Search results

This paper's aim is to study North African refugees admitted to Sicilian hospitals from Lampedusa by helicopter emergency service 118, from 1 January to 22 September 2011 when due to a violent uprising in the Refugee Centre, Lampedusa is no longer accepting refugees by order of the Ministry of Interior.

Those migrants who were in need of hospitalization were transferred to the Sicilian hospitals exclusively by the emergency helicopter service 118. All 203 patients were classified according to the admission diagnosis reported on medical records of 118 and data were aggregated according to: disease, sex and department in which hospitalization was required.

Women were admitted to hospital almost exclusively for obstetrics and gynecological problems, while men for trauma, severe dehydration, attempted suicide, infectious diseases (TB, airways distress, and scabies), seizures and metabolic diseases. Hospitalization rate was 20 times lower in African migrants than Italian population compared per age and sex, confirming “the healthy immigrant effect”.

The paper shows that identification of health problems requires a careful monitoring that has implications for diseases dissemination (i.e. TB, HIV) both for ill patients who arrive, either for prophylaxis of healthy migrants, pursuing a valid vaccination policy. Maximum use must be made of the moment of the arrival of migrants to get and disseminate health information.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the research related to “the interplay between accounting and the state, politics, and local authorities in the broad government and administration of food for sustainability of populations” (Sargiacomo et al., 2016). Considering contemporary examples and investigating the genealogy of an 18th-century reform of fishery management (the New Plan), the authors explore the role played by accounting and calculative practices when local authorities intervene using forms of discipline based on control systems that acted on commons (fish), people and space.

This paper is historically grounded on archival research on a fish provisioning case during the 18th century in Ancona, an Italian town on the Adriatic coast. The investigation adopts an approach focussed on the use of disciplinary methods in the terms highlighted by Foucault. This perspective offers a lens capable of revealing the key role of accounting in a period when discipline became “general formulas of domination” (Foucault, 1977) and the Papal States were looking for food provisioning solutions (Foucault, 2007). The study highlights similarities with contemporary fishery management.

The paper shows that governability of fishery in a commons' logic is not limited by the properties of the good, but rather “it is achieved through the objects and instruments that are deployed to make it possible” (Johnsen, 2014, p. 429). It reveals forms assumed by economic calculation in different eras and their contribution in the art of governing realised by the state (Hoskin and Macve, 2016). The study unveils how accounting effectively operates using “naming and counting” activities (Ezzamel and Hoskin, 2002) based on a system of documents and accounting registers; these have a pivotal role in redefining fishery management and in keeping goods (fish) and people (fishermen) under control. The investigation also highlights the importance of properly quantifying data in fishery management, confirming the literature on the topic (Beddington et al., 2007, p. 1713). In contemporary situations, data refer to quantifying the fish stock in the sea and the consequent estimation of fish catch. In the historical investigation, although environmental protection was not an issue, quantification refers to the fish that entered the town of Ancona, whose estimation was the result of a new calculative approach adopted by local authorities facing fish needs. In addition, it offers early evidence of organised and rational-based control mechanisms that were the result of Enlightened ideas emerging in the Papal States context.

Despite the fact that fish represent a fundamental good for governments to act on in response to a population's needs, there has been no attention paid to how governmental authorities have used disciplinary mechanisms to intervene in fishery management or the role played by accounting. This study's novelty is its investigation of fishery, using Foucauldian disciplinary methods to understand accounting's contribution in fishery governance. In addition, this investigation permits to unveil the role of accounting to support one of the main principles of the governance of commons that is represented by the congruence between rules and local conditions (Fennell, 2011, p. 11; Ostrom, 1990, p. 92).

The aim of this paper is to provide the state of the art in the academic and professional debate on the disclosure quality of NFI. This analysis is driven by the need to feature the dimensions of NFI quality that should be considered to improve the current regulatory framework towards a more transparent disclosure.

The research is an integrative literature review that assesses and synthesizes the scientific knowledge and the annexed documents collected during the public consultation for the Review of Non-financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) on the disclosure quality of non-financial information (NFI).

Findings show that there is a common consensus between scientific literature and the annexed documents of the consultation process on the Review of the NFRD on the need to enhance a double-materiality perspective, to provide specific contents on sustainability issues, to clarify the relevance of NFI, and to embed NFI into the management report in an integrated manner. Furthermore, there is an alignment related to timeliness in favour of a risk management procedure and a forward-looking approach.

The research engages the debate on the NFI disclosure quality, in light of the recent Review of NRFD and the new Proposal of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive that extends and enhances the non-binding reporting guidelines of NFI.

The research provides a dashboard of the dimensions of NFI disclosure quality that aggregates the academics' and practitioners' knowledge systematically. It shows the interplay between the scholarly developments and the recent measures arisen in the consultation process to undertake NFI disclosure quality.

The research provides a lens to analyse, classify and interpret the insights emerged during the consultation process of the NFRD.

This study examines the moderating role of female directors on the relationship between the firms’ characteristics and tax avoidance in an emerging economy.

This study employs the second-generation unit root test and the generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques. The Kao residual cointegration test corroborates a long-run cointegration among variables.

Female directors demonstrate mixed and unusual findings. No significant impact of female directors on tax avoidance is found. In addition, the presence of female directors does not show any negative or significant moderating impacts on the relationship between leverage, firm age, board size and tax avoidance. However, having more female directors can negatively and significantly moderate the relationship between more profitable firms, larger firms and tax avoidance. These findings show that the board of directors could use the presence of female directors to maximise their opportunistic behaviour, such as to avoid tax.

Research limitations – The study is limited by considering only 62 listed firms. The scope could be extended to include non-listed firms.

Research implications – There is increasing pressure for female directors on boards from diverse stakeholders, such as the European Commission, national governments, politicians, employer lobby groups, shareholders, and Fortune and Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) rankings. This study provides input to decision-makers putting gender quota laws into practice. Our findings can help policy-makers adopt regulatory reforms to control tax avoidance practices and enhance organisational legitimacy. Policymakers can change their policy to include female directors up to the threshold suggested by the critical mass theory.

This is the first attempt in Bangladesh to explore the role of female directors in the relationship between the firms' characteristics and tax avoidance. The current study has significant ramifications for bringing gender diversity into practice as a component of good corporate governance.

This paper aims to analyse the corporate social responsibility (CSR) Committee presence and gender equality influence on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance reporting in a pre- and during Covid-19 crisis in European Union (EU) listed entities.

To achieve the goal, an empirical analysis was conducted with 1,221 listed companies in EU as support for the economics years 2017–2021. Statistical technique used to analyse the relationship between the variables under study was regression analysis with panel data.

Results show that CSR committee presence, stakeholder engagement and gender equality are positively associated with ESG performance reporting, but the Covid-19 crisis and the book value per share do not influence the dependent variable. The model variables determine 99% of the ESG performance reporting.

The results are useful for managers, governments and organizations in developing sustainability reporting standards. As companies navigate the complex landscape of sustainability challenges, integrating sustainable development goals into their strategies and ESG reports provides a roadmap for creating positive, lasting impacts on a global scale.

This research covers listed firms from throughout the EU and the pre- and during-Covid era.