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Recent years saw a paradigm shift from ex post (reactive) to ex ante (proactive) approaches (e.g. insurance) to disaster risk financing for building resilience of communities in developing countries. To facilitate adoption, the approaches should be adapted so that they can be technically feasible and culturally desirable to the local context. This paper aims to report an exploratory study to elaborate the existing arrangements to deal with the impacts of disaster and the potential to shift to a more proactive disaster risk financing in Indonesia.

A series of stakeholder engagement activities in Semarang and Solo, Indonesia was conducted to ascertain the existing arrangements for disaster risk financing at local government level, the challenges/barriers to the adoption of insurance, education and policies to facilitate the transformation from reactive to proactive process. Thematic analysis was applied to transcribed conversations during interviews, focus groups and workshops. Identification of emerging issues/themes was also guided by the researchers’ notes during the events, and facilitated by qualitative analysis software, Atlas Ti®. This was complemented by an analysis of regulations and documents provided by the local stakeholders.

The local governments heavily rely on contingency fund, which is not enough and often significantly delayed to fund recovery and reconstruction of public infrastructure. The use of insurance is limited in both public and private sectors, particularly in the majority of low-income communities. Various barriers and challenges were identified under several categories, namely, institutional, cultural, affordability, lack of awareness and knowledge, insurance arrangement process and lack of trust. The findings also suggest that improving insurance education should involve multiple stakeholders, and both formal and informal routes should be pursued.

The research fills the gap of knowledge in disaster risk financing in the context of developing countries, specifically in local governments and communities in Indonesia. The findings may be replicable for other developing countries with low adoption of ex ante financial instruments for dealing with the impacts of disaster.

The increasing capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the way organizations operate and interact with users both internally and externally. The insurance sector is currently using AI in several ways but its potential to disrupt insurance is not clear. This research evaluated the implementation of AI-led automation in 20 insurance companies. The findings indicate four business models (BM) emerging: In the first model the insurer takes a smaller part of the value chain allowing others with superior AI and data to take a larger part. In the second model the insurer keeps the same model and value chain but uses AI to improve effectiveness. In the third model the insurer adapts their model to fully utilize AI and seek new sources of data and customers. Lastly in the fourth model a technology focused company uses their existing AI prowess, superior data and extensive customer base, and adds insurance provision.

The Basel committee proposes making regulatory capital requirements more risk sensitive. Cost‐benefit assessment suggests that this yields greater efficiency in the use of regulatory capital, but has substantial enforcement and compliance costs and may well increase the severity of banking crises. Better if the new Accord sets risk‐insensitive regulatory minimum capital standards and encourages banks to set risk‐sensitive desired capital targets with generous reductions in required capital for healthy banks with effective systems of risk management. Ten specific suggestions for improvement of the new Accord are made.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors explaining voluntary occupational health and safety disclosures (OHSDs).

Annual report disclosures of 223 Indonesia Stock Exchange listed companies for the year ending 2007 are analyzed. The OHSD components of the 2006 Global Reporting Initiative guidelines are used as the disclosure index checklist.

The results show that approximately 30 percent of Indonesian listed companies provide OHSD. The most disclosed item is health and safety programs. Logistical regression analysis reveals that industry type and international operations significantly influence the propensity to provide OHSD. These findings suggest that coercive isomorphism partially explains OHSD practices in Indonesia.

The main implications of the findings are that Indonesian listed companies generally have poor health and safety information disclosure sets and largely ignore the potential roles of their workers in any health and safety committees.

This paper provides insights into the disclosure practices of occupational health and safety issues, a vital subset of corporate social responsibility disclosure which is still under-researched. The paper also empirically investigates the key determinants of OHSD, an empirical test which is largely ignored in past OHSD-related studies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the new capital requirements under the Basel III framework on bank lending rates.

By constructing a stylized representative bank's financial statements, the authors show that the higher cost associated with a 1-percentage increase in the capital ratio can be recovered by increasing the bank lending rate.

The results indicate that in the case of scheduled commercial banks, a 1-percentage-point increase in the capital ratio can be recovered by a commensurate increase in the bank lending rate by 16 basis points and would go up to an extent of 94 basis points for a 6-percentage point increase assuming that the risk-weighted assets are unchanged.

The results assume significance as the estimations for the scenarios of changes in risk-weighted assets change in return on equity and the cost of debt. Given the enormous significance of the impact of Basel III on banks, this research outcome benefits the practitioners in the industry and researchers.

This study contributes to the literature on bank regulation and risk management with a newer and topical approach for quantification of the impacts of new regulatory standards. Another contribution of this study is that it considers three different groupings of banks: (1) scheduled commercial banks; (2) public sector banks and (3) private banks in Indian banking. This is the first of its kind in the context of studying Indian banking.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors driving greenhouse gas reporting by Chinese companies.

Content analysis of annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports for the year 2010 of the top 100 A‐share companies listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange was conducted to investigate the extent of greenhouse gas reporting. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the factors driving these companies' greenhouse gas reporting.

It was found that most Chinese companies reported neutral and good news. The results also indicate larger companies operating in an industry which has higher level of carbon dioxide emissions tend to have higher levels of greenhouse gas disclosures, consistent with the expectation of legitimacy theory. However, profitability and overseas listing were not significantly related to greenhouse gas reporting. This is consistent with the findings of previous literature. Finally, contrary to expectations, state‐owned companies report less greenhouse gas information than private companies.

The paper contributes towards theory development by testing legitimacy theory in the context of greenhouse gas reporting by Chinese companies and contributes to existing literature on greenhouse gas reporting by focussing on the large emerging economy of China. The practical contribution of the paper rests in the area of accounting practice. The results outline the dearth in greenhouse gas reporting by Chinese companies, suggesting there needs to be future development of accounting standards in this area.

This study aims to advance explanations of the communication level of labor disclosures of Indonesian listed companies.

Year‐ending 2007 Annual report disclosures of 223 Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) listed companies are analyzed. The labor practices and decent work disclosure component of the 2006 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines are used as the benchmark disclosure index checklist.

The results show a low level of voluntary disclosure (17.7 per cent). The highest level of communication is for issues related to skills management and lifelong learning programs for employees. Very few companies disclosed information about health and safety committee and agreements, and salary of men to women. Statistical analysis reveals that government ownership and international operations are positively significant predictors of “labour” communication. Isomorphic institutional theory partially explains the variability of these disclosures. Bigger companies also provide more labor practices and decent work disclosures.

The main implications of the findings are that Indonesian companies are not clearly communicating labor responsibility issues as a key precondition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). They may be obfuscating some information to protect their image and reputation.

This paper provides insights into the disclosure practices of labor issues, a specific social disclosure theme which is rarely examined in prior literature, under the umbrella of institutional theory. The research also includes “goal factor” to be tested as one of the independent variables.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of information communication technology (ICT) in small rural hospitality businesses. Although ICT is often presented as a means of reducing the impact of being rural, little is known about the extent or level of use of ICT. This paper addresses these issues.

The paper employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather and analyse data. The study had two stages: an initial survey to determine the extent and pervasion of ICT; and a second interview stage to explore the role and applications of ICT.

The authors find that 84 per cent of the businesses use ICT effectively, mainly to provide information and improve service quality. In addition, some firms had adopted very successful methods of using the internet for sales and marketing but ignored supply functions. The authors were surprised to find that ICT was seen as a way of enhancing personal service and that rather than a barrier, it was seen to promote quality of service. Moreover the respondents did seem to have used ICT effectively to overcome the disadvantages of location and rurality.

The survey was carried out in a single rural environment and this limits its generalisability. Nonetheless, the study develops some interesting issues about the application of ICT in the rural context.

The paper identifies the benefits derived from the enthusiasm of some rural business owners. They had recognised the efficacy of computing and can provide lessons in how to apply ICT to overcome distance.

The paper addresses a gap in research and offers some insights into the application of ICT in rural areas.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the origins and development of the “Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) Community”, a flourishing international interdisciplinary accounting research community. This scholarly community has emerged over some 30 years from the publication in 1988 of the inaugural issue of AAAJ under the joint editorship of James Guthrie and Lee Parker. This historical account discusses the motivation for establishing the journal and the important publishing initiatives, developments and trends across this period. The study positions the journal as a key thought leader, the catalyst for other Community activities such as the Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting conference.

The investigation involved a selective review of the contents of AAAJ, particularly the annual editorials published since inception, and other relevant literature, analysis of the main research themes and the most cited papers, and oral history interviews with the joint editors. The future prospects for the AAAJ Community are addressed.

The AAAJ Community has shaped and led developments in interdisciplinary accounting research. Recognised for innovation and with a reputation for nurturing scholars, AAAJ continues to grow in stature as one of the world’s leading accounting journals, challenging the status quo and fostering inclusive scholarship.

The study does not examine the journal’s publication patterns nor assess in detail the research studies that have been published in the journal.

The study recognises AAAJ as central to the development of an interdisciplinary accounting research community, firmly located in the sociological, critical and interpretative tradition also associated with some other leading accounting journals.

Using the theory of sensibility and McClelland et al.’s (2013) metaphorical analysis, this study aims to analyse the accounting metaphors and meta-metaphor of The Hollow Men, a poem written by T. S. Eliot.

The analysis uses McClelland et al.’s (2013) five-step procedure to ascertain the poem’s metaphor use.

The Hollow Men depicts accountants as ritualistic and accounting voices as quiet and meaningless while its meta-metaphor conveys accounting as rites and shadows.

Although The Hollow Men’s use of Form 4 metaphors, where neither figurative nor literal source term is named, places an onus on the reader to infer meaning from accounting metaphor use, the analysis provides readers with a valuable structure for evincing accounting metaphors that present pervasive accounting issues facing the modern world.

Accountants, according to The Hollow Men, are hollow, devotees to plunderers and property and rain dancers. The Hollow Men situates the quest for accounting as a ritual for order and the preservation of the status quo.

The Hollow Men’s mages of accounting immersion in rites and shadows accord with the conceptual metaphors of accounting as magic and accounting as history.

The originality of this study rests in its introduction to McClelland et al.’s (2013) metaphorical analysis of accounting research.