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The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics in the relationship between tax practitioners and their tax clients, to understand how tax practitioners reconcile competing logics in their tax work.

This research adopts a qualitative approach in which semi-structured interviews are conducted with 68 tax practitioners across 11 countries, allowing for the examination of an in-depth personal perspective on tax practitioners’ relationships with their clients.

Using a Bourdieusian frame, I find that long-term client relationships built on trust and shared values, as moderated by risk appetite and cultural markers, can enable tax practitioners to reconcile competing logics in their advisory work.

The research findings presented reflect the way in which tax practitioners navigate, build up and maintain long-term relationships with their clients. The findings are highly relevant for regulators as my research shows that clients share a similar tax risk appetite with their tax advisor, thus this can assist regulators in curbing tax non-compliance and in identifying more tax-aggressive tax practitioners and taxpayers.

Previous studies (Carter and Spence, 2014; Harber and Willows, 2022) have examined the tension between commercial and other professional logics among senior accountants working in Big 4 firms. I extend and deepen this work to tax practitioners, drawing on a substantial corpus of interviews to examine the role of the client relationship in explaining the heterogeneity of the field. These findings add to the understanding of client agency and to the subtleties of professional relationships within the tax domain.

This paper aims to examine the complex balance between enthusiasm and skepticism regarding artificial intelligence (AI) integration in educational practices. It advocates for a cautious, evidence-based approach while addressing both opportunities and challenges, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) for Quality Education.

Through critical analysis of current discourse surrounding AI in education, this paper synthesizes existing literature on both supportive and skeptical perspectives. The methodology involves systematic examination of past educational technology trends, current AI developments and their implications for teaching and learning. The paper develops its research agenda through careful consideration of existing empirical studies, theoretical frameworks and identifying gaps in current understanding.

The analysis reveals that while AI offers promising potential for enhancing learning outcomes and educational accessibility, its integration presents significant challenges that require careful consideration. The paper identifies critical tensions between technological innovation and pedagogical values, highlighting areas where enthusiasm for AI adoption must be tempered with empirical evidence and critical evaluation. Current evidence suggests that successful AI integration requires balanced consideration of both opportunities and limitations, with particular attention to maintaining human-centered educational practices.

This viewpoint provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the dialectic between AI’s educational potential and its limitations. By synthesizing both supportive and critical perspectives, it offers a nuanced approach to AI integration that acknowledges both opportunities and challenges. The article’s value lies in its systematic identification of key research priorities and its emphasis on evidence-based implementation strategies that serve educational goals while mitigating potential risks.

This study aims to propose a comprehensive framework for assessing circular economy (CE) performance in the agri-food sector. It identifies those indicators that should be used to measure circularity regarding CE strategies, applies them at a microeconomic level and examines the impact of key business determinants (financial, internalization, knowledge, awareness and digitalization).

A literature review was conducted with a focus on CE strategies and related indicators. The framework obtained is applied on a Spanish agri-food sector survey to provide an empirical CE analysis at firm level. A partial least squares based-structural equation modelling method is applied.

The research suggests a set of circularity indicators to assess CE strategies at micro level. The findings reveal the heterogeneity of CE sub-indicators related to narrowing, slowing, closing and regenerating strategies. It also highlights the strong effects that the drivers tested have on CE, especially awareness and knowledge.

This study provides a framework that can guide public policies and business decisions in sectors with significant environmental impacts. It provides a conceptual framework that explains which CE indicators should be considered by governments and regulators when developing policies that seek to promote circular strategies.

In the case of companies, the results show that acquiring more environmental awareness and knowledge is essential for promoting more sustainable work habits that enhance CE.

The paper offers a novel contribution to the CE literature by introducing a multidimensional indicator framework comprehensively applied to the agri-food sector, integrating miscellaneous pillars of circular strategies and business determinants.

The purpose of the review is to synthesize the research on materiality measures of sustainability reporting and highlight how preparers, users, auditors, regulators and other stakeholders assess or determine the materiality in sustainability reporting. The review further summarizes the findings on consequences and determinants of material disclosures in sustainability reporting. Several directions for future research are also discussed.

This study provides a systematic review of materiality measures developed in the context of sustainability reporting. This synthesis of the literature summarizes the existing methodologies of measuring materiality. It also evaluates the strength and limitations of existing methods and approaches of measuring materiality in sustainability disclosures.

We find that the ex post materiality measures are simplistic and unidirectional in nature and ex ante materiality measures lack external validity and are generally narrow in focus – for example, focused on single firms or industries. Another major limitation in the current literature is the absence of robust empirical investigation of double materiality in sustainability reporting and a vast majority of the measures are developed without stakeholder engagement. Lastly, we document that the findings on determinants of material disclosure are fragmented and inconclusive and that the literature on consequences of material disclosure is rather un-explored.

The study explains the connections and differences between the various materiality measures. We document that materiality is measured in two distinct ways, ex ante and ex post and often times without stakeholder engagement. Moreover, given that a vast majority of the measures rely on manual content analysis, we find that they suffer from reproducibility and scalability.

This study aims to examine Africa’s environment, social and governance (ESG) research through a systematic literature review (SLR). The authors aim to identify and discuss influential aspects of ESG accounting in Africa, focusing on prominent themes, authors and journals in published articles using Africa’s setting. It also constructs agendas for future research to advance the literature and contribute to the ESG accounting practices in Africa.

This study uses an SLR approach, where accounting research journal articles are collated and compiled according to pre-determined criteria and analysed using bibliometric techniques. After carefully reviewing 1,387 articles, the authors selected and examined 246 academic articles published from 2006 to 2024 in 32 accounting journals indexed in the Web of Science.

The authors identify four main streams of ESG accounting research in Africa, namely, ESG disclosure in primary-based economies; corporate governance dynamics in Africa; internal mechanisms in ESG reporting; and external mechanisms in ESG disclosure. According to the analysis, the authors propose future research agendas to discuss institutional perspective of ESG reporting standards implementation and enforcement; value creation impact on sustainability performance; ESG reporting effect on conflict resolution; and ESG reporting quality and environmental sustainability.

This study assists policymakers, academics, managers, accounting professionals and investors in comprehensively understanding the current state and projecting future actions to develop ESG accounting in Africa.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is perhaps the first to examine Africa’s ESG research through an SLR. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a comprehensive analysis of the existing ESG accounting landscape and tailoring future research agendas based on the distinctive characteristics of Africa.

Through the review of several journal articles on the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and how it impacts students’ motivation to continue with their studies or to drop out of their academic program, this study aims to review the literature on the impact of ICTs on student motivation at a university.

This paper is based on a systematic literature review steered by the PRISMA guidelines. This paper uses both Durban University of Technology subscription-based and publicly available papers. The research articles examined were published between 2018 and 2023 in Scopus, Web of Science and ScienceDirect.

Reviewed literature bespeaks that ICTs can increase student motivation by enhancing interactive, engaging and individualized learning. Digital technologies that engage students and offer a more engaging learning environment include instructional apps, online simulations and multimedia content. Using ICTs may be useful in lowering university dropout rates.

The systematic review yielded valuable insights for both academic research and real-world applications in education regarding the Durban University of Technology. The study offers a comprehensive analysis of the nexus between ICTs and student motivation.

Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has seen rapid growth in recent decades, resulting in significant changes to the region’s landscape and ecosystems, including wetlands. This study aims to examine the causes and effects of urbanization on wetlands. This study lays down the need to intervene to protect and restore wetlands in SSA.

The methodology used was a systematic literature review, supported by the VOSviewer software and the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews criteria, with data analyzed using abductive reasoning and content analysis.

This study found that a complex web of factors reflecting regional and global trends propels urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Urbanization is driven by population growth, economic development, infrastructure development and migration, leading to significant changes in the region’s ecosystems. The key effects include biodiversity loss, flooding and altered hydrology, water quality degradation and loss of livelihood. The study identifies sprawling urbanization, densification, informal settlement, fragmented urbanization and planned urban expansion as patterns of urbanization affecting wetlands.

This study offers practical recommendations for policymakers, planners and local communities to ensure long-term urban sustainability while conserving wetland ecosystems in SSA. Thus, there is a need for continued cooperation, technology and discovery sharing, and cooperative research funding initiatives with the global community. It also commends implementing green infrastructure, like artificial wetlands, to mitigate the adverse environmental effects and promote sustainable development.

This study used VOSviewer software visualization to uncover structural trends and research frontiers, focusing on wetland conservation in the context of urban areas in SSA, where rapid urbanization adds to wetland degradation.

Improving and assuring the quality of higher education has become a key element of policy agendas worldwide. To this end, a complete accountability system has been developed through various evaluation procedures. Specifically, this study analyzes the perceptions of university teaching staff on the impact of performance appraisal systems on their professional activity, health and personal lives.

The study adopted a nonexperimental descriptive and causal-comparative design using a questionnaire that was completed by a sample of 2,183 Spanish teachers. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and comparisons of differences.

The results show that, according to teachers, the evaluation criteria undermine the quality of their work by encouraging them to neglect teaching, increase scientific production and engage in unethical research practices. Their views also emphasize the social and health-related consequences of an increasingly competitive work climate, including increased stress levels. Finally, significant differences are observed regarding gender, professional category and academic discipline, with women, junior faculty and social sciences teachers expressing particularly strong views.

The originality of this study lies in the application of a method that contributes to the international debate through a national perspective (Spain) that has so far received little attention.

In 2000, Cañibano et al. published a literature review entitled “Accounting for Intangibles: A Literature Review”. This paper revisits the conclusions drawn in that paper. We also discuss the intervening developments in scholarly research, standard setting and practice over the past 20+ years to outline the future challenges for research into accounting for intangibles.

We conducted a literature review to identify past developments and link the findings to current accounting standard-setting developments to inform our view of the future.

Current intangibles accounting practices are conservative and unlikely to change. Accounting standard setters are more interested in how companies report and disclose the value of intangibles rather than changing how they are determined. Standard setters are also interested in accounting for new forms of digital assets and reporting economic, social, governance and sustainability issues and how these link to financial outcomes. The IFRS has released complementary sustainability accounting standards for disclosing value creation in response to the latter. Therefore, the topic of intangibles stretches beyond merely how intangibles create value but how they are also part of a firm’s overall risk and value creation profile.

There is much room academically, practically, and from a social perspective to influence the future of accounting for intangibles. Accounting standard setters and alternative standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and European Union non-financial and sustainability reporting directives, are competing complementary initiatives.

Our results reveal a window of opportunity for accounting scholars to research and influence how intangibles and other non-financial and sustainability accounting will progress based on current developments.

This research investigates the feasibility, benefits and challenges of environmental sustainability reporting by Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

The authors develop an abridged SME environmental sustainability reporting framework based on the environmental aspects of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards for Sustainability Reporting. The authors collect the views of 203 SME accounting practitioners on our proposed reporting framework using a survey questionnaire.

The authors find that the greatest perceived benefit for firms adopting environmental sustainability reporting is that it leads to an improvement in company image. Lack of knowledge, resources and data capturing tools impede implementation of environmental sustainability reporting for both SMEs and accounting practitioners. While SMEs are not yet required to implement environmental sustainability reporting, the research discusses implications for policy makers and practitioners for adopting environmental sustainability reporting in the SME context.

The main limitation of this study is that environmental sustainability reporting for SMEs is in its infancy. A longitudinal survey, or re-examining this survey over time, could be beneficial to assess the long-term benefits and costs of implementing sustainability reporting.

The findings of this study have practical implications for the future development of SME environmental sustainability reporting in the EU and for regulators considering sustainability reporting regulations with a specific focus on SMEs.

The study reconstructs the GRI environmental guidelines into a framework for SMEs and provides empirical evidence on the accountant’s sustainability reporting role.