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The purpose of this paper is to analyze how social power and pressures over the past century have shifted the audience towards which organizations find themselves accountable, as reflected in their social responsibility reporting.

The authors use historical analysis to analyze qualitatively the annual reports of prominent US organizations between the 1900s to the early 2000s. Adopting an integrationist perspective, the authors ground their research in stakeholder theory and reviewed passages in annual reports identifying the audiences of socially responsible organizational initiatives.

The study revealed that the degree and focus of corporate accountability shifted over the course of the 1900s, and that this change was due to shifts in influence and power stemming from different stakeholders. During the early 1900s, organizations were more concerned with pleasing internal stakeholders (i.e. employees); however, economic and social events shifted this attention towards external stakeholder groups (i.e. the environment) during the latter part of the century. More recent events fueled social pressures, resulting in legislation and social reporting guidelines during the first decade of the twenty‐first century.

Organizations will continue to be held accountable as new stakeholder groups emerge and different social movements and economic changes transpire, exerting more pressure on organizations to be socially responsible. Furthermore, organizations need to remain current on social reporting guidelines, as these increasingly become the means of communication with multiple stakeholder groups. In summary, findings suggest that organizations would benefit by staying abreast of economic and social cues when developing their socially responsible initiatives and reporting.

The unique contribution of this paper is to identify how economic and social events place pressure on organizations and shift organizational attention through an accountability mechanism, resulting in changes in the focus of social responsibility reporting.

Over the last decades concepts and practices related to intangibles gained momentum at international level especially within the economic, accounting and management arenas. However, dating back to the beginning of the 1900s, intangibles was a topic that in the USA dominated the law and taxation fields. Indeed, at that time few papers were published in accounting journals and reviews, whereas the majority populated law and taxation publications. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Drawing upon the sociology of the profession, the ways through which lawyers and accountants constructed a “professional competition and power” (Dezalay and Sugarman, 2005) upon this arena are here explored. In particular, an in-depth analysis of the papers published on this field from the beginning of the 1900s until the 1970s in the USA is carried out.

Notwithstanding the current conceptualisation of intangibles as a field of research and practice at the margins (Miller, 1998) of accounting, the results achieved in the present research suggest that, at least historically, the topic of intangibles was highly intertwined not only within the different streams of accounting studies and practice, but also with the developments in legal and taxation fields that were surrounding the US economic, social and political institutional scenario.

The work intends to contribute to the current literature providing insights into the “genealogy” (Foucault, 1977) of the intangibles territory and the “turf battles” (Dezalay, 1995) it went through in order to become what has been defined as “a field upon which questions of disciplinary legitimacy have been raised” (Zambon, 2006) and, consequently, as characterized by “an intrusion of ‘external’ specialists into the accounting domain” (Power, 2001).

Harlem Renaissance Party by Faith Ringgold follows a young boy and his uncle as they visit the “giants” of the Harlem Renaissance. Lonnie and Uncle Bates travel through Harlem to meet historical figures, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Madam CJ Walker and others. They also visit historical venues where Black artists performed. Such venues included the Cotton Club, the Harlem Opera House and the Schomburg Library.

As students study the end of the Civil War and the early 1900s, they should learn about the causes of the Great Migration that led Black artists to flee from the south to larger cities in the north. In addition, Jim Crow Laws and other discriminatory practices prevented Black artists from performing their crafts. The Harlem Renaissance has had lasting effects on arts, music, literature and dance. In addition, students should use credible sources to gather information and documents about historical events and people.

These inquiry-based activities also integrate arts education and history to reach diverse student populations as they gain meaningful experiences interacting with authentic documents.

As students study the end of the Civil War and the early 1900s, they should learn about the causes of the Great Migration that led Black artists to flee the south to larger cities in the north. In addition, Jim Crow Laws and other discriminatory practices prevented Black artists from performing their crafts.

Reports on the role of UK emigrants to the USA in the creation and early development of its public accountancy profession. Explains findings in the context of US public accountancy firms founded by UK immigrants and focuses on the recruitment of qualified and unqualified public accountants from the UK. The study is based on searches of relevant archives in the UK and USA. The evidence reveals UK immigrants played a substantial part in the formation and early development of both public accountancy firms and institutions in the USA. However, the recruitment of immigrants by US firms appears to have been a temporary phenomenon pending the supply of US‐born accountants with suitable training and experience. The firms examined include local and national firms. Subject to data retrieval limitations, a major conclusion of the study is that unqualified immigrants played significant roles in the early histories of firms and institutions of US public accountancy.

Federal farm credit programs currently administered by the USDA were initiated in the early 1900s to help the farm sector cope with natural disasters, and these programs have continued to evolve. There has been a rich history of research analyzing USDA farm credit programs and the effects they have had on farmers, ranchers, and credit markets. This paper highlights past research and offers a view of the future direction of research on federal farm credit programs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth consideration of the color line in the US music market, much deeper treatment than that of a superficial social construct.

Content analysis was performed using archives from the Performing Arts Division of the New York Public Library.

A complex intersection of social and capitalist influences is fueled by culture and economics, filtered through the contributions of artists and media. Six major categories: social, media, artist, culture, industry, and economics contribute to its development and propagation. It continues to affect contemporary music markets.

Interpretation of archival data is subject to availability of material and subjectivity of the researcher. Steps were taken to minimize bias. The research implies an opportunity for the US music market to celebrate diversity and social justice.

Focusing on the symbolic use of music, marketers have the opportunity to empower consumers to embrace diversity, reversing the trajectory of the color line.

Embracing cultural heritage and celebrating diversity can promote economic gain without detriment to cultural interests.

The present research provides a much deeper consideration of the color line in the American Music Market than previous literature does. The consideration includes a combination of forces, from profit focused to cultural.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transformation of the perspective applied to distribution structures in the late 1900s. This change implied that the previous focus on channel management by a channel captain was abandoned because of changes in the business reality. This perspective was replaced by models and concepts featuring collaboration and joint coordination between actors and relationships embedded in networks.

Changes of perspectives on phenomena are assumed to occur through the dynamic interplay between business reality, the conceptualisation of this reality and the managerial recommendations derived from this conceptualisation. The study is based on a thorough longitudinal literature review.

Shifts of perspectives occur when there is an increasing mismatch between the current business reality and mainstream conceptualisations. In this transformation, new constructs are required to illustrate new aspects of the business reality, exemplified in the study by interaction and networks. Some established concepts lose their significance, illustrated by the channel captain. Others may be re-interpreted, as is the case with the power concept. The study also shows that “forgotten” conceptualisations can be re-wakened, exemplified by the view of distribution structures as network constellations. In turn, these changes in the conceptualisation of distribution impact the managerial recommendations.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, there are no previous studies analysing how the perspective on a certain phenomenon changes through the dynamic interplay between business reality, conceptualisations and managerial recommendations.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dimensions and practices that have shaped the safety of amusement rides and devices in the US amusement park industry.

The paper provides an overview and historical examination of key concepts and phenomena.

The paper concludes that continued amusement ride and device incidents resulting from a lack of nationally accepted and recognized standards will potentially lead to or cause additional negative guest perception and possibly result in regulation from an external agency. This paper identifies areas of concern and makes recommendations to address the potential consequences resulting from staying the current course. It determines that the industry needs to find a collective voice and establish consistent self‐regulating policies in order to curb the incidents rates and avoid federal regulation.

The paper reports on several secondary research, scholarly as well as industry and government publications and personal communications.

The safety of patrons visiting amusement parks has become paramount during recent times. Over the last decade or so, the amusement park industry has struggled with the fallout from numerous serious injuries and ride related deaths. This has generated a great deal of interest from patrons, media outlets, and politicians alike. With the continued operation of amusement parks and attractions and the competition of external entertainment options, it is important for the industry to project a solid and evolving image of safety in order to attract and retain patrons.

The paper explores the evolution of amusement ride and safely in the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships among governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and the organization and management of instruction in US public education, with the aim of raising issues for cross-national research among countries in which the involvement of non-governmental organizations is increasing.

The paper is structured in four parts: an historical analysis of the architecture and dynamics of US public education; an analysis of contemporary reform efforts seeking to improve quality and reduce inequities; an analysis of ways that legacy and reform dynamics manifest in two US public school districts; and a discussion of considerations for cross-national research.

In US public education, dependence on non-governmental organizations for instructional resources and services is anchored in deeply institutionalized social, political and economic values dating to the country’s founding and that continue to function as constraints on educational reform, such that new solutions always emerge in-and-from the same problematic conditions that they seek to redress. The consequence is that reform takes on an evolutionary (vs transformative) character.

The US case provides a foundation for framing issues for cross-national research comparing among macro-level educational infrastructures, patterns of instructional organization and classroom instruction.

Such research would move beyond reductionist approaches to cross-national research toward new approaches that examine how histories, legacy architectures, contemporary reforms and patterns of instructional organization and management interact to shape students’ day-to-day lives in classrooms.

This paper aims to examine the marketing strategies designed by three innovative early 1900s food companies. It traces the coordination of these businesses’ research funding, advertising, direct mail and promotional tactics to show how they intersected and impacted consumers and health professionals in the period when scientists were first able to quantify the relationship between good health and food. The paper analyzes internal company documents, advertisements and marketing materials from Knox Gelatine, Borden and Sunkist.

Research for this paper benefited from the author’s unlimited access to the private documents of the Knox Gelatine Company and its executives. These documents were analyzed chronologically and thematically. They chronicled the company’s attempts to influence the medical world and the ways it cultivated home economists. The paper also used publicly available digitized documents from Sunkist and Borden. The paper would benefit from further detailed analysis of these documents to parse Knox’s targeting by race and ethnicity.

In the 1920s, Knox, Borden and Sunkist developed a marketing strategy which leveraged a new class of experts – the hundreds of thousands of medical professionals, home economists, teachers and government agents who advised American women. By distributing specific laboratory research on the nutritional benefits of their products to this emerging class of health professionals and the consumers who trusted them, these companies developed relationships with opinion leaders designed specifically to influence product sales.

This research benefited from access to the private documents of Knox Gelatine Company which divulge the company’s attempts to influence the medical world and cultivate home economists. The paper would benefit from further analysis of these documents to parse the company’s targeting by race and ethnicity as well as a deeper comparison to companies that tried to work with health professionals unsuccessfully and companies that adopted this tactic in the household products or tobacco area. Opportunities also exist to do a fuller analysis of variations in food marketing by rural versus urban as well as race.

By reconstructing the sequencing and content of these three companies’ 1920s marketing strategies, this research uncovers a form of early 20th century food marketing directed at health and science professionals which has been neglected in advertising histories.