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Article
Publication date: 15 January 2025

Qurat Ul Ain, Hafiz Mustansar Javaid, Emanuela Mattia Cafaro and Raffaele D’Alessio

Considering the growing global significance of intellectual capital, we explore the impact of foreign directors on the effectiveness of intellectual capital.

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Abstract

Purpose

Considering the growing global significance of intellectual capital, we explore the impact of foreign directors on the effectiveness of intellectual capital.

Design/methodology/approach

Using 21,352 firm-year observations of Chinese-listed firms, for 2006–2020, we employ a modified value-added intellectual coefficient model to evaluate intellectual capital efficiency. The author use ordinary least squares regression as the main method, with a variety of methods for endogeneity and ensure robustness, including the fixed-effects method, propensity score matching, Two-step system GMM and Heckman’s two-step model, as well as other techniques.

Findings

Our findings indicate that foreign board directors significantly increase aggregate intellectual capital and its components, including capital employed efficiency, human capital efficiency, structural capital efficiency, and relational capital efficiency. Further, foreign directors have more impact on the intellectual capital efficiency of non-state-owned versus state-owned enterprises. We also observe that the impact becomes significantly greater with the presence of three or more foreign directors. Our findings hold up to various measures of board internationalization and a battery of robustness tests.

Practical implications

The research results show that the foreign directors on boards are related to IC efficiency, and IC efficiency is crucial to enterprises' value creation and competitive advantage in the era of the knowledge economy. Our findings are useful for companies and governments that are interested in improving the performance of IC.

Originality/value

This study provides novel evidence by using the MVAIC model to investigate foreign directors on boards and their relationship with IC efficiency among Chinese companies, while most previous studies have linked IC efficiency to financial performance. The findings also suggest that the influence of nationality diversity differs concerning ownership structure and their threshold.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 July 2021

Valerio Antonelli, Michele Bigoni, Warwick Funnell and Emanuela Mattia Cafaro

The paper examines how accounting and accounting experts provided important contributions to the Italian government's strategy to address the COVID-19 emergency in 2020…

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Abstract

Purpose

The paper examines how accounting and accounting experts provided important contributions to the Italian government's strategy to address the COVID-19 emergency in 2020, especially in terms of implementing new rules of conduct and providing justification for penetrating interventions in the life of individuals.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach by drawing upon Agamben's concepts of the state of exception, bare life and biosecurity to understand the purposes of the decrees issued by the Italian government and data provided to the citizens in the “daily bulletin” on the crisis by the Civil Protection Department.

Findings

Accounting data provided essential contributions to the government's strategy that sought to spread disquiet and uncertainty in the population to ensure compliance with the strict rules in place, thereby sustaining the management of the country under a state of exception.

Social implications

The study draws attention to the way in which accounting provides justification for measures that are promoted as provisional but which have enduring effects, most importantly the ability of governments in the future to suspend the rights of individuals. It shows how accounting can influence people's behaviour and contribute to the development of a permanent state of exception that significantly increases government prerogatives.

Originality/value

The work contributes to the literature on accounting and emergencies by studying the use of accounting information as a subtle means to ensure support for extreme government actions and ultimately as a political tool that promotes biosecurity as a new government paradigm.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 23 February 2021

Michele Bigoni, Valerio Antonelli, Warwick Funnell and Emanuela Mattia Cafaro

The study investigates the use of accounting information in the form of a confession as a tool for telling the truth about oneself and reinforcing power relations in the context…

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Abstract

Purpose

The study investigates the use of accounting information in the form of a confession as a tool for telling the truth about oneself and reinforcing power relations in the context of the Roman Inquisition.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts Foucault's understanding of pastoral power, confession and truth-telling to analyse the accounting practices of the Tribunal of the Inquisition in the 16th century Dukedom of Ferrara.

Findings

Detailed accounting books were not simply a means for pursuing an efficient use of resources, but a tool to force the Inquisitor to open his conscience and provide an account of his actions to his superiors. Accounting practices were an identifying and subjectifying practice which helped the Inquisitor to shape his Christian identity and internalise self-discipline. This in turn reinforced the centralisation of the power of the Church at a time of great crisis.

Research limitations/implications

The use of accounting for forcing individuals to tell the truth about themselves can inform investigations into the use of accounting records as confessional tools in different contexts, especially when a religious institution seeks to reinforce its power.

Social implications

The study documents the important but less discernible contributions of accounting to the formation of Western subjectivity at a time which Foucault considers critical in the development of modern governmental practices.

Originality/value

The study considers a critical but unexplored episode in Western religious history. It offers an investigation of the macro impact of religion on accounting practices. It also adds to the literature recognising the confessional properties of written information by explicitly focusing on the use of financial information as a form of confession that has profound power implications.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

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