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The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in economic and financial hardships on firms, forcing them to make tough decisions regarding their social and ethical behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and disclosures of the US S&P 500 firms. In particular, this study examined the relationship between both CSR performance and COVID-19 and the relationship between CSR disclosures and COVID-19 along with the dimensions of environmental, social, and governance. Using t-tests and panel data analysis for the years 2018 through 2021, we found that CSR performance and CSR disclosure increased after the start of the pandemic for total CSR and for the dimensions of environmental, social, and governance. We also found that CSR performance was impacted by a larger change than CSR disclosures for all dimensions of CSR. This study is one of the first to examine the impact of COVID-19 on CSR and helps stakeholders understand the role that it played on firm decisions. The results further illustrate the importance that firms’ managements place on CSR performance and disclosures, even during a time of significant challenge and uncertainty.

The International Integrated Reporting Council introduced the concept of integrated thinking skills to the accounting world overall. This study uses a constructivist approach to address the development of integrated thinking skills for future professional accountants during higher education. This issue is relevant as many professional accounting bodies expect that integrated thinking skills are developed during the higher education of prospective professional accountants. Despite this expectation, there is limited guidance available to academics in the accounting education field to do so. By means of a literature review as well as an empirical study, this chapter develops a constructivist model that can be used by academics to develop integrated thinking skills during the higher education of prospective professional accountants. The model addresses the foundation, appropriate pedagogies, disciplinarity type, and point of introduction of integrated thinking principles in accounting education.

Stock prices are subject to the influence of news and social media, and a discernible co-movement pattern exists among multiple stocks. Using a knowledge graph to represent news semantics and establish connections between stocks is deemed essential and viable.

This study presents a knowledge-driven framework for predicting stock prices. The framework integrates relevant stocks with the semantic and emotional characteristics of textual data. The authors construct a stock knowledge graph (SKG) to extract pertinent stock information and use a knowledge graph representation model to capture both the relevant stock features and the semantic features of news articles. Additionally, the authors consider the emotional characteristics of news and investor comments, drawing insights from behavioral finance theory. The authors examined the effectiveness of these features using the combined deep learning model CNN+LSTM+Attention.

Experimental results demonstrate that the knowledge-driven combined feature model exhibits significantly improved predictive accuracy compared to single-feature models.

The study highlights the value of the SKG in uncovering potential correlations among stocks. Moreover, the knowledge-driven multi-feature fusion stock forecasting model enhances the prediction of stock trends for well-known enterprises, providing valuable guidance for investor decision-making.

Teaching about families in a classroom may seem rather simple and uncomplicated because families are thought to be familiar settings – a part of our day-to-day life experience. Most often the task is not that simple. For this purpose, personal and familial biographies of students were used as part of family pedagogy for understanding the family structure and value orientations. Such an approach requires respect for students’ lived experiences as valid knowledge to use as a subjective and experiential journey to teach about families. There is a dearth of such pedagogical approaches to teach about the complexity and diversity of families in India. This chapter documents such an attempt to teach students, using three exercises, the concepts of family through experiential learning. The concepts include the myth of a normative family, nature of family change, and multigenerational extended kin relationships. The first author developed the teaching exercises and used them in the classroom. The data were collected across three consecutive MSW (Children and Families Concentration) batches of 2012–2016 from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. A focus group interview method was used, and qualitative analysis was undertaken. The analysis of the data deconstructed the myth of the so-called normative family, helped to understand family change, and showed the presence of a range of multigenerational extended relations in families in the Indian context. The results of our study will be useful for researchers, practitioners, and teachers to employ experiential learning techniques in teaching about families in India through classroom interaction.

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the social and economic impact of the United Nations' intervention in the Fire Brigade Department (FBD) of the Urban Community Al-Fayhaa (UCF) in North Lebanon. The study uses a multi-perspective approach, including community, internal processes, resources and personnel development, to assess improvements in fire response capabilities, public safety measures and overall community resilience. The findings demonstrate that the intervention is both justifiable and feasible, with a high benefit-cost ratio, supporting the continuation and expansion of similar projects in crisis-affected regions.

The methodology for the appraisal involved four steps: (1) a general literature review was conducted to identify elements related to costs and benefits, using both qualitative and quantitative methods; (2) a framework on economic efficiency, focusing on minimizing fatalities, injuries and property losses, was created to assess the intervention’s impact on fire brigade operations; (3) all costs related to the intervention were converted into monetary values, and a benefit-cost ratio was calculated and (4) a financial plan for the operation and maintenance was developed, covering facility, equipment, human resources and information technology costs, including inflation and currency devaluation factors.

The paper finds that the United Nations' intervention in the FBD of the UCF significantly improved fire response capabilities, public safety and community resilience. The intervention enhanced operational efficiency through better equipment, infrastructure, and staff training. A benefit-cost analysis showed a high ratio of 10.48, proving the intervention’s economic and social value. The study concludes that such targeted interventions are effective and should be continued and expanded in crisis-affected regions to strengthen local resilience and improve safety outcomes.

The originality of the paper lies in its comprehensive social and economic appraisal of a specific United Nations intervention in the FBD of the UCF in North Lebanon. It utilizes a multi-perspective approach – covering community, internal processes, resources and personnel development – to quantify the impacts of the intervention, offering a unique context-specific analysis. The study combines qualitative and quantitative methods, including benefit-cost analysis, to provide a nuanced understanding of the intervention’s effectiveness. This approach provides new insights into the value and feasibility of similar resilience-building projects in crisis-affected regions, particularly in the context of Lebanon’s ongoing challenges.

The Great Resignation has led to a significant increase in the number of people quitting their jobs due to reasons such as stagnant wages, rising cost of living, job dissatisfaction and safety concerns. Therefore, the aim of this study is that it is important to help people develop better cognitive resources to face adversity.

The Great Resignation has led to a significant increase in the number of people quitting their jobs due to reasons such as stagnant wages, rising cost of living, job dissatisfaction and safety concerns. Therefore, it is important to help people develop better cognitive resources to face adversity. In this study, we administered a questionnaire to 250 employees to determine the variables that could help them build cognitive resources. These variables included the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and affiliation), psychological capital, motivation regulation (within the self-determination theory) and well-being (assessed by self-esteem, positive emotions, positive automatic thoughts and vitality). The results revealed that satisfaction of basic needs is associated with better psychological capital and more self-autonomous behavior, which leads to higher psychological well-being. These findings are discussed in the paper, emphasizing the importance of management and work context that satisfy the basic needs and help to build resources with psychological capital.

The results revealed that satisfaction of basic needs is associated with better psychological capital and more self-autonomous behavior, which leads to higher psychological well-being. These findings are discussed in the paper, emphasizing the importance of management and work context that satisfy the basic needs and help to build resources with psychological capital.

Highlight the importance of consequences of the Great Resignation and the need to internationalize this concept.

This paper presents the biography of one of Australia’s earliest female accountants, Miss Evelyn Maude West (aka Eva). The paper uses this history sub-genre to understand the significant impacts Eva West made across several fields. Eva West was not only a pioneer woman accountant but also an active philanthropist with an interest in social issues and a nature lover who promoted and encouraged an appreciation of the environment.

The paper leverages a diverse array of qualitative resources, responding to Carnegie and Napier's (1996) call to expand the concept of the accounting-based archive. Notably, rare nature study diaries and a book detailing camping adventures serve as poignant examples, illustrating Eva West's profound social and environmental engagement. Additionally, personal and business letters, digitised newspapers, pamphlets, annual reports, minute books and even poems contribute to the comprehensive exploration of Eva West's life and impact. Collectively, these varied sources offer a rich tapestry of evidence, facilitating the documentation of this unique narrative.

Throughout her life, Eva West made significant contributions as a pioneering woman in the field of accounting, a dedicated philanthropist and a passionate environmentalist. Together, these offer a multifaceted portrait of a well-rounded individual. With a solid foundation in accounting, Eva utilized her expertise to benefit numerous charitable organisations, leaving a lasting impact on the community. Moreover, her deep love for the environment is illustrated in nature study diaries and books documenting her camping adventures, highlighting the interconnectedness between her accounting pursuits and her commitment to environmental stewardship.

While previous studies briefly mention the additional contributions of early women to various organisations and movements, none provide the depth of insight seen in the portrayal of Miss Eva West. Rather than critiquing these earlier narratives, this observation presents an opportunity for further research to honour pioneering individuals for their multifaceted roles beyond accounting. Future studies could spotlight trailblazers as accountants with diverse interests and societal contributions, whether in social or environmental spheres. Additionally, this paper demonstrates how archives maintained by individuals, such as nature or travel diaries and camping books, can enrich accounting and accountability-based historical research.

Biographical studies in accounting have played a significant role in advancing historical research, yet there remains a call for additional studies to gain deeper insights into specific individuals. Few biographical narratives have explored how accountants integrate their professional careers with other interests, particularly highlighting the well-roundedness of individuals, especially women. Furthermore, this paper contributes to filling the gap in research that examines the intersection of accounting professionals and environmental concerns.

We extend a classic macroeconomic framework guided by extensive empirical and theoretical literature on growth transmission channels and shock decomposition, with the purpose of measuring the growth spillovers from G-10 countries to the US.

We use a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with dynamic structures to measure time-varying external spillover effects under different economic conditions, i.e. controlled by a representative set of American macroeconomic variables.

Based on our empirical exercise from 1996q3 to 2023q1, we emphasize the roles of France and Russia in the late 1990s as well as the G7 (excluding the US) and Eurozone countries following the pandemic. We also provide insights into the internal transmission channels.

We find that Germany, Japan and Italy only managed to have a net spillover effect on the US in one or two quarters in 1996 and 1997, while the influence of Canada, China, the UK and India appears to affect American growth between 1996 and 1999. The influences of France and Russia are stronger, as they can impact the American economy for more than 30 quarters. Regarding economic blocs, the G7 (excluding the US) and the Eurozone can impact the US during and after the pandemic.

Our results on internal pass-through show a relevant role played by the high levels of American debt and interest rates. This finding is relevant and worrying, and it is aligned with literature on the effects of high levels of public indebtedness and inflation after the pandemic, even in developing economies. In this context, according to empirical findings reported by Matos et al. (2024) based on conditional wavelet tools, most relationships between debt and GDP are given by anti-phasic leadership of the debt (0–4-year frequency period), while inflation can lead to growth in the opposite direction (0–8-year frequency period).

This evidence is significant as recent years have reshaped the understanding of power, with several states emerging as new powers. The role of economic blocs after the pandemic supports this viewpoint. To summarize, both the domestic macroeconomic scenario and the geopolitical forces pose challenges to the American economy.

Our work differs from previous related studies in two aspects. First, unlike most, we use the conditional connectedness approach outlined by Stenfors et al. (2022). Second, we extend a macroeconomic-based growth cycle model instead of a neoclassical approach.

This paper aims to develop a heuristic ethical stance as a provocation for responsible leadership scholarship and practice within entangled human–environment systems. Through consideration of the failures of ethics – in particular Uyghur mass atrocities and their residues in global supply chains – the stance offers a reflexive pathway between the inner value orientation of leaders and the scope of interconnected interests affected by leader action and inaction.

Through an autoethnographic narrative, the applied ethic brings together work by the contemporary Holocaust philosopher John Roth with a motto spread by Anglican educational philosopher and social entrepreneur Charlotte Mason (1842–1923). The failures of ethics centre material, sensorial, religious and relational tensions that are explored through three conversational vignettes relating to the current mass atrocities of Uyghur Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China.

The resulting ethical stance relates individual personhood to meso and macro levels through Mason’s motto –I am, I can, I ought, I will –and is developed to contain self-reflexivity and identity, conscience informed by testimony, consciousness of the power to protest and resist and intention to pivot. The failures of ethics highlight the apparent centrality of religious ethical traditions to considerations of responsible leadership.

The lack of serious and sustained attention to the ethics in responsible leadership, in particular ethical failures and religious ethics, limits its relevance within entangled systems The paper brings to responsible leadership novel philosophical perspectives to link reflexivity between individual and governance level responses and enliven the imagination of conscience through the ubiquity of complicity.