Federico Ricci, Andrea Chiesi, Carlo Bisio, Chiara Panari and Annalisa Pelosi
This meta-analysis aims to verify the efficacy of occupational health and safety (OHS) training in terms of knowledge, attitude and beliefs, behavior and health.
Abstract
Purpose
This meta-analysis aims to verify the efficacy of occupational health and safety (OHS) training in terms of knowledge, attitude and beliefs, behavior and health.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors included studies published in English (2007–2014) selected from ten databases. Eligibility criteria were studies concerned with the effectiveness of OHS training for primary prevention of workplace injury; and studies focused on examined outcome related to OHS.
Findings
The selected studies (n = 28) highlighted a strong support for the effectiveness of training on worker OHS attitudes and beliefs and, to a lesser extent, on worker’s knowledge but only medium for behavior and small evidences for its effectiveness on health.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should more deeply investigate the efficacy on knowledge increase of trainings delivered by experts and researchers, applying different methods, in a small group; training delivered by peer and by researcher, applying different methods; and trained workers less than 29 years and more than 49 years old, considering that workers in these age groups are particularly vulnerable to fatalities.
Practical implications
Our study is a contribution for those they intend to grant effective training, in response to specific needs of OHS. The evidences presented could be considered a first step to identify the factors related to the efficacy of OHS training to plan adequate interventions.
Social implications
The OHS training is effective on the basis of the extent interventions are carried out for each specific learning outcome.
Originality/value
This meta-analysis suggested that classroom training, although the most used and studied, does not ever revealed itself very effective: it was not significant for outcomes in terms of knowledge and showed a decreasing efficacy for attitudes and beliefs, behaviors and health. It seemed that there was a distinction between interventions on knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, as opposed to behavioral interventions and health.
Details
Keywords
Floriana Fusco, Renato Civitillo, Paolo Ricci, Sylwia Morawska, Katarzyna Pustułka and Przemysław Banasik
That on accountability in public organizations is quite an old debate. Its introduction in judicial systems is, however, still viewed with some suspicion, due to its potential…
Abstract
Purpose
That on accountability in public organizations is quite an old debate. Its introduction in judicial systems is, however, still viewed with some suspicion, due to its potential trade-off with independence and impartiality. Nevertheless, the need to respond to the demands for greater transparency and accountability has also pushed judicial organizations to establish a dialogue with a wide range of subjects. This study aims to explore the understanding and the current practices of sustainability reporting currently in place in judicial systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a comparative approach, conducting an online survey in two European countries (Italy and Poland). The survey was built around the research questions and literature and administered between February and March 2020. Specifically, 804 courts were involved, of which 430 are in Italy and 374 in Poland.
Findings
Findings show that the current practices are still not widespread and there is still a lack of understanding of what sustainability reporting is, and therefore, of what its potential usefulness within the courts could be. Moreover, many differences between the two countries are pointed out, so it is possible to assume that the different cultural and institutional settings influence sustainability reporting practices. Finally, some interesting implications for policymakers are provided.
Originality/value
Judicial organizations are still poorly investigated in the literature, despite being at the center of a wide public and political debate. Moreover, the international comparative perspective adopted constitutes a further aspect of novelty.
Details
Keywords
Floriana Fusco, Pietro Pavone and Paolo Ricci
This study aims to explore to what extent stakeholder engagement affects the sustainability reporting (SR) process and if it succeeds in facilitating the encounter between demand…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore to what extent stakeholder engagement affects the sustainability reporting (SR) process and if it succeeds in facilitating the encounter between demand and supply of accountability, as well as the main challenges of this practice, by focusing on a crucial and under-investigated public sector area, the judicial system.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts an action research (AR) approach. Specifically, it focuses on a specific phase (i.e. stakeholder engagement) of the broader project that was carried on from 2019 in an Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office. Data were collected from multiple sources, i.e. written notes and reports gathered during meetings, the survey administered to stakeholders and the published sustainability reports.
Findings
Stakeholder engagement may be a valuable and effective tool for improving the level of accountability, as it increases the responsiveness of SR to the informative needs of stakeholders. However, the study also highlights some critical points that must be addressed to exploit this fully. Among these is the need to act upstream of the process by working on an accounting system that goes beyond the economic dynamics and can effectively answer the accountability demand.
Originality/value
The study contributes to theoretical and empirical knowledge by exploring a topic and a public sphere still limited investigated, i.e. the stakeholder engagement in sustainability in the judicial sector. The AR approach also presents some originality points, as it is low widespread in management and accounting literature.
Details
Keywords
Reconsiders Umberto Ricci’s harsh comments on the book of the young Attilio da Empoli about the Theory of Economic Equilibrium and also re‐examines da Empoli’s original theses…
Abstract
Reconsiders Umberto Ricci’s harsh comments on the book of the young Attilio da Empoli about the Theory of Economic Equilibrium and also re‐examines da Empoli’s original theses about “ultramarginality” that aroused Umberto Ricci’s fierce criticism. In his reply, da Empoli punctually rebutted those comments, but Ricci did not answer back, probably in order not to lend himself to act as a resonance chamber. In fact, da Empoli’s approach, which led to doubt being cast on the competitive equilibria of Marshallian memory, seconded the criticism brought forward at that time against dominant orthodoxy. And Ricci really was an economist who acted inside orthodoxy and claimed to keep on doing so.
Details
Keywords
Pietro Pavone, Paolo Ricci and Massimiliano Calogero
This paper aims to investigate the literacy corpus regarding the potential of big data to improve public decision-making processes and direct these processes toward the creation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the literacy corpus regarding the potential of big data to improve public decision-making processes and direct these processes toward the creation of public value. This paper presents a map of current knowledge in a sample of selected articles and explores the intersecting points between data from the private sector and the public dimension in relation to benefits for society.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric analysis was performed to provide a retrospective review of published content in the past decade in the field of big data for the public interest. This paper describes citation patterns, key topics and publication trends.
Findings
The findings indicate a propensity in the current literature to deal with the issue of data value creation in the private dimension (data as input to improve business performance or customer relations). Research on data for the public good has so far been underestimated. Evidence shows that big data value creation is closely associated with a collective process in which multiple levels of interaction and data sharing develop between both private and public actors in data ecosystems that pose new challenges for accountability and legitimation processes.
Research limitations/implications
The bibliometric method focuses on academic papers. This paper does not include conference proceedings, books or book chapters. Consequently, a part of the existing literature was excluded from the investigation and further empirical research is required to validate some of the proposed theoretical assumptions.
Originality/value
Although this paper presents the main contents of previous studies, it highlights the need to systematize data-driven private practices for public purposes. This paper offers insights to better understand these processes from a public management perspective.
Details
Keywords
Paolo Esposito, Alessandro Braga, Alessandro Sancino and Paolo Ricci
This paper aims to investigate the strategic governance of the digital transformation of the accounting environment in cultural organizations, with a specific focus on practices…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the strategic governance of the digital transformation of the accounting environment in cultural organizations, with a specific focus on practices of social responsibility and stakeholder engagement in virtual museums.
Design/Methodology/Approach
By adopting a multiple case study approach, this study investigated five Italian virtual museums and their digitalization processes. Data were collected and triangulated from multiple sources, including documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with 16 key informants.
Findings
Considering the digitalization of the accounting environment as a paradigmatic change, the authors identify three key transitions for its strategic governance: from the static, technical and physical to the relational, emotional and digital; from bureaucratic managerialism to value cocreation; and from traditional CSR to integrated external engagement. Moreover, the authors found that social responsibility and stakeholder engagement practices are used in a limited way, and that the use of social media appears to be increasingly important and to be carried out through an emergent rather than a deliberate strategy.
Research Limitations/Implications
The paper draws from a limited sample of case studies in one country and is based on exploratory research. This paper calls for more comparative studies using a longitudinal approach to investigate the impacts of digitalization on the accounting environment of cultural organizations.
Originality/Value
This study is one of the few studies concentrating on the effects of digitalization on the accounting environment of cultural organizations.
Details
Keywords
Gaetano della Corte, Federica Ricci, Sara Saggese and Fabrizia Sarto
The study aims to empirically examine the effect of board industry expertise on environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, and the mediating role of environmental…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to empirically examine the effect of board industry expertise on environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, and the mediating role of environmental innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an unbalanced sample of 341 publicly traded Italian non-financial firms and data collected from multiple sources over the period 2017–2021, this study applies single-mediator models via ordinary least squares regressions.
Findings
Results indicate that directors’ industry expertise improves the corporate orientation toward sustainability strategy that is reflected in ESG objectives. This effect is partly mediated by a greater level of environmental innovation.
Practical implications
The article suggests regulators to promote eco-innovation-friendly investment initiatives due to their value in advancing corporate sustainability strategies.
Originality/value
The research fills a gap in the literature that has never explored the effect of board industry expertise on sustainability-related outcomes. Moreover, it advances the debate on the implications of board human capital by assessing its influence on ESG strategy and environmental innovation.
Details
Keywords
Floriana Fusco and Paolo Ricci
The purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the state of the art in social and environmental accounting research applied to the public sector, highlighting different…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the state of the art in social and environmental accounting research applied to the public sector, highlighting different streams and the main gaps in current literature and providing input for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric method was used to analyse the characteristics, citation patterns and content of 38 papers published in international academic journals.
Findings
The findings show that the research on social and environmental reporting in the public sector is still at an early stage. Current investigations, although slowly on the increase, are still very few and localised. Most papers are about the reasons why public organisations report, what and how they report, but there are so many aspects that need to be investigated more in-depth or require extra validation in order to open new directions for future research, among which the relationship with and the differences between other non-financial type of reporting, namely ICR and IR.
Research limitations/implications
The study shows some limitations, mainly related to the adoption of the bibliometric method. Indeed, it does not take into account books and chapters but only papers published in international and academic journals. This leads to exclude a significant part of the existing literature and other relevant contributions on the field.
Originality/value
Social and environmental reporting practices are quickly spreading in the public sector. The field is particularly interesting, given the specific connotations of this kind of organisations. However, the literature is clearly not exhaustive and there is not a comprehensive and systematic review of the state of the art on the subject.
Details
Keywords
The paper aims to reach a better understanding of accountability and social reporting in the Italian justice system, by examining the state of the art of both literature and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to reach a better understanding of accountability and social reporting in the Italian justice system, by examining the state of the art of both literature and practice. The case study highlights the critical elements in drawing up the social report of one of the most important Prosecutor Offices in Italy.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study analyzes the activities of the actors involved in the report building process by detailing all the steps involved in a research diary, in order to examine such process from the inside, thus reversing its perspective.
Findings
The study shows that both the lack of guidelines for judicial administrations and a consolidated trend of transforming administrative facts into documents useful to stakeholders slow down the evolution of practices, which are stuck in a perpetual trial stage.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations are mainly related to the adoption of a single case study, which does not include any comparison with other reporting experiences in the justice sector.
Originality/value
This paper adds evidence to the theoretical debate on social reporting in the justice sector which has so far received the attention of a limited number of scholars. Furthermore, unlike other studies focusing exclusively on the final report while overlooking the process that turns input into output, this research deals with the core of the social reporting process and practices in their development, capturing their most intimate and controversial aspects from the inside.
Details
Keywords
Francesca Manes-Rossi, Giuseppe Nicolò and Daniela Argento
Research dealing with non-financial reporting formats in public sector organizations is progressively expanding. This paper systematizes the existing literature with the aim of…
Abstract
Purpose
Research dealing with non-financial reporting formats in public sector organizations is progressively expanding. This paper systematizes the existing literature with the aim of understanding how research is developing and identifying the gaps in need of further investigation.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured literature review was conducted by rigorously following the steps defined in previous studies. The structured nature of the literature review paves the way for a solid understanding and critical analysis of the state of the art of research on non-financial reporting formats in public sector organizations.
Findings
The critical analysis of the literature shows that most existing studies have focused on sustainability reporting in higher education institutions, local governments and state-owned enterprises, while remaining silent on the healthcare sector. Additional theoretical and empirical approaches should feed future research. Several areas deserve further investigations that might impactfully affect public sector organizations, standard setters, practitioners and scholars.
Originality/value
This paper offers a comprehensive review of the literature on different reporting formats that public sector organizations adopt to report various dimensions of their performance to both internal and external stakeholders. The structured literature review enables the identification of future directions for the literature in this field.