Reviews literature on industrial choice, ethnography and flexible specialization. Investigates flexible specialization in more depth, claiming that before ethnographic description…
Abstract
Reviews literature on industrial choice, ethnography and flexible specialization. Investigates flexible specialization in more depth, claiming that before ethnographic description can be achieved, abstract simplifications and the choices facing businesses in the local community have to be overcome. Proposes two models for economic recovery – flexible specialization and multinational Keynesianism – and discusses the boundaries that both models impose. Explores the public sphere and enterprise culture, particularly in the UK. Warns of the dangers of ethnographic studies of communities, specifically the imposition of meaning onto communal exchanges. Talks also of social solidarity. Observes that the identification of a communal language and a common work culture is tricky but that ethnography has a role to play in establishing the meaning of flexible specialization in small business communities.
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It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields…
Abstract
It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.
The purpose of this article is to look in detail into the collapse and its subsequent implications of the London and County Securities bank (L&C) in 1973, one of the most…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to look in detail into the collapse and its subsequent implications of the London and County Securities bank (L&C) in 1973, one of the most significant UK corporate fraud scandals and regulatory failures in recent decades.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is a case study drawing on the report on L&C by the Department of Trade (DT) inspectors and the national and trade press, interviews with and the private papers of some of the major participants.
Findings
The study identifies and explains the nature of the fraud, the shortcomings of the auditing of the bank, the poor performance of the DT inspectors, and the weaknesses of the subsequent changes in the regulatory system.
Research implications
The implications of the article's findings are: that commentators, and the regulatory and legal system need to distinguish between different types of fraud; that commercial pressures impact adversely on the audit process; that DT inspections conducted by accountants are not independent in their judgements; and that self‐regulation is always likely to be ineffective.
Practical implications
The findings are likely to be of interest to accounting academics and historians, practitioners and regulators.
Originality/value
Provides an insight into the collapse of the London and County Securities bank.
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Jill Atkins, Barry Colin Atkins, Ian Thomson and Warren Maroun
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a ray of hope, in the form of a Morris-style utopian dream of a sustainable world, as a basis for new forms of accounting and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a ray of hope, in the form of a Morris-style utopian dream of a sustainable world, as a basis for new forms of accounting and accountability in contemporary society.
Design/methodology/approach
The method is four-fold, weaving together an auto-ethnographic approach, a contextual dialogue between accounting academics and lobbyists, a Morris-inspired utopian metaphor and a stakeholder accountability event in the form of oral disclosures written as a song cycle.
Findings
Current efforts at integrated reporting are unlikely to change how large companies do business in order to address the risk of climate change in the short term. If the UN reports on climate change are correct, the authors need to take immediate action. The authors argue that, instead of waiting for climatic disaster to lead to a paradigm shift in corporate practice, “monetisation” of the costs of climate change is one way to encourage integrated thinking and sustainable business models. This relies on existing finance and accounting discourse to create a new “field of environmental visibility” which engenders environmental awareness on the part of the world’s companies and policy makers.
Practical implications
This utopian image may not appear a practicable, realistic solution to current problems but represents a starting point for optimism. It provides inspiration for policy makers to develop better forms of sustainability reporting, more suitable to the accelerating rates of climatic change.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge this is the first attempt to develop Morris’s News From Nowhere as a basis for building new forms of accounting and accountability.
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Malissa Alinor and Yvonne Chen
This study explores the coping strategies employed by people of color in response to racial discrimination and examines how cultural norms inform these strategies.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the coping strategies employed by people of color in response to racial discrimination and examines how cultural norms inform these strategies.
Methodology
In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 34 Black and Asian Americans about their experiences with racial discrimination.
Findings
Findings reveal that participants cope through humor, seeking social support on social media, from family and friends, and through avoidant coping strategies. Seeking social support from empathetic others, especially when they shared the same racial background as participants, contributes to feelings of comfort, sanity, and a sense of community. Group differences emerge in seeking family support with Black Americans more likely to seek parental support, likely because of racial socialization practices by their parents that prepared them for experiencing bias. Asian Americans preferred talking to siblings or cousins, citing a cultural gap between them and their parents.
Research Implications
The study underscores the importance of considering the quality of social support, not just its use, as a buffer against harms related to discrimination.
Social Implications
Racial discrimination is a routine experience for many people of color. This study demonstrates how the type of coping strategy matters for coping with the distress that often accompanies these experiences.
Originality
In contrast to monoracial-focused studies, this research demonstrates the convergence and divergence of coping strategies among different racial groups.
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Anthony Andrew, Ian Murning, Michael Pitt and Matthew Tucker
The paper aims to examine the investment in Scotland's further education (FE) estate as an example of public sector capital investment. It looks at the sector's modernization…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine the investment in Scotland's further education (FE) estate as an example of public sector capital investment. It looks at the sector's modernization, which has previously suffered from under‐investment, to provide a built environment that meets the educational requirements against a background of constrained resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the historic legacy of the estate, the program to address the problem, issues arisen, solutions devised, assesses progress, and future development.
Findings
In 1999 the FE Estate in Scotland reflected decades of under‐investment. Local authority owners in the face of competing priorities allowed many buildings to deteriorate, often failing to meet modern health and safety requirements, wrongly configured, and sometimes incorrectly located. The investment program of the Scottish Funding Council has successfully started to arrest the deterioration in the estate, and in many places has achieved significant improvement through highly focused funding levering in substantial resources by way of commercial loans and recycled property receipts which have multiplied the impact of the SFC investment.
Research limitations/implications
The paper raises issues of how the public sector attempts to resolve competing policy objectives, with constrained resources and imperfect knowledge of future demands. Paper is descriptive with some analysis of problems and potential resolution. It highlights an opportunity for future quantitative work by researchers interested in optimizing capital allocation decisions under multiple constraints and imperfect knowledge by drawing attention to under researched source material in Scottish Government documents.
Originality/value
The paper presents fresh material on public sector capital investment. Primarily drawing on Scottish Government information sources, recent developments in the Scottish FE Sector are explained. Shows how the Scottish Government, its predecessor the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Funding Council have used modern tools of capital planning and estate management to improve the property legacy of a sector that has been short of investment for some decades.
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Catherine Vanaise and Gwyneth Edwards
The data set used to write this case was collected from 83 public sources, including company communications, company journals and reports and the company website, along with…
Abstract
Research methodology
The data set used to write this case was collected from 83 public sources, including company communications, company journals and reports and the company website, along with newspaper articles, industry reports, scientific articles and case studies. The data set was used to analyse both the industry and firm in which Arup operated to draw conclusions about the firm’s strategy and competitive advantage, specifically, as it relates to trust and knowledge management.
Case overview/synopsis
Alan Belfield, an employee of Arup Group Limited for 29 years, and the company’s chairman since 2019, had witnessed significant growth since he first joined the firm. Operating globally, Arup had a proud past; since 1946, the company had served 6,931 clients across 143 countries, leading to its important contribution to many world-renowned landmarks within the built environment. From 2018 to 2020, revenue at the global multiservice engineering company had grown almost £250m [1] to £1.809bn.
Over the past few years and as 2021 came to an end, the global engineering services industry had experienced a flood of mergers and acquisitions, as the industry grew towards maturity and clients looked for full-service solutions. Arup’s strategy had proven successful in the past, evidenced by its capacity to grow revenues and partake in the design of well-known structures and buildings. However, with the trend towards consolidation, as Arup headed into 2022, how could the firm retain its position as one of the global leaders in the industry over time?
Complexity academic level
The case can be used in business courses on global strategic management at the bachelor and master levels, as it applies key strategic management concepts within a global context. The case focuses primarily on the transnational corporation (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 2002) and how it creates value through strategy and structure. Instructors who wish to integrate the human resource management aspect into the course are provided with optional material, including an additional reading, along with an assignment question and associated analysis and teaching guidance.
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Madlen Sobkowiak, Thomas Cuckston and Ian Thomson
This research seeks to explain how a national government becomes capable of constructing an account of its biodiversity performance that is aimed at enabling formulation of policy…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to explain how a national government becomes capable of constructing an account of its biodiversity performance that is aimed at enabling formulation of policy in pursuit of SDG 15: Life on Land.
Design/methodology/approach
The research examines a case study of the construction of the UK government's annual biodiversity report. The case is analysed to explain the process of framing a space in which the SDG-15 challenge of halting biodiversity loss is rendered calculable, such that the government can see and understand its own performance in relation to this challenge.
Findings
The construction of UK government's annual biodiversity report relies upon data collected through non-governmental conservation efforts, statistical expertise of a small project group within the government and a governmental structure that drives ongoing evolution of the indicators as actors strive to make these useful for policy formulation.
Originality/value
The analysis problematises the SDG approach to accounting for sustainable development, whereby performance indicators have been centrally agreed and universally imposed upon all signatory governments. The analysis suggests that capacity-building efforts for national governments may need to be broader than that envisaged by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Karen McBride, Jill Frances Atkins and Barry Colin Atkins
This paper explores the way in which industrial pollution has been expressed in the narrative accounts of nature, landscape and industry by William Gilpin in his 18th-century…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the way in which industrial pollution has been expressed in the narrative accounts of nature, landscape and industry by William Gilpin in his 18th-century picturesque travel writings. A positive description of pollution is generally outdated and unacceptable in the current society. The authors contrast his “picturesque” view with the contemporary perception of industrial pollution, reflect on these early accounts of industrial impacts as representing the roots of impression management and use the analysis to inform current accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses an interpretive content analysis of the text to draw out themes and features of impression management. Goffman's impression management is the theoretical lens through which Gilpin's travel accounts are interpreted, considering this microhistory through a thematic research approach. The picturesque accounts are explored with reference to the context of impression management.
Findings
Gilpin's travel writings and the “Picturesque” aesthetic movement, it appears, constructed a social reality around negative industrial externalities such as air pollution and indeed around humans' impact on nature, through a lens which described pollution as adding aesthetically to the natural landscape. The lens through which the picturesque tourist viewed and expressed negative externalities involved quite literally the tourists' tricks of the trade, Claude glass, called also Gray's glass, a tinted lens to frame the view.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the wealth of literature in accounting and business pertaining to the ways in which companies socially construct reality through their accounts and links closely to the impression management literature in accounting. There is also a body of literature relating to the use of images and photographs in published corporate reports, which again is linked to impression management as well as to a growing literature exploring the potential for the aesthetic influence in accounting and corporate communication. Further, this paper contributes to the growing body of research into the historical roots of environmental reporting.