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As brands progressively become instruments for consumers to advocate for social change, many feel pressure to engage in social purpose branding (SPB) through addressing social issues. In a rush to remain socially relevant, brands have approached SPB differently; some genuinely intend to advance the social issue, while some intend to capitalise on social movements to mobilise the brand. This paper aims to explain these differences by theoretically outlining various approaches to SPB.

This mixed method paper draws on theory, interviews with marketing practitioners, and practical exemplars to present a typology of SPB approaches. 

Using institutional logics theory, SPB is categorised into four approaches: social purpose-driving, social purpose-driven, social purpose-aligning and social purpose-washing.

The typological framework for SPB advances this domain to outline effective and ineffective ways for brands to engage with social issues. A detailed agenda for further research is provided to guide ongoing SPB research. 

The typology presented reduces complexity and helps marketers understand the different approaches to engaging with a social issue. Given the growing intertwinement of brands and social issues, this research is essential for brands seeking to advance a social issue and remain relevant.

This paper offers a novel conceptualisation of SPB by defining it, identifying a framework of its characteristics, and detailing four SPB approaches. 

The continued evolution of influencer marketing has created a need to better understand influencer marketing effectiveness. With brands increasingly partnering with influencers, research is yet to provide an integrated perspective examining the critical role of both parties. This study aims to draw on the source credibility model and signaling theory to explain the mechanisms that matter in influencer marketing effectiveness.

The proposed model of influencer marketing effectiveness is analyzed using partial least squares with data from 281 followers of social media influencers.

The authors establish influencer characteristics of popularity and attractiveness as heuristic cues that inform judgments of influencer efficacy. Further, category involvement and altruistic motives for collaboration are shown to moderate followers’ reliance on these heuristic cues. Then, a sequential mediating effect demonstrates the critical roles of the influencer and partner brand in three desired outcomes: enhanced perception of brand authenticity, enhanced brand engagement and positive attitudes toward influencer posts.

Future research should consider other heuristic cues that could inform influencer efficacy judgments and switch the focus toward the partner brand’s impact on such judgments.

A step-by-step visual framework is presented to help marketers and influencers translate these findings into key responsibilities for developing more effective and collaborative partnerships.

Besides presenting an integrated perspective, signaling theory provides an original lens for explaining influencer marketing effectiveness, addressing the need to expand the theoretical boundaries of influencer marketing research. 

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of psychosocial treatments to support families living with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and depression. The paper highlights that depression in people with CVD is a predictor of non-adherence to both medicines and cardiovascular rehabilitation programmes. The authors believe there is a clinical need to develop a programme of care to support the whole family to adhere to cardiovascular rehabilitation programmes.

A team of expert cardiovascular nurses, mental health nurses (MHN) and cardiologist clinical opinions and experiences. These opinions and experiences were supplemented by literature using MEDLINE as the primary database for papers published between December 2000 and December 2013.

People with CVD who become depressed are more likely to stop taking their medicine and stop working with their health care worker. Most people with heart and mood problems live with their families. Health workers could have a role in supporting families living with heart and mood problems to their care and treatment. The paper has highlighted the importance of working with families living with heart and mood problems to help them to stick with care and treatment.

Most people with heart and mood problems live with their families. The paper has highlighted the importance of working with families living with heart and mood problems to help them to persevere with care and treatment. MHN may have a role, though consideration should also be given to exploring the role of other health care workers and members of the community. As the population ages, clinicians and communities will need to consider the impact of depression on adherence when working with families living with CVD and depression.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on 30 years of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ), and contemplates the future. It makes a case for diversity, including a broad range of theories and research methodologies, as a defining feature of AAAJ. As we have done since 1988 in AAAJ’s first editorial, we continue to urge interdisciplinary accounting researchers to undertake innovative research and be both original and creative, avoiding the narrow focus and detachment from society that is characteristic of globally pervasive North American economics-based accounting research.

The paper employs an analysis and critique of trends in interdisciplinary research, drawing upon the previous 29 editorials/commentaries published in AAAJ. It also elucidates the field of scholarship associated with AAAJ in 2016 as evidence of the patterning of recent research and publishing trends.

This paper identifies challenges confronting interdisciplinary researchers in the globalised academic community. These include our obsession with theoretical engorgement and our adversarial rather than cooperative approach to knowledge development. Furthermore, the authors argue that researchers must reflect on their motivation, informing theories and values if they intend to contribute to practice, policy and a wider societal good. Accounting researchers have a responsibility to go beyond observation, engaging in and constructing a more equal and fair society.

This commentary reflects on developments in AAAJ and its community over three decades. The authors also address the wider AAAJ community, including the Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) conference attendees, AAAJ special issue editors, the editorial board, ad hoc reviewers, authors and supporters across AAAJ’s 30 years.

The literature on investor decision‐making behaviour in property investment is sparse, loosely integrated and focused principally upon large, institutional investors. It reflects rational, normative models that treat investor behaviour as highly structured and formalised. By contrast, behavioural psychology suggests that individuals frequently act sub‐optimally. These ideas have been explored in financial decision making and have been found in the actions of property valuers and property lenders. This paper addresses this neglected area of property investment decision‐making. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a sample of property investment directors of smaller property companies. The interviews investigate the decision‐making structures in these companies, the process by which investment strategy is formulated, the investment “screening” process and the determinants of purchase/sell decisions. The findings are discussed and related to the literature on decision making under uncertainty.

During the first half of the nineteenth century Aboriginal schools were established in a number of Australian colonies as a part of a project to ‘civilise’ Aboriginal people. Using the case study of schools established in Adelaide, South Australia, in the 1840s, this article examines differences in the way the notion of ‘civilisation’ was understood by colonial educators and civilisers, and how these differences impacted on the form of schooling provided. In particular, the article compares the views of German Lutheran missionaries who established the first Aboriginal school in Adelaide in 1839, and those of Governor George Grey, who instituted changes in the approach taken in Aboriginal education which reflected his own views about ‘civilisation’ and the ‘civilising’ process

To investigate, analyse and critique contemporary research in social and environmental accounting.

An analysis and critique of the social and environmental accountability (SEA) research field since the late 1980s. The study revisits two key prior seminal papers on the field, examines the remit for SEA researchers' focus on practice and policy and offers an empirical analysis of the profile of SEA publication.

Theories are identified in two groups: augmentation and heartland theories. These have been more deductively than inductively generated, evidencing limited attention to field‐based engagement. An alternative to the elusive all‐embracing unitary SEA theory is presented. Researchers' concerns with capture of the SEA field is critiqued and an alternative researcher engagement orientation is offered. Environmental research dominates more recent SEA published output, the dominant methodological approach is literature‐based theorising, and national practices/comparisons and regulations are leading topic areas occupying researchers.

Analysis of publishing patterns including the balance between social and environmental accountability research, research methodologies employed and SEA topics addressed is largely confined to four leading interdisciplinary accounting research journals.

The paper argues for greater SEA researcher engagement with SEA practice and involvement in SEA policy contributions.

The paper offers a contemporary assemblage and critique of the multiple theoretical perspectives applied to the SEA field and offers insights into the range and predominance of research methods and topics within the published SEA field.

For more than three decades, researchers have been searching for evidence of corporate economic, social and environmental sustainability, the holy grail of corporate success in a socially and environmentally conscious world of the future. The vast majority of entities that researchers have investigated have focussed on the primary goal of profit maximisation, with only vaguely articulated (if any) social and environmental targets. Very little research has been undertaken to expose the inner workings of organisations that are striving primarily to improve environmental outcomes within a commercial setting. The purpose of this paper is to expose the inside details of an organisation that tried but failed, and highlights the role of power and politics in its demise.

The “processual” or “contextualist” (Burns, 2000, p. 568) methodology adopted in this investigation has facilitated the interpretation and understanding of complex inter-relationships existing amongst key management personnel. The method steps undertaken included observation and documentation of organisational strategic and operational decision-making practices over a period of 22 months and the examination and analysis of over 800 documents prepared either by or about the organisation.

Examining the inter-relationships of power and politics amongst key players during a period of significant change revealed an intense struggle for corporate survival between two management groups: the original “environmentalist” managers who prepared the entity for listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX); and, the introduced “economic rationalist” managers who guided it through the post listing phase. A failure to effectively transition the power held over resources, decision-making and meanings from the old to the new managers proved to significantly challenge the organisation and possibly contributed to its ultimate demise. Some important lessons were highlighted, particularly the need to develop and establish shared understandings. It is suggested that for a business to move closer to being sustainable, rather than allowing one of the existing paradigms to dominate, a new business model needs to emerge.

The practical implementation of conservation activities on a large commercial scale is a controversial notion. The investigation of this unique case through a period of significant change represents an important experiment in the quest for sustainability and reveals valuable lessons that may guide other organisations that follow in its wake.

Over the past decades, a plethora of papers have been written describing organisations' reaction to pressure on them to change their practices regarding the natural environment. These papers can broadly be classified into two groups, those research papers interested in organisations' activities and strategies to deal with environmental issues, and those concerned with the external reporting or disclosure of information regarding organisations' effects on the environment. What appears to be missing in this research is very much detailed analysis of the link between these two areas. This paper aims to address this issue.

This paper, while calling for empirical work to be carried out to investigate this link further, discusses the assumptions made about this link in previous research and then theorises what our expectations for this link might look like given our current knowledge of reporting practices, and the abundance of reporting frameworks and guidelines that currently exist.

The paper augments a model developed by Gray et al. in 1995 that suggests a hierarchy of responses to environmental pressures, within the context of organisational change. The augmentation adds an accounting element to the model by considering the reporting that organizations may undertake depending on their location in the change process.

The model provides a basis for investigation of the link between organisational change as a result of environmental pressures, and reporting. The paper suggests a number of future research projects, using the model as a basis for empirical investigations.

This paper extends an existing model to produce a comprehensive framework that provides a basis for further investigation of the relationship between accounting (albeit a broad definition of accounting to include environmental reporting) and organisational change.