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The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection of accounting practices and new technologies in the age of agility as a form of intellectual capital, through sharing the conceptualization and real implications of accounting and accountability ideas in exploring and deploying new technologies, such as big data analytics, blockchain and augmented accounting practices and expounding how they constitute new forms of intellectual capital to support value creation and realise Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The adopted methodology is cyber-ethnography, which investigates online practices through observation and discourse analysis, reflecting on new business models and practices, and how accounting relates to these developments. The global brain sets the conceptual context, which reflects the distributed network intelligence that is created through the internet.

The main findings focus on various developments of accounting practice that reflect, utilise or support digital companies and new technologies, including augmentation, big data analytics and blockchain technology, as new forms of intellectual capital, that is knowledge and skills within organisations, that have the potential to support value creation and realise SDGs. These relate to and originate from the global brain, which constitutes the umbrella of tech-related intellectual capital.

This paper determines new developments in accounting practices in relation to new technologies, due to the continuous expansion and influence of the intelligence of the collective network, the global brain, as forms of intellectual capital, contributing to value creation, sustainable development and the realisation of SDGs.

What academic and managerial elements are particularly influential regarding performance? This study aims to address these questions as part of a broader longitudinal study. The current paper focusses on the results relating to performance management and measurement, and how the sectorial developments impacted on individuals and institutions.

An interpretive research methodology was used, which illustrates the institutional performance management and measurement system. The first part of the interpretive study was a single case study, focussing on one “old” research-intensive university. The second part included five institutions, three UK top-tier universities, focussing on top-level research and education, and two “new” universities with a greater teaching than research portfolio.

The current paper focusses on the results relating to performance management and measurement, and how higher education (HE) developments impacted on individuals and institutions, reflected in the notion of performance habitus. The qualitative element of the study sought to gain insight into which factors influence performance management and measurement and what changing effect these have on academic members of staff. The findings illustrate how academic values and managerial control practices create an academia-specific performance management approach, measured by particular key performance indicators that are used for the institution as a whole and then applied to units and individuals within institutions. With regard to institutional performance, more established and institutionalised performance management and measurement practices are relied upon. Both elements are addressed in this study, and the authors conclude that the interplay of human capital and institutional structure creates the most successful performance-related outcome.

The current study adds additional insights on how the changing HE context affects academic members and how the future of the UK HE sector is perceived. Insights can be derived for other HE sectors, as the contextual factors of international competition, tightening of resources and nature of the academic sector transcend national borders. Thus, practices illustrated in the current study are useful for institutions and academic managers of other HE sectors as well.

The current study aims to investigate the development of the sustainability habitus in the Arab Middle East (ME) based on the pioneer case organisation, Aramex, which has been the pioneer of sustainability practices and reporting. The context of the Arab region, as well as the global logistics sector, has significantly influenced the development of sustainable development at Aramex, as illustrated by their sustainability and integrated reports.

The research approach of the current study is qualitative on the basis of open and selective coding techniques. The case organisation’s annual sustainability and integrated reports and additional relevant publicised information are analysed. Using publicised information from different sources increases triangulation and allows for more reliable findings. The theoretical context is Bourdieu’s habitus and field, which also reflects the interplay between habitus and field, and how Aramex’s sustainability practices and reports are being constructed.

The findings reflect Aramex’s sustainability practices and related reporting, subsumed in its organisational sustainability habitus. They span the sustainability reporting endeavours of the case organisation, commencing with the first sustainability report in 2006 until the most recent annual integrated report in 2018. Aramex is the precursor of sustainability and integrated reporting (IR) in the ME and is a significant contributor to developing a sustainability habitus in the region. The findings outline various elements of their reports as evidence of sustainability practices and reporting in the ME and the global logistics sector and as an illustration of the developing sustainability habitus.

This study reviews the original case of Aramex and its sustainability and IR practices. It also discusses the company’s practices and reporting details with regard to its organisational sustainability habitus and interplay with the local, Arab World and global, logistics sector, fields.

The purpose of this study is to contribute an actor-network-theory (ANT) perspective of how algorithms are used and whether this reflects positively on organisational practices and related perceptions of organisation performance, by both customers and employees. Furthermore, the organisation’s view of adopting algorithms to manage their performance is explored.

The current study is a study set in this virtual space, as it seeks to use data available online from different stakeholders of the case organisation. Online “virtual space” studies have become more common over the past few years. Primary and secondary data are shared online, for instance on relevant rating websites for customers (such as TrustPilot) and employees (such as Indeed), which serve as a reflection of the organisational performance and the communication of their values. This type of study has become more prevalent, either as a study undertaken online fully (Hine, 2007) or partially (for instance Baxter et al., 2019), which provides a different perspective to traditionally carried out face-to-face interactions.

The current study has contributed insights from a global case organisation in the logistics sector originating in the Middle East (ME). The case organisation clearly indicates that its algorithm, in line with particular presentations and discussions on online platforms, is focussed on analysing limited factors, which are prediction of accurate delivery timeslot, preferred and precise location for delivery and speed of delivery overall. This reflects an inherent bias of the delivery industry, which the case organisation operates in, and may focus attention on delivering on those objectives, with a detrimental effect on the organisation’s broader organisational mindset. This refers to long-term values and sustainability-related objectives.

Findings will reflect on whether algorithms can be used to align a multi-national organisation to achieve its desired performance and related desirable results. This will be one of the main contributions of the current study, which engages with a multi-national organisation in the logistics sector that is based in the ME region.

Female leadership is a still largely unexplored aspect of the higher education (HE) field. While it is known that barriers to entry exist, few studies have addressed female leadership and have investigated what makes a female academic seek leadership, what their experiences are and how they perceive their positions and the associated responsibilities. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this lacuna as it provides a qualitative account of female academic leaders’ perceptions regarding their positions in the Middle East (ME) context. It also outlines their main tasks as administrative and academic leaders.

Data collection and analysis took place according to grounded theory principles, as outlined in this study. Participants were selected according to theoretical sampling principles, access and willingness to participate.

The findings illustrate a core concept, the female academic leadership mindset in the ME, and three emergent concepts that address the main shared perceptions, which are leadership experiences and expectations, differential treatment and work-life balance. The first discusses the different types of leadership and how female leaders experienced their positions, the second addresses the perceived differential treatment female leaders experience and the last addresses the dual pressure of work and home responsibilities that many female leaders have to deal with. Interestingly, several participants felt that fellow females were often unsupportive, which might also provide an explanation as to why women still experience obstacles.

This study provides in-depth exploratory accounts of female leaders in various Middle Eastern HE sectors, and gives insight into leadership-related perceptions. Furthermore, it explores the effect of the Middle Eastern cultural context on aspects of female leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of Big Data and corporate reporting, and to determine the impact of Big Data and the current Big Data state of mind with regard to corporate reporting, what accountant and non-accountant participants’ perceptions are of the phenomenon, what the accountants’ role is and will be in this regard, and what opportunities and risks are associated with Big Data and corporate reporting. Furthermore, this study seeks to identify the inherent technological paradoxes of Big Data and corporate reporting.

The current study is qualitative in nature and assumes an interpretive stance, investigating participants’ perceptions of the phenomenon of Big Data and corporate reporting. To this end, interview data from 25 participants, video and text material, were analysed to enhance and triangulate findings. A four-fold sampling strategy was employed to ensure that any collected data would contribute to the findings. Data were analysed on the basis of open and selective coding stages. Data collection and analysis took place in two stages, in 2014 and in 2016.

Three topics, or categories, emerged from the data analysis, which have sufficient explanatory power to illustrate the phenomenon of Big Data and corporate reporting, namely the Big Data state of mind and corporate reporting, accountants’ role and future related to Big Data, and perceived opportunities and risks of Big Data. Features of a new approach to corporate reporting were identified and discussed. Furthermore, four paradoxes emerged to express inherent opposing positions of Big Data and corporate reporting, namely empowerment vs enslavement, fulfilling vs creating needs, reliability vs timeliness and simplicity vs complexity.

The original contribution of the study lies in the empirical investigation of the phenomenon of Big Data and corporate reporting as one of the most recent and praised developments in the accounting context. The dual communication flows of corporate reporting with Big Data is an important element of the findings, which can enhance the prospective financial statements significantly. Finally, technological paradoxes of Big Data and corporate reporting are discussed for the first time, two of which are based on the literature and the remaining two are inherent in the phenomenon of Big Data and corporate reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between integrated thinking (IT) and integrated reporting (IR) in a global player. It seeks to shed light on how IT develops organically, using their IR as a source. Bourdieu’s theory of practice is utilised to explain the concept of IT and how it is established in the case organisation through publicly available corporate information.

Video, document/text and interview material are used to investigate the perception and status quo of IT at the case organisation. Data were analysed in two coding stages to derive at the categories/themes that have the most explanatory power regarding the phenomenon under study.

The study contributes the organisational habitus of handling uncertainty and disruption, which governs the IT and IR initiative and development in the case organisation. Furthermore, it illustrates an empirical example of how an organisation has grown its IT approach over time and has introduced IR as a result of that, as a reflection on the IT approach.

This paper investigates a global organisation, the first provider of an integrated report in their geographical region, and its IT and reporting approach. The findings reflect on the organisational habitus of handling uncertainty and disruption, which leads to IT and ultimately IR. The case organisation constitutes a “natural integrated thinker” in their agile asset-light approach to their business and their integration of stakeholders beyond the organisation. They are the regional vanguard of sustainability and integration, as a result of which they have become one of the few global players of their region.

Higher education (HE) sectors form an important part of societies and their economy, on which the members of a society depend for their individual and collective future benefit. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the perceptions of accounting academics on the introduction of HE tuition fees in both England and Germany, and how this policy has affected the everyday life of academics and students alike in each country. The respective funding and reform approach sets the context of this study.

The study has adopted a qualitative methodology, analysing data collected through semi-structured interviews. Accounting academics discuss their perceptions of both policies in the respective context. Academics were focussed on as implementers of educational policies. Accounting academics were chosen due to their academic and professional background, changing academic position in the global market and their representative stance in the academic context. The data analysis took place through coding interview data.

While England’s fees have been increased several times over the past 15 years, few German federal states have introduced, and have already abolished the policy. Reasons as to why the outcomes are so radically different are discussed based on interviews with accounting academics, and the implications for future practice are that to be successful political support must be sustained regardless of the changing governments, and the HE sector itself must have strong champions supporting this policy. Furthermore, the effect of the respective tuition fee policy with regard to education is addressed, which suggests that English students have a broader education package expectation, while with regard to actual classroom education both German and English students have similar outlooks. A further issue is the different political and education contexts, the current state of affairs and the societal impact.

This study is one of the few to compare directly the differing tuition fee policies and the educational implications of these policies of Germany and England. These two cases are an illustration that Germany and England are at the opposite ends of the reform spectrum and that academics experience different expectations due to such different fee policies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of Web 2.0-based social media for investor relations (IR), in the Middle Eastern (ME) context. IR is one of the under-researched topics of the corporate reporting subject area. This study seeks to contribute by investigating social media for IR in a ME context. It researches the perceptions of corporations, and individual and institutional investors regarding the phenomenon of social media for IR, given the particular cultural context. A conceptual model guiding future research is developed out of the analyzed data.

The research approach is qualitative and exploratory in nature, as the aim is to analyze perceptions and opinions of participants, in order to develop a theoretical argument based on these. To this end, the study employs a qualitative methodology and interview data collection. Data are analyzed using qualitative research coding styles.

Primary findings are encompassed in the theoretical framework, which theorises the adoption of social media for investor relation in particular but addresses voluntary corporate reporting in general. The study determines that there are various factors that support and hinder adoption, such as willingness to adopt social media for IR and potential risks and benefit, and that there are anticipated outcomes, such as improved communications between investors and corporations and a related power adjustment. The new element regarding IR that transpired out of the current study is the notion of investor empowerment and the directly related fear of lack, or essentially loss, of control.

The ME societies are very interested in social media applications, and utilize these in a broad range of their daily work and private activities. IR, as part of voluntary reporting, have been subject of recent debate, as little guidance is available and corporations’ practices vary. The current study highlights these factors in a largely under-researched market, the ME, and focuses a broader knowledge contribution based on the current findings. Finally, the concept of power is investigated in both its conventional and postmodern sense.