Giacomo Manetti, Marco Bellucci and Stefania Oliva
This article aims to contribute to the critical accounting literature by reviewing how previous studies have addressed the topic of dialogic accounting (DA), examining the main…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to contribute to the critical accounting literature by reviewing how previous studies have addressed the topic of dialogic accounting (DA), examining the main themes investigated and discussing potential further developments of the DA research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study builds on a systematic literature review of 186 research products indexed on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar that were published between 2004 and 2019 in 55 accounting or non-accounting scientific journals and 14 books.
Findings
First, a content analysis of each contribution informs a classification in terms of research design, methodology, geographical setting and sector of analysis. Second, a bibliometric analysis provides several visual representations of the network of research products included in our review using bibliographic coupling, cooccurrence and coauthorship analyses. Third, and most importantly, the main narrative review discusses the development of the research strand on DA from the seminal works that introduced the topic, through the core of critical contributions inspired by the struggle between democracy and agonism, to the most recent contributions, in which new topics emerge and innovative methodologies are applied to the study of DA.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this manuscript is twofold. In addition to providing a systematic, bibliometric and narrative review of the evolution of nearly two decades of literature on DA, the present study is intended to collect ideas for further research and to discuss how the advent of new technologies and the peculiarities of various institutional contexts can shape the future research agenda on this critical form of accounting.
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Selena Aureli, Eleonora Foschi and Angelo Paletta
This study investigates the implementation of a sustainable circular business model from an accounting perspective. Its goal is to understand if and how decision- makers use…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the implementation of a sustainable circular business model from an accounting perspective. Its goal is to understand if and how decision- makers use management accounting systems, and what changes are needed if these systems are to support the transition toward a circular economy.
Design/methodology/approach
Dialogic accounting theory frames the case study of six companies that built a value network to develop and implement an innovative packaging solution consistent with circular economy principles. Content analysis was utilised to investigate the accounting tools used.
Findings
The findings indicate that circular solutions generate new organisational configurations based on value networks. Interestingly, managers’ decision-making process largely bypassed the accounting function; they relied on informal accounting and life cycle analysis, which stimulated a multi-stakeholder dialogue in a life cycle perspective.
Research limitations/implications
The research provides theoretical and practical insights into the capability of management accounting systems to support companies seeking circular solutions.
Practical implications
The authors offer implications for accounting practice, chief financial officers (CFOs) and accounting educators, suggesting that a dialogic approach may support value retention of resources, materials and products, as required by the circular economy.
Social implications
The research contributes to the debate about the role of accounting in sustainability, specifically the need for connecting for resource efficiency at the corporate level with the rationalisation of resource use within planetary boundaries.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the limited research into the role of management accounting in a company’s transition to circular business models. Dialogic accounting theory frames exploration of how accounting may evolve to help businesses become accountable to all stakeholders, including the environment.
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Giuseppe Grossi, Paolo Pietro Biancone, Silvana Secinaro and Valerio Brescia
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…
Abstract
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.
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This paper provides a further investigation into the application of Correspondence Analysis (CA) as outlined by Greenacre (1984, 1993), which is one technique for “quantifying…
Abstract
This paper provides a further investigation into the application of Correspondence Analysis (CA) as outlined by Greenacre (1984, 1993), which is one technique for “quantifying qualitative data” in research on learning and teaching. It also builds on the utilisation of CA in the development of the emerging discipline of English as an International Language provided by Hassall and Ganesh (1996, 1999). This is accomplished by considering its application to the analysis of attitudinal data that positions the developing pedagogy of Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) (see Hassall, 1996a & ff.) within the more established discipline of World Englishes (cf. Kachru, 1985, 1990). The multidimensional statistical technique Correspondence Analysis is used to provide an assessment of the interdependence of the rows and columns of a data matrix (primarily, a two-way contingency table). In this case, attitudinal data, produced at a number of international workshops which focused on the development of a justifiable pedagogy for Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL), are examined to provide a more complete picture of how these venues differed from each other with respect to the collective responses of the respondents. CA facilitates dimensionality reduction and provides graphical displays in low-dimensional spaces. In other words, it converts the rows and columns of a data matrix or contingency table into a series of points on a graph. The current study presents analyses of two different interpretations of this data.
Katarzyna Czernek-Marszałek, Patrycja Klimas, Patrycja Juszczyk and Dagmara Wójcik
Social relationships play an important role in organizational entrepreneurship. They are crucial to entrepreneurs’ decisions because, despite the bleeding-edge technological…
Abstract
Social relationships play an important role in organizational entrepreneurship. They are crucial to entrepreneurs’ decisions because, despite the bleeding-edge technological advancements observed nowadays, entrepreneurs as human beings will always strive to be social. During the COVID-19 pandemic many companies moved activities into the virtual world and as a result offline Social relationships became rarer, but as it turns out, even more valuable, likewise, the inter-organizational cooperation enabling many companies to survive.
This chapter aims to develop knowledge about entrepreneurs’ SR and their links with inter-organizational cooperation. The results of an integrative systematic literature review show that the concept of Social relationships, although often investigated, lacks a clear definition, conceptualization, and operationalization. This chapter revealed a great diversity of definitions for Social relationships, including different scopes of meaning and levels of analysis. The authors identify 10 building blocks and nine sources of entrepreneurs’ Social relationships. The authors offer an original typology of Social relationships using 12 criteria. Interestingly, with regard to building blocks, besides those frequently considered such as trust, reciprocity and commitment, the authors also point to others more rarely and narrowly discussed, such as gratitude, satisfaction and affection. Similarly, the authors discuss the varied scope of sources, including workplace, family/friendship, past relationships, and ethnic or religious bonds. The findings of this study point to a variety of links between Social relationships and inter-organizational cooperation, including their positive and negative influences on one another. These links appear to be extremely dynamic, bi-directional and highly complex.
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Caterina Pesci, Paola Vola and Lorenzo Gelmini
This paper discusses the evolution of sustainability reporting and the role of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in relation to the social and environmental accounting (SEA…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper discusses the evolution of sustainability reporting and the role of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in relation to the social and environmental accounting (SEA) literature calling for a revolution in the standardization of sustainability reporting and the inherent complexities. This paper focuses on the future role of GRI in light of the changes resulting from harmonization supported by the International Sustainability Standards Board and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group’s draft European Sustainability Reporting Directive.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on Bourdieu (1983, 1992) and SEA studies, the authors adopt a critical and qualitative approach to theorize power dynamics in the sustainability reporting field. After identifying the main issues arising from the complexity of the sustainability reporting standards and practices according to SEA scholars, the authors connect them with Bourdieu’s (1992, 1983) field theory to discuss the future role of GRI.
Findings
The findings suggest two distinct but intertwined roles that GRI could play in the future, namely, power related and theoretical/technical, aimed at engendering revolutionary rather than evolutionary changes in sustainability reporting.
Practical implications
This study offers practical implications for GRI to strengthen its future role in sustainability reporting standardization.
Social implications
The limited time available to mitigate the disastrous consequences of non-sustainable business on society and the environment calls for urgently addressing the complexities of sustainability accounting to foster a positive impact on society and the environment.
Originality/value
The authors’ reflections reclaim the SEA literature as central to identifying sustainability complexity and Bourdieu’s (1983, 1992) notions of power as key to understanding the role of GRI in the sustainability field. Furthermore, this paper emphasizes the intersection of different critical concepts, including power, complexity, value, capital and materiality.
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Dean Neu and Gregory D. Saxton
This study is motivated to provide a theoretically informed, data-driven assessment of the consequences associated with the participation of non-human bots in social…
Abstract
Purpose
This study is motivated to provide a theoretically informed, data-driven assessment of the consequences associated with the participation of non-human bots in social accountability movements; specifically, the anti-inequality/anti-corporate #OccupyWallStreet conversation stream on Twitter.
Design/methodology/approach
A latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling approach as well as XGBoost machine learning algorithms are applied to a dataset of 9.2 million #OccupyWallStreet tweets in order to analyze not only how the speech patterns of bots differ from other participants but also how bot participation impacts the trajectory of the aggregate social accountability conversation stream. The authors consider two research questions: (1) do bots speak differently than non-bots and (2) does bot participation influence the conversation stream.
Findings
The results indicate that bots do speak differently than non-bots and that bots exert both weak form and strong form influence. Bots also steadily become more prevalent. At the same time, the results show that bots also learn from and adapt their speaking patterns to emphasize the topics that are important to non-bots and that non-bots continue to speak about their initial topics.
Research limitations/implications
These findings help improve understanding of the consequences of bot participation within social media-based democratic dialogic processes. The analyses also raise important questions about the increasing importance of apparently nonhuman actors within different spheres of social life.
Originality/value
The current study is the first, to the authors’ knowledge, that uses a theoretically informed Big Data approach to simultaneously consider the micro details and aggregate consequences of bot participation within social media-based dialogic social accountability processes.
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Abdullah M. Aljafari and Tom J. Brown
This paper aims to understand the process of initiating ingredient/component (IC) branding from the supplier's perspective. It proposes modeling entrepreneurial orientation (EO…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the process of initiating ingredient/component (IC) branding from the supplier's perspective. It proposes modeling entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as an antecedent factor and differentiation abilities (functional and reputational) as mediators. Investigating IC branding from the supplier's perspective is critical given the cost and risk associated with implementing such a strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 5,254 manufacturing companies were screened to identify IC supplier firms that meet certain criteria. Survey data were collected from 77 top managers (Chief Executive Officers or Chief Marketing Officers) of IC supplier firms. The paper uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and SPSS in analyzing data.
Findings
The results indicate that IC branding is a complex strategy – one involving a number of steps that need to be taken in a specific order. More specifically, results indicate that IC branding starts with EO exerting a positive influence on IC functional differentiation ability (FDA). FDA facilitates reputational differentiation ability (RDA), which in turn encourages the supplier to initiate IC branding.
Originality/value
This paper addresses an important gap by studying the process through, which suppliers initiate IC branding.
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Klaus J. Templer, Jeffrey C. Kennedy and Riyang Phang
Customer orientation of service employees relates to customer satisfaction and loyalty, sales growth and business performance. Drawing from conservation of resources (COR) theory…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer orientation of service employees relates to customer satisfaction and loyalty, sales growth and business performance. Drawing from conservation of resources (COR) theory, the aim of this study was to test the interactive effects of service employees' role clarity and learning goal orientation on customer orientation. Specifically, it was hypothesized that even under conditions of low role clarity, service employees with high learning goal orientation would maintain a high level of customer orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were 323 employees of 4- and 5-star hotels in Singapore. Using questionnaires, they reported their role clarity, learning goal orientation and customer orientation. For hypothesis testing, moderated regression analysis was performed.
Findings
Role clarity and learning goal orientation were significantly related to customer orientation, and in support of the hypothesis, the interaction effect of role clarity and learning goal orientation was also significant. With high role clarity, all employees showed high customer orientation. But with low role clarity, only employees with high learning goal orientation demonstrated high customer orientation.
Practical implications
The recommendations from this study are to include learning goal orientation as a selection criterion for service employees and to clearly define the roles of existing service employees, especially for those with low learning goal orientation.
Originality/value
The originality and value of this study lies in highlighting the importance of learning goal orientation especially under conditions of low role clarity.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe a backward design model implemented to develop a leadership ethics course taught in a graduate leadership program. Backward design was…
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to describe a backward design model implemented to develop a leadership ethics course taught in a graduate leadership program. Backward design was implemented to deeply embed the construct of applied ethics within the fabric of leadership curriculum while capturing intended course competencies. Course curriculum integrates a servant leadership theoretical framework and pedagogy that serves to shape and develop moral imagination in leadership students. Backwards design contributed to clarity, integrity, and alignment of course curriculum with program objectives and university mission.