Simon Alcouffe, Marie Boitier and Richard Jabot
This study aims to provide an integrated review of the literature on the diffusion, adoption and implementation of multicapital accounting (MCA) innovations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide an integrated review of the literature on the diffusion, adoption and implementation of multicapital accounting (MCA) innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyzes a sample of 68 articles collected from 21 peer-reviewed journals. An integrated model of the diffusion, adoption and implementation of MCA innovations is developed and used to frame data collection, content analysis and the critical synthesis of findings.
Findings
The involvement of various key actors, including academics, regulatory agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses, is crucial in the diffusion of MCA innovations as they provide resources, promote legitimacy and drive the adoption process through regulation, advocacy, tool design and capacity building. The adoption of MCA innovations is significantly influenced by their perceived relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability and trialability. Organizations may adopt MCA innovations due to rational motives, regulatory requirements or to gain legitimacy by imitating peers. Larger firms with better financial performance and strong corporate sustainability responsibility (CSR) practices are more likely to adopt MCA innovations due to greater resources and exposure to stakeholder pressures. The implementation of MCA innovations often proceeds incrementally, requiring alignment with organizational routines, top management support and consistent use. Successful integration into organizational practices necessitates a culture that values sustainability alongside financial metrics.
Practical implications
This study provides several practical and societal implications. For practitioners, understanding the key drivers of adoption, such as perceived advantages and compatibility with existing organizational processes, can help in designing and implementing more effective MCA strategies. For instance, companies can benefit from training programs and workshops to reduce perceived complexity and enhance trialability. Additionally, regulatory bodies can create supportive policies and incentives to encourage voluntary adoption and improve compliance rates. On a societal level, the broader adoption of MCA innovations can lead to more comprehensive and transparent reporting of both financial and non-financial performance, which in turn enhances stakeholder trust and engagement. This transparency can drive societal benefits by promoting greater accountability and encouraging sustainable business practices.
Social implications
On a societal level, the broader adoption of MCA innovations can lead to more comprehensive and transparent reporting of both financial and nonfinancial performance, which in turn enhances stakeholder trust and engagement. This transparency can drive societal benefits by promoting greater accountability and encouraging sustainable business practices.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the emerging research on MCA by offering a systematic review that integrates various perspectives on the diffusion, adoption and implementation of MCA innovations. It provides a nuanced understanding of the dynamics influencing MCA practices and suggests avenues for future research.
Details
Keywords
Since Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) was signed into law, the landscape of sport in the United States has changed dramatically, not only in terms of sport…
Abstract
Since Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) was signed into law, the landscape of sport in the United States has changed dramatically, not only in terms of sport participation rates for girls and women but also increased levels of support, sponsorship, viewership, competition and media coverage. While educational institutions were slow to develop and implement policies to comply with Title IX, decades later, girls' and women's sports have shown clear signs of having reaped the benefits of the law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender in educational programmes receiving federal funding. As girls' and women's participation in scholastic and collegiate sport has grown, however, so too have reported incidents and public exposure of harmful hazing activities among female athletes. The purpose of this chapter is to examine hazing practices in girls' and women's sports, including the perspectives of female athletes and the broader community. Based on quantitative and qualitative survey data, interviews with college female athletes and public responses to hazing reports in the media, this chapter presents an analysis of hazing in girls' and women's sports 40+ years post-Title IX. Findings showed mixed opinions about the dangers and perceived utility of hazing ceremonies, highlighted athletes' ideas to promote positive team interactions in lieu of hazing and considered the impact of contemporary social and cultural shifts on athletes' ability and willingness to speak out against hazing and other forms of violence and abuse in sports.
Details
Keywords
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.
Details
Keywords
Yanrun Xu, Tingting Jiang, Xiao Hu and Huiyi Tian
Health short videos are serving as a powerful tool for encouraging individuals to actively adopt healthier behaviors. The sensory cues applied in these videos can be useful for…
Abstract
Purpose
Health short videos are serving as a powerful tool for encouraging individuals to actively adopt healthier behaviors. The sensory cues applied in these videos can be useful for engaging peripheral processing and enhancing attitudes. While previous research has examined the effects of various single cues, this study features a pioneering attempt to explore the roles of audiovisual cross-modal correspondence, encompassing multisensory cues perceived through different modalities, in health communication.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 (color: warm/cool) × 2 (music tempo: fast/slow) between-subjects experiment was conducted to observe 120 participants’ responses to a health short video promoting eye health that was created using four different combinations of background color and background music tempo.
Findings
It was found that the congruent color–tempo pairings, that is blue & slow and orange & fast, led to more positive attitudes toward the videos than the incongruent pairings, that is blue & fast and orange & slow. The effect of cross-modal correspondence on attitude was fully mediated by processing fluency, with gender acting as a moderator between the two variables. Furthermore, individuals’ attitudes toward a short video positively influenced their health behavioral intentions.
Originality/value
These findings not only lend support to the theoretical framework of “multisensory cues-fluency-attitude-intention” chain for persuasion purposes but also have practical implications for creating effective health short videos.
Details
Keywords
Valentina Beretta, Maria Chiara Demartini and Charl de Villiers
Integrated reporting (IR) provides a joint overview of an organisation’s financial and sustainability performance and strategies. While the prior literature often critiques IR’s…
Abstract
Purpose
Integrated reporting (IR) provides a joint overview of an organisation’s financial and sustainability performance and strategies. While the prior literature often critiques IR’s potential to entrench injustice, a systematic approach has not been followed. Therefore, this paper provides a systematic literature review, uncovering IR injustices, informing the development of an IR injustice assessment framework to identify injustices and a research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
Combining Flyvbjerg’s phronetic social science and the phases of the IR idea journey to focus on injustice, this paper reviews published IR articles to inform a critique of IR. As a result, we identify specific injustice(s), the actors responsible for them, as well as the victims, as a basis for recommendations for praxis through the development of an IR injustice assessment framework and a research agenda.
Findings
We find that different approaches are needed in each phase of the IR idea journey. In the (re)generation phase, a pluralistic approach to IR is needed from the very beginning of the decision-making process. In the elaboration phase, the motivations and the features of IR are assessed. In the championing phase, IR champions support radical innovation, whereas IR opponents are obstructing its spread. In the production phase, the extent to which IR and integrated thinking are linked to the business model is assessed. Finally, we find that IR’s impact is often limited by the symbolic implementation of its tenets.
Practical implications
The findings suggest a need for companies to rethink the ways in which IR is implemented and used to analyse the ways in which IR is supported and disseminated within and outside the organisation, to focus on internal processes and to reflect on the expected impact of IR on the company’s stakeholders.
Originality/value
This study represents the first systematic approach to identifying IR-related injustices, involving how IR adoption might create injustices and marginalise certain stakeholder groups, and offering recommendations for praxis. Furthermore, the paper details the role of IR in either mitigating or amplifying these injustices and develops a research agenda.
Details
Keywords
Damien Lambert and Leona Wiegmann
This study investigates how the interrelated elements of organizational roles – activities, motives, resources and relationships – are mobilized to construct a code of conduct for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how the interrelated elements of organizational roles – activities, motives, resources and relationships – are mobilized to construct a code of conduct for the proxy advisory (PA) industry in Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study uses archival documents from three consecutive regulatory consultations and 16 interviews with key stakeholders. It analyzes how different stakeholder groups (i.e. PA firms, investors, issuers and the regulator) perceive and mobilize the elements of PA firms’ role to construct the accountability regime’s boundaries (accountability problem and action, and users and providers of accounts).
Findings
This study shows how PA firms, investors, issuers and the regulator refer to the perceived motives behind PA firms’ activities to construct an accountability problem. The regulator accepted the motives of an information intermediary for PA firms’ role and required PA firms to develop a corresponding accountability action: a code of conduct. PA firms involved in developing the code of conduct formalized who is accountable to whom by aligning this accepted motive with their activities, relationships, and resources into a common role.
Originality/value
The study highlights how aligning role elements to reflect PA firms’ common roles enables the construction of an accountability regime that stakeholders accept as a means of regulation. Analyzing the role elements offers insights into the development and functioning of accountability regimes that rely on self-regulation. We also highlight the role of smaller regional firms in helping shape transnational accountability regimes.
Details
Keywords
Sarthak Mondal, Daniel Plumley and Rob Wilson
This paper analyses J1 League and J2 League clubs during the period 2011–2020 to anticipate financial distress.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyses J1 League and J2 League clubs during the period 2011–2020 to anticipate financial distress.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected for 29 professional football clubs competing in the J1 and J2 League for the financial years ending 2011–2020. Analysis was conducted using Altman’s Z-score methodology and additional statistical tests were conducted to measure differences between groups.
Findings
The results show significant cases of financial distress amongst clubs in both divisions and that clubs that have played predominantly in the J1 League are in significantly poorer financial health than clubs that have played predominantly in the J2 League. Overall, the financial situation in Japanese professional football needs to be monitored, a position that could be exacerbated by the economic crisis, caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Research limitations/implications
While the financial situation for a majority of the clubs in the J-League presents an austere picture, comparison with clubs in other leagues across Asia and Europe and understanding the different policies set by these leagues would enable us to understand whether the phenomenon of financial distress is common to other clubs and leagues across different countries and continents.
Practical implications
The paper recommends that J-League visit the existing club licensing criteria and implement equitable cost-control measures, such as implementing a cap on acceptable losses over a specified period or restricting overall expenditures as a percentage of the club’s revenue.
Originality/value
The paper extends the evidence base of measuring financial distress in professional team sports and is also the first paper of its kind to examine this in relation to Asian professional football.