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This paper aims to provide evidence on the role study tours play in expanding student cultural capital via increased confidence in international travel.

In this paper, survey data from individuals who participated in a study tour experience offered by a Florida-based university are analyzed for the assessment of cultural capital acquisition across select demographic types. Results are derived for paired difference tests as well as differences in population means.

Findings indicate that students participating in study tours did, in fact, gain confidence in engaging in international travel, especially so for first-time passport users and female participants.

The study was limited because of the size of the sample population. It is likely that significant relationships via other demographic cohorts will unfold as program participation increases.

Study tours represent a viable pathway for the acquisition of cultural capital.

Study tours present a unique means of providing students a first-hand global experience, and when marketed to a non-traditional student population, offer opportunities for acquisition of cultural and social capital that could not be achieved through non-experiential means.

The results of this study show that the study tour experience enriched the cultural capital of student participants through an increase in confidence associated with traveling abroad. The benefits of the study tour were widespread, as virtually, all population groups analyzed tended to gain confidence in traveling abroad, even those who had prior experience traveling internationally. This paper also suggests future pathways for research based on other demographic cohorts.

The purpose of this paper is to understand what are the best projections of these events effects on organizations and economies. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic leads to a combination of economic and public health circumstances that challenge the accounting for and accountability of organizations that are mostly outside of their experience and that of academics for the past 50 years.

Through evidence-based policymaking research, evaluation and reporting tools the author draws on the extant research literature to develop estimates of likely effects of these events on organizations and economies.

The process of investigating this subject led the author to write a short research synthesis paper (Salterio 2020a) that summarized the historical economic evidence about the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 and various simulations of potential pandemic macroeconomic effects. This evidence allowed the author to quantify the potential effects of the crisis less than a month into the North American economic shutdown.

Using that research synthesis the author responded to the call for papers for this special issue by reflecting on the lessons that this crisis has for managers and organizations from both an accountability and accounting perspective.

The issue of accounting change, why and how accounting evolves through time and within specific organisational settings, has been addressed by an important body of literature. This paper aims to explain why, in processes of accounting change, organisations confronting similar environmental pressures show different outcomes of change.

Drawing on archetype theory, the paper analyses the case of two Italian local governments. Comparative case studies were carried out, reconstructing a period of 15 years.

Although confronted with similar environmental pressures, the two cases show two different patterns of accounting change, where only one case is able to finally reach radical change. Accounting change can be prompted by external stimuli, but, once the change is prompted, the outcomes of the change are explained by the dynamics of intra‐organisational conditions.

The study contributes to accounting change literature by adopting an approach (i.e. archetype theory) that overcomes some of the limitations of previous studies in explaining variations in organisational change. Through this, the authors are able to explain different outcomes and paces of accounting change and point out the intra‐organisational factors also affecting them in the presence of similar environmental pressures. A specification of the theoretical framework in a particular setting is also provided.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the institutionalization process of the performance management system (PMS) in a Malaysian government‐linked company (GLC). The study specifically looks at the changes brought by the GLC transformation programme introduced by the government.

An explanatory case study method is used whereby data are collected through semi structured interviews, document reviews, informal conversations and observations.

Despite attempts to link the organisational activities to the system through the business operating plan, the data reveal that the PMS‐related activities have somehow been viewed as a routine mechanism for appraising the employees' performances and become decoupled from the organisational activities. Thus, the new PMS did not really change the way organisational members view and do things in the organisation.

This study shows that the intention to institutionalise a new practice may not be materialised if there are not enough forces to support the change. The adoption of the new PMS practices may be due to isomorphic pressures to mimic other organisations in the same environmental field leading to ceremonial adoption of the practice.

This research provides evidence to the government that the process involved in transforming the organisational culture of a government‐linked organisation by using accounting tools might be time consuming, costly and subject to resistance. Hence, any change management programme introduced in a government‐linked organisation should have strong top management support, good financial standing as well as a reliable technical backup to the programme.

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which health and safety action controls, results controls and informal controls affect the integration of health and safety issues into management actions, which in turn leads to improve health and safety performance. It also investigates the extent to which those health and safety control mechanisms contribute complementarily to the integration of health and safety issues.

A survey of 108 Italian non-listed firms tests a set of hypotheses based on complementarity theory and object of control framework.

Not all the health and safety control mechanisms positively influence the integration of health and safety issues into business practices and external stakeholder relations. Complementarity between health and safety control mechanisms is significant only for higher health and safety performance companies, indicating that the health and safety control mechanisms operate as a package.

The health and safety performance measure could be replaced in future research by improved inter-subjectively testable information, although collecting health and safety quantitative data is difficult. An additional limitation is the response rate.

The findings encourage companies to design and use a comprehensive set of health and safety control mechanisms to promote a healthy workplace.

The paper contributes to the management control, sustainability management control and health and safety accounting literature. The paper provides an in-depth interdisciplinary analysis of the effectiveness of different control mechanisms in the context of health and safety that hitherto has rarely been investigated despite the multiple importance of the topic.

COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements and adapt their ways of working. Yet, we know little about how management control might be enacted in the future of the sustainable workplace. The objective of the study is to examine the patterns of management control change in the Big 4 accounting firms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adopting an exploratory qualitative research design, the authors draw on 42 interviews with directors and associates in the Big 4 professional services firms.

The findings reveal two pathways of management control change including alignment and displacement. The authors found that relatively minor adaptions to action and result controls were relied upon to respond to substantial cultural and personnel control changes.

The contributions are threefold: the authors take a temporal perspective to (1) unpack the changes to management control arrangements; (2) theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways encompassing pace, scope and longevity of management control change and (3) contextualise management control arrangements in a hybrid work setting.

1. COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements.

2. Literature has focused on traditional, onsite work settings and largely ignored change pathways.

3. The authors take a temporal perspective to unpack changes to management control arrangements.

4. Big 4 firms adapted to hybrid work with substantial changes to personnel and cultural controls.

5. The authors theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways.

COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements.

Literature has focused on traditional, onsite work settings and largely ignored change pathways.

The authors take a temporal perspective to unpack changes to management control arrangements.

Big 4 firms adapted to hybrid work with substantial changes to personnel and cultural controls.

The authors theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways.