This chapter prepares expatriates and businesses to live and work in Central Europe. It draws on intercultural relations, international relations, Central and Eastern European…
Abstract
This chapter prepares expatriates and businesses to live and work in Central Europe. It draws on intercultural relations, international relations, Central and Eastern European studies, interviews with people who are from or living in the region and the American author's experiences as an international student and expat in Kraków, Poland. It begins by introducing the concept of culture and cautioning that Central European culture is not monolithic but contains variety and layers. Second, it explains that the boundaries of Central Europe are hard to define and warns that the labels Central and Eastern European may carry significant meaning for locals. Third, it argues that history is essential to understanding contemporary life in the region and outlines major trends and patterns that remain relevant. It also suggests ways that outsiders can make sense of the relationship between the past and present, with advice on how to talk to locals and a list of questions they can use to integrate and advance their learning. Fourth, it uses Hofstede Insights' (n.d.) model to explore three key dimensions of Central European culture, including indulgence, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. It also presents additional cultural tips from locals and expats for how outsiders can adapt when they move to the region. It concludes by noting that although expats and businesses may find certain elements of Central European culture challenging, they will also likely find their time here moving and memorable.
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Kelly M. Soderstrom, Naomi S. Soderstrom and Christopher R. Stewart
The paper complements the research framework proposed by Kim and Matsumura (2017) through a broad survey of the management accounting research in sustainability.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper complements the research framework proposed by Kim and Matsumura (2017) through a broad survey of the management accounting research in sustainability.
Methodology/ approach
The paper reviews recent management accounting research in the area of corporate responsibility/sustainability; focusing on articles published in seven widely recognized accounting journals and the Journal of Business Ethics.
Findings
Our survey of the recent literature indicates: (1) a major focus has been on integration of sustainability in management control systems; (2) the primary research methods used are case studies and surveys, with few large sample, archival studies (primarily on compensation); and (3) a significant amount of literature has been published outside of the traditional accounting literature.
Originality/value
The paper complements existing literature reviews in the area by focusing on the set of most widely recognized journals. By focusing on these journals, we highlight opportunities for future research that are likely to reach a broader accounting readership.
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Government agencies have endeavored, with limited success, to improve the methodological consistency of regulatory benefit–cost analysis (BCA). This paper recommends that an…
Abstract
Government agencies have endeavored, with limited success, to improve the methodological consistency of regulatory benefit–cost analysis (BCA). This paper recommends that an independent cohort of economists, policy analysts and legal scholars take on that task. Independently established “best practices” would have four positive effects: (1) they would render BCAs more regular in form and format and, thus, more readily assessable and replicable by social scientists; (2) improved consistency might marginally reduce political opposition to BCA as a policy tool; (3) politically-motivated, inter-agency methodological disputes might be avoided; and (4) an independent set of “best practices” would provide a sound, independent basis for judicial review of agency BCAs.
Mumbi Maria Wachira and David Wang’ombe
Though environmental management accounting (EMA) is a globally recognized accounting practice, its application and development within several developing economies remain stunted…
Abstract
Purpose
Though environmental management accounting (EMA) is a globally recognized accounting practice, its application and development within several developing economies remain stunted. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the extent to which EMA practices have been implemented by local manufacturing companies in Nairobi, Kenya.
Methodology
We measure the degree to which EMA methods have been adopted by manufacturing entities and hypothesize that firm size, financial performance, and regulation are positively associated to the extent to which EMA techniques are applied by Kenyan corporations. The chapter employs a mixed methods research approach and combines the use of surveys with semi-structured interviews to gain insights into drivers of EMA and the extent to which these methods are applied locally.
Findings
We find environmental regulation and financial performance are positively associated with the level of EMA practices applied by manufacturing entities.
Originality
The findings illustrate the complexities of applying EMA practices within an emerging context and provide evidence that EMA practices are still predominantly used by entities to meet local regulatory requirements. The qualitative findings indicate there could be some companies who engage with EMA at a more sophisticated level.
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Richard V. Burkhauser, Markus H. Hahn, Dean R. Lillard and Roger Wilkins
We use Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) data from the United States and Great Britain to investigate the association between adults’ health and the income inequality they…
Abstract
We use Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) data from the United States and Great Britain to investigate the association between adults’ health and the income inequality they experienced as children up to 80 years earlier. Our inequality data track shares of national income held by top income percentiles from the early 20th century. We average those data over the same early-life years and merge them to CNEF data from both countries that measure self-reported health of individuals between 1991 and 2007. Observationally, adult men and women in the United States and Great Britain less often report being in better health if inequality was higher in their first five years of life. Although the trend in inequality is similar in both countries over the past century, the empirical association between health and inequality in the United States differs substantially from the estimated relationship in Great Britain. When we control for demographic characteristics, measures of permanent income, and early-life socio-economic status, the health–inequality association remains robust only in the U.S. sample. For the British sample, the added controls drive the coefficient on inequality toward zero and statistical insignificance.
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Abstract
High performance aluminium nitride water cooled heat sinks were fabricated and characterized. A variety of fabrication processes were employed to meet different cooling requirements. They include laser cut microchannel coolers for chip and multichip heat sinks as well as dry pressed pin fin heat sinks for power electronics. Thermal simulation was used to optimize the heat sink design.
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Daniel Magnusson, Hendry Raharjo and Petra Bosch-Sijtsema
Sustainability is regarded as a core value that the coworking movement aspires to. However, most sustainability efforts focus on the providers’ perspective while neglecting the…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainability is regarded as a core value that the coworking movement aspires to. However, most sustainability efforts focus on the providers’ perspective while neglecting the coworking members’ role. Therefore, this paper aims to explore sustainable coworking from the members perspective by focusing on sustainable behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a flexible pattern matching approach. Theoretical patterns are identified using literature on coworking space and sustainable behavior while matching them with the empirical data. Data were collected from three different coworking spaces in Sweden through interviews and observations.
Findings
Based on the theoretical patterns, three constructs for sustainable coworking were identified, namely, productive behavior, prosocial behavior and responsible space sharing behavior. Through the empirical data, the constructs were further concretized to understand their different aspects. The findings uncovered a new layer of complexity where members can show the same behavior and be perceived differently.
Originality/value
This study offers a more holistic understanding of sustainable coworking by highlighting the members’ role and identifying different member perceptions on sustainable coworking behaviors.
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The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the mediating mechanisms of the relationship between supervisor support and pro-environmental behavior. To this end, the quality of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the mediating mechanisms of the relationship between supervisor support and pro-environmental behavior. To this end, the quality of the dyadic exchanges between supervisor and subordinates was used.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from two different samples. In order to test the present hypotheses hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analysis were conducted.
Findings
In congruence with the hypotheses, the results showed that leader-member exchange (LMX) served as a mediator in the relationship between supervisor support and pro-environmental behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Data were drawn using a cross-sectional design. As a result, it is precarious to assess causality among the constructs. Furthermore, both studies collected data from a single source, namely employees, and this may inflate the present relationships due to common method bias.
Originality/value
To the best of author’s knowledge, no prior empirical study has examined the pivotal role of LMX in affecting employees’ pro-environmental behavior.
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Bilal, Ali Meftah Gerged, Hafiz Muhammad Arslan, Ali Abbas, Songsheng Chen and Shahid Manzoor
The study aims to identify and discuss influential aspects of corporate environmental disclosure (CED) literature, including key streams, themes, authors, keywords, journals…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to identify and discuss influential aspects of corporate environmental disclosure (CED) literature, including key streams, themes, authors, keywords, journals, affiliations and countries. This review also constructs agendas for future CED research.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a bibliometric review approach, the authors reviewed 560 articles on CED from 215 journals published between 1982 and 2020.
Findings
The authors' insights are three-fold. First, the authors identified three core streams of CED research: “legitimization of environmental hazards via environmental disclosures,” “the role of environmental accounting in achieving corporate environmental sustainability” and “integrating environmental social and governance (ESG) reporting into the global reporting initiatives (GRI) guidelines”. Second, the authors also deployed a thematic map that classifies CED research into four themes: niche themes (e.g. institutional theory and environmental management system), motor themes (e.g. stakeholder engagement), emerging/declining themes (e.g. legitimacy theory) and basic/transversal themes (e.g. voluntary CED, environmental reporting and corporate social responsibility). Third, the authors highlighted important CED authors, keywords, journals, articles, affiliations and countries.
Research limitations/implications
This study assists researchers, journal editors and consultants in the corporate sector to comprehensively understand various dimensions of CED research and practices and suggests potential emerging research areas. Although this paper appears to have been thoroughly conducted, using authors' keywords to identify themes was a key limitation. Thus, the authors call upon using a more comprehensive data mining technique that uses keywords in abstracts, titles and the whole body of papers and then identifies inclusive trends in CED literature.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the extant accounting literature by investigating the organizational-level CED, both mandatory and voluntary, using a systematic and bibliometric literature review model to summarize the key research streams, themes, authors, journals, affiliations and countries. By doing so, the authors construct a future research agenda for CED literature.
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Victoria Boydell and Katharine Dow
Here we provide a short reflection on the persistent theme of knowledge in reproductive studies which allows us to draw out further insights from each of the chapters.
Abstract
Here we provide a short reflection on the persistent theme of knowledge in reproductive studies which allows us to draw out further insights from each of the chapters.