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Whilst plastic packaging has recently been critiqued for its detrimental effects on the environment, it is largely overlooked in histories of food retailing. This paper presents a historical perspective on plastic packaging, highlighting its role in transforming UK food retailing throughout the middle to late twentieth century.

This paper is based on an analysis of the Marks & Spencer Company Archive, supplemented by company histories and biographical sources. Three examples were purposively selected based on their technologically innovative role in maintaining and enhancing Marks & Spencer's core values.

The analysis highlights plastic packaging's significance in enabling Marks & Spencer's product development process whilst maintaining and enhancing the company's core values of standards, quality, safety, freshness, hygiene and convenience. The examples demonstrate the role of plastics in technological innovation, achieving key commercial objectives in product development and contributing to the transformation of food retailing.

The research focuses on three specific examples of packaging innovation, drawing out their wider implications for socio-technical change in UK food retailing.

This historical research suggests that greater attention should be paid to plastic packaging including its material properties and the services it provides, moving beyond a blanket condemnation by acknowledging its multiple affordances in the food sector. These historical insights are instructive when thinking about the future of retailing and shopping in the context of the need for better environmental outcomes.

Financial disclosure manipulation is unethical and unlawful because it leads to less transparent reporting and harmful economic decisions based on misleading information. The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary and synthesis of research covering financial disclosure misrepresentation via impression management (IM). Ultimately, this report proposes that virtuous managers may be well-suited to provide transparent, objective disclosure. By extension, virtuous managers may oversee profitable firms and improve capital market efficiency. Suggestions for future research are presented.

This is an academic literature review covering financial disclosure manipulation. The findings are viewed through the lens of Christian virtue ethics (CVE).

IM studies commonly focus on specific methods used to mislead disclosure readers. Antecedent and mitigation strategies are less commonly noted in the research. This paper presents and analyzes IM tools and antecedents. Mitigation approaches are considered through the lens of CVE. This report proposes that virtuous managers may be well-suited to provide transparent, objective disclosure. By extension, virtuous managers may oversee profitable firms and improve capital market efficiency.

This present study focuses on the antecedents of IM in financial disclosures and introduces a novel perspective to financial disclosure mitigation – CVE. Financial disclosure authors and readers, researchers, financial regulators and accounting standards setters may be interested in the findings presented in this study.