Joshua Wong, Norman Wong, Willow Yangliu Li and Li Chen
The purpose of this study is to examine firm-specific characteristics that influence firms’ choice of assurance provider in sustainability assurance. The market for sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine firm-specific characteristics that influence firms’ choice of assurance provider in sustainability assurance. The market for sustainability assurance consists of three types: accounting firms (particularly the Big 4 firms), non-accounting specialist consulting firms (that specialise only in sustainability issues) and non-accounting general consulting firms (that provide general advisory/consulting services).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample selected from the top 100 publicly listed companies in the UK and USA that published a sustainability report in 2010 and 2011, respectively, for which assurance was obtained, a multinomial logistic regression model is applied by regressing the three types of assurance providers on firm size, leverage, profit, liquidity, percentage of strategic shareholding and two control variables – country and year.
Findings
The results indicate that the choice of sustainability assurance provider is related to firm size, profitability, liquidity and country.
Research limitations/implications
There may be relevant variables omitted from the empirical analysis; results of this study may not be able to be generalized beyond the sample selected; and the sample size is relatively small.
Practical implications
Sustainability assurance is a viable assurance service that the accounting profession can provide.
Originality/value
This study helps in identifying the types of firms that are likely to demand assurance services provided by accounting firms.
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Keywords
This study aims at exploring the mobilization of the Umbrella Movement and examining how the interplay of emotion and meaning contribute to a mass occupation via the mass media…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at exploring the mobilization of the Umbrella Movement and examining how the interplay of emotion and meaning contribute to a mass occupation via the mass media and social media. It proposes a model of emotional mobilization and explains how and why the perception of eviction is capable of triggering the subsequent collective political action through moral shock on bystanders.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is an exploratory study and adopts the method of semi-structured interview. It interviewed 31 participants of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. The data were complemented by discourse analysis of video clips and participation observation of conflict scenes between protestors and police.
Findings
This study provides insights on how a potential participant can be motivated to participate in a social movement, after perceiving violent behaviors of police on other people. It suggests that moral outrage can be generated when people realizes a dramatic difference between expected behaviors and perceived behaviors of police officers through watching live broadcast or video clips. It also suggests that the shared social identity between protestors, police and perceivers provides the ground for the perceivers to feel angry and believe they are obliged to response to the situation.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the method and approach, the study may lack generalizability. However, researchers can test the proposed propositions by applying the model to other unexpected mobilization of social movement in history, or expand the model by studying the mobilizing power of direct and indirect perception of eviction, and the examine responses of the same physical conflict from people with different social identities.
Originality/value
This study explains how the mobilization of a social movement is possible despite the failure of mobilization by activists. It also complements the idea of moral shock by grounding such process on interaction order.
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Joshua D. Newton, Jimmy Wong and Fiona Joy Newton
While the potential benefits of integrating humour into advertisements are widely understood, the reasons why these effects emerge are not. Drawing on literature about the impact…
Abstract
Purpose
While the potential benefits of integrating humour into advertisements are widely understood, the reasons why these effects emerge are not. Drawing on literature about the impact of psychological feelings of power, this research aims to examine how power motivation interacts with the presence of disparaging humour in ads to influence ad-related outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the measurement (Study 1) or manipulation (Study 2) of power motivation, participants viewed an ad featuring either disparaging humour or one of the following alternatives: no humour (Study 1) or non-disparaging humour (Study 2). Sense of superiority, brand attitude, ad claim recall and the perceived humorousness of the ad were then assessed.
Findings
Featuring disparaging humour in an ad increased participants’ sense of superiority, but only among those with high power motivation. Among such participants, this heightened sense of superiority increased the perceived humorousness of the disparaging humour (Studies 1 and 2), induced more favourable attitudes towards the brand featured in the ad (Studies 1 and 2) and enhanced ad claim recall (Study 2). These effects did not, however, extend to ads featuring non-disparaging humour (Study 2), indicating that it was the presence of disparaging humour, and not humour per se, that was responsible for these effects.
Originality/value
These findings break open the “black box” of humour by identifying why consumers perceive disparaging humorous content to be funny, when this effect will occur and what impact this will have on advertising-related outcomes.
Details
Keywords
The outlook for Hong Kong's politics and economy in 2018.
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB226144
ISSN: 2633-304X
Keywords
Geographic
Topical
Judicial independence in Hong Kong.
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB229905
ISSN: 2633-304X
Keywords
Geographic
Topical
The Hong Kong Legislative Council election 2016.
This article explores recent changes in Hong Kong’s independent documentary filmmaking during a decade of escalating protests in the territory, focusing in particular on cinema's…
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores recent changes in Hong Kong’s independent documentary filmmaking during a decade of escalating protests in the territory, focusing in particular on cinema's role in Hong Kong's “movement field.”
Design/methodology/approach
The article focuses on Ying E Chi, an important distributor and promoter of Hong Kong independent films; the annual Hong Kong Independent Film Festival it organizes; three recent documentaries it distributes that are relevant to the 2019–2020 protests. The findings in this article are based on interviews, the textual analysis of relevant films and participant observation at film screenings.
Findings
This study argues that independent documentaries function in Hong Kong's “movement field” in three main ways: by contributing to and providing a space for civic discourse, by facilitating international advocacy and by engaging in memory work. Its contributions to civic culture, it asserts, are reflected in the films' observational aesthetic, which invites reflection and discussion. Public screenings and lengthy post-screening discussions are important ways in which these functions are realized.
Originality/value
This article builds on existing literature to propose a new way of thinking about cinema's role in Hong Kong social movements. It also analyses three important recent films that have not yet been covered much in existing academic literature.
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Yiu Chung Wong and Jason K.H. Chan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of civil disobedience (CD) movements in Hong Kong in the context of the notion of civil society (CS).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of civil disobedience (CD) movements in Hong Kong in the context of the notion of civil society (CS).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins by rigorously defining the notion of CD, as well as the concept of CS and tracing its development in Hong Kong over the past several decades. By using a model of CS typology, which combines the variables of state control and a society’s quest for autonomy (SQA), the paper aims to outline the historical development of CD movements in Hong Kong. It also discusses the recent evolution of CS and its relationship with CD movements, particularly focusing on their development since Leung Chun-ying became the Chief Executive in 2012. Finally, by using five cases of CD witnessed in the past several decades, the relationship between the development of CS and the emergence of CD in Hong Kong has been outlined.
Findings
Four implications can be concluded: first, CD cannot emerge when the state and society are isolated. Second, the level of SC and the scale of CD are positively related. Third, as an historical trend, the development of SQA is generally in linear progress; SQA starts from a low level (e.g. interest-based and welfare-based aims) and moves upwards to campaign for higher goals of civil and political autonomy. If the lower level of SQA is not satisfied, it can lead to larger scale CD in future. Fourth, the CD movement would be largest in scale when the state-society relationship confrontational and when major cleavages can be found within CS itself.
Originality/value
This paper serves to enrich knowledge in the fields of politics and sociology.
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HONG KONG: Election ban serves protesters’ interests
Thailand has seen waves of youth-led protests over the past three years. Pro-democracy youth activists have vociferously criticised authority figures: teachers, parents and…
Abstract
Thailand has seen waves of youth-led protests over the past three years. Pro-democracy youth activists have vociferously criticised authority figures: teachers, parents and political leaders, especially the king. Drawing on vignettes assembled over a 14-year ethnographic work with young people in Thailand, as well as on current research on youth (online and offline) activism in Bangkok, I examine the multi-layered meaning of kinship in Thai society. The chapter reveals the political nature of childhood and parenthood as entangled modes of governance that come into being with other, both local and international cultural entities. I argue that Thai youth activists are attempting to rework dominant tropes that sustain “age-patriarchy” in the Buddhist kingdom. Their “engaged siblinghood” aims to reframe Thailand's generational order, refuting the moral principles that establish citizens' political subordination to monarchical paternalism and, relatedly, children's unquestionable respect to parents. As I show, Thai youth activists are doing so by engaging creatively with transnational discourses such as “democracy” and “children's rights,” while simultaneously drawing on K-pop icons, Japanese manga and Buddhist astrology. In articulating their dissent, these youths are thus bearers of a “bottom-up cosmopolitanism” that channels culturally hybrid, and politically subversive notions of childhood and citizenship in Southeast Asia's cyberspace and beyond. Whatever the outcome of their commitment, Thai youth activism signals the cultural disarticulation of the mytheme of the Father in Thailand, as well as the growing political influence of younger generations in the region.