six participating cities. The construction of sustainability performance accounts is studied via the Actor-Network Theory lens.
Findings
The study highlights that when it comes to sustainability assessment in city initiatives, existing performance assessment devices are adapted and modified to fit local needs and other sources of performance information are spontaneously mobilised to address the different dimensions of sustainability.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the public sector accounting literature by explaining the process of modifying existing devices for performance assessment to allow for the co-creation of accounts and by illuminating the spontaneous way in which performance information is generated and combined.
... In her study, Hendry (1995) draws an analogy between the Japanese way of wrapping goods, wrapping language and other societal phenomena, including time. Hendry contrasts Japanese wrapping with Western wrapping that is "perhaps overly concerned with unwrapping" (Hendry, 1995, p. 5) or, in the language of accounting, overconcerned with the notion of transparency (Quattrone, 2022). In contrast to such unwrapping, [t]he concept of improving the beauty of an object through its wrapping is most profound in Japanese culture and is central to their traditional sense of beauty (Hendry, 1995, p. 23) [. . ...
... Considering that the new sustainability reporting standards are still voluntary, the ISSB will need to consider different cultural and business ideologies and perspectives (Quattrone, 2022). The lesson learned from the Mitsubishi case is that large companies are not beholden to particular voluntary sustainability reporting frameworks, and depending on the story they want to tell, companies will wrap their story in the framework they consider most appropriate. ...
Purpose
This study explores the integration of corporate reporting by Mitsubishi, a large Japanese company, using a culturally sensitive narrative that combines and reconciles Japanese and Western corporate values in one story.
Design/methodology/approach
We use an analytical framework drawing on insights borrowed from narratology and the notion of wrapping – the traditional art of packaging as communication.
Findings
We find that Mitsubishi is a survivor company that uses different corporate reporting frameworks during its reporting journey to construct a bespoke narrative of its value creation and cultural values. It emplots narratives to convey a story presenting the impression that Mitsubishi is a Japanese corporation but is compatible with Western neo-liberal ideology, making bad news palatable to its stakeholders and instilling confidence in the future.
Research limitations/implications
Wrapping is a culturally sensitive form of impression management used in the integration of corporate reporting. Therefore, rather than assuming that companies blatantly manipulate their image in corporate reports, we suggest that future research should focus on how narratives are constructed and made sense of, situating them in the context of local culture and traditions.
Practical implications
The findings should interest scholars, report preparers, policymakers, and the IFRS, considering the recent release of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards designed to reduce the so-called alphabet soup of corporate reporting. By following Mitsubishi’s journey, we learn how and why the notion of integrated reporting was adopted and integrated with other reporting frameworks to create narratives that together convey a story of a global corporation compliant with Western neoliberal ideology. It highlights how Mitsubishi used integrated reporting to tell its story rather than as a rigid reporting framework, and the same fate may apply to the new IFRS Sustainability Reporting Standards that now include integrated reporting.
Originality/value
The study offers a new perspective on corporate reporting, showing how the local societal discourses of cultural heritage and modernity can shape the journey of the integration of corporate reporting over time.
... As an example, Lee and Carlisle (2023) examined the policies and practices of a credit union in the UK that has developed a range of financial products and services specifically for social housing tenants facing eviction. Quattrone (2022) argued about the possibility of including nature, not as an asset in financial reporting, but as a shareholder to be accounted for. These accounting practices of quantification can be seen as a form of emancipatory account, as they help to legitimize and reinforce the idea that public sector values as well as society at large values have the same primacy concerning economic values, advocating for more equitable and just policies and public services. ...
... They suggest that this view of nature as a commodity has contributed to the overexploitation and degradation of natural resources and that a new approach to accounting is needed to value and protect nature (Senkl and Cooper, 2023). As such, there is a need to shift away from traditional economic models and toward more holistic and inclusive approaches to accounting that recognize the value of ecosystem services and the role of nature in supporting human well-being (Quattrone, 2022). ...
Purpose
This essay focuses on an argument that challenges the notion of market reform as a desirable idea. It examines how market requirements, accounting practices, political intervention and organizational conditions interact and create conflicts in the implementation of market reform. In our case study, we aim to elucidate the detrimental effects of expanding pricing mechanisms into areas typically untouched.
Design/methodology/approach
The essay adopts a critical perspective toward the marketization in the public sector organizations based on the authors' previous studies and observations of the reforms in Swedish schools over the last 30 years. The case is conceptualized within Callon’s framework of the sociology of worth.
Findings
The paper provides an example of market dynamics introduced without the presence of pricing and qualification mechanisms, resulting in a trial-and-error situation. In this context, we document and problematize a trend toward marketization that has had negative consequences for Swedish schools. In doing so, the paper shows how market requirements, accounting practices, political interventions and organizational conditions interact and create conflicts during the implementation of market reforms. The case shows the emergence of a new economic entity and its underlying rationale, the quantification/pricing mechanism, with a special emphasis on the role of accounting and the repercussions on subjectivities as values shift.
Originality/value
This paper follows up on the New Public Financial Management (NPFM) global warning debate on the emergence of pricing/charging mechanisms in public services. It provides a critical overview of the diffusion and relevance of accounting evaluation processes to sustain continuous reforms, despite claimed criticisms, limitations and (un)intended consequences. The paper also provides some reflections on new avenues for further research and some possible ways out for accounting studies.
... Debates and discussions of the term abound, and it is beyond the scope of this paper to precisely define it here, but an overview of the various approaches is warranted. Quattrone (2022) argues that "value is a matter of judgment, of definition of what is to be measured, how, and above all, why" (p. 557) and astutely notes that "every way of seeing is indeed a way of not seeing" (p. ...
... This novel approach to forging new academic-practitioner research pathways builds upon the work of impact scholars like Andrew Hoffman (Haley et al., 2022;Hoffman, 2023) and those who have worked before to connect, critique, and push academic-practitioner work forward, such as Obst (2015) and Coulson (2016). Further, we aim to extend the academic literature building upon the knowledge base set by researchers like Quattrone (2022), who has examined value, and Cuckston (2018), who has worked on biodiversity accounting. With the grand challenges we face in protecting natural and cultural capital, the hope is that this examination of these tools and methods in the context of CCUNESCO will inspire more collaboration between academics and practitioners to enhance or save irreplaceable sites like those that exist in Canada under the CCUNESCO designation. ...
Accountants should engage more with natural and cultural capital accounting to make tools more accessible and to ensure critical information is provided to decision-makers. While ecological economists have continued to innovate and design tools, corporate-level accounting has seemingly lagged behind. We argue that the time is now for accounting researchers and practitioners to come together to build upon these tools to advance a sustainable agenda. We examine possibilities through the novel lens of a recent CPA Canada and Canadian Commission for UNESCO Report that explores tools to measure natural and cultural capital at UNESCO-designated sites in Canada. From here, we pose a variety of questions, critiques and pathways for researchers and practitioners alike.
... This thorough and holistic approach to data collection produced a huge amount of data relating to historical facts, geology, botany and the blueness of the sky, as well as insights into the indigenous people and their mores, all of which he innovatively combined and visualized in order to facilitate discovery of patterns (Anon, 2019;Wulf, 2015). Humboldt was, therefore, one of the earliest creators of what is now termed "infographics" in the "visual turn" of accounting (Quattrone, 2021). He often mapped out data in order to make sense of it, following the ideas and graphs of William Playfair (Costigan-Eaves and Macdonald-Ross, 1990). ...
... Placing due emphasis on people's interconnectedness, context (culture) and environment is likely to create advocacy, and presumably agency, leading to much-desired behavioral change. Such research endeavors must also embrace true interdisciplinarity, for example by including aspects and approaches drawn from the humanities and behavioral sociology, to uncover deeper, contextualized meanings of SEA, and thus move toward more ethical, valuebased inquiries (Quattrone, 2021). ...
Purpose
Current accounting practice tends to split environmental complexities into quantifiable, codified elements, producing codified simplifications of the “complex” in pursuit of environmental externalities. This has led to standardization, but has done little to motivate organizations to engage in more environmentally-aware behavior that transcends the coercive dimensions of codification. The work of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) can bring new insights and perspectives to social and environmental accounting (SEA). In discussing Humboldt's philosophy of understanding the interconnectedness between people, their contexts (cultures) and their environment, the authors contribute to the emerging SEA literature on notions of interconnectedness and the web of accountabilities. The authors also explore how a Humboldtian approach may help break through the current epistemological boundaries of SEA by combining accurate measurement with imagery to make the “complex” manageable whilst embracing interconnectedness and hermeneutics.
Design/methodology/approach
In this conceptual paper, the authors humbly draw on Humboldt's legacy and explore the underlying philosophical assumptions of Humboldtian science. The authors then contrast these with current SEA approaches in the literature and derive new insights into their intentionality and practical use.
Findings
Re-examining Humboldt's pioneering work enables us to pinpoint what might be missing from current SEA approaches and debates. Humboldt upheld an “ethics of precision,” which included both measurement accuracy and qualitative relevance, and combined hands-on scientific fieldwork with the aesthetic ideals and interconnectedness of the age of Romanticism. Drawing on Humboldtian science, the authors propose focusing on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity, embracing the qualitative and hermeneutical and including aesthetics and emotion in environmental visualizations.
Originality/value
The paper elucidates why and how Humboldtian science might inform, guide and enhance the emancipatory potential of SEA in the 21st century. Specifically, the authors discuss Humboldt's approach of linking accurate measurement with imagery to convey a sense of interconnectedness.
... Widespread tendencies in society give rise to this leitmotif. Prominent in these tendencies are the shift in societal values towards democratization, liberalization, accountability and equal opportunities (Dobusch, Heimstädt, Mayer, & Ross-Hellauer, 2020;Lee & Romano, 2013;Ortlieb, Glauninger, & Weiss, 2021;Pas, Wolters, & Lauche, 2021;Quattrone, 2022); the rise of social software that facilitates connectivity, self-organizing and community development (Kolb, Dery, Huysman, & Metiu, 2020;Leone, Mantere, & Faraj, 2021;Majchrzak, Malhotra, & Zaggl, 2021;Smith, 2022;Vaast, 2020); and the growth of wicked -complex and indeterminate -problems requiring input from diverse viewpoints and collaboration among various partners (Beck, Brasseur, Poetz, & Sauermann, 2019;Kuhlmann, Stegmaier, & Konrad, 2019;Scherer & Voegtlin, 2020). ...
... The article by Reischauer and Ringel (2023) in this Special Issue illustrates that in organizations dedicated to transparency, disputes over the fundamental beliefs and values of 'true' transparency are part of daily fare. However, organizations often face difficulties in living up to the ideals of openness or fulfilling their espoused promises of openness (Fenster, 2017;Quattrone, 2022;Weiskopf, 2021). In open strategy, for example, organizations offer opportunities for inclusion in strategic processes -ideally -for a more diverse group of people. ...
‘Openness’ has become an organizational leitmotif of our time, spreading across a growing set of organizational domains. However, discussions within these specialized domains (e.g. open data, open government or open innovation) treat openness in isolation and specific to the particularities of those domains. The intention of this Special Issue therefore is to foster cross-domain conversations to exchange insights and build cumulative knowledge on openness. To do so, this Introduction to the Special Issue argues that openness should be investigated as a general organizing principle, which we refer to as Open Organizing. Across domains, we define Open Organizing as a dynamic organizing principle along the primary dimension of transparency/opacity and the secondary dimensions of inclusion/exclusion and distributed/concentrated decision rights. As such, Open Organizing raises an overarching problem of design, which results from more specific epistemic, normative and political challenges.
... We observe that the accounting literature has also examined the elements identified in the SLR such as legitimacy, transparency, and trust (Busco et al., 2006;Killian & O'Regan, 2016;Mahama & Chua, 2016;Quattrone, 2022;Vosselman & Van der Meer-Kooistra, 2009). Accounting scholarship, however, tends to be largely focused on individual entities, rather than on the collective activities of coalitions. ...
... A first and large body of literature focused on the grand challenges related to sustainability as the latter is widely considered one of the most urgent concerns to face (e.g., Doh et al., 2019;Reinecke and Ansari, 2016). From this point of view, some authors have emphasized the current limits to sustainability measurement and reporting, pushing towards the development of new accounting solutions useful to improve corporate impacts on the environment and society (e.g., Adams and Abhayawansa, 2022;Bebbington and Unerman, 2020;Quattrone 2021). In the wake of this line of thinking and relying on corporate sustainability conflicts and paradoxes, other scholars underlined the need to formulate new accounting solutions aimed at detecting and revealing the possible tensions that arise from the multifaceted nature of sustainability challenges (e.g., Jørgensen et al., 2022). ...
The current uncertain and emergency environment is challenging business management like never before. Companies are called to face many complex and wicked problems affecting society on a global scale. Climate change, global pandemics, social inequalities, war conflicts, digital transformation, and energy supply shortages are only a few of the critical issues companies must deal with daily. Performance measurement systems and management control practices can have a key role in addressing such a turbulent environment. Accordingly, the literature has recently started investigating their role in supporting companies facing societal "Grand Challenges". The scientific debate on this topic is intense but still in its infancy leaving open wide research areas that need to be further explored and investigated.
... This study focuses on Palestine's unique economic and regulatory environment and explores how audit firms adapt to these challenges and contribute to financial reporting transparency and quality (Quattrone, 2021). By investigating the impact of KAM disclosures on financial reporting quality in Palestine, this study addresses a significant research gap and offers insights applicable to emerging markets. ...
This study investigates the interaction between audit firms and key audit matters (KAMs) to measure their impact on financial reporting quality in Palestine, thereby enriching the discourse on financial reporting. A descriptive statistical method was used to analyze the audit reports of listed Palestinian firms from 2018 to 2022. A methodology that scrutinizes the clarity and informativeness of KAMs across different audit firms and KAM types, the research investigates how audit procedures and risk assessments contribute to the comprehensibility of KAM disclosures. The findings highlight a significant disparity in the readability of KAMs attributable to audit firm selection, with the non-Big Four firms exhibiting distinct approaches. This understanding, gathered through multivariate analysis, offers valuable contributions to the ongoing discourse on financial reporting quality, emphasizing the essential role of audit firms in shaping the effectiveness of audit reports and KAM disclosures.
... Implementing strict anti-retaliation policies ensures that employees who report misconduct are protected from adverse actions, such as dismissal, demotion, or harassment. Promptly investigating and addressing reported concerns demonstrates the company's commitment to ethical conduct and transparency (Quattrone, 2022). Promoting transparency in corporate governance is essential for building trust, ensuring accountability, and enhancing the overall integrity of an organization (Sofyani et al., 2020). ...
... Stakeholders could be defined as "any individual, group, organisation, institution that can affect as well as be affected by an individual's, group's, organisation's, or institution's policy or policies" (Mitroff & Linstone, 1993, p. 141). Stakeholders could be individuals, groups, organisations or nature (Quattrone, 2022). ...
... Rather, the standards of transparent governance envisage the full and timely disclosure of all material information not only about the company's financial position but also about the features of its management practices. Studies show that companies adhering to these standards of openness finance their activities at a significantly lower cost, and fewer of them are refused financing [5]. Additionally, transparency makes business entities disclose fraudulent schemes and account manipulations. ...
This paper examines the relationship between board characteristics, risk management processes, and financial performance of corporations. The study aims to determine the impact of board composition (size, independence, and expertise) on firm performance and to test the moderating role of risk management practices (risk management committee and risk disclosure) in this association. A mixed-method approach was employed, incorporating descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression models, mediation analysis, and robustness checks using firm-level data. Results indicate that certain board features substantially and positively influence financial performance metrics such as ROA and ROE. Additionally, risk management practices positively contribute to better financial outcomes. Mediation analysis reveals that risk disclosure partially mediates the relationship between board characteristics and financial performance, acting as a mechanism through which governance influences better financial results. Robustness tests confirm the reliability of these relationships across various model specifications. This research contributes significantly to the understanding of corporate governance and its value to organizations, offering practical implications for those involved in governance, policy, and research aimed at enhancing firm performance through effective governance and risk management.
... Islamic finance, guided by Sharia principles, operates on adherence to ethical and moral values, emphasising risk-sharing and promoting socioeconomic development (Shafii and Zakaria, 2013). As the industry expands, standardised accounting practices become imperative to ensure transparency, comparability and credibility in financial reporting (Quattrone, 2021). In response, many Islamic finance entities have aligned their practices with international accounting standards/international financial reporting standards (IAS/IFRS) to integrate into the global financial system (Alhabshi et al., 2017). ...
Purpose
Emerging economies are increasingly benefiting from Islamic finance principles. The distinctive features of this unconventional form of finance are starting to be considered even in developed economies. Islamic finance operates under prohibitions on interest, gambling, speculation and complex derivatives according to the dogma in the Quran, Sunnah, Ijma and Qiyas. International financial reporting standards (IFRS) allow companies to attract global capital due to overcoming international borders. However, Islamic finance cannot apply all accounting standards. Therefore, this study aims to explore the implementation of international accounting standards in the Islamic finance context to present applications and future research fields.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a bibliometric and coding analysis, the study analyses 226 peer-reviewed journal papers extracted from the Scopus database. Using the bibliometrix package, the authors explored the literature’s intellectual, conceptual and social structures, categorising the findings into thematic clusters relevant to traditional and Islamic finance paradigms.
Findings
The results reveal new and interesting elements using the lens of the conceptual, intellectual and social structure. Additionally, the authors find out three main thematic clusters: (1) IFRS and Islamic finance: general principles; (2) IFRS and Zakat; (3) IFRS and Murabaha compatibility; (4) IFRS and Takaful; and (5) IFRS and auditing organisation for Islamic financial institution: governance strategies.
Originality/value
The contribution is original as the authors discover institutional theory perspectives and a diatribe between positivist and ontological approaches.
... This theory emphasizes the importance of synchronizing the social values of corporate operations with the norms existing in the communities where the company operates, as expressed by (Caputo et al., 2021). Furthermore, the legitimacy theory seeks to provide a comprehensive perspective on reporting corporate activities related to sustainability and acknowledges that companies operate within ethical boundaries and accepted social norms, as illustrated by (Quattrone, 2022). ...
This study is designed to assess the empirical impact of increased profitability, leverage, and carbon emission disclosure on the scale of sustainability reporting. A quantitative method was chosen as the primary approach, relying on secondary data as a source of information. Observations were conducted on manufacturing entities listed in the Sharia Securities List in Indonesia and Malaysia during the period from 2021 to 2023, using purposive sampling techniques resulting in a sample of 105 companies. Descriptive and verificative statistical methods were employed for data analysis, including panel data regression using fixed effects models. Eviews 12 software was adopted as the analytical tool. The empirical findings of this research indicate that increased profitability and carbon emission disclosure significantly contribute to the expansion of sustainability reporting disclosure. On the other hand, increased leverage does not have a significant negative impact on the scale of sustainability reporting disclosure.
... So, what is the point of continuing to measure, survey and control if the measurable quantities, as Carnegie and Kudo (2023) argue, are few, unavailable or nothing more than mere estimates of monetary values, indeed defying audit or independent authentication (Carnegie and Napier, 2023) and, more importantly, do not fit the specific organisational and social contexts in which such unique entities operate? Indeed, according to Quattrone (2022, Dormant values of accounting p. 557), "the Romans taught us: Facts are always 'made' (from the Latin factum, 'made')". What do we teach? ...
Purpose
This paper presents a critical examination of the contemporary state of the accounting discipline and poses the question of its future trajectory. The aim of the study is to show that the path to be followed is the one traced by the masters of the discipline, which lies in the wake of the rediscovery of social and moral values and shared value.
Design/methodology/approach
Study of the conceptual nature of research topic, that is, the discipline of accounting, in an intertemporal exploration through some selected theoretical constructs.
Findings
There is no need for a new accounting science with new paradigms, but only for a recovery of the social and moral values of accounting that have lain dormant during the dusty centuries of human history.
Research limitations/implications
The study does not provide an extensive analysis of the evolution of accounting history.
Practical implications
The recovery of the social and ethical dimension will not only make accounting more attractive to young students but will also have a medium-term impact on the profession, freeing it from the stereotypes of an unexciting and aseptic discipline. This broadening of scope and momentum inspires the engagement of academics, practitioners, experts and policymakers in confronting and proactively addressing the complex challenges that the world faces today, toward the United Nations 2030 Agenda and beyond.
Originality/value
This historical paper’s originality lies in its intertemporal perspective.
... While the 'business case' for voluntary corporate responsibility is insufficient to tackle societal concerns, businesses and governments need an integrated framework to consider the needs of all stakeholders and not just a privileged few (Busch et al., 2023). An important element of such governance is the development of adequate measures for sustainability accounting that not only recognize nature as a stakeholder but also consider value plurality (Arjaliès, Laurel-Fois, & Mottis, 2023;Quattrone, 2022). Here we also need to keep paying attention to variations in political economy institutions. ...
To confront the climate crisis requires fundamental system change in order to break the convention of relentless economic exploitation of nature. In this Special Issue we extend understanding of the opportunities for an organizing perspective on sustainability in order that organization studies might contribute more effectively to the challenges of organizing sustainably. This organizing perspective is particularly sensitive to (1) a variety of forms and practices of sustainable organizing in different societal spheres and on different levels, (2) the social institutions, logics and value systems in which these forms and practices are embedded, (3) the power and politics of promoting (or blocking) sustainable organization, and (4) the ways in which work, voice, participation, and inclusion are organized and contribute to developing societal capabilities. These features formed the basis of our original call for papers and we review selected literature on sustainability, including the contribution of organization studies and the articles in this Special Issue, through this organizing perspective. In so doing we identify four key themes of a future research agenda that builds from the foundations of existing research and addresses key current limitations in both theory and practice: sustainability requires social justice; connecting local and global scale shifts; democratizing governance; and acting collectively. We conclude with some implications for our own scholarship in organization studies if we are to meet the twin challenges of the need for new theorizing in combination with devising practically relevant support for change.
... In other words, this acquisition is full of the possibilities of failure. Just as the concept "transparency" by professor Paolo Quattrone indicated in his report in 2022, the transparency of the disclosed "chance to develop the metaverse" this acquisition could bring would make people blind and ignore the things behind [16]. Therefore, it is better for Microsoft to frequently engage pulling all divisions in the company to discuss for preparation and solution of any uncertainty that is coming up. ...
The news of Microsoft spending huge amount of money doing acquisition of Activision Blizzard shocked many game players. It was questioned by people. Why did Microsoft choose to acquire Blizzard under the condition that Blizzard seemed going downhill with its management and was stuggled with its employee sexual harrasement scandal? Why is Blizzard still worth so much value for Microsoft? What can Blizzard bring to Microsoft and what are the risks? Is the real purpose of such a big action by Microsoft just to expand its gaming business? Is the metaverse mentioned in Microsoft's announcement the real mission? This article is going to use the SWOT analysis to fully analyze Blizzard's own strengths and weaknesses, and to discover what kind of opportunities and threats it can bring to Microsoft in the industry it is in, to explore the things behind the game itself, but the key to open the door of the possibility and the success of a new area.
... Lakhal et al. (2023) defendem que o conselho não deveria apenas desenvolver políticas para garantir a maximização da riqueza dos shareholders, mas também políticas ambientais e sociais efetivas, tais como a redução de emissões e resíduos, utilização de fontes de energia renováveis, entre outros. Em relação aos relatórios financeiros, Quattrone (2022) propõe adicionar uma linha na demonstração do valor adicionado para incluir o valor "dado de volta" à natureza. Outra possibilidade apontada por Costanza et al. (2017) refere-se a investimento comum e uso comum, com base no Common Assets Trusts (CATs), uma instituição que pode atribuir direitos de propriedade aos bens comuns em nome da sociedade. ...
Resumo O termo “capital natural” teve sua origem atrelada à Economia; nos últimos anos, no entanto, discussões a seu respeito têm crescido na área de Contabilidade. Definido como o estoque de recursos naturais renováveis ou não renováveis, que se combinam para produzir um fluxo de benefícios para a sociedade e para os negócios, o capital natural fornece valor por meio dos seus serviços ecossistêmicos. Nesse caso, considerando que: o capital natural é derivado de recursos naturais que compõem o patrimônio natural, a combinação desses recursos contribui para que os negócios criem valor, e a participação da sociedade no valor gerado pelos negócios não é evidenciada pela contabilidade, o presente ensaio tem por objetivo propor a perspectiva teórica do shareholder invisível, tendo em vista a contribuição ainda não reconhecida da sociedade como fornecedora do capital natural aos negócios. Para tal, o estudo apresenta a relação entre o capital natural, os negócios e a sociedade, com base: nos aspectos associados a propriedade e controle, na contribuição do capital natural no processo de criação de valor dos negócios e nos elementos que envolvem a evidenciação dessa relação na contabilidade.
... Lakhal et al. (2023) argue that corporate boards should not only focus on policies for maximizing shareholder wealth but also develop effective environmental and social policies, such as reducing emissions, minimizing waste, and adopting renewable energy sources. In terms of financial reporting, Quattrone (2022) suggests adding a line in the value-added statement to reflect the value "given back" to nature. Costanza et al. (2017) propose the concept of common investment and common use, which can be based on Common Assets Trusts (CATs), institutions that assign ownership rights to common assets on behalf of society. ...
The term “natural capital” originated in the field of economics but has gained increasing prominence in accounting in recent years. Natural capital is the stock of renewable or non-renewable natural resources that benefit both society and businesses, providing value through ecosystem services. This essay proposes the theoretical perspective of the invisible shareholder, highlighting the often unacknowledged contribution of society as a supplier of natural capital to businesses. This perspective is grounded in the following observations: a) natural capital arises from the natural resources that constitute our natural heritage, b) the combination of these resources contributes to the value creation of businesses, and c) accounting disclosures typically do not account for society’s participation in the value generated by businesses The study examines the relationship between natural capital, business, and society based on aspects associated with ownership and control, the contribution of natural capital in the business value creation process, and the elements that involve disclosing this relationship in accounting.
... While the ontological investigations are important intellectual exercises and it could be argued that accounting may be experiencing its own "ontological turn" (Quattrone, 2022;Russell et al., 2017), how we operationalize ontological differences into actual practices is also important. Here we provide the paper's policy implications with respect to how the insights drawn from the case study could be applied by both the Australian government department and the Indigenous groups. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to present the findings of a government-initiated project that sought to explore the possibility of incorporating cultural connections to land within the federal national accounting system using the United Nations Systems of Environmental-Economic Accounting (UN-SEEA) framework as a basis.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a critical dialogic approach and responding to the calls for critical accountants to engage with stakeholders, the authors worked with two Indigenous groups of Australia to develop a system of accounts that incorporates their cultural connections to “Country”. The two groups were clans from the Mungguy Country in the Kakadu region of Northern Territory and the Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation of Northern Queensland. Conducting two-day workshops on separate occasions with both groups, the authors attempted to meld the Indigenous worldviews with the worldviews embodied within national accounting systems and the UN-SEEA framework.
Findings
The models developed highlight significant differences between the ontological foundations of Indigenous and Western-worldviews and the authors reflect on the tensions created between these competing worldviews. The authors also offer pragmatic solutions that could be implemented by the Indigenous Traditional Owners and the government in terms of developing such an accounting system that incorporates connections to Country.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to providing a contemporary case study of engagement with Indigenous peoples in the co-development of a system of accounting for and by Indigenous peoples; it also contributes to the ongoing debate on bridging the divide between critique and praxis; and finally, the paper delves into an area that is largely unexplored within accounting research which is national accounting.
... We opened our paper with the question: Does transparency improve accountability? We find UK NHS transparency regulations ("sunshine" laws) undermine accountability, which findings are consistent with prior research (e.g., Roberts, 2009;Quattrone, 2022). Conversely, Roberts (2001) commends closed private face-to-face unitary board meetings as creating a dynamic of openness and engagement leading to a dialogue conducive to accountability. ...
Purpose
To demonstrate transparency and accountability, the three boards in this study are required to meet in public in front of an audience, although the boards reserve confidential issues for discussion in private sessions. This study examines boardroom public accountability, contrasting it with accountability in board meetings held in private. The study adopts Erving Goffman's impression management theory to interpret divergences between boardroom behaviour in public and private, or “frontstage” and “backstage” in Goffman's terminology.
Design/methodology/approach
The research observes and video-records three board meetings for each of the three boards (nine board meetings), in public and private. The research operationalises accountability in terms of director-manager question-and-answer interactions.
Findings
In the presence of an audience of local stakeholders, the boards employ impression management techniques to demonstrate accountability, by creating the impression that non-executive directors are performing challenge and managers are providing satisfactory answers. Thus, they “save the show” in Goffman terms. These techniques enable board members and managers to navigate the interface between demonstrating the required good governance and the competence of the organisations and their managers, while not revealing issues that could tarnish their image and concern the stakeholders. The boards need to demonstrate to the audience that “matters are what they appear to be”, even if they are not. The research identifies behaviour consistent with impression management to manage this complexity. The authors conclude that regulatory objectives have not met their transparency aspirations.
Originality/value
For the first time, the research studies the effect of transparency regulations (“sunshine” laws) on the behaviour of boards of directors meeting in public. The study contributes to the embryonic literature based on video-taped board meetings to access the “black box” of the boardroom, which permits a study of impression management at board meetings not previously possible. This study extends prior impression management theory by identifying eleven impression management techniques that non-executive directors and managers use and which are unique to a boardroom context.
... An even greater and more direct impact can be expected from novel approaches to impact accounting, which translate firms' ecological and social externalities into the language of financial accounting: monetary units. For example, Quattrone (2021) and Barker and Mayer (2021) propose in their conceptual studies to extend the traditional financial accounting income statement by adding a monetary estimate of the firm's environmental externalities. In contrast, current sustainability requirements proposed by the ISSB and EFRAG stop short of requiring the monetization of corporate externalities and their integration into financial reports. ...
Financial accounting, the core of corporate reporting, is often characterized as the ‘language of business’. Over the last roughly 100 years, and using an evolving set of theories, methods, and data, scholarly work in this area has been contributing to our understanding of this language and how to improve it. This paper seeks, first, to characterize the field with a focus on its evolution in the German-speaking area, where, like elsewhere, normative research traditions interested in improving practice have been making way for positivist approaches that seek a detached understanding of ‘what is.’ Second, we discuss the changing users and institutional parameters that are reshaping corporate reporting, followed by our personal view of ‘wicked’ societal problems and challenges that corporate reporting might be able to help alleviate. Finally, we discuss directions in which research might evolve in order to address these issues, in order to make corporate reporting more useful for serving not only economic actors, but also society and the environment more broadly.
... Reflecting on the construct of emancipatory accounting they develop this to observe that diverse objectives suggest there should also be accountings (plural) (Gallhofer and Haslam, 2019), which through consideration of accounting in context lead to a more emancipatory approach to accounting as a whole. Quattrone (2022) mooted a change to the value-added statement, the inclusion of a line, a 'provision for nature', with a related 'fund for nature in the balance sheet', the idea of which is to demonstrate Nature as a stakeholder. He suggests that this disclosure would aid in moving from a capital market form of transparency, from understandings of communication as push not pull and to a space where stakeholders can engage in dialogue (Gray, 2001), a participatory space (Brown and Dillard, 2015), where emancipation can find a place (Gallhofer and Haslam, 2019). ...
Purpose
This paper explores the reporting of the Russian American Company (RAC), from 1840 to 1863. Trading in fur, company fears of animal extinctions viewed from a monetary perspective led to early extinction reporting practice. These were not altruistic reports; they were generated by a wish to use natural resources. Despite the motivations, these reports present an example of successful extinction management by a for-profit company and a workable example of emancipatory extinction accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
Using thematic analysis, this study demonstrates how moving from transparency to accountability driven accounting can assist in biodiversity reporting, by exploring this historical business case of extinction management through the lens of Atkins and Maroun's (2018) extinction framework.
Findings
The application of the framework to the RAC's set of reports indicates that this offers a viable proposal for development of extinction management, providing a reporting tool for a for-profit company.
Originality/value
Exploring RAC's reports focusing on their extinction management processes and reporting, the paper contributes to the contemporary debate on the development of extinction reporting frameworks. These historical examples of extinction accounting, show extinction management and reporting is not a unique contemporary development in accounting. The research uses historical data as the empirical foundation for exploring applicability and further development of this extinction framework.
... Consequently, future research should further investigate how compliance with NFR requirements depends on existing governance mechanisms. For example, considering recent changes to improve and harmonise the quality of environmental disclosures (in line with the European Green Deal Agenda), policies for the inclusion of knowledgeable directors to represent the voice of nature (Quattrone, 2022) on corporate boards could enhance sustainability reporting. ...
This study investigates how the European Union (EU) Directive (2014/95) on Non-Financial Reporting and employee representation within the board affects the extent and quality of employee-related disclosures. Using a sample of Swedish firms listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm Exchange, we find that both the Directive and employee representation on the board positively affect the extent and quality of disclosures on employee-related matters. We document that employee-related disclosures are more precise and less uncertain among firms with employee representatives, although the level of uncertainty increases after implementing the Directive. Moreover, our interaction analysis indicates that the Directive and employee representatives affect employee-related disclosures independently. This finding suggests that both internal corporate governance and external regulation are important, and that the Directive ensures a minimum extent of disclosures at firms that lack internal governance mechanisms (i.e. employee representation on their corporate boards).
... Yet, the price paid for natural resource-based CSAs often does not reflect the total cost of their extraction from the natural environment (Quattrone, 2022). If natural resource-based CSAs are extracted too quickly, businesses risk disrupting nature's balance and undermining the resiliency of ecosystems. ...
All business contributes to environmental crises because of its focus on profit. We argue that international business (IB) contributes more than its fair share. IB's focus on cross-border arbitrage has led to the over-extraction of natural resources and the accumulation of waste. This is a problem, because natural resources are limited in quantity and embedded in their local environment. It is time for IB researchers to step up and substantially and meaningfully address IB’s contribution to environmental crises by embracing the principles of natural systems processes within its core assumptions and improving its theorizing of natural resources. In this paper, we take a step forward in this direction by revisiting and refining the theoretical dimensions of country-specific advantages (CSAs) and firm-specific advantages (FSAs) to recognize natural resources more explicitly. We propose three natural resource-based strategies for multinational enterprises (MNEs): reducing, replacing, and regenerating. This article offers a new theoretical perspective to understand how IB can create value and steward the natural environment, contributing to the sustainability of business, society, and the planet.
... The type of normative method development hailed in (Brander 2022) may indeed contribute to resolving some of those challenges. Yet the authors also demonstrate that this traceability infrastructure must mediate between multiple competing interests (Power 2019) and is mutually constituted with its political and institutional environment (Mol 2015;Quattrone 2021). This does not dispel the potential of normative method development. ...
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has entered a new era, with insights from the social sciences now seen as critical to informing global policymaking decisions on the climate crisis. Previously, economists dominated the social science contribution through their proactive engagement with climate related intergovernmental bodies such as the IPCC. While this dominance has been criticised by academics from other disciplines, arguably they were somewhat complicit by their silence or assumptions that they would be sought out for input. It is worth noting that the IPCC does not commission research, but rather derives all its findings from existing scientific publications. However, the IPCC scientists need to know where to look for this work and for the content of these publications to be easily assimilated into their interdisciplinary deliberative processes .
Performance management, accountability, and transparency are three closely interconnected concepts. Their importance in the reform processes that have characterized the regulatory evolution of the Italian public administration is evident. However, the translation of these concepts into operational practices, particularly within the Ministries, remains limited. By analysing the experiences of some top managers, the Italian context is examined using a model structured around four dimensions, each representing a key driver for effective management of performance, accountability, and transparency: administrative tradition, the role of public managers, the significance of reporting, and the emphasis on transparent results. The analysis reveals that the evolution of legislation has resulted in only minor and inconsistent changes. Furthermore, the promotion of a single regulation for the entire public sector has been ineffective due to the lack of accompanying adjustments to the levels of autonomy and responsibility of managers and organizations.
Purpose
The study investigates how sustainability reporting constructs a narrative about an organization that provides its members with a reality they can accept, with the consequence of producing organizational stability.
Design/methodology/approach
The article reports a research engagement concerning the “backstage” of sustainability reporting in one Spanish savings bank, which the researchers engaged with for more than three years.
Findings
The article describes how sustainability reporting operates as a boundary object occupying the space between the organization’s loosely coupled systems and facilitating the cooperation of members with different interpretations of the organization. Different translations of discourses and actions ensure that the sustainability report conveys a ductile narrative that can be tailored to specific interpretations. At the same time, the editing inherent in sustainability reporting ensures that any narrative that may challenge the organization’s dominant perspective is ignored and marginalized. In this way, sustainability reporting produces a discourse that inscribes a narrative of the organization and eventually ensures organizational inertia.
Research limitations/implications
The article highlights the relevance of investigating sustainability reports by exploring the backstage of their production rather than solely the final document.
Originality/value
In contrast to prior research that has been concerned with exploring the extent to which sustainability reporting is associated with organizational change, this study applies different lenses to show how and why sustainability reporting is implicated in the construction of the organization and the maintenance of its stability and inertia.
How do numbers and calculations relate to organizing? This paper draws on a selection of articles published in Organization Studies to discuss why and how counting counts, navigating the domains of the ordered, evident, and known, as well as those of the disordered, ambiguous, and unknown. In these domains, we identify different perspectives on calculative practices in organization studies: from datafication and the making of categories, to calculative infrastructures and the making of collective things, to the aesthetics of numbers and the making of affects. These perspectives reveal that while numbers reduce, simplify, and clarify, they also offer insights into the complexity, obscurity, and ambiguity of our world through their inherent incompleteness and gaps. Such insights suggest opportunities for organization scholars to employ numbers and calculations as lenses to research phenomena both in the domain of cognition and senses, as well as in that of the mysterious and unsensed. This shift highlights a renewed interest in a phenomenology of quantification, inviting organization scholars to engage with calculations—embracing their ambiguity, limitations, and even magical qualities—as cues to explore what eludes the senses.
Purpose
With the recent conclusion of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) 28 in the United Arab Emirates, this study aims to investigate the tweeting behaviour of firms surrounding COP events. The authors analyse the environmental, social and governance (ESG) tweets from the COP 26 and COP 27 events, aiming to deepen the understanding of the complex relationships between social media communication, industry characteristics and financial performance. This timely analysis is critical for assessing how the latest global discussions on climate change are influencing corporate communication strategies on sustainability, offering fresh insights into the evolving dynamics of ESG engagement in the context of these pivotal international meetings.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors embrace a grounded theory approach to gain insights into the ESG and sustainability initiatives presented by companies on social media, with an intensified focus on climate change discourse. Leveraging advanced social media analytics, this study expands its scope by conducting a thorough examination of ESG-related tweets from Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 companies. In addition, the authors explore the relationships between such communication efforts and financial performance, applying an advanced cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) model. This methodological enhancement enables a more sophisticated understanding of how ESG communication on Twitter correlates with, and potentially influences, a firm’s market valuation and financial health, offering invaluable insights into the strategic importance of digital sustainability discourse.
Findings
The research findings introduce four novel distinct groups – Unengaged, Catalysts, Cautious and Shapers – based on firms’ proactive or reactive sustainability communication patterns. The results explore the potential impact of COP event locations on tweeting behaviour, proposing that conferences held in different regions, such as Asia versus Europe, may elicit varied reactions from S&P 500 firms. Despite no significant inter-industry differences in tweeting habits, the authors discover a significant link between firms’ financial metrics, specifically CARs, and their categorised communication styles. The results challenge the simplistic view that higher social media engagement leads to positive financial outcomes, suggesting instead that lower financial performance may drive firms to adopt more extreme communication patterns, possibly as a strategic move to enhance corporate legitimacy.
Originality/value
This study offers new insights into how companies use social media during significant climate change events, namely, COP events. By classifying firms according to their ESG communication approaches, the results reveal uncharted correlations between how companies communicate on social media, namely, Twitter, and the correlation to financial performance.
Purpose
To advance understanding of transparency by problematising the motivations and strategies of a so far underexplored group: its users.
Design/methodology/approach
We explore the relationship between blindness, visibility, and transparency by drawing on our analysis of Max Frisch’s experimental novel Gantenbein (1964), in which the protagonist lives a life of feigned blindness.
Findings
The accounting scholarly debate on transparency has neglected the users of transparency. We address this through a novel theorisation of transparency as a game, highlighting some of its distinctive features and paradoxes.
Originality/value
By theorising the transparency game we move beyond concerns with what transparency reveals or conceals and conceptualise the motivations and strategies of the players engaged in this game. We show how different players have something to gain from the transparency game and warn of its emancipatory limits.
Given that the aim of corporate social and environmental disclosure mandates is to improve corporate social and environmental performance, this study investigates the impact of such mandates on performance. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we examine trends in corporate social and environmental performance before and after the introduction of Directive 2014/95/EU (hereafter, the Directive), comparing affected European companies with companies in the United States (US), based on a balanced sample of 358 European companies (excluding United Kingdom (UK) companies, because they were subject to additional regulations that came into effect around the same time) and 470 US companies from 2009-2020. We find that European companies’ performance has not improved substantially since the Directive came into effect in 2017, nor have they improved compared to US companies. Thus, the evidence suggests that the Directive has not improved European companies’ social and environmental performance. Our study provides broad-based evidence of the (in)effectiveness of mandating corporate social and environmental disclosures to enhance performance. Our findings will be of interest to regulators considering disclosure mandates, as well as stakeholders and investors interested in enhancing social and environmental performance.
Purpose
This paper follows the call for more future-oriented practices within organisations, particularly in relation to how they respond to growing concerns about Earth’s sustainability and life on the Planet. This study aims to explore how the data produced by major scientific projects in the Space sector can support future-oriented accountability practices by enabling both a projection and an imagination of a more or less distant future, thereby feeding into accountability practices.
Design/methodology/approach
We rely upon a multiple interpretative case study analysis and interview-based data from three main organisations in the Earth observation (EO) value chain: an International Space Company, a Research Centre of Energy Transition and a European Private Equity Firm.
Findings
We find that future-oriented accountability practices can be fed by a creative assemblage of scientific data provided by Space sector’s programmes with different sources of knowledge and information. These data are embedded into a broader accountability system, connecting different actors through a “value chain”: from the data providers, gathering data from Space, to the primary users, working on data modelling and analysis, to the end users, such as local authorities, public and private organisations. The predictive data and expertise exchanged throughout the value chain feed into future-oriented accountability efforts across different time-space contexts, as a projected and imagined, more or less distant, future informs the actions and accounts in the present.
Originality/value
This research extends the literature on the time dimension of accountability. We show how a creative assemblage of scientific data with different sources of knowledge and information –such as those provided by Space sector’s programmes and EO data – enable organisations to both project the present into (a more or less distant) future and imagine this future differently while taking responsibility, and accounting for, what could be done and desired in response to it. We also contribute to the limited literature on accountability in the Space sector by examining the intricate accountability dynamics underpinning the relationships among the different actors in the EO data value chain.
Given that the aim of corporate social and environmental disclosure mandates is to improve corporate social and environmental performance, this study investigates the impact of such mandates on performance. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we examine trends in corporate social and environmental performance before and after the introduction of Directive 2014/95/EU (hereafter, the Directive), comparing affected European companies with companies in the United States (US), based on a balanced sample of 358 European companies (excluding United Kingdom (UK) companies, because they were subject to additional regulations that came into effect around the same time) and 470 US companies from 2009-2020. We find that European companies’ performance has not improved substantially since the Directive came into effect in 2017, nor have they improved compared to US companies. Thus, the evidence suggests that the Directive has not improved European companies’ social and environmental performance. Our study provides broad-based evidence of the (in)effectiveness of mandating corporate social and environmental disclosures to enhance performance. Our findings will be of interest to regulators considering disclosure mandates, as well as stakeholders and investors interested in enhancing social and environmental performance.
Green sukuk is a contemporary-era sharia investment revolution that accommodates environmental aspects. Integrating Sustainable Financing in green sukuk can be an alternative investment platform contributing to sustainable development. The concept paradigm is relevant for strengthening the proportional construction of green sukuk law in Indonesia. The study aimed to analyze the concept of sustainable financing as the legal basis for implementing green sukuk in supporting sustainable development programs in Indonesia. The study used normative legal research methods. This research approach used a conceptual approach through reasoning the concepts of sustainable financing, green sukuk, and other concepts relevant to the topic of study to strengthen the discussion argument. The study showed that there are 2 (two) components of the relevance of the Sustainable Financing paradigm as the basis for implementing green sukuk in Indonesia. First, the implementation of green sukuk in various countries has rules that accommodate sustainable financing in response to climate change problems. Second, the sustainable financing Paradigm is relevant as a source of green sukuk legal construction to strengthen the policy basis for implementing environmentally sound investment in Indonesia. The urgency of the regulation is to increase investment commitments that can increase environmental resilience, alleviation of social problems and business transparency in contributing to sustainable development in Indonesia.
Purpose
This study explores how introducing a permissioned blockchain in a supply chain context impacts accountability relationships and the process of rendering an account. The authors explore how implementing a digital transformation impacts the governance of network transactions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors mobilize 28 interviews and documentary analysis. The authors focus on early blockchain adopters to get an insight into how implementing a permissioned blockchain can transform information sharing, coordination and collaboration between business partners, now converted into network participants.
Findings
The authors suggest that implementing a permissioned blockchain impacts accountability across three levers, namely through the ledger, through the code and through the people, where these levers are interconnected. Blockchains are often valued for their ability to enable transparency through the visibility of transactions, but the authors argue that this is an incomplete view. Rather, transparency alone does not help to satisfy a duty of accountability, as it can result in selective disclosure or obfuscation.
Originality/value
The authors extend the conceptualizations of accountability in the blockchain literature by focusing on how accountability relationships are enacted, and accounts are rendered in a permissioned blockchain context. Additionally, the authors complement existing work on accountability and governance by suggesting an integrated model across three dimensions: ledger, code and people.
Purpose
Although accounting and reporting visualisations (i.e. graphs, maps and grids) are often used to veil organisations’ untransparent actions, these practices perform irrespectively of their ability to represent facts. In this research, the authors explore accounting and reporting visualisations beyond their persuasive and representational purpose.
Design/methodology/approach
By building on previous research on the rhetoric of visualisations, the authors illustrate how the design of accounting visualisations within integrated reports engages managers in a recursive process of knowledge construction, interrogation, reflection and speculation on what sustainable value creation means. The authors articulate the theoretical framework by developing a longitudinal field study in International Fashion Company, a medium-sized company operating in the fashion industry.
Findings
This research shows that accounting and reporting visualisations do not only contribute to creating unclear and often contradicting representations of organisations’ sustainable performance but, at the same time, “open up” and support managers’ unfolding search for “sustainable value” by reducing its unknown meaning into known and understandable categories. The inconsistencies and imperfections that accounting and reporting visualisations leave constitute the conditions of possibility for the interrogation of the unknown to happen in practice, thus augmenting managers’ questioning, reflections and speculation on what sustainable value means.
Originality/value
This study shows that accounting and reporting visualisations can represent good practices (the authors are not saying a “solution”) through which managers can re-appreciate the complexities of measuring and defining something that is intrinsically unknown and unknowable, especially in contexts where best practices have not yet consolidated into a norm. Topics such as climate change and sustainable development are out there and cannot be ignored, cannot be reduced through persuasive accounts and, therefore, need to be embraced.
The way individual actors in organisations are involved in local social orders and handle knowledge to manage everyday tasks may take various forms not sanctioned by formal organisational hierarchy, yet with the potential to affect a company’s managerial work and guide the development of formal practices. This qualitative case study deploys the concept of vernacular accountings (Kilfoyle et al., Citation2013) to an organisation building a business in a circular economy (CE) context. The case illustrates locally self-generated accountings as an inherent part of an organisation’s management system’s development and as tools individuals apply to manage their occupational tasks to cope with a diversity of beliefs and traditions within CE networks. The case organisation is an intermediary of industrial side streams circulation in the agricultural sector, allowing for examination of the role human–nature relationships and local understandings play in developing organisational processes and accounting practices. Moreover, the study illustrates how vernacular accountings may reveal deficiencies in formal officially sanctioned systems and thus contribute to developing management accounting and control practices. In this view, the way individuals interact, participate in vernacular information economies and produce information to justify their decisions may play a key role in understanding management accounting and control in a nonconventional business environment. The study also emphasises the importance of understanding various orientations towards sustainability and nature embraced by participants in CE business networks, suggesting that vernacular accountings may hold the potential to capture this diversity.
A high level of company bankruptcy in certain countries and a low level of profitability actualizes the need to find additional mechanisms for increasing the efficiency of their activities. One of such mechanisms is the growth of information transparency. The study deals with examining the effects of accounting information transparency on business performance on the example of construction companies in G7 countries. The transparency index was used as a parameter characterizing the level of accounting information transparency. The level of business performance was analyzed using the following indicators: value added of the construction industry, investment in the construction industry, number of construction firms, profitability of the construction industry, annual all-work construction output index, and total employees in construction firms. The dependence between the indicators was analyzed using the multiple regression analysis, Dickey-Fuller, Philips Perron, and Johansen tests. According to the results, the most vital link was between the level of accounting information transparency and the volume of investments (increased information transparency by 1 point leads to an increase in the volume of investments from 1.7% to 4.6%). At the same time, the level of accounting information transparency practically does not affect the number of employees (change by 0.1-0.2%) and added value (change by 0.1-0.3%). It was concluded that the policy of accounting information transparency should be an essential element of company strategy aimed to increase the level of its investment attractiveness and confidence of investors and consumers in its activities.
I suggest that the SEA research community has not engaged significantly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change because our community generally does not offer normative policy-focused advice on how to account for climate change. This raises the question ‘Why not?’. It cannot be because there is no demand for normative accounting guidance, as examples of this need abound everywhere. And it cannot be because normativity is ‘not academic’ as other academic disciplines engage in normative research, notably the fields of economics and life cycle assessment. The SEA research community may be constrained by its social constructivist epistemology, its focus on explanatory theory which drives us towards explanatory rather than normative questions, and our training in social science research methods rather than direct engagement with how to do social and environmental accounting. Notwithstanding the challenges there is a pressing need for better accounting practice, and who better to develop methods for social and environmental accounting than the social and environmental accounting research community? Arguably, there should be more normative research on how social and environmental accounting should be done.
Externalities comprise economic, social and/or environmental impacts arising from the activities of an entity that are borne by others, at least in the short term. As they do not feedback directly into immediate financial consequences for the entity, they tend to be outside the remit of financial reporting. A dispersed academic accounting literature on externalities has hitherto developed separately from concerns about what information is appropriate to report on corporate performance. This paper develops insights into accounting for, and reporting of, externalities that are intended to improve the use of externalities information in breaking down silos between the traditionally discrete domains of financial reporting and sustainability reporting, and between silos within sustainability reporting. Challenges in such use of externalities information are explored, including difficulties inherent in the quantification of externalities. The paper also highlights ways in which externalities can progressively become internalised, thereby bringing them more readily within the domain of economically focused financial reporting practices. An agenda for further research to help enhance the accounting for, and reporting of, externalities is also proposed.
Purpose
To consider and compare different ways of using numbers to value aspects of nature-beyond-the-human through case analysis of ecological and natural capital accounting practices in the UK that create standardised numerical-monetary values for beyond-human natures. In addition, to contrast underlying ontological and ethical assumptions of these arithmetical approaches in ecological accounting with those associated with Pythagorean nature-numbering practices and fractal geometry. In doing so, to draw out distinctions between arithmetical and geometrical ontologies of nature and their relevance for ‘valuing nature’.
Design/methodology/approach
Close reading and review of policy texts and associated calculations in 1) UK natural capital accounts for ‘opening stock’ inventories in 2007 and 2014, and 2) in the experimental implementation of biodiversity offsetting in land-use planning in England. Tracking the iterative calculations of biodiversity offset requirements in a specific planning case. Conceptual review, drawing on and contrasting different numbering practices being applied so as to generate numerical-economic values for natures-beyond-the-human.
Findings
In the cases of ecological accounting practices analysed here, the natures thus numbered are valued and ‘accounted for’ using arithmetical methodologies that create commensurability, and facilitate appropriation of the value so created. Notions of non-monetary value, and associated practices, are marginalised. Instead of creating standardisation and clarity, however, the accounting practices we consider for natural capital accounts and biodiversity offsetting create nature-signalling numbers that are struggled over and contested.
Originality/value
This is the first critical engagement with the specific policy texts and case applications considered here, and, we believe, the first attempt to contrast arithmetical and geometrical numbering practices in their application to the understanding and valuing of natures-beyond-the-human.
Platform organizations such as Uber, eBay and Airbnb represent a growing disruptive phenomenon in contemporary capitalism, transforming economic organization, the nature of work, and the distribution of wealth. This paper investigates the accounting practices that underpin this new form of organizing, and in doing so confronts a significant challenge within the accounting literature: the need to escape what Hopwood (1996) describes as its “hierarchical consciousness”. In order to do so, this paper develops the concept of evaluative infrastructure which describes accounting practices that enable platform based organization. They are evaluative because they deploy a plethora of interacting devices, including rankings, ratings, reviews, and audits to establish orders of worth. They are infrastructures because they provide the invisible yet essential mechanisms for the flow of economic activity and exchange on platforms. Illustrating the concept of evaluative infrastructure with the example of eBay, the paper's contribution is to (1) provide an analytical vocabulary to capture the accounting practices underpinning platforms as new organizational forms, and in so doing (2) extend accounting scholars' analytical focus from hierarchical settings towards heterarchies. Conceptually, this shift from management accounting to evaluative infrastructures entails a focus on relationality (evaluative infrastructures do not represent or reference but relate things, people and ideas with each other); generativity (evaluative infrastructures do not territorialize objects but disclose new worlds); and new forms of control (evaluative infrastructures are not centres of calculation; rather, control is radically distributed, whilst power remains centralized).
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the proposition that corporate social responsibility reporting could be viewed as both an outcome of, and part of reputation risk management processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws heavily on management research. In addition, an image restoration framework is introduced.
Findings
The concept of reputation risk management could assist in the understanding of corporate social responsibility reporting practice.
Originality/value
This paper explores the link between reputation risk management and existing theorising in social accounting.
This article reports on an investigation into the relationship between corporate value added and its macroeconomic counterparts. The first part demonstrates the effect on macroaccounting identities of conflicting value systems and differing perceptions of wealth creation. Subsequently, these issues are reconsidered in the context of corporate value added measurement. The comparative method is employed to test whether or not current practice is consistent with a model of social consolidation whereby reporting firms, regardless of their location, would disclose their contribution to societal value added.
The emergence of sustainable development as the complex notion through which social and environmental issues must be addressed - whether at policy, personal or organisational levels - has had a growing influence in the accounting literature. In addition to explorations of what sustainability may mean for accounting and finance, we have experienced a growth in both critiques of sustainability reporting (sic) and in experiments and speculations on how accounting for sustainability might advance. This growth - as with social and environmental accounting before it - has very properly attracted critique. One convergent theme in that critique has been a challenge that much of the realist and procedural baggage associated with conventional accounting is no longer apposite when seeking to account for sustainability. What may be required, is a more nuanced understanding of what 'sustainability' actually is and how, if at all, it can have any empirical meaning at the level of the organisation. This essay seeks to initiate an auto-critique of accounting for sustainability via an examination of meanings and contradictions in sustainable development which, in turn, leads towards a suggestion for the development of multiple and conditional narratives that whilst no longer realist or totalising, explicitly challenge the hegemonic claims of business movements in the arena of sustainability and sustainable development.
This paper narrates the efforts made in Italy after the end of the Second World War to develop an economic and social model in between corporate capitalism and planned economy, on the one hand, and shareholder versus stakeholder capitalism on the other. The result was the institutional infrastructure that supported the Istituto per la Ricostruzione industriale (IRI), a state-owned public holding in charge of managing the funds of the so-called Marshall Plan. The history of IRI illustrates the importance of a pragmatic approach to dealing with institutional constraints and opportunities when faced with the need to reconstruct t destroyed economies in a context of very fragmented societies such as those of post-war Italy. The result was the resistance to an acritical adoption of the corporate American model and the definition of a more balanced form of capitalism. In an era of new recovery plans, there is a lot we can learn from IRI’s history. © 2022 by Emerald Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the contributions made to the social and environmental accounting literature by papers that comprised a 2002 Special Issue of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ) entitled social and environmental reporting and its role in maintaining or creating organisational legitimacy. This paper will also provide insights into the origins of legitimacy theory as used in the social and environmental accounting literature as well as providing reflections about the strengths, and shortcomings, of the theory. Suggestions are made with respect to the ongoing application, and development, of legitimacy theory.
Design/methodology/approach
As a commentary, this paper utilises a review of the social and environmental accounting and institutional literature across a number of decades to reveal insights about the development and use of legitimacy theory as a basis to explain social and environmental reporting practices. Citation data are also used to indicate the potential impact that the papers in the 2002 Special Issue had upon subsequent research.
Findings
This commentary shows that the 2002 Special Issue is the most highly cited issue in the history of AAAJ . It also shows that individually, some of the papers in the Special Issue represent some of the most highly cited papers in the social and environmental accounting literature. The commentary provides arguments to suggest that the development of legitimacy theory is in need of further refinement, and suggests a way in which this refinement might take place.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is largely based on the opinions of one researcher, and the evidence presented in the paper is selected on the basis that it is deemed sufficient to support the opinions being projected. The paper also relies on citation data as an indicator of “impact”. The implication of the research is that it identifies a “way forward” for the development of theory applicable to the understanding of organisational social and environmental reporting practices.
Originality/value
The study provides evidence to show that the 2002 Special Issue was significant within the context of AAAJ , and also within the context of the evolution of the social and environmental accounting literature. The description of the history of the development of legitimacy theory, and of the theory’s subsequent application, provides a solid impetus for future refinements to the theory.
The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on legitimacy by investigating its material and visual dimensions. By drawing on studies on rhetoric as a means of composing visions of social order and on an historical analysis of accounts in three paradigmatic eras (Roman times, Renaissance and Modernity), it shows how symmetry in accounts constituted an aesthetic code which tied members of a community together in ‘socie-ties’. We investigate the rhetorical process of ratiocinatio and explore how the visual and material dimensions of accounts provided social actors with an opportunity to explore their positions and ties within a community. This process augmented social actors’ understanding of their current relations by reducing them to a series of entries in an account, thus allowing them to reflect on what it meant to be a legitimate member of a society.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine China’s stop-start adoption of fair value accounting (FVA) into its national accounting standards. The paper analyzes how FVA standards promoted by transnational organizations were eventually adopted in China despite its conservative accounting traditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses archival records and an analytic framework adapted from the studies of social movements to identify the institutional factors that differ between China’ first unsuccessful attempt to adopt FVA and its second successful attempt.
Findings
Shared interests of elite national and international groups, creation of social infrastructure, marshaling of key resources, and specific actions to frame FVA standards are found to be crucial factors supporting FVA reform in China.
Practical implications
The study helps advance our understanding of dissemination of international accounting regulations in non-Western societies. The findings can help accounting standard setters to avoid costly failures.
Originality/value
The study provides a structured analysis of the propagation of global accounting regulations. It exposes the factors in the failure and success of FVA adoption in China.
Making decisions when managing organisations always involves the constant management of ambiguity and a great deal of complexity due to uncertainties and the intrinsic political nature of every decision-making processes. This paper argues that in order for management accounting to deal effectively with this ambiguity and uncertainty, both must be embraced, not suppressed, by the design of data visualisations produced by management controls as aids to the decision-making processes. Drawing on studies in rhetoric, alongside others on the rhetorical and communicative power of images and visualisations, this paper identifies a series of principles that can contribute to the development of a visual rhetorical framework to inform the design of data visualisation (e.g. dashboards, business reports). The need to conceive of data visualisations beyond their representational function, and the principles that are identified, are then illustrated through the visual rhetorical analysis of a complex dashboard utilised in the programme management of the construction of a large airport terminal. The paper ends with an outline of a research agenda for the future design of data visualisation in accounting, and beyond.
This paper illuminates how a journal and its editor can initiate and foster a stream of high quality and influential research in a novel area. It does this by analysing Accounting, Organizations and Society’s (AOS’s) and Anthony Hopwood’s nurturing of research into key aspects of accounting for social sustainability for several decades before this research area became established. Our discussion unveils how the initiation of unique research areas may initially involve the publication of risky papers driven primarily by passion. Through the steering of a journal editor, subsequent work can proceed to combine this passion with academic rigour and produce research insights that can benefit society by positively influencing policy and practice. It is this attention to rigour that we argue needs to be central to future research in accounting for social sustainability (and accounting for sustainability more broadly) if it is to continue producing purposeful knowledge. We offer several substantive directions for future research aimed at producing such knowledge
The ideal of balance and its association with what is ordered, just, and healthful remained unchanged throughout the medieval period. The central place allotted to balance in the workings of nature and society also remained unchanged. What changed within the culture of scholasticism, between approximately 1280 and 1360, was the emergence of a greatly expanded sense of what balance is and can be. in this groundbreaking history of balance, Joel Kaye reveals that this new sense of balance and its potentialities became the basis of a new model of equilibrium, shaped and shared by the most acute and innovative thinkers of the period. Through a focus on four disciplines - scholastic economic thought, political thought, medical thought, and natural philosophy - Kaye's book reveals that this new model of equilibrium opened up striking new vistas of imaginative and speculative possibility, making possible a profound re-thinking of the world and its workings.
Interpretivist and critical accounting researchers have long challenged the shareholder focus of conventional accounting, calling for new approaches that promote accountability to stakeholders and participatory governance. One proposal is for dialogic accountings that take pluralism seriously and enable critical reflection on organizational practices from diverse socio-political perspectives. Dialogic accounting aims to counter narrow managerialist framings and address constituencies poorly served by traditional accounting. However, those favouring pluralist approaches face significant challenges in addressing entrenched ideologies and power relations. Rather than trying to address these challenges solely from within accounting, much can be learned from disciplinary fields that demonstrate sustained interest in pluralistic analysis and engagement. Here, we focus on the insights science and technology studies (STS) provides on opening up and closing down participatory governance, understanding knowledge-power dynamics and implications for stakeholder value creation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This paper questions a key assumption in the organizations literature that the
dynamism of institutional logics and practice variations is the result of rivalry
among logics and actors, of tensions and institutional shifts, and of the agency
of institutional entrepreneurs. This study examines in rich historical detail the
development of accounting in the Jesuit Order, illustrating how Jesuit accounting
started from a rationality that did not presuppose an external ordering
principle; instead, Jesuit rationality was unfolding—founded in continuous
interrogations informed by common, purposeful procedural logics stemming
from rhetorical practices used to classify, recall, and invent knowledge. I
examine this concept of unfolding rationality in two areas of Jesuit practices:
spiritual self-accountability and administrative accounting and recordkeeping.
In this Jesuit rationality, the relationships between means and ends, and
how and why behaviors take place, were not anchored permanently in a substantive
logic. Instead, procedural logics left individual Jesuits and the community
to imagine modes of action in the specific social and organizational
contexts in which their missions operated. Jesuit rationality was thus unfolding,
a persistent and recursive mode of governing social behavior and searching
for organizational order that generated large-scale administrative routines
and institutional dynamism while never fully achieving that order. The analysis
brings into question our understanding of the historical and institutional
genealogies of modern rationality and its taken-for-granted link with
Protestant ethics.
We explore differences in the roles of auditors and judges in the United States, emphasizing the issue of independence for each group. We examine factors that influence the independence of US judges and auditors. We use examples to highlight the potential impact of various factors on each profession and explore how they are affected by differences in the nature of their responsibilities. Based on these examples, we find generalized lessons that are applicable to each profession and explore further questions that should be asked. While much research has been done on factors that could potentially influence auditor independence, no research to date has examined lessons that auditors can learn from the judicial profession with respect to independence in the United States setting, and vice versa. This paper is a contemplation of the different threats that exist to independence and the difficulty in achieving it in two differently structured fields where its attainment was important for achieving societal ends associated with the professional roles. We hope through this discussion and presentation to broaden the perspective of both professions (judges, auditors) by furthering their understanding of the independence dilemmas facing occupants of the other’s role.
Sustainability discourse is becoming ubiquitous. Still, a significant gap persists between corporate sustainability talk and practice. Prior research on corporate sustainability reporting has relied primarily on two competing theoretical framings, signaling theory and legitimacy theory, which often produce contradictory results regarding the significance and effects of such disclosures. Thus, despite this substantial body of research, the role that sustainability disclosures can play in any transition toward a less unsustainable society remains unclear. In an effort to advance our collective understanding of voluntary corporate sustainability reporting, we propose a richer and more nuanced theoretical lens by drawing on prior work in organized hypocrisy (Brunsson, 1989) and organizational façades (Abrahamson & Baumard, 2008; Nystrom & Strabuck, 1984). We argue that contradictory societal and institutional pressures, in essence, require organizations to engage in hypocrisy and develop façades, thereby severely limiting the prospects that sustainability reports will ever evolve into substantive disclosures. To illustrate the use of these theoretical concepts, we employ them to examine the talk, decisions, and actions of two highly visible U.S.-based multinational oil and gas corporations during the time period of significant national debate over oil exploration in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. We conclude that the concepts of organizational façade and organized hypocrisy are beneficial to the sustainability disclosure literature because they provide theoretical space to more formally acknowledge and incorporate how the prevailing economic system and conflicting stakeholder demands constrain the action choices of individual corporations.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a collection of ongoing experiences with a value‐added reporting model in Latin America, positing its pertinence with regards to CSR accountability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilises a qualitative methodology in which a series of semi‐structured telephone interviews and/or e‐mail questionnaires with managers from six reporting companies in Latin America (Chile, Colombia, Uruguay) was conducted. The fact that one of the authors of this paper created the reporting model facilitated easier access to company managers and a deeper understanding of each situation. A literature review from European, US and Latin American sources provides a framework for discussion.
Findings
The paper illustrates how value‐added statements (which are based on conventional financial accounting) can provide relevant information for CSR accountability. The variety of experiences shown (different industries and diverse company ownership in separate countries) may suggest the wide potential of this reporting model.
Research limitations/implications
As the paper deals with a recent, ongoing experience (this model has been in use for the last six years only), the results have to be treated with caution. Even though many firms are interested in adopting this value‐added model, there are currently fewer than 20 reporting firms using it.
Social implications
The paper aims to position value distribution and its accountability as relevant issues in CSR, particularly for developing countries. In addition, such an intuitive model might more easily reach the general public, something that rarely happens with conventional CSR reporting models.
Originality/value
This is the first academic paper that demonstrates the application of this reporting model (though the authors already published a practitioner‐oriented article in Spanish). Furthermore, there are few documented cases of value‐added reporting experiences in emerging markets, particularly in Latin America.
What might an academic and a social anthropologist have to say about making the invisible visible? Taking its title from a paper by Tsoukas (The Tyranny of Light), the result is a short excursus into the social world of accountability. Techniques for assessing, auditing and evaluating institutions are often defended on the grounds of transparency. What is interesting about this case is that in a social world where people are conscious of diverse interests, such an appeal to a benevolent or moral visibility is all too easily shown to have a tyrannous sidethere is nothing innocent about making the invisible visible. How are we to understand such deliberate striving for transparency when it is applied, for instance, to research and teaching in higher education? This experimental account tries to avoid simply adding more visibility and more information.
This paper approaches the question of how we see (and know) by investigating the historically changing nature of the self that views. Recognizing that viewing in geometrical perspective requires the self to combine two different fixed views, it traces the history of what it therefore sees as a doubling or splitting of the self. It first shows how the perspectivally viewing self is made possible by an earlier medieval splitting and immobilizing of the self, and that it remains thereafter in its essence split. It then points to an internal evolution in this split self in the late 18th century, as it comes alive as the self-examining self. It links the development of both the medieval and 18th-century reconstructions of the self to changes in the practices through which humans learn. It concludes by reflecting on the relation between this modern pygmalion-like form of the self and the viewing of the world as `organ'-ized.
If we are concerned to develop an emancipatory accounting, and if we are sensitive towards the tendencies to ethnocentrism, chronocentrism and dogmatism, we can potentially gain insights from the social and critical theoretical analysis of any phenomena, whatever be their location in time and space. This is the position held by advocates of critical and interdisciplinary research in accounting. Adopts this position and draws from the critique of art. More specifically, points to insights for the development of any emancipatory accounting by concentration on debates on the role of art in the emancipatory project that took place in early twentieth century Germany.
This research study seeks to demonstrate accounting's autopoietic capacities in social enactments of change such as a preferencing tribal-based corporatisation. The paper, through a form of critical ethnography, underscores the argument that accounting self-reproduces through a complex interplay between: (a) the political effecting of ambiguity in a controversial and sensitive policy of change; (b) assumptions about accounting's ability to reduce ambiguity; and, (c) the inherent ambiguities in the accounting language. The research suggests that in order to be more appreciating of accounting's self-reproducing capacities, we need to be more conscious of the interplay between the politics of ambiguity in society and the aesthetics of ambiguity in accounting. In the process, the paper highlights the general applicability of accounting as an act of self-replication, and the way in which perceived “meaningless[ness]” and time “eating” notions of accounting, ironically contemplate more of it.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to add to theoretical and empirical work on the rhetoric of narratives and pictures in annual reporting by using the lens of repetition to examine the Annual Reviews of British Telecommunications (BT) plc.
Design/methodology/approach
The study constructs a conceptual framework of repetition in signifiants (from rhetoric) and signifiés (from philosophy, notably Barthes, Deleuze, Eliade and Jankélévitch). Signifiants are established by reference to rhetorical figures based in repetition: anadiplosis, anaphora, alliteration/rhyme and lists. Signifiés are indicated as conscious rhetorical emphasis, and unconscious reflections of sameness and difference; networks and links; and, of particular interest during the “dot.com” years, exuberance and compulsion; differentiation, ritual and reassurance. The framework is used to analyse BT plc's Annual Reviews from 1996‐2001.
Findings
The application of the framework is enlightening: repetition is shown to be prevalent in BT plc's Annual Reviews , especially during the “dot.com” years. Repetition emphasises BT plc's intangible assets; less consciously, repetition reflects BT plc's corporate identity and its participation in the “dot.com” era.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides a model which may be applied to the wealth of discretionary narratives and pictures in contemporary annual reporting. It would also benefit from the assessment of readership impact.
Practical implications
The analysis is of interest to accounting researchers, practitioners, trainees, auditors and any user of accounting and accountability statements. It illuminates the way in which discretionary words and pictures highlight and supplement accounting information.
Originality/value
The paper augments theoretical and empirical work on the significance of narratives and pictures in accounting.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a critical review of the development and current state‐of‐the‐art of social and environmental accounting (SEA) research, with particular reference to the role and contribution of the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal , while also offering some pointers as to how the field may develop in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach combines a literature review and critique, with particular emphasis on SEA papers published in AAAJ (1988‐2007) together with other papers published in a range of leading‐edge journals (2004‐2007).
Findings
While published SEA research covers a wide range of topics, particular emphasis has been placed on polemical debate and studies investigating the organisational determinants and managerial motivations underpinning reporting initiatives. Some evidence is produced of a rapprochement between mainstream SEA scholars and critical theorists, with the moral foundation, and interventionist stance, of the former being combined with the historically and theoretically informed perspective of the latter. Evidence is also offered of field‐based studies achieving greater prominence in the literature in recent years.
Research limitations/implications
While a “broad brush” analysis of the historical development of SEA research is offered, detailed investigation is largely confined to the contribution of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal and that of contemporary research studies.
Practical implications
Agreement is expressed with the conclusions emanating from previous authoritative reviews of the field concerning the need for engagement with practice on the part of researchers. However, a managerial perspective is eschewed in favour of recommending articulation of research to social movements and working directly with stakeholder groups.
Originality/value
The paper provides a detailed analysis of the contribution made by one particular leading edge journal, while further drawing on recently published work in a range of journals in order to develop pointers for future effective interventions by SEA researchers in matters of public policy and praxis.
Purpose
The principal objective of this paper is to expand the scope of legitimacy theory (LT) through a detailed analysis of the links that exist between the legitimising strategies of firms and the characteristics of the political environment in which they are developed.
Designs/methodology/approach
A discourse analysis was performed on the social and environmental disclosure (SED) of a multinational in the automotive sector with an established presence in Spain, in the context of the relational dynamics between the firm/society/state. Different channels of information were compared to capture both the official discourse as represented in the annual reports of the multinational and the discourse of employees and the State as represented in the media.
Findings
The results of the research show that the firm under study used SED strategically to legitimise a new production process through the manipulation of social perceptions, and that this strategy was supported implicitly and explicitly through ideological alignment with the State.
Research limitations/implications
Despite a widely‐held assumption of a pluralist political context, the State is presented here as aligning itself with corporate management as opposed to the welfare concerns of employees. Thus, future research calling for regulation of SED should preface such calls with consideration of the orientation of the State.
Originality/value
In contrast with the dominant approach to LT that considers the relationship of the firm with its stakeholders, the present study widens the scope of LT to consider the interplay between firm legitimating strategies and state support for such strategies.
Legitimacy theory suggests companies with poorer environmental performance would be expected to provide more extensive off-setting or positive environmental disclosures in their financial reports. However, recent investigations of the performance/disclosure relation [Al-Tuwaijri, S. A., Christensen, T. E., & Hughes II, K. E. (2004). The relations among environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and economic performance: a simultaneous equations approach. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 29, 447–471; Hughes, S. B., Anderson, A., & Golden, S. (2001). Corporate environmental disclosures: are they useful in determining environmental performance? Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 20, 217–240; Hughes, S. B., Sander, J. F., & Reier, J. C. (2000). Do environmental disclosures in US annual reports differ by environmental performance? Advances in Environmental Accounting and Management, 141–161; Patten, D. M. (2002). The relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: a research note. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 27, 763–773] report mixed results. In this study, we use size-matched groups based on industry membership (environmentally sensitive versus non-environmentally sensitive) and environmental performance (worse performers versus better performers, based on data from KLD Research and Analytics, Inc.) to test for differences in the use of monetary and non-monetary non-litigation related environmental disclosure. Results indicate that the use of monetary and non-monetary components of the non-litigation related environmental disclosure varies across groups. In general, the findings provide additional support for the argument that companies use disclosure as a legitimizing tool.
At first I saw Don Juan simply as a rather peculiar man who knew a great deal…but the people…believed that he had some sort of “secret knowledge”, that he was a “brujo”. The Spanish word brujo means, in English…sorcerer. It connotes essentially a person who has extraordinary…powers.I had known Don Juan for a whole year before he took me into his confidence. One day he explained that he possessed a certain knowledge that he had learned from a teacher, a “benefactor” as he called him, who had directed him in a kind of apprenticeship. Don Juan had, in turn, chosen me to serve as his apprentice, but he warned me that I would have to make a very deep commitment and that the training was long and arduous…My field notes disclose the subjective version of what I perceived while undergoing the experience. That version is presented here…My field notes also reveal the content of Don Juan's system of beliefs. I have condensed long pages of questions and answers between Don Juan and myself in order to avoid reproducing the repetitiveness of conversation…(The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Carlos Castaneda, 1970, pp. 14, 24, 25).
“Positive”, “descriptive” and “empirical” theories are frequently promoted as being more realistic, factual and relevant than normative approaches. This paper argues that “positive” or “empirical” theories are also normative and value-laden in that they usually mask a conservative ideological bias in their accounting policy implications. We argue that labels such as “positive” and “empirical” emanate from a Realist theory of knowledge; a wholly inadequate epistemological basis for a social science. We use an alternative philosophical position (of Historical Materialism) together with a historical review of the concept of value to illustrate first, the partisan role played by theories and theoreticians in questions concerning social control, social conflict and social order; second, the ideologically conservative underpinnings of positive accounting theories; and last, some indications of alternative (radical) approaches to accounting policy.
How to address empirically the calculative character of markets without dissolving it? In our paper, we propose a theoretical framework that helps to deal with markets without suspending their calculative properties. In the first section, we construct a broad definition of calculation, grounded on the anthropology of science and techniques. In the next sections, we apply this definition to three constitutive elements of markets: economic goods, economic agents and economic exchanges. First, we examine the question of the calculability of goods: in order to be calculated, goods must be calculable. In the following section, we introduce the notion of calculative distributed agencies to understand how these calculable goods are actually calculated. Thirdly, we consider the rules and material devices that organize the encounter between (and aggregation of) individual supplies and demands, i.e. the specific organizations that allow for a calculated exchange and a market output. Those three elements define concrete markets as collective organized devices that calculate compromises on the values of goods. In each, we encounter different versions of our broad definition of calculation, which we illustrate with examples, mainly taken from the fields of financial markets and mass retail.
A quoi sert un indicateur de satisfaction des usagers dans la gouvernance d’une collectivité territoriale ? Telle est la question à laquelle cet article tente d’apporter des éléments de réponse. S’appuyant sur les travaux analysant le contrôle de gestion comme un outil de gouvernance disciplinaire, l’étude proposée de huit indicateurs montre que les dimensions apprentissage et discipline de l’évaluation, loin d’être exclusives l’une de l’autre, sont imbriquées et adaptées à chaque contexte de gouvernance. La logique de discipline apparaît ainsi liée à la fonction cognitive d’apprentissage des services publics avec son environnement en étant source de visibilité, comparabilité et surveillance. Afin de prendre en compte les réticences des acteurs-partenaires et d’éviter l’échec des démarches, des activités de traduction sont mises en œuvre.
The paper seeks to contrast the roles that have been claimed on behalf of accounting with the ways in which accounting functions in practice. It starts by examining the context in which rationales for practice are articulated and the adequacy of such claims. Thereafter consideration is given to how accounting is implicated in both organizational and social practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for accounting research.
Note in tema di fattori produttivi e valore aggiunto aziendale
- C Lipari
Lipari, C. (1993), "Note in tema di fattori produttivi e valore aggiunto aziendale", Scritti in onore di
Carlo Masini, Tomo III, Milano.
Theorising environmental accounting and reporting
- B O'dwyer
O'Dwyer, B. (2021), "Theorising environmental accounting and reporting", in Bebbington, J.,
Larrinaga, C., O'Dwyer, B. and Thomson, I. (Eds), Routledge Handbook of Environmental
Accounting, Routledge, London.
Accounting for com-promesso: common good, collective institutional commitment, and the generative power of ambiguous quantifications at the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (1943-1973)
- P Quattrone
- P Monfardini
- P Ruggiero
Quattrone, P., Monfardini, P. and Ruggiero, P. (2021), "Accounting for com-promesso: common good,
collective institutional commitment, and the generative power of ambiguous quantifications at
the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (1943-1973)", Working Paper.
Le pratiche di programmazione e controllo nel Gruppo IRI: tra contesti organizzativi
- P Quattrone
- P Monfardini
- P Ruggiero
The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy
- G F Davis
Davis, G.F. (2016), The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy,
Berrett-Koheler Publishing, Oakland, CA.
Astrologia e magia nel Rinascimento. Teorie, pratiche, condanne, Atti del Convegno
- U Eco
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Corresponding author
Paolo Quattrone can be contacted at: paolo.quattrone@manchester.ac.uk
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