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Chris Morrison and two partners introduced the first Fairtrade bananas in New Zealand in a bid to improve the social and environmental impacts of banana consumption. The trio started All Good Bananas in 2010. Using social media as a key marketing tool, the startup had grown to take a 5 percent market share in a fiercely competitive industry dominated by big players. In 2012, the entrepreneurs needed to decide the best way to increase sales of ethically sourced products under the All Good brand. Should they expand their share of the banana market or diversify into drinks?

The case is primarily based on tape-recorded interviews by the authors with the founding entrepreneur and three employees of All Good from May to July 2012 and an analysis of the company’s website and social media activities. Other publicly available information sources were drawn upon, and a discussion held with a New Zealand national grocery chain CEO.

This case has been written for use in classes in undergraduate and graduate level entrepreneurship, strategic management and sustainability. The case can be used to illustrate how very small resource-constrained startups can compete in an industry dominated by large multinational corporations, and how Fairtrade might provide a worthy differentiation focus. It is open to a consideration of judo economics. While several of the questions ask students to consider the New Zealand context in which this case is set, knowledge of New Zealand and the various industries beyond what is offered in the case is not necessary.

At a broad level the case illustrates how a small, resource-constrained startup can compete against much, much larger players through a niche Fairtrade product focus and the use of alternative marketing strategies such as guerrilla marketing and social media. In relation to the competitive dynamics within an industry, this case can be used to illustrate the concept of judo economics (also referred to as judo strategy). Both the utility and potential limits of judo economics can be demonstrated through the case by considering current activities and potential future dynamics.

This paper draws on and extends corporate political strategic theory through examination of how trade associations were used in reaction to ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in New Zealand. It is well established that firms can influence the legislative and regulatory process either individually and/or collectively via trade associations. The findings of this research reinforce current theory by demonstrating that firms use their membership in trade associations to gain expertise they lack, and to leverage their influence through collective advocacy. Large firms were found to be more likely to engage in collective action than small firms, and collective action was more likely on high profile issues than issues that were not receiving significant public and political scrutiny. The findings, however, also necessitated an extension of existing theory to explain firms’ response when faced with competing stakeholder demands. When the social and economic objectives of a firm diverged, trade associations were utilised in the dual and contradictory strategies of protecting a firm’s positive environmental image while simultaneously advocating less stringent environmental regulatory outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is time for change in the way the paper teach, theories and practice accounting. Traditional accounting practice constructs the identity of the accountable entity as purely self-interested. Yet, there is evidence that firms do engage in broader activities. This paper aims to explain and illustrate that there are groups of firms that engage in socially responsible activities, yet their accounting systems still assume autopoietic behavior. Accounting should resonate with social expectations, but at present it does not.

Literature concerning theories of biological autopoiesis and social equivalents are reviewed. They are related to accounting practices, and to concepts of open and closed systems. The theories are related to survey results of socially responsible activities practiced by firms. National surveys undertaken in New Zealand at three-year intervals are the basis of the empirical content of the paper.

There is evidence that firms behave socially and environmentally responsibly. Yet accounting practice does not encourage such behaviour. Accounting practice has to be able to construct the identity of the accountable entity so that it pursues more than its own self-interest, and resonate with societal expectations.

The paper is unconventional. It challenges extant practice. Its theoretical content may not appeal to many traditional accountants.

The theory and empirics are original. The theory of autopoiesis is illustrated through survey evidence of business practices.

This study implements inflation adjustments, as proposed by International Accounting Standard 15 (IAS15), to determine an inflation‐adjusted version of Economic Value Added (EVA). The relationships between the nominal (EVAnom) and inflation‐adjusted (EVAreal) versions of EVA, and market‐adjusted share returns are investigated, and compared with those of residual income, earnings and operating cash flow. Relative information content tests suggest that earnings have the strongest relationship with share returns, while the results of the incremental tests indicate that the EVAnom and EVAreal components do not provide statistically significant information content beyond that provided by residual income.

The current search for operational criteria and tests of firm performance is largely focused on the Economic Value Added (EVA) framework. While reasserting the essential soundness of this approach the paper seeks to improve its application by proposing a version of EVA which anchors the opportunity cost of equity capital on market rather than book values. The case for this is argued on general grounds and the resulting model is convenient for examining the possible effects of the gearing factor. The practicability of the model is illustrated by applying the proposed ‘EVA’ formula to a mixed set of accounting and stock market data from a sample of UK companies.

This paper considers firstly whether EVA® meets the objectives of benefit sharing and secondly, whether it can assist in achieving integration within the decentralised organisation. The empirical evidence presented is based on case study investigation of three New Zealand organisations, one quoted firm and two state‐owned enterprises, from a management accounting perspective. The results demonstrate firstly that EVA® can help to promote the benefit sharing philosophy through the use of value drivers, although benefit sharing was not the sole motivation for EVA® implementation. Secondly, integration is not necessarily achieved within the organisation. The use of EVA® can actually hinder vertical linkages within the firm, if decentralised units demonstrate a high degree of economic dependence. Integration between ex ante and ex post measures of EVA® is inhibited by a lack of understanding of the measure. Furthermore, integration between shareholder and managerial objectives is hindered by managerial selfinterest and action may be necessary to eliminate goal incongruence. Finally, the case study methodology is ideal for the study of EVA®, as it provides finer quality information than external analysis at the firm level, leading to more robust conclusions concerning the range of acceptable approaches to the philosophy of EVA®, and its evolution over time.

Several researchers and practitioners, notably Stern Stewart Consulting Company and Associates, have claimed that economic value added (EVA) is superior to traditional accounting measures in driving shareholder value. Other researchers have refuted these claims by supplying data in support of traditional accounting indicators such as earnings per share (EPS), dividends per share (DPS), return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). This study endeavoured to analyse the results of companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, using market value added (MVA) as a proxy for shareholder value. The findings do not support the purported superiority of EVA. The results suggest stronger relationships between MVA and cash flow from operations. The study also found very little correlation between MVA and EPS, or between MVA and DPS, concluding that the credibility of share valuations based on earnings or dividends must be questioned.

Studies that examine the relationship of economic value added (EVA) to market value did not isolate the EVA effect in conjunction with controlling for the economic effect of the market. Since the EVA metric is viewed as value‐added apart from the market, operational managers will benefit from a procedure that separates the market driven versus firm driven (EVA) effects. Our paper examines the effects of the economy and EVA on MVA. The results indicate that EVA and GDP significantly affect MVA. Furthermore, the MVA‐EVA relationship shows a systematic bias between the largest MVA firms and the smallest MVA firms. Overall, our study provides implications for corporate executives utilizing EVA to evaluate managerial performance linked to MVA.