Sulina Su Leen Tan and David G Woodward
The paper initially engages in a discussion of the different concepts of trust promulgated over the years via a review of the literature. Trust is then discussed in the context…
Abstract
The paper initially engages in a discussion of the different concepts of trust promulgated over the years via a review of the literature. Trust is then discussed in the context of three management accounting situations, viz. the typical transfer pricing situation; the (equally) typical budget setting process; and, finally, the rather more specific situation of the accounting information system (here utilising the concept of action at a distance) employed within a particular construction company. So whilst two of the management accounting applications examined are from a theoretical perspective, the third is empirically based (if only because of the dearth of theoretical literature available in the relevant domain)
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Pamela Edwards, Frank K Birkin and David G Woodward
This paper examines the impact on the accounting profession of those aspects of new types of non‐traditional reporting which are actually used in practice. Empirical evidence…
Abstract
This paper examines the impact on the accounting profession of those aspects of new types of non‐traditional reporting which are actually used in practice. Empirical evidence about data collection and reporting in some organisations shows that the current scope of mainstream accounting may be too narrow. Drawing especially on environmental accounting initiatives, the paper discusses where the boundaries of accounting and annual reporting are currently set, and whether the accounting profession can respond proactively to push the boundaries of corporate reporting to reflect performance in more all‐embracing ways.
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Petros Vourvachis, Thérèse Woodward, David G. Woodward and Dennis M Patten
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature investigating disclosure reactions to legitimacy threats by analyzing the corporate social responsibility (CSR…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature investigating disclosure reactions to legitimacy threats by analyzing the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure reactions to catastrophic accidents suffered by major airlines.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use content analysis to examine changes in annual report disclosure in response to four separate airline disasters. The authors adopt two classification schemes and two measurement approaches to explore these changes.
Findings
The authors find that for three events the organizations appear to have responded with considerable increases in CSR disclosure that are consistent with attempts of legitimation. For one of the events examined, the authors find no disclosure response and suggest that this could be due to the company’s unwillingness to accept responsibility.
Research limitations/implications
The study’s focus on major airlines that have suffered an accident with available annual reports in English meant that other companies had to be excluded from the analysis.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate the use of the annual report as a legitimation tool and further highlight the need for greater transparency and comparability across publications.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the scarce literature examining corporate disclosure reactions following threats to their social legitimacy.
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Alexandros Galanis and David G Woodward
In the conduct of an organisation’s myriad activities, obtaining value for money is a crucial consideration, and over the years this has increasingly encouraged businesses to…
Abstract
In the conduct of an organisation’s myriad activities, obtaining value for money is a crucial consideration, and over the years this has increasingly encouraged businesses to examine both the effectiveness and efficiency of outsourcing specific business functions. Historically, concern was with more‐or‐less peripheral activities where the cost advantage of outsourcing was readily ascertainable. But more recently attention has increasingly been directed towards more fundamental business activities where consideration of mere cost is supplanted by aspects of quality, and the recognition that greater external quality of provision might well override mere considerations of economy.
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This chapter aims to examine the nature of writing on gendered change in the Commonwealth higher education institutions and to outline the theoretical and historical contexts that…
Abstract
This chapter aims to examine the nature of writing on gendered change in the Commonwealth higher education institutions and to outline the theoretical and historical contexts that have framed gendered changes. It considers how certain themes cohere around the mapping of conditions for women's entry and achievement in higher education and attempts to analyse some of the issues that have emerged from scholarship and practice relating to women in higher education.
Three themes dominate Hunting Causes. The first is that cause is a plural concept. The methods and metaphysics of causation, Cartwright believes, are context dependent. Different…
Abstract
Three themes dominate Hunting Causes. The first is that cause is a plural concept. The methods and metaphysics of causation, Cartwright believes, are context dependent. Different causal accounts seem to be at odds with one another only because the same word means different things in different contexts. Every formal approach to causality uses a conceptual framework that is “thinner” than causal reality. She lists a bewildering variety of approaches to causation: probabilistic and Bayes-net accounts (of, for example, Patrick Suppes, Clive Granger, Wolfgang Spohn, Judea Pearl, and Clark Glymour), modularity accounts (Pearl, James Woodward, and Stephen LeRoy), invariance accounts (Woodward, David Hendry, and Kevin Hoover), natural experiments (Herbert Simon, James Hamilton, and Cartwright), causal process accounts (Wesley Salmon and Philip Dowe), efficacy accounts (Hoover), counterfactual accounts (David Lewis, Hendry, Paul Holland, and Donald Rubin), manipulationist accounts (Peter Menzies and Huw Price), and others. The lists of advocates of various accounts overlap. Nevertheless, she sometimes treats these accounts as if they were so different that it is not clear why they should be the subject of a single book. And she fails to explain what they have in common. If, as she apparently believes, they do not have a common essence, do they have a Wittgensteinian family resemblance? She fails to explore in any systematic way the complementarities among the different approaches – for example, between invariance accounts, Bayes-nets, and natural experiments – that frequently make their advocates allies rather than opponents.
Caroyln Garrity, Eric W. Liguori and Jeff Muldoon
This paper aims to offer a critical biography of Joan Woodward, often considered the founder of contingency theory. This paper examines Woodward’s background to develop a more…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer a critical biography of Joan Woodward, often considered the founder of contingency theory. This paper examines Woodward’s background to develop a more complete understanding of the factors that influenced her work.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on insights gained from personal correspondence with two colleagues of Woodward, one who recruited her to the Imperial College where she conducted her most prominent work and one whom she recruited while at the college. In addition, Woodward’s original work, academic literature, published remembrances and a plethora of other secondary sources are reviewed.
Findings
By connecting these otherwise disparate sources of information, a more complete understanding of Woodward’s work and its context is provided. It is argued that Woodward’s education, training, brilliance, values, the relative weakness of British sociology and the need to improve the economy helped to make Woodward’s work both original and practical.
Originality/value
The originality of this work is to examine the work of Woodward through the lens of critical biography. Despite Woodward’s contributions, Woodward remains an underappreciated figure. The purpose is to provide her contribution against the backdrop of the British industrial and educational sphere.
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Orly Levy, Maury A. Peiperl and Karsten Jonsen
Cosmopolitanism represents a complex, multilevel, multilayer phenomenon manifested in a variety of social spheres, including moral, political, social, and cultural. Yet, despite…
Abstract
Cosmopolitanism represents a complex, multilevel, multilayer phenomenon manifested in a variety of social spheres, including moral, political, social, and cultural. Yet, despite its prominence in other disciplines, cosmopolitanism has received relatively scant attention in international management research. Furthermore, the understanding of cosmopolitanism as an ever-present social condition in which individuals are embedded lags significantly behind.
In this chapter, we develop a conceptual framework for cosmopolitanism as an individual-level phenomenon situated at the intersection of the moral, political, and sociocultural perspectives. The framework explicates the interrelations between macrolevel dynamics and individual experiences in a globalized world. We conceptualize cosmopolitanism as an individual disposition manifested and enacted through identities, attitudes, and practices. We also highlight the diversity of individuals who can be considered cosmopolitans, including those who may not possess the classic cosmopolitan CV. Finally, the chapter explores the implications of cosmopolitanism for global organizations and global leadership.
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Women and marketing have had a complicated relationship for a considerable time. They have often been involved with marketing‐type practices for longer than we have appreciated to…
Abstract
Purpose
Women and marketing have had a complicated relationship for a considerable time. They have often been involved with marketing‐type practices for longer than we have appreciated to date. Against considerable odds, some have carved out careers in academia and practice that have to be admired. The purpose of this paper is to explore the work of two pioneer contributors to marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper engages in a close reading of the work of two female contributors. Their writing is placed in historical context which helps reveal the obstacles they had to overcome to succeed.
Findings
Female teachers, lecturers and practitioners had an important role to play in theorising consumer practice and helping people to successfully negotiate a complex marketplace replete with new challenges, difficulties and sometimes mendacious marketers seeking to profit from the limited knowledge consumers possessed.
Originality/value
This paper explores the writings of a practitioner and scholar respectively whose work has merited only limited attention previously. More than this, it links the arguments that are made to the papers that appear in the rest of the special issue.
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The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and…
Abstract
The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.