Dragan Vidacic, Pavlo Melnyk, Kriste Krstovski, Richard A. Messner, Frank C. Hludik and Andrew L. Kun
To design an efficient and integrated framework for automated and simple data acquisition and processing targeted for first response scenarios.
Abstract
Purpose
To design an efficient and integrated framework for automated and simple data acquisition and processing targeted for first response scenarios.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizes existing software/hardware integration tools and primarily off‐the‐shelf components. Use the modular system architecture for development of new applications. System construction is preceded by the analysis of currently available devices for specific data acquisition and processing.
Findings
The development and integration of data acquisition and processing tools for first responder scenarios can be rapidly achieved by the modular and already existing software/hardware integration platform. Data types processed by this system are biometrics, live video/audio and textual/command data. The data acquisition is followed by the prompt dissemination of information from the incident scene thus overcoming interoperability issues.
Practical implications
Integration of new modules is achieved through simple system upgrades – new applications are created and integrated while the rest of the platform remains intact. Off‐the‐shelf components used eliminate the need for specialized hardware development. The speech user interface allows simple interaction with the system in an eyes‐off, hands‐off manner.
Originality/value
The system represents an efficient platform for integrated data acquisition and processing specially targeted for first response. The test‐bed flexibility allows for straightforward integration of devices/applications handling new data type as required by the user.
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This paper aims to examine sites of dissonance or consensus between global investor responses to the draft standards, International Financial Reporting Standards S1 (IFRS…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine sites of dissonance or consensus between global investor responses to the draft standards, International Financial Reporting Standards S1 (IFRS) (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information) and IFRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures), issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
Design/methodology/approach
A thematic content analysis was used to capture investor views expressed in their comment letters submitted in the consultation period (March to July 2022) in comparison to the ex ante position (issue of draft standards, March 2022) and ex post summary feedback (ISSB staff papers, September 2022) of the ISSB.
Findings
There was investor consensus in support of the ISSB and the development of the draft standards. However, there were sites of dissonance between investors and the ISSB, notably regarding the basis and focus of reporting (double or single/financial materiality and enterprise value); definitional clarity; emissions reporting; and assurance. Incrementally, the research further highlights that investors display heterogeneity of opinion.
Practical and Social implications
The ISSB standards will provide a framework for future sustainability reporting. This research highlights the significance of such reporting to investors through their responses to the draft standards. The findings reveal sites of dissonance in the development and alignment of draft standards to user needs. The views of investors, as primary users, should help inform the development of sustainability-related standards by a global standard-setting body apposite to current policy and future reporting requirements, and their usefulness to users in practice.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper makes an original contribution to the comment letter literature, hitherto focused on financial reporting with a relative lack of investor engagement. Using thematic analysis, sites of dissonance are examined between the views of investors and the ISSB on their development of sustainability reporting standards.
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Messner and Rosenfeld have proposed an institutional anomie theory of crime, incorporating the proposition that societal investments in programs to buffer citizens from capricious…
Abstract
Messner and Rosenfeld have proposed an institutional anomie theory of crime, incorporating the proposition that societal investments in programs to buffer citizens from capricious market forces (decommodification) are inversely related to rates of lethal violence among societies. They support this argument through an analysis of variations in homicide rates among nations. However, the research relevant to their theory is quite limited with numerous claims and arguments yet to be examined. This paper outlines several limitations of the theory and brings data from the World Values Surveys and other sources to bear on their characterization of American culture in comparison to other nations, their arguments about the impact of economic dominance on other institutions, and alternative explanations of the link between decommodification and homicide. Finally, the relevance of the theory to serious property crime is considered and shown to generate serious problems for institutional anomie theory when evaluated as a general theory of crime.
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Jeanine D. Guidry, Marcus Messner, Yan Jin and Vivian Medina-Messner
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the crisis information posted by publics on the social media platform Instagram about leading fast food companies as well as the responses…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the crisis information posted by publics on the social media platform Instagram about leading fast food companies as well as the responses by the companies and their general use of Instagram.
Design/methodology/approach
In two quantitative content analyses, 711 Instagram posts were identified in a two-week constructed time period that related to the ten largest fast food chains in the world.
Findings
It was found that negative content about these companies is posted by customers and employees alike and that the negative tonality primarily stems from issues with service and the work environment. The study also showed that the companies are just starting to discover Instagram and have very little engagement with users. None of the companies responded to the negative posts of customers and employees.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis only evaluated posts with negative hashtags about ten fast food companies. Future research should expand the analysis to all posts about a certain sector as well as expand the scope of the research beyond the fast food sector.
Practical implications
The results of the study are a call-to-action for public relations professionals to engage with their publics on Instagram and actively use the app as a pre-crisis monitoring and crisis response tool in their social media plans.
Originality/value
Instagram is a fast-growing social media channel, yet research into this platform is lacking. The findings of this study should be a challenge to public relations practitioners to put Instagram next to Facebook and Twitter at the center of their social media strategy.
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Although typologies of violence have become more common, relatively little attention has been given to Donald Black’s (1983) distinction between moralistic and predatory violence…
Abstract
Although typologies of violence have become more common, relatively little attention has been given to Donald Black’s (1983) distinction between moralistic and predatory violence. Moralistic violence is rooted in conflict; predatory violence is rooted in exploitation. We elaborate Black’s typology and show how it is similar to, but distinct from, other typologies of violence. We also address the criteria by which typologies of any kind might be judged. Borrowing from the literatures on typologies and on standards of scientific theory, we argue that explanatory typologies should be evaluated according to four criteria: the degree to which they are powerful, theoretical, general, and parsimonious. Applying the criteria to Black’s typology, we argue that the distinction between moralistic and predatory violence is an important contribution to the arsenal of the student of violence.
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
Abstract
A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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We use Canadian data to examine the help‐seeking strategies of women dealing with the consequences of violent victimization. Consideration of the help‐seeking strategies of…
Abstract
We use Canadian data to examine the help‐seeking strategies of women dealing with the consequences of violent victimization. Consideration of the help‐seeking strategies of victimsmay provide insight into other decision‐making processes. The analytic framework integrates research on police reporting and intimate partner violence with the wider help‐seeking literature. This integration allows for an examination of the effect of the victim’s relationship to her offender on decisions to seek help from family, friends, doctors, social service agencies and the police. The research has two objectives. First, we aim to determine whether help‐seeking exists as isolated choices or whether there is a discernable set of help‐seeking strategies used by crime victims. Although many victims do not call the police, they often rely on family, friends, social service and mental health interventions.We find that those victims who report their victimizations to the police also seek support from family and friends. Second, we examine the correlates of these help‐seeking decisions. In doing so, we explore the effects of the offender relationship on decisions to seek help. We explore differences in help‐seeking across attacks by strangers, spousal offenders, dating offenders, and other known offenders. Our findings suggest that women victimized by a spousal offender are more likely than others to use a substantial help‐seeking strategy that includes disclosure to the police, doctors and social service agencies.
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This paper aims to study the symbolic categorisations management accountants produce. It examines the categories they use to describe their work and analyses the meanings they…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the symbolic categorisations management accountants produce. It examines the categories they use to describe their work and analyses the meanings they attach to such categories. This aims at explaining how management accountants can follow a common occupational orientation despite the need to adjust their practices to the specificities of their local and organisational context. The author’s argument is that management accountants build symbolic categories to create a bridge between what they do and who they are. The author further argues that symbolic categories are needed to make sense of a practice in tension between a common aspirational orientation and heterogeneous local contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on a multiple case field study conducted by observation and interviews in a range of organisations.
Findings
This paper examines the empirical diversity of management accountants’ practices and perceptions through the symbolic categories they produce. The author finds that categorisation work constitutes a central mechanism to build a shared narrative despite heterogeneous situations. The author further shows that through symbolic categorisation work, a variety of activities ranging from bookkeeping through managerial support to hierarchical surveillance and challenge in the name of the shareholder are subsumed under stable labels. This, he argues, serves to mask financial accountability, shareholder orientation and hierarchical control behind a narrative of “support” and “partnership”.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to literature on management accountants’ identity by showing the central role played by symbolic categorisations. It also contributes to literature in accounting more generally by showing how symbolic categorisation work blurs the lines between “operational support” and “shareholder value creation”. The same words are used to refer to activities that managers consider helpful to make operational decisions and other activities that increase shareholder control and surveillance and encourage managers to internalise the frames and objectives of shareholder value creation. Symbolic categories that include hierarchical financial accountability within a narrative of “support” and “partnership” masks “financialisation” behind a rhetoric of “business orientation”.
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Leona Wiegmann, Annemarie Conrath-Hargreaves, Zhengqi Guo, Matthew Hall, Ralph Kober, Richard Pucci, Paul J. Thambar and Tirukumar Thiagarajah
The use of interviews for data collection is prevalent in qualitative accounting research. This paper examines vignettes – sketches of hypothetical scenarios – as a promising…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of interviews for data collection is prevalent in qualitative accounting research. This paper examines vignettes – sketches of hypothetical scenarios – as a promising complementary way to conduct interviews in qualitative accounting research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on our experiences designing and using vignettes in five separate qualitative accounting studies, which collectively involve over 200 interviews with various participants. It discusses the opportunities the use of vignettes in interviews offers to qualitative accounting research, as well as the challenges associated with designing and using vignettes. The paper also reflects on fellow researchers’ varied reactions during seminars, workshops, and the journal review process.
Findings
Vignettes emerge as a productive and engaging complementary way for accounting researchers to obtain additional insights and perspectives not usually accessible in semi-structured interviews. The paper also provides practical insights into developing, using and publishing qualitative accounting studies using vignettes, contributing an additional behind-the-scenes view of using qualitative research methods.
Originality/value
The aim of this paper is to increase awareness of vignettes as a complement to the standard qualitative accounting interview. It provides guidance on how vignettes might be used productively for studying rare, new, emerging, complex, or multi-period real-world accounting phenomena. It also discusses how vignettes can promote transparency, honesty, and a greater level of detail in participants’ responses, as well as facilitate the involvement of lay people in accounting studies.
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In all probability, there are today only four persons — all social scientists — who have personally known Father Heinrich Pesch, the eminent German economist of the Jesuit Order…
Abstract
In all probability, there are today only four persons — all social scientists — who have personally known Father Heinrich Pesch, the eminent German economist of the Jesuit Order, viz., Oswald von Nell‐Breuning, SJ, who, 93 years old, still is amazingly active as lecturer and writer, the Rev. Dr. mult. L. H. Adolf Geck (1898), retired, yet still engaged in social research, Rev. Joh. Messner (1891), Professor Emeritus of the University of Vienna, whom illness has recently incapacitated, and the author of this article (1900), who thinks himself fortunate to have gained — during his years of study at the University of Berlin — Pesch's paternal friendship.