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The 2020 murder of George Floyd resulted in challenges to policing in the United States of America, but little is known about how police chiefs perceive them. At the same time, chiefs of police wield great influence over public perceptions of crime and disorder, the state of their profession, the laws and policies that govern the conduct of police officers and municipal public safety budgets. It is therefore critical to understand how police perceive the changes to their profession post-Floyd.

This study surveyed a randomly selected national sample of 276 municipal chiefs of police. Items probed resignations, recruitment, efforts to defund departments, community support, officer morale, suspects’ likelihood of obeying lawful orders and career risks that could inhibit proactive police work. It examined associations between perceptions and Census Bureau region, length of tenure as chief, size of police department, population served and the urban or rural designation of the jurisdiction.

Chiefs overwhelmingly reported recruiting qualified candidates had become much harder, and the present risks of proactive police work encourage inaction. Chiefs of agencies in the Northeast perceived more challenges than those in the South. Respondents with more years of experience were less likely to perceive the current situation as dire. Approximately 13.5% reported an attempt to defund their department, 56.8% of which yielded some success. Our study suggests an increase in the number and scope of challenges perceived by chiefs of police. Results vary by region and police chief years of experience.

This study provides researchers and practitioners with the perspectives of chiefs about the post-Floyd era that influence their decisions, policies and initiatives.

This study explores the coping strategies employed by people of color in response to racial discrimination and examines how cultural norms inform these strategies.

In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 34 Black and Asian Americans about their experiences with racial discrimination.

Findings reveal that participants cope through humor, seeking social support on social media, from family and friends, and through avoidant coping strategies. Seeking social support from empathetic others, especially when they shared the same racial background as participants, contributes to feelings of comfort, sanity, and a sense of community. Group differences emerge in seeking family support with Black Americans more likely to seek parental support, likely because of racial socialization practices by their parents that prepared them for experiencing bias. Asian Americans preferred talking to siblings or cousins, citing a cultural gap between them and their parents.

The study underscores the importance of considering the quality of social support, not just its use, as a buffer against harms related to discrimination.

Racial discrimination is a routine experience for many people of color. This study demonstrates how the type of coping strategy matters for coping with the distress that often accompanies these experiences.

In contrast to monoracial-focused studies, this research demonstrates the convergence and divergence of coping strategies among different racial groups.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic raised global alarms about hunger and food insecurity worldwide and the corresponding need for public policies, particularly in emerging countries. One possible solution for addressing this important topic is a food donation supply chain, which comprises food banks and involves their relationships with suppliers (donors), customers (people in need) and other potential stakeholders. The aim of this research is to understand how different agents in a food donation supply chain use different but interrelated capital dimensions (human, structural and relational) to leverage their resources and build knowledge in their relationships with other stakeholders.

We conducted an abductive single case study with the food bank as a focal organisation in a direct supply chain. Data were collected by way of 15 semi-structured interviews with representatives from each tier in the chain (food bank, donor, social impact company and social movement), non-participant observation and secondary data (e.g. codes of practice, websites and media). All data sources were analysed individually and then cross-checked.

Our findings show that tangible dimensions, such as those that are structural, are present upstream while intangible dimensions – those that are relational and human, for example – are prevalent downstream. The political dimension was identified as an important mechanism that allows stakeholder engagement and access to resources, funding and government incentives.

By applying a multi-tier approach, the present research explores how different stages in this supply chain use intellectual capital (IC) to better manage relationships. The heterogeneity of agents within the food donation supply chain (public, private and third sector), each of which has distinct levels of IC dimensions, can share their knowledge to improve efficiency and social protection mechanism policies. Since the focal organisation is a non-profit organisation, this study also contributes to IC theory.

This paper aims to develop a framework for the bioaccounting measurement of environmental assets based on natural wealth sustainability. Specifically, this paper proposes a theoretical structure for qualitative and quantitative organization-level assessments of the existence and circulation of water, air, wildlife, flora, soil and subsoil resources.

This research used an inductive method with a qualitative and quantitative approach. The authors postulate a systemic and comprehensive bioaccounting measurement of environmental assets, including heterogeneous and homogeneous methods and quantitative and qualitative valuations of the resources that comprise environmental assets.

The authors describe a theoretical structure for the bioaccounting measurement of environmental assets based on the sustainability of natural wealth through heterogeneous and homogeneous measurement methods and show how to integrate these assets through an homogeneous method.

The development of this general theoretical structure will require the integration of theoretical, conceptual and technical developments from multiple disciplines. The authors hope that the scientific community will evaluate and study this proposal for faster progress towards its practical implementation in organizations.

The authors structured the bioaccounting measurements, which are presented individually for each class of environmental assets. Each of these assets requires subcategories (accounts, subaccounts and resources) and recognition/measurement units. Environmental value units (EVUs) are used to standardize the plurality of measurement units.

Plant-based (PB) and meat-reduced (MR) diets have a positive impact on human and environmental health, yet consumer acceptance of such diets is relatively low. Research investigating factors influencing consumer behavior around PB and MR diets is emerging; however studies lack strong theoretically underpinned, comprehensive theoretical frameworks. In this paper we synthesize factors from current literature and propose a comprehensive theoretical model across different consumer dietary types (e.g. omnivore, flexitarian, pesco-vegetarian) and account for consumer cognitive dissonance to facilitate a transition to MR diets.

The factors are examined in a five-step integrative literature review of empirical literature about PB/MR-related consumer behavior since 1989. Studies are critically assessed across four theories commonly used to explain the different antecedents of sustainable consumer behavior. We focus on the theoretical domains framework with COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation and behavior) framework, as it provides the strongest foundation for modelling the consumer behavior of interest.

107 studies have empirically investigated PB/MR consumer behavior. Of these, 81 studies applied some COM-B domains, but no study has captured all domains. Scant studies investigating cognitive dissonance in the PB/MR literature have been published. Different consumer dietary types are featured across 47 studies; however, none of the studies comprehensively capture all dietary types and psychological discomfort in different consumer dietary types and cognitive dissonance theory.

To synthesize the findings of the present study, we propose an alternative model to address the before-mentioned gaps identified in our critical analysis. The alternative model captures the relationships between the 12 domains of the COM-B model constructs, psychological discomfort and consumer dietary types in the PB/MR foods setting.

The proposed research model facilitates the transition from MB diets to PB diets in three ways: (1) By differentiating consumer dietary types in terms of the COM domains influencing their PB/MR behaviors, PB-producing businesses could better target their foods to hitherto overlooked consumer dietary categories, such as lacto-vegetarians or emerging categories, such as flexitarians, through more refined segmentation and sharper profiling of consumers. (2) Knowing the level of capabilities of consumers in respect of cooking skills and knowledge about purchasing and preparing PB foods could help marketers develop strategies to improve buyers' skills and knowledge. (3) With an understanding of the opportunities (from the Opportunity domain of the COM-B model), including environmental context and resources and social influences, PB food businesses could more effectively market their PB food products. (4) It provides an understanding of capability, motivation and opportunity factors separately but also the interrelationship between these COM domains, as all these variables are intertwined.

Our ILR with the proposed model and the resulting research helps facilitate progress in the transition to PB diets necessary for more sustainable global food production and consumption.

The paper is the first to critically assess existing PB/MR literature regarding each of the COM-B domains, psychological discomfort and the six dietary types. We propose an alternative research model to address the gaps in literature and explain the antecedents and moderators in PB/MR dietary transition. The proposed model may provide information for practitioners and future researchers to understand a wider range of relevant factors influencing consumer’s behavior in transitioning to PB/MR diets.

This paper aims to examine the lived experiences of a professional accountant, exploring how he navigated the complexity of change in specific accounting processes in the UK housing association (HA). Using an autoethnographic approach, the authors seek to relate individual and collective insights into the changing of social housing organisational processes.

This autoethnographic account draws on participant and participant-observer reflections, as well as several materials maintained by the professional accountant, from a turbulent period in UK social housing. These data are analysed abductively, where the HA was perceived to be a constellation of ritual activities that underpinned a working community.

The professional accountant, who is one of the authors, sought to transform HA’s finance function to be “World-class”. Among others, allegedly outdated accounting processes in the HA seemed to require radical change to enable quicker yet more financially substantiated decision-making. Office rituals facilitated the associated accounting process changes by drawing on camaraderie and team/family bonding, which became amenable to new (accounting) rituals. However, the change process was complex and may well have undermined the existing camaraderie in the finance team. The paper reflects on this, with the professional accountant looking back on his actions within the HA after he had left the HA and had entered academia.

This study demonstrates the potential of autoethnographic reflections in accounting research when accounting is seen as ritualised activity. Hence, abductively, the reflection is theorised through the notion of “ritual” and its antecedent, “liminality”. This autoethnographic narrative may serve as an aid for others who may also face turbulent periods which require navigating change, while they experience personal struggles relating to this change.

This paper explores the way in which industrial pollution has been expressed in the narrative accounts of nature, landscape and industry by William Gilpin in his 18th-century picturesque travel writings. A positive description of pollution is generally outdated and unacceptable in the current society. The authors contrast his “picturesque” view with the contemporary perception of industrial pollution, reflect on these early accounts of industrial impacts as representing the roots of impression management and use the analysis to inform current accounting.

The research uses an interpretive content analysis of the text to draw out themes and features of impression management. Goffman's impression management is the theoretical lens through which Gilpin's travel accounts are interpreted, considering this microhistory through a thematic research approach. The picturesque accounts are explored with reference to the context of impression management.

Gilpin's travel writings and the “Picturesque” aesthetic movement, it appears, constructed a social reality around negative industrial externalities such as air pollution and indeed around humans' impact on nature, through a lens which described pollution as adding aesthetically to the natural landscape. The lens through which the picturesque tourist viewed and expressed negative externalities involved quite literally the tourists' tricks of the trade, Claude glass, called also Gray's glass, a tinted lens to frame the view.

The paper adds to the wealth of literature in accounting and business pertaining to the ways in which companies socially construct reality through their accounts and links closely to the impression management literature in accounting. There is also a body of literature relating to the use of images and photographs in published corporate reports, which again is linked to impression management as well as to a growing literature exploring the potential for the aesthetic influence in accounting and corporate communication. Further, this paper contributes to the growing body of research into the historical roots of environmental reporting.