P.K. Nandram, A.J. Brouwer and H.P.A.J. Langendijk
This paper aims to investigate whether managers use impression management through the presentation of non-financial information in an integrated reporting setting.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether managers use impression management through the presentation of non-financial information in an integrated reporting setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors performed an experiment with experienced professional controllers and part-time students enrolled in the executive master’s degree in finance and control at universities in the Netherlands. In this experiment, we manipulated the financial performance to test if managers present non-financial information differently based on the firm’s financial performance.
Findings
This study found that impression management is not applied by including or excluding non-financial key performance indicators (KPIs) in the integrated report, but by using more prominent presentation forms for positive non-financial performance and non-prominent ones for negative non-financial performance. However, the use of impression management through the presentation form decreased when the firms’ financial performance was positive. In that instance, this study noted that managers statistically significantly more often decided to present poor non-financial performance in a prominent presentation format in comparison to managers who were not aware of the financial performance.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of this paper is that the authors focused on only two impression management strategies: opportunistic/under-reporting and the presentation form. This analysis shows that the use of impression management mainly seems to occur through the presentation format. Future research could investigate other impression management strategies in an integrated reporting setting.
Practical implications
The results of this study are of importance for users of integrated reports, because it will provide more insight into whether firms are truly transparent in their integrated reports. Furthermore, the theoretical implication of this study is relevant to regulatory authorities, because it sheds light on the different forms of impression management used in integrated reporting and the influence of positively or negatively performing KPIs on the decisions of preparers of integrated reports.
Originality/value
Therefore, in this study, the authors add to prior literature by investigating the concept of impression management in an integrated reporting setting. More specifically, the authors perform an experiment and focus on different forms of impression management (the presentation format and under-reporting) through non-financial KPIs in an integrated reporting setting and link it to firm financial performance.
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Keywords
This article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The article offers a review of the field by mapping previous studies according to their strategy and responsibility orientations and, consequently, identifies the classic perspective, as well as the major deficiencies and prevailing research gaps in the literature.
Findings
The article contributes to the field of strategic corporate responsibility by reframing the field with a contender perspective that challenges the classic view of strategy and responsibility amalgamation. Together, the classic and the contender perspectives are synthesized to form an integrative perspective that is more holistic than those currently available.
Originality/value
The article ends by calling for a reimagining of the relationship between corporate responsibility and strategy to find promising future research avenues and effective business practices suitable to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
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Keywords
José Carlos Vázquez-Parra, Abel García-González and María Soledad Ramírez-Montoya
The purpose of this study is to analyze how university men and women in different disciplines of study in Mexico perceive social entrepreneurship competencies, using a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze how university men and women in different disciplines of study in Mexico perceive social entrepreneurship competencies, using a multifactorial analysis to find possible areas of opportunity to reduce the gender gap in social-entrepreneurship-project proposals.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a quantitative study with a validated questionnaire that records the perception levels of five social entrepreneurship subcompetencies. The survey, which includes 28 indicators, was applied to 140 university students from different disciplines. Hypothesis testing was applied to identify significant differences between men and women in each subcompetency by disciplinary area.
Findings
In the global sample, significant differences by gender were observed only in the social value subcompetency. In the disciplinary analysis, significant differences were found in architecture and design, business, and engineering and science.
Research limitations/implications
The questionnaire only gathered data about the students' perceptions. To the extent that perception is triangulated with other instruments, it is possible to increase knowledge regarding how to train in social entrepreneurship.
Practical implications
The results can be useful for university training and increasing the envisioning and formulating of government projects by young people who create new businesses.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the literature on the role of gender-specific perceptions of social entrepreneurship in Mexico.