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Popular Financial Reporting as a governance and accountability tool to manage complex plurality of needs: the case study of the University of Turin
Abstract
This study examines whether “Popular Reporting” enables universities to fulfil sustainability reporting guidelines while facilitating effective stakeholder engagement. Using the University of Turin as a case study, the research explores how this reporting
approach addresses the dimensions of polycrisis by aligning institutional actions with stakeholder needs. The methodology involves the analysis of institutional documents, semi-structured interviews with governance representatives, sentiment analysis to
identify key issues and an evaluation of the dialogic capacity of reporting to meet governance and stakeholder informational demands. The findings highlight that Popular Reporting provides a concise yet comprehensive representation of institutional
activities and their broader context, ensuring the inclusion of stakeholder-relevant topics. By adhering to the "University Sustainability Report" guidelines and RUS-GBS standards, this dynamic reporting approach bridges the gap between traditional
social reporting and the complex requirements of sustainability communication. The study underscores the practical value of Popular Reporting as a dialogic tool that strengthens governance processes while fostering meaningful stakeholder relationships. Its implications extend beyond the University of Turin, suggesting
broader applicability in academic institutions seeking to enhance accountability and address stakeholder sentiment. Future research could expand these insights to different contexts, further validating Popular Reporting as an effective mechanism for institutional sustainability and stakeholder engagement.
Questo studio esamina se il “Popular Reporting” consente alle università di soddisfare le linee guida per la rendicontazione di sostenibilità, facilitando al contempo un efficace coinvolgimento degli stakeholder. Utilizzando l'Università di Torino come caso di studio, la ricerca esplora come questo approccio di rendicontazione affronti le dimensioni della “polycrisis” allineando le azioni istituzionali con le esigenze degli stakeholder. La metodologia prevede l'analisi di documenti istituzionali, interviste semistrutturate con i rappresentanti della governance, analisi del sentiment per identificare i temi chiave e una valutazione della capacità dialogica della rendicontazione per soddisfare le richieste informative di governance e degli stakeholder. I risultati evidenziano che il Popular Reporting fornisce una rappresentazione concisa ma completa delle attività istituzionali e del loro contesto più ampio, garantendo l'inclusione di argomenti rilevanti per gli stakeholder. Aderendo alle linee guida del "Bilancio di Sostenibilità di Ateneo" e agli standard RUS-GBS,
questo approccio di rendicontazione dinamica colma il divario tra la rendicontazione sociale tradizionale e le complesse esigenze della comunicazione della sostenibilità. Lo studio sottolinea il valore pratico del Popular Reporting come strumento dialogico che rafforza i processi di governance promuovendo al contempo relazioni significative con gli stakeholder. Le sue implicazioni si estendono oltre l'Università di Torino, suggerendo una più ampia applicabilità nelle istituzioni accademiche che cercano di migliorare la responsabilità e affrontare il sentimento degli stakeholder. La ricerca futura potrebbe
espandere queste intuizioni a diversi contesti, convalidando ulteriormente il Popular Reporting come meccanismo efficace per la sostenibilità istituzionale e il coinvolgimento degli stakeholder.
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Our generation lives in an age of polycrisis. Polycrisis is a phenomenon where various single crises interact in ways that lead to an overall negative impact that is more significant than the sum of each issue. The age of polycrisis poses a considerable threat to humanity. Since the age of polycrisis results from human actions, humans are responsible for addressing it. As such, an ultimate roadmap and in-depth sustainability transformations are needed across all sectors. This raises a quest for a unified social contract that can engage everybody to promote the well-being of people and the planet locally, regionally, and globally. Our paper explores a holistic picture of a social transformation process to address the challenges of the age of polycrisis. We put together a new social contract, different actors (civic society, private sector, public sector, decision-makers), and specific focus areas of actors to implement the goals of Agenda 2030. Each societal sector has a unique role to play in this transformation. The private sector can drive innovation and investment, the public sector can provide governance and regulation, civic society can advocate for change and hold other sectors accountable, and decision-makers can provide leadership and coordination. A new social contract called “Society’s Commitment to Sustainable Development” can foster societal transformation towards sustainability with the involvement of these different societal sectors. The widespread commitment of public and private sectors as well as civil society can be an effective driver when implementing Agenda 2030 goals to build a more sustainable future. We, the current generation, have power to make a difference regarding international collaboration, national decision-making, industries, households – even down to the choices we make in our everyday lives. The future is shaped by the decisions we make today.
Purpose
The research aims to provide a longitudinal case study to understand how digital transformation can be embedded in municipal reporting frameworks. The central role of such technology becomes increasingly evident as citizens demand greater transparency and engagement between them and governing institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising a longitudinal case study methodology, the research focusses on Turin’s Integrated Popular Financial Report (IPFR) as a lens through which to evaluate the broader implications of digital transformation on governmental transparency and operational efficiency.
Findings
Digital tools, notably sentiment analysis, offer promising avenues for enhancing governmental efficacy and citizenry participation. However, persistent challenges highlight the inadequacy of traditional, inflexible reporting structures to cater to dynamic informational demands.
Practical implications
Embracing digital tools is an imperative for contemporary public administrators, promoting streamlined communication and dismantling bureaucratic obstructions, all while catering to the evolving demands of an informed citizenry.
Originality/value
Different from previous studies that primarily emphasised technology’s role within budgeting, this research uniquely positions itself by spotlighting the transformative implications of digital tools during the reporting phase. It champions the profound value of fostering bottom-up dialogues, heralding a paradigmatic shift towards co-creative public management dynamics.
Multiple global crises – including the pandemic, climate change, and Russia's war on Ukraine – have recently linked together in ways that are significant in scope, devastating in effect, but poorly understood. A growing number of scholars and policymakers characterize the situation as a ‘polycrisis’. Yet this neologism remains poorly defined. We provide the concept with a substantive definition, highlight its value-added in comparison to related concepts, and develop a theoretical framework to explain the causal mechanisms currently entangling many of the world's crises. In this framework, a global crisis arises when one or more fast-moving trigger events combine with slow-moving stresses to push a global system out of its established equilibrium and into a volatile and harmful state of disequilibrium. We then identify three causal pathways – common stresses, domino effects, and inter-systemic feedbacks – that can connect multiple global systems to produce synchronized crises. Drawing on current examples, we show that the polycrisis concept is a valuable tool for understanding ongoing crises, generating actionable insights, and opening avenues for future research.
Non-technical summary
The term ‘polycrisis’ appears with growing frequently to capture the interconnections between global crises, but the word lacks substantive content. In this article, we convert it from an empty buzzword into a conceptual framework and research program that enables us to better understand the causal linkages between contemporary crises. We draw upon the intersection of climate change, the covid-19 pandemic, and Russia's war in Ukraine to illustrate these causal interconnections and explore key features of the world's present polycrisis.
Technical summary
Multiple global crises – including the pandemic, climate change, and Russia's war on Ukraine – have recently linked together in ways that are significant in scope, devastating in effect, but poorly understood. A growing number of scholars and policymakers characterize the situation as a ‘polycrisis’. Yet this neologism remains poorly defined. We provide the concept with a substantive definition, highlight its value-added in comparison to related concepts, and develop a theoretical framework to explain the causal mechanisms currently entangling many of the world's crises. In this framework, a global crisis arises when one or more fast-moving trigger events combines with slow-moving stresses to push a global system out of its established equilibrium and into a volatile and harmful state of disequilibrium. We then identify three causal pathways – common stresses, domino effects, and inter-systemic feedbacks – that can connect multiple global systems to produce synchronized crises. Drawing on current examples, we show that the polycrisis concept is a valuable tool for understanding ongoing crises, generating actionable insights, and opening avenues for future research.
Social media summary
No longer a mere buzzword, the ‘polycrisis’ concept highlights causal interactions among crises to help navigate a tumultuous future.
The development of energy communities has the potential to support the energy transition owing to the direct engagement of people who have the chance to become “prosumers” of energy. In properly explaining the benefits that this phenomenon can give to the population, a key set of channels is represented by social media, which can hit the target of citizens who have the budget to join the energy communities and can also “nurture” younger generations. In this view, the present work analyzes the performance of the topic “energy communities” on the main social media in order to understand people’s awareness of its benefits and to assess the societal awareness of this topic in terms of engagement and positive sentiment. The analysis conducted first concerned the definitions and conceptualization of energy communities of academics and practitioners, completed through a content analysis; we then focused on the fallout of these themes on social media and on its engagement (to understand if it was capable of generating a positive attitude). The social media analysis took place through a platform that uses artificial intelligence to analyze communication channels. The results show that there is still poor engagement with the energy community theme in social media, and a more structured communication strategy should be implemented with the collaboration between social media and practitioners/academics. Despite previous studies not analyzing how social media recall the topics of academics and practitioners related to energy communities, this is an important aspect to consider in order to conceive integrated marketing communication for promoting energy communities to citizens, as here demonstrated and proposed for the very first time.
Taking the realms of business, finance and economic history by storm, polycrisis captures the complexity of an increasingly uncertain world in a state of flux and transition. Proponents of the polycrisis model, such as prominent economic historian and Financial Times contributing editor Adam Tooze, propose polycrisis as a marker of our age, capturing overlapping and interconnected crises beyond cause and effect. In this article, the authors offer some prompts for considering the usefulness and limitations of polycrisis for the anthropological toolkit. The authors cautiously welcome the polycrisis trope as a multidimensional means to account for the consequences of interrelated crises in an unprecedented era.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the usefulness of popular reporting (PR) in an Italian city as a dialogic accounting tool for promoting citizens’ engagement with digital platforms. This study aims to contribute to the debate on democratic accounting technologies with a focus on PR and digital platforms, using the theoretical lens of dialogic accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal case study is used to analyse the implementation and evolution of PR in the city of Turin, Italy and explore how the city involved its citizens with digital platforms.
Findings
This study contributes to the debate on public accountability through dialogic accounting tools.
Research limitations/implications
Multiple sources (surveys, interviews and interventionist workshops) are used to analyse Turin, Italy as a longitudinal case study.
Practical implications
This study offers practical reflections for legislators, politicians and public managers who need new knowledge and empirical analysis of the effective implementation of the PR as a tool for dialogue and empowering public accounting to hold continuous dialogue with the citizens.
Originality/value
PR can be considered a useful dialogic accounting tool for politicians, managers and government experts to encourage citizens’ engagement in a pluralistic society.
The main international accounting associations have identified Popular Financial Reporting (PFR) as a decision-making tool to increase accountability and transparency as a possible decision lever coherent with the New Public Governance theory. The study has focused its attention on the features and contents of the PFR identified in the literature and present through the analysis of the 193 PFRs municipalities presented at the PFR Awards Program 2017. The analysis of the presence and absence of some characteristics confirms that the reality does not reflect the theoretical request, moreover the statistical analyzes carried out confirm various hypotheses related to the PFR but reject others such as the criterion of document length. The correlation between socio-economic characteristics of the population and the groupings of characteristics of each PFR. The study confirms a relationship between document length and level of education, and between percentage of non-native English-speaking residents and number of appaerance features. To the 23 observable criteria, additional possible ones are added which, based on logic and empirical evidence, will have to be studied to assess their impact in terms of transparency and accessibility.
This paper provides a comparative analysis of different public accountability means used in the public sector - namely sustainability reporting, popular financial reporting and integrated reporting - in order to highlight their similarities and differences, and reflect on their development, with specific reference to the Italian context. In particular, we speculate about the practical and research implications of their emergence, through the lenses of accountability and managerial fad and fashion literature. The main novelty of the paper is that it is one of the first studies providing a comparative analysis of the three reporting tools debated both in practice and in research. We argue about their diffusion patterns, the commonalities and differences, which suggests different stages of evolution, different actors and forces at play. We provide some preliminary evidence on the risk that accountability innovations may end up just in a fad and fashion uptake, creating inefficiencies and not achieving the aims they are intended for. We also show how the available frameworks and standards have more in common than not, and that there is a risk of creating only new labels, without real innovation or improvement of public accountability.
Starting from the assumption that the factors orienting University choice are heterogeneous and multidimensional, the study explores student’s motivations in higher education. To this aim, a big data analysis has been performed through ‘TalkWalker’, a tool based on the algorithms developed in the context of Social Data Intelligence, which allows understanding the sentiment of a group of people regarding a specific theme. The data have been extracted by drawing on published posts from anywhere in the world over a 12-month period from many online sources. According to the findings, the main variable capable of influencing the choice of University is training offer, followed by physical structure, work opportunities, prestige, affordability, communication, organisation, environmental sustainability. The study establishes an innovative research agenda for further studies by proposing the elaboration of a systems and process-based view for higher education. However, it presents the limitation of the superficial investigation, determined by the analysis of a large amount of data. Therefore, for future research, it might be appropriate to apply a different technique to realise a comparison and to check whether the size of the considered sample and the depth of the analysis technique can affect the results and the consequent considerations.
This study contributes to research on integrated and sustainability reporting at higher-education institutions in the context of voluntary reporting by focusing on an innovative Spanish university. It examines the developments for the implementation of sustainability and integrated reporting at this university by critically analysing what, why, who and how the new models of reporting have been implemented. The paper provides a case study using documentary analysis and qualitative data based on semi-structured interviews. The results show that the report is mainly focused on social and sustainability values and can not be considered an integrated report that connects all the capitals creating value. The key driver has been stakeholders' interests, represented by the university's social council, aiming at increasing competitiveness and achieve third mission objectives. The paper contributes by pointing out the challenges and principal issues of the process of implementation. An important issue for successful implementation is introducing it as a managerial and accountability tool, and linking it to the organisation's strategic objectives. This can be used for learning processes at other universities that want to follow this path.
There is currently a growing interest in the improvement of university governance and the disclosure of information on corporate governance processes as an essential part of the transparency and accountability of universities. This paper aims to know the importance given by Spanish university stakeholders to the disclosure of information about structure and mechanism of corporate governance. To meet this objective, we propose a model for disclosing information on the main aspects of university governance in Spanish universities. This model will be validated using a questionnaire sent to members of the Social Councils of public universities in Spain. Our results show that Spanish university stakeholders attach great importance to the disclosure of specific information on aspects of corporate governance, which would result in improved transparency and accountability. No previous research was conducted for Spanish universities. This brings new expertise regarding the need to carry out a proactive publication of information on corporate governance in the Spanish university accounting information model.
The aim of the article is to analyze the role of the Popular Financial Reporting as tool of transparency and accountability. Our analysis examines the case of “Popular Financial Reporting of the City of Turin”: bya questionnaire of analysis of the stakeholder satisfaction the study consider the different social variables because they influence the content and the comprehension. The method is based on data analysis reporting frequencies and percentages of answers of the questionnaire and, when possible, evaluating these results according to the level of instruction. The Chi-Square test was used to identify statistically significant differences among categories of educational level. Globally, the feedbacks were positive and the document could be defined as an important and strategic way to keep aware the stakeholders about the policies of the City. However, some improvement could be made, especially considering the differences observed among the educational level categories.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the integrated report (IR) of a South African public university (UFS), by comparing it with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) framework, to verify whether UFS IR matches the IIRC framework main aims, which is integrating IC and non-IC information into a single report for stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper employs the case study approach, which is appropriate when a researcher needs to conduct a holistic and in-depth analysis of a complex phenomenon in its real-life context. As such, this method is particularly suitable for exploring intellectual and social capitals, which is complex and context-dependent by nature.
Findings
– UFS IR includes the content elements of the IIRC framework as labels, but it does not deepen their meaning. As regards the IIRC guidelines principles, the analysis of the UFS IR shows that it does not seem to follow them. Briefly, the data do not have an outlook orientation, the information is not interconnected, the stakeholder relationships are not highlighted and the organisational ability to create value is not disclosed.
Research limitations/implications
– The implications based on the “bad” experience of UFS IR aims to extend the findings of the case study by shedding light on the levers and the barriers that managers have to face when implementing an IRing project in their organisations.
Originality/value
– To the best of the knowledge the research is the first investigating the IR theme in the public sector, specifically the higher education sector, dealing with disclosing IC (and non-IC) information within a new reporting mode: the IR.
This editorial highlights the important contributions of a group of Italian authors who are published in this special issue. Also it links this work to other outcomes from the SMOG 2009 Bologna conference including the Public Management Review special issue (Ball et al, 2010) and the Economia Aziendale Online special issue (Farneti and Ricci, 2010a).The uniting theme of the SMOG conference was to demonstrate the importance and value of social and environmental accounting research in public sector organisations. This Economia Aziendale Online special issue (Farneti and Guthrie, 2010) contributes to understanding practice in Italian public and not-for profit (NFP) organisations in a variety of ways.The SMOG conference attracted a wide range of academics across the interdisciplinary subject of sustainability. Further, it was a significant event in Europe, being one of the first to focus exclusively on sustainability management and reporting in the public and NFP sectors. The following five papers bring to the English speaking academic and practice community unique insights into how Italian organisations are handling the difficult issues associated with accounting and reporting for social responsibility, environmental matters, sustainability and gender issues.In summary, this group of papers provides insights from two perspectives. First, is what we call the prevailing top-down approach, which involves European and various government policies, international and national standards and rules and directives. The second perspective, which takes a bottom-up approach, involves exploring pilot experiences within various Italian organisations, towns and regions, experiences with social reports, environmental statements and gendered budgets which are reported in this special issue.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to discussions about engagement in social and environmental accounting, drawing on dialogic theory and philosophy. A dialogic approach, building on existing critical inquiries, is introduced to derive principles to inform “on the ground” engagements. Applying dialogic thinking to social and environmental accounting encourages the development of dialogic forms of accountability, more authentic engagements and is more likely to contribute to sustainable social and environmental change.
Design/methodology/approach
Contains a synthesis of literature from within and beyond social and environmental accounting to shed light on the issues addressed by the special issue.
Findings
Research engagements in social and environmental accounting need not be taken in a haphazard manner uninformed by theory. In particular, the “learning turn” in social sciences has generated a large body of theorizing (informed by concrete engagement activities) that can be used to shape, guide and support engagement.
Practical implications
The principles developed can be used to inform future research design, with the aim of increasing the likelihood that such engagements will yield outcomes of “value” usually defined as emancipatory changes.
Originality/value
This paper develops a new (to accounting) theoretical perspective.
La Non financial Information (Dichiarazione Non Finanziaria, o DNF) introdotta sia dal Parlamento Europeo nel 2014 che in altri Stati del mondo trova ampio dibattito negli studi aziendalistici e una crescente attenzione associata agli elementi di ESG definiti dalla Corporate Social Responsibility. La CONSOB (2022) in Italia vede nell’obbligo di redazione della DNF un elemento chiave per il cambiamento aziendale orientato alla sostenibilità. Per questo motivo lo studio utilizza un duplice approccio metodologico.
L’analisi bibliometrica è volta a confermare e indagare i trend della letteratura sulla DNF partendo dalle evidenze prodotte da Turzo et al., (2022) attraverso l’analisi dell’ultimo periodo. La content analysis analizza variabili, approcci e contenuti che evidenzino la direzione e i gap nei report non finanziari prodotti in Italia nel 2022. I risultati confermano la continuità di tre filoni di ricerca associati a sviluppo ed elementi della DNF, analisi delle performance associate agli ESG nella reportistica e effetti e
ricaduta della DNF sulle aziende. Si confermano inoltre approcci teorici orientati all’uso della legitimacy theory, della trasparenza e dell’accountability. La content analysis conferma alcuni temi evidenziati nella letteratura emergente. Analisi bibliometrica e
content analysis individuano nuovi filoni di ricerca emergenti e gap nell’attuale letteratura che richiedono la futura attenzione degli accademici.
The Non-Financial Information (NFI), introduced by both the European Parliament in 2014 and in other countries around the world, sparks extensive debate within business studies and is garnering increasing attention linked to the ESG (Environmental,
Social, and Governance) elements defined by Corporate Social Responsibility. The CONSOB (2022) in Italy considers the obligation to produce NFI reports as a key factor driving sustainability-oriented corporate change. For this reason, this study employs a dual-methodological approach. The bibliometric analysis aims to corroborate and explore trends in NFI literature, building upon the insights provided by Turzo et al. (2022) through an analysis of the recent period. The content analysis examines
variables, approaches, and contents that highlight the direction and gaps in non-financial reports produced in Italy in 2022.The findings confirm the continuation of three research streams associated with NFI development and elements, the analysis of ESG-related performance in reporting, and the effects and impact of NFI on companies. Theoretical approaches centered around the use of legitimacy theory, transparency, and accountability are also reaffirmed. The content analysis validates
certain themes highlighted in the emerging literature. Bibliometric analysis and content analysis identify new emerging research streams and gaps in the current literature that require future attention from academics.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) implies the need for companies to communicate the socially responsible activities to stakeholders. The paper aims to investigate whether the Italian fashion certified B-Corps undertake non-financial disclosure activities comparable to large listed companies, which often have more resources and capital to invest. In particular, the analysis focuses on the sustainability reports and websites as they are among the leading non-financial disclosure tools. The paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of B-Corps, an innovative topic still little discussed in the literature. The results shows that certified B-Corps are more active via the web than listed companies. Although the law and B Lab impose different disclosure requirements, they are not observed by all companies analyzed as some do not make the sustainability report publicly available on their website. Furthermore, the size and the economic resources available influence the disclosure activities and the ability to adopt more complex and comprehensive reporting frameworks; in fact, listed companies publish a more comprehensive report drafted using the GRI Standards. The GRI framework is the most used to draft the sustainability report, and most companies prefer to publish it as a separate document from the financial one. The results also show a discrepancy to what was declared by the Consob as a higher percentage of listed companies make the report publicly available. The paper highlights some managerial implications. Certified B-Corps should publish more sustainability reports on their websites to fulfill the requirements imposed by B Lab and the law. Instead, listed companies should publish more sustainability information on their websites because it is among the leading source of information for stakeholders to know how they contribute to society's well-being.
Purpose
This paper analyses the extent to which public sector (PS) and non-profit (NP) organisations' reports and reporting processes adopt an IR framework as model of dialogical accountings and accountability (DAA) for dialogue with stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an overview of accountings and accountability in PS and NP organisations. The concept of dialogical communication with stakeholders is studied. The theoretical framework of DAA is supported by empirical investigation through the case studies of two organisations, one PS and one NP organisation. To contextualize findings from the case study, Estonian private schools' published management reports were analysed to explore integrated reporting (IR) elements. The paper ends with discussion and conclusions.
Findings
NP and PS aimed to improve their reporting practices. Reporting in the PS organisation were based on traditional accounting and accountability models which work in stable and non-competitive environment. IR, as a format for DAA, could bring added value to the PSO, but the mechanisms to make it work are missing. The NP organisations were already spontaneously practising some IR elements. After learning about IR, the NP organisation committed to IR principles and benefited from its guidelines. Implementing IR together with the concepts of dialogical communication, the organisations could create and benefit from better cooperation with their stakeholders both internally and externally.
Research limitations/implications
The case study research does not allow for generalisation of the results, which are limited to the case organisations' context and based on their management's subjective opinions. The limitation of qualitative content analysis as a research method in current study, is its possible subjectivity. The limitation is represented by the fact that only one year's data was for analysis.
Practical implications
This paper can be useful to any PS or NP institution willing to enhance its public accountability and developing dialogue with stakeholders for creation and innovation. This study serves to inform organisations that are searching for ways to improve awareness of IR for communication and co-creation purposes.
Social implications
This study could help in defining the framework for a larger scale IR-related study in finding trends in PS and NP organisations. The study is a platform for exploring the aspects of developing dialogue with different stakeholders of IR implementation and application process.
Originality/value
The conceptual novelty of the research lies in connecting IRF and dialogical communication concept. The focus is to understand how IR expedites dialogical communication in light of IR framework. In current paper, we observe the presence of IR elements in public sector and non-profit sector organisations' reports.
Purpose
Research dealing with non-financial reporting formats in public sector organizations is progressively expanding. This paper systematizes the existing literature with the aim of understanding how research is developing and identifying the gaps in need of further investigation.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured literature review was conducted by rigorously following the steps defined in previous studies. The structured nature of the literature review paves the way for a solid understanding and critical analysis of the state of the art of research on non-financial reporting formats in public sector organizations.
Findings
The critical analysis of the literature shows that most existing studies have focused on sustainability reporting in higher education institutions, local governments and state-owned enterprises, while remaining silent on the healthcare sector. Additional theoretical and empirical approaches should feed future research. Several areas deserve further investigations that might impactfully affect public sector organizations, standard setters, practitioners and scholars.
Originality/value
This paper offers a comprehensive review of the literature on different reporting formats that public sector organizations adopt to report various dimensions of their performance to both internal and external stakeholders. The structured literature review enables the identification of future directions for the literature in this field.
French law allows works councils (WCs, mandatory bodies representing employees and having both economic and social rights in firms with more than 50 employees) to be assisted by public accountants (PAs) to help them understand the accounting and financial information received from managers. The aim of this assistance is to strengthen the democratic role of the WCs in firms. The purpose of this research is to examine whether and how the PAs’ assistance to WCs leads to the emergence of a form of agonistic democracy by contributing to an evolution in firms’ uses of accounting. We conducted a qualitative study with 36 semi-structured interviews with both PAs and WC members. Our results indicate that, under certain circumstances, the assistance provided by PAs can support dialogue between the WC members (“laypersons”) and the managers (“experts”) in WCs, which can be viewed as “hybrid forums” (open spaces where heterogeneous groups come together to debate socio-technical choices). The confrontation between different ideological orientations that inevitably arises can contribute to a dialogic use of accounting, which is promising for developing an agonistic democracy within organizations. However, PA assistance to a WC must be carefully handled because of the risk that managers will instrumentalize it. When this happens, accounting is still used in a monologic (as opposed to dialogic) form in firm management. The risk is that genuine participation by WC members remains illusory.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the non-financial information disclosed in social reports by an Italian provincial government over time to determine its relevance, contribution and evolution.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a case study analysis, the authors examine 10 years of social reports by one “best practice” Italian provincial government. The authors use content analysis to quantify the level of social and environmental disclosures and use a coding instrument based on the GRI guidelines. The authors use legitimacy theory as a framework.
Findings
The level of disclosure increased over the 10-year period, and the type of disclosures became more detailed. However, many of the economic, social and environmental elements set out in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines were not disclosed. Moreover, the social report was contingent on a few key factors. The authors find that there has been a decline in interest in social reports by local governments in Italy, suggesting that voluntary disclosure was perhaps a fad that no longer is of interest in Italian local government.
Research limitations/implications
This research is one case study so the findings are not generalisable. The findings suggest that there is a need for regulation in non-financial information disclosures, as the disclosures in the case study organisation were very much at the discretion of the organisation. This has implications for policymakers.
Originality/value
Unlike prior studies, this study takes a longitudinal approach to voluntary disclosure of non-financial information and focusses on the under-explored context of public sector organisations.
The more information that is disseminated about the financial impact of government decisions, the more public sector entities are stimulated to make decisions in a transparent manner. Several tools can be used to involve citizens in financial sustainability decisions; among these, popular reporting is receiving growing attention in the public sector. The goal of popular reporting is to engage the interest of average citizens and make it easy for them to understand financial sustainability, by presenting more information than traditional financial reporting, in a concise, comprehensive, and attractive manner. For these reasons, government entities should consider implementing integrated popular reporting. This chapter aims to present a prototype integrated popular report designed to promote citizen participation in financial sustainability decisions. Through a theoretical-deductive methodology, it aims to identify the main features that an integrated popular report should contain to best respond to the information needs of public sector user groups, focusing on citizens in particular.
Society is demanding that its institutions be accountable for more than economic performance. However, much research in the social and environmental accounting (SEA) literature suggests that an increased level of reporting has not prompted the anticipated increased levels of accountability. Accountability is limited by what is disclosed, and what is disclosed is limited by the extant accounting system (accounting-based accountability). Most current attempts at improving social and environmental accountability by increasing disclosure reflect, at best, incremental changes to the traditional accounting system, a system that has been explicitly designed to meet the needs of financial capital providers. Alternatively, we propose that accounting systems be designed to address specific requirements of alternative accountability systems (accountability-based accounting), and the accountability system requirements should reflect the salient evaluation criteria of the interested constituencies. We propose critical dialogic accountability as a way to conceptualize accountability systems in a pluralistic society characterized by multiple, and often conflicting, interests. We present a definition of accountability that illustrates its complexity, recognizes the salience of power for operative accountability relationships and can be applied both descriptively and normatively, providing a framework for assisting in the specification of the accountability systems and responsibility networks of various interest groups. We discuss some implications for both researchers and practitioners associated with SEA endeavors, concluding with a call for imagining box-breaking accountings that extend the conventional boundaries of the SEA field.
Institutions of higher education have a significant role in promoting change to sustainable development models as centers of knowledge and innovation. In addition, they are currently facing their own change management processes, which embrace their core education, research, institution management and community outreach areas. This challenge involves a holistic consideration of all activities that are related to sustainability and can benefit from the support of standardized Sustainable Report business tools. This research presents the case of the “Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales” of “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,” a prestigious Spanish school of engineering. After eight years of experience and three continuous, cyclical improvement processes, the study argues that the Sustainability Report has contributed in outstanding fashion to: i) disseminate and internalize the mission of the center and its alignment with sustainability principles; ii) establish new and robust communication mechanisms with stakeholders, encouraging their participation in management decision-making processes iii) integrate the indicators of sustainability impact in the global management plan; and iv) develop a more comprehensive and strategic vision of the institution, which is now shared among key positions.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the state of the art in social and environmental accounting research applied to the public sector, highlighting different streams and the main gaps in current literature and providing input for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric method was used to analyse the characteristics, citation patterns and content of 38 papers published in international academic journals.
Findings
The findings show that the research on social and environmental reporting in the public sector is still at an early stage. Current investigations, although slowly on the increase, are still very few and localised. Most papers are about the reasons why public organisations report, what and how they report, but there are so many aspects that need to be investigated more in-depth or require extra validation in order to open new directions for future research, among which the relationship with and the differences between other non-financial type of reporting, namely ICR and IR.
Research limitations/implications
The study shows some limitations, mainly related to the adoption of the bibliometric method. Indeed, it does not take into account books and chapters but only papers published in international and academic journals. This leads to exclude a significant part of the existing literature and other relevant contributions on the field.
Originality/value
Social and environmental reporting practices are quickly spreading in the public sector. The field is particularly interesting, given the specific connotations of this kind of organisations. However, the literature is clearly not exhaustive and there is not a comprehensive and systematic review of the state of the art on the subject.
In an era of social media and connectivity, web users are becoming increasingly enthusiastic about interacting, sharing, and working together through online collaborative media. More recently, this collective intelligence has spread to many different areas, with a growing impact on everyday life, such as in education, health, commerce and tourism, leading to an exponential growth in the size of the social Web. However, the distillation of knowledge from such unstructured Big data is, an extremely challenging task. Consequently, the semantic and multimodal contents of the Web in this present day are, whilst being well suited for human use, still barely accessible to machines. In this work, we explore the potential of a novel semi-supervised learning model based on the combined use of random projection scaling as part of a vector space model, and support vector machines to perform reasoning on a knowledge base. The latter is developed by merging a graph representation of commonsense with a linguistic resource for the lexical representation of affect. Comparative simulation results show a significant improvement in tasks such as emotion recognition and polarity detection, and pave the way for development of future semi-supervised learning approaches to big social data analytics.
Taking the role of a facilitator, the EU has published recommendations to steer sustainability policies in local governments. The authors analysed strategic plans published by Italian local governments and found that the EU’s recommendations had zero effect. The way forward is for local governments to be required to produce sustainability policies.
This paper aims at studying the implementation of process management in the public entities, such as University, in order to gain the capabilities they need to innovate, reenergize performance and deliver the value today's customers and community demand. The case study regards the University of Eastern Piedmont (North of Italy); this organization is growing in the research and education field and has three headquarters, in Novara, Alessandria and Vercelli. The research's method is empirically based and is made of these stage: 1. analysis of the present organizational structure; 2. identification of the activities carried out in each organizational unit of the structure (principals, heads of the research's centers, heads of the administrative centers); 3. identification of the critical points in each activity, with a deep focus on co-ordination problems; 4. identification of the objectives of performance for each activity; 5. identification of the managerial and organizational steps to be carry out. Regarding the step 2 and 3, the empirical research's method is based on interviews with the personnel of the University and on written questionnaires, while in the stage 3,4, and 5, quantitative methods are used as well. The results obtained confirm the need of managerial tools in order to
Big Data concern large-volume, complex, growing data sets with multiple, autonomous sources. With the fast development of networking, data storage, and the data collection capacity, Big Data are now rapidly expanding in all science and engineering domains, including physical, biological and biomedical sciences. This paper presents a HACE theorem that characterizes the features of the Big Data revolution, and proposes a Big Data processing model, from the data mining perspective. This data-driven model involves demand-driven aggregation of information sources, mining and analysis, user interest modeling, and security and privacy considerations. We analyze the challenging issues in the data-driven model and also in the Big Data revolution.
Purpose
– This study aims to draw on the New Zealand context to provide extensions and comparative insights to prior research that has canvassed the reasons for sustainability reporting by local governments. A base is provided from which more extensive and theoretically grounded research can proceed.
Design/methodology/approach
– Semi‐structured exploratory interviews were conducted in mid‐2009 in each of five local government councils in New Zealand with the person responsible for preparing the sustainability report.
Findings
– Local governments in New Zealand were prompted to engage in sustainability reporting for reasons of leadership, accountability, and financial incentive; and by a need to bolster important internal stakeholders. Sustainability reporting by local governments in New Zealand does not appear to be motivated strongly by an idealistic desire to ensure a sustainable world, but more by pragmatism and economic rationalism.
Originality/value
– New Zealand provides a unique setting in which to explore why local governments prepare sustainability reports. New Zealand has a statutory requirement for local governments to adopt a principles‐based approach to sustainable development. Additionally, public relations crisis management theory is drawn upon to provide some fresh perspective on reasons for sustainability reporting.
Undertaking a review of the literature is an important part of any research project. The researcher both maps and assesses the relevant intellectual territory in order to specify a research question which will further develop the knowledge base. However, traditional 'narrative' reviews frequently lack thoroughness, and in many cases are not undertaken as genuine pieces of investigatory science. Consequently they can lack a means for making sense of what the collection of studies is saying. These reviews can be biased by the researcher and often lack rigour. Furthermore, the use of reviews of the available evidence to provide insights and guidance for intervention into operational needs of practitioners and policymakers has largely been of secondary importance. For practitioners, making sense of a mass of often-contradictory evidence has become progressively harder. The quality of evidence underpinning decision-making and action has been questioned, for inadequate or incomplete evidence seriously impedes policy formulation and implementation. In exploring ways in which evidence-informed management reviews might be achieved, the authors evaluate the process of systematic review used in the medical sciences. Over the last fifteen years, medical science has attempted to improve the review process by synthesizing research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducible manner with the twin aims of enhancing the knowledge base and informing policymaking and practice. This paper evaluates the extent to which the process of systematic review can be applied to the management field in order to produce a reliable knowledge stock and enhanced practice by developing context-sensitive research. The paper highlights the challenges in developing an appropriate methodology.
The possibility of measuring and comparing sustainability performance is generally taken for granted in management studies and practices based on the evaluation, selection and ranking of the supposedly best companies in the field. The purpose of this article is to question this basic assumption by analyzing the comparability of sustainability performance through a systematic review of 12 mining company reports using Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. The analysis of information based on 92 GRI indicators raises serious questions concerning the hypothesis of measurability and comparability of sustainability performance, drawing attention to the main reasons that make it very difficult if not impossible to establish a credible and justifiable classification among organizations.
La possibilité de mesurer et de comparer les performances de développement durable est généralement prise pour acquise tant dans les recherches en gestion que dans les pratiques de classement ou de sélection des meilleures entreprises dans ce domaine. L’objectif de cet article est d’examiner cette hypothèse de mesurabilité et de comparabilité des performances de développement durable à partir de l’étude systématique de 12 rapports d’entreprises minières utilisant le même guideline du Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). L’analyse des informations relatives aux 92 indicateurs du GRI utilisés remet en cause l’hypothèse de comparabilité des performances de développement durable en mettant en lumière les principales raisons qui rendent pratiquement impossible l’établissement d’un classement crédible et justifiable entre les entreprises.
Intelligenza artificiale e sentiment analysis: innovazioni nella rendicontazione non finanziaria
- P Biancone
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- G Degregori
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La presenza degli SDGs nei PIAO 2023-2025 delle università italiane
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- S Fratini
De Nicola, M., & Fratini, S. (2024). La presenza degli SDGs nei PIAO 2023-2025 delle università italiane.
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Integrare la rendicontazione di sostenibilità e la comunicazione digitale: una nuova frontiera dell'accountability sostenibile nelle Università italiane
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Economic Globalization's Polycrisis
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Speech by President Jean-Claude Juncker at the Annual General Meeting of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV)
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Communicating about Integrating Sustainability in Corporate Strategy: Motivations and Regulatory Environments of Integrated Reporting from a European and Dutch Perspective
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Gender Equality Plan Development in Universities: A Strategic Management Perspective
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Naciti, V., Noto, G., Pulejo, L., & Vermiglio, C. (2024). Gender Equality Plan Development in Universities:
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Manuale di implementazione dello Standard RUS-GBS
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Welcome to the world of the polycrisis
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Tooze, A. (2022). Welcome to the world of the polycrisis. Retrieved from:
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