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This paper investigates which loan loss provision (LLP) model [International Accounting Standards39 (IAS39) based on incurred losses and Brazilian Central Bank Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) based on a mixed model] presents higher quality in terms of predictability, and which model is less susceptible to earnings management practices using LLP.

To test the difference between the explanatory power of the mixed model and incurred loss model in explaining the LLP, this paper runs a two-stage fixed-effect panel regression model to evaluate the association between LLP of each model and variables representatives of non-discretionary aspects related to the quality of the loan portfolio, business cycles and qualitative evidence indicated in each GAAP. Then, this paper tests the relationship between the errors generated in each regression and the discretion of bank managers and banks’ characteristics.

This paper finds that the mixed model results in higher R2 demonstrating that the number produced under this regime is more related to observable variables than the number produced under the incurred losses model. Further, this paper finds no evidence that there is a difference in earnings management between the two standards and this paper does not find that banks manage earnings through regulatory capital. Nevertheless, this paper finds that earnings management is higher in private than in listed banks.

This paper takes advantage of the unique feature of the Brazilian Central Bank regulation to investigate the impact of two different accounting standards on LLP in a perfect setting.

This chapter studies how entrepreneurship research has evolved at the Latin American level. Using the database available in the Web of Science Core Collection, a period-by-period bibliometric analysis is carried out to identify possible changes in research trends over time. On the one hand, the results show that in the period 2000–2006, research focuses mainly on rural development, community development and financial resources. On the other hand, in the period 2007–2013, the research priority is related to international entrepreneurship, private capital raising and studies based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Finally, during the period between 2014 and 2020, research focused mainly on self-employment, family businesses, promotion of angel investor networks, venture capital, and female entrepreneurship. The results of this study may be of interest to academics, researchers, and policymakers to understand the evolution of this topic in recent decades and to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in the region.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual and linguistic challenges that French business schools face when preparing for international accreditation and to shed light on the different ways in which experts facilitate these accreditation processes, particularly with respect to how they capitalize on their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning competences.

The authors interviewed 12 key players at four business schools in France engaged in international accreditations and in three specific categories: senior management, tenured faculty and administrative staff. The interview-based case study design used semi-structured questions and an insider researcher approach to study an underexplored sector of analysis.

The findings suggest that French business schools have been particularly impacted by the colonizing effects of English as the mandatory language of the international accreditation bodies espousing a basically Anglophone higher education philosophy. Consequently, schools engage external experts for their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning expertise to facilitate accreditation processes.

The authors contribute to language-sensitive research through a critical perspective on marginalization within French business schools due to the use of English as the mandatory lingua franca of international accreditation processes and due to the underlying higher-education philosophy from the Anglophone academic sphere within these processes. As a result, French business schools resort to external experts to mediate their knowledge and competency gaps.

The purpose of the paper is to shed additional light on the Englishisation process in higher education (HE), by exploring the contentious and divisive nature of language changes and the different ways in which individual academics experience that process and craft ways of resisting institutional attempts to naturalise the use of the English language in teaching and scholarly writing.

Based on a self-ethnographic insider study in a Portuguese university setting, the data were gathered from multiple sources and over an extended period of time and presented as stories selected as illustrative examples of resistance.

The Englishisation process goes beyond language issues and tends to be associated with increasing competitive pressures and the implementation of international standards that might challenge the cultural mind-set and long-established practices; by exacerbating old political divisions and tensions, the Englishisation process uncovers a confrontation between different visions of the role and nature of the university that seems to co-exist and compete in the same setting – the community of scholars and the market-led university.

The paper adds to the debate on the implications of the Englishisation process in HE showing that resistance to the growing use of the English language might not be about the language after all. It is the full package that comes with the Englishisation process that really seems to matter.

This paper examines the experiences of engaging with academic writing of international doctoral students in the schools of humanities and education at a UK university. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the real accounts of international students whose cultural and language backgrounds are often marginalised and considered, not as facilitators, but as barriers to academic writing in the western context of universities.

Developed broadly within an interpretive post-positivistic paradigm, the study utilised Harré and van Lagenhove, 1999 Positioning theory and Goffman’s theory of Stigma to interrogate accounts of 12 students from the two schools in a year-long project involving three focus group discussions, questionnaire responses and personal reflective summaries by the students.

The paper highlights the notions of stigma associated with their foreign writing conventions and how students experience tensions and apprehensions about their ability as they painfully negotiate the new academic writing conventions of the institution. International students position themselves as vulnerable outsiders working within an ill-defined but highly valued language environment.

The research is limited to the extent that it utilises a very small number of students as its key source of evidence. However, the study was not aimed at providing generalisation as much as it sought to explore issues associated with the use of language by international studying in UK universities.

The study has practical implications for the professionals in HE to develop clear guidelines about what constitutes good English and to provide greater support to international students who see themselves as vulnerable outsiders in an environment which marginalises their linguistic and cultural identities.

The study has implications for the social, cultural, and academic integration of international students in HE institutions.

The paper signals a need for diverse writing frameworks which seek to promote rather than silence and marginalise potentially rich sources of knowledge and understanding in an increasingly globalising world.

The concept of sustainability is often viewed by organizational leaders as being abstract and difficult to apply in organizational reality. It is thus necessary to conduct more focused research to develop specific dimensions of the sustainability concept. In this context, the objective of this work is to analyze the social dimension of sustainability among supermarkets in Brazil.

Based on a literature review and the development of a framework of social business variables, the study examined which practices small and medium Brazilian supermarkets have adopted to promote the social dimension of sustainability. These companies were examined with the goal of relating the actions of each organization to their social performance.

The study found that the Brazilian supermarkets in the sample group practise social responsibility focused on strict regulations and labor laws; these practices conformed with existing legislation but did not address the development of broader actions or social projects. The results show continuities and discontinuities in the adoption of social practices among organizations in order to meet the requirements of labor legislation. The authors found a lack of social projects and greater integration into the community in which each supermarket operates.

The study contributes to research on social responsibility in retail, with a specifically Brazilian focus.

This paper aims to offer insight into how strategies within the accounting profession, which has been becoming more global, might be changed by the recent outbreak of the Second Cold War between the West and the Rest of the World.

We explore the strategies of those who called themselves “Confucian accountants” in China, a country which has recently discouraged its state-owned enterprises from using the services of the Big 4. We do this by employing qualitative research methods, including reflexive photo interviews, in which Big-4 accountants, recognised as the most Westernised accounting actors in China, and Confucian accountants are asked to take and explain photographs representing their professional lives. Bourdieu’s notions of “economy of practices” and “vision-of-division strategy” are drawn upon to understand who the Confucian accountants are and what they do strategically in their pursuit of a higher revenue stream and improved social standing in the Chinese social space.

The homegrown Confucian accountants share cultural-cognitive characteristics with neighbouring social actors, such as their clients and government officials, who have been inculcated with Confucianism and the state’s cultural confidence policy in pursuit of a “socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics”. Those accountants try to enhance their social standing and revenue stream by strategically demonstrating their difference from Big-4 accountants. For this purpose, they wear Confucian clothes, have Confucian props in their office, employ Confucian phrases in their everyday conversations, use Confucian business cards and construct and maintain guanxi with government officials and clients.

This paper is the first attempt to explore Confucian accountants’ strategies for increasing their revenue and social standing at the start of the Second Cold War.

Numerous studies have shown that minority workers are disadvantaged in the labour market due to stereotypes and discrimination. However, published research on résumé screening has overlooked the effects of multiple social categorisations pertaining to candidates' gender, education and origin. This study addresses this gap and examines whether the gender, the level of education and the national origin cues mentioned in the résumé affect the perceived employability of candidates.

This study employs an experimental between-subjects factorial design in that 12 résumés varying in gender, education and national origin were rated by 373 Portuguese working adults.

The results documented a gender premium as women were favoured in interpersonal and job skills but not in job suitability, and an education premium, since higher educated candidates were preferred despite their gender and origin. No meaningful interactions for gender × education × national origin were observed, which suggests that ingroup favouritism and outgroup discrimination in résumé screening can be averted.

The findings endorse a multidimensional view of perceived employability by investigating candidates' skills and job suitability from the viewpoint of the decision-makers, which extends our understanding of résumé-screening discrimination. This is critical to prevent hiring discrimination at an earlier career stage, which can increase youth employment and enhance the integration in the labour market of local minorities such as women, inexperienced workers and second-generation immigrants.

This study aims to explain the effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions on firms’ export performance. The study has considered three dimensions of EO: innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. Export performance has been measured through multifaceted determinants: financial, strategic and satisfaction levels of exporting firms.

To explain the association between such determinants, qualitative face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted with the respondents from the apparel manufacturing companies of Bangladesh. The study has also applied a content analysis technique to explore and triangulate the descriptions of EO dimensions on performance.

The research results reveal that EO has a meaningful explanation of export performance from the lived experience of the respondents. The study has also found frequent explanations and indicators about the association of innovativeness and proactiveness on export performance, but the risk-taking dimension has revealed no effects.

The research has different implications on theoretical, managerial and policy-making aspects of EO and export performance. Nevertheless, the findings are based on the opinions of a small sample of entrepreneurs and high-level managers. Thus, it is important to test the generalizability of these findings in future research using a larger sample.

This study indicated product, process and market creation innovativeness. Risks related to product innovation, new market entry and politics are considered for risk-taking measures, while proactive innovation, technology and new market searching are used for measuring proactiveness. Additionally, multifaceted performance determinants have been applied to evaluate export performance. Hence, this study is a unique qualitative analysis with important theoretical, practical and methodological implications.

This chapter provides a study of how gambling companies use the cultural and social capital of Newcastle United Football Club, in the English Premier League, to establish a connection with the club's fans to promote gambling. Newcastle United had two gambling sponsors during the period of this study, from 2017 to 2020, including a front of shirt sponsor, FUN88, an online gambling brand with a large following in Asia. Data were gathered from a range of sources, including from the social media platform, Twitter, to identify the methods the company used to engage fans and to encourage betting on the outcome of matches. The data from the study were explored thematically to describe the relationship developed between the football club and its principal gambling sponsor in order to drive business for the latter with the club's followers. The findings showed how FUN88 evoked Newcastle United's cultural tradition to promote gambling and generate business globally whilst the club actively promoted their ‘primary partner’ through its media channels. The lure of free match tickets was used to encourage fan engagement. Corporate practices promote the consumption of unhealthy commodities through their marketing whilst consumers (fans) are responsibilised for any harms engendered by their gambling practices. The ubiquity of gambling brands has enabled gambling to become a normalised part of football culture. The findings from this study show how FUN88 has used all elements of the sponsorship assemblage to create an emotional connection whilst engaging with Newcastle United's fans to increase consumption of its products.