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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the Official Scrutineer in the annual film awards ceremony of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), a role currently occupied by the audit firm Deloitte. The case of BAFTA provides an illustrative example of the increasing demand for discretionary assurance services from audit firms (Free et al., 2009), which in turn is reflective of Power's (1997) “audit society”. It showcases the power of audit as a legitimating tool. The paper seeks to understand the role of the auditor as assurance provider by drawing upon Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical framework. Viewing the auditor as “performer” and a range of interested stakeholders (BAFTA voting members, sponsors, award winners and industry commentators) as the “audience”, this theoretical lens facilitates insights into the nature of assurance provision.

The paper gathers interview data from within the case organization (BAFTA), it's Official Scrutineers (Deloitte), BAFTA voting members, sponsors, award winners and film industry commentators.

Drawing on Goffman's (1959) work on impression management to inform its theoretical argumentation, the analysis of results from 36 interviews indicates that Deloitte are highly effective in delivering a successful performance to their audience; they convey a very convincing impression of trust and assurance. The paper therefore suggests the importance of performance ritual in the auditor's role as assurance provider. Additionally, it argues that such a performance may be particularly effective, in the eyes of the audience, when played by a well known audit firm.

The paper highlights the expanding territorial scope of assurance provision by audit firms. By focusing on a glamorous media event, it also furthers an understanding of the role of accounting within the domain of popular culture.

The season of prizes and acceptance speeches stretches endlessly from Booker to BAFTA, the Oscars, the Emmies. If there were any destiny working out some grand plan, Salman Rushdie would have won the W.H. Smith Literary Award. As it is W.H. Smith may be hoping that Rushdie will start a Prize Fund, for Fortitude in the Line of Business; but they may not win it. We may still hope that Lady Ewart‐Biggs will be awarded her husband's Memorial Prize, for Lady in the Lords, or better still the NCR Prize may go to the The Adding Machine (John Calder). Meanwhile there are other prizes to consider:

Strategic management, sustainable development, business economics, construction management, energy management.

Undergraduate and Master's level business and management programmes with a focus on environmental or strategic management.

Fewer than two percent of Guinea Bissau's rural households had access to electricity from the grid. Efforts by the state monopoly to improve that figure by expanding the grid have had little effect, in part because the rural population was sparse. Central Electronics Limited, a public sector based company in India, was assigned to develop economic solar systems as a safe and eco-friendly substitute for the diesel gensets under IBSA (a trilateral, developmental initiative among India, Brazil, and South Africa) with the help of United Nations Development Program. The case provides an opportunity to examine the strategy of a small and poor nation to meet the needs of modern energy sources needed for improvement in health, education, transportation, and commercial development. The case focuses on Guinea Bissau's use of a trilateral partnership to achieve its rural electrification objectives despite several push backs.

Students will demonstrate ability to analyse, comprehend, and evaluate the essence of solar energy as an alternate for costly grid energy in the initial stage of development. It will also provide students to converse with the specific advantages of solar systems over conventional power generating systems and construct a novel solution that serves the needs of various stakeholders at the bottom of the income pyramid.

Teaching note.

In the present chapter, we present the case study of the only woman film director who has ever won an Academy Award for Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow. We analyzed 43 written interviews of Kathryn Bigelow that have appeared in the popular press in the period 1988–2013 and outlined eight main themes emerging regarding her exercise of leadership in the cinematic context. We utilize three theoretical frameworks: (a) paradoxical leadership theory (Lewis, Andriopoulos, & Smith, 2014; Smith & Lewis, 2012); (b) ambidextrous leadership theory (Rosing, Frese, & Bausch, 2011), and (c) role congruity theory (Eagley & Karau, 2002) and show how Bigelow, as a woman artist/leader working in a complex organizational system that emphasizes radical innovation, exercised paradoxical and ambidextrous leadership and challenged existing conventions about genre, gender, and leadership. The case study implications for teaching and practice are discussed.

How do you ensure that your coachees are getting the most value, support, and challenge from your coaching sessions? Before you even start asking questions and engaging in a coaching conversation, neuroscience can help you! The purpose of this paper is to outline six easy strategies that you can deploy to enable the best brain state to aid cognition, decisions, and creative thinking for your coachee and yourself.

A viewpoint based on the latest research from neuroscience and the author’s expertise as a coach for over 15 years.

Using the latest research from neuroscience to assist coachees to find their own solutions to the issues they face ensures they take ownership and are more motivated to take action.

The paper takes key elements from the latest evidence in neuroscience and applies them to the practice of coaching.

This study aims to gain insights into the rise of virtual social media influencers and identify the significant theories governing virtual influencers’ (VIs) interaction with followers on social media platforms. Studies on VI being scarce in marketing literature, the authors attempt to propose a theoretical model to understand the acceptance of VIs by social media users (SMUs).

Using a structured literature review and a case study approach, a conceptual model is developed and propositions are offered.

Parasocial interaction (PSI) between the SMU and VIs builds up source credibility, thereby leading to the acceptance of VIs. Thus, the authors establish that PSI and source credibility theory combine to explain the acceptance of VIs by SMUs. Furthermore, similarity with the VI is another added dimension of source credibility, as suggested by this study. A comparative analysis of the growth of five major VIs elucidates that the fashion, electronic, tourism and health-care industries can use them for promotions and as influencers, especially for luxury products.

VIs are a potent tool to achieve improved brand awareness and to target young consumers (especially Gen Y and Gen Z – millennials).

The emergence of VIs being recent; little is comprehended about their interaction with SMUs. Hence, it becomes important to delineate the foundations of VI–SMU interaction. Thus, this study addresses the gap in identifying the theoretical background and proposes a conceptual model elucidating VI acceptance by SMUs.

The paper provides a theoretical framework for interdisciplinary accounting scholars interested in performances of accountability in front of live audiences.

This is a processual case study of “Falkirk in crisis” that covers the period from September 2021 to September 2022. The focus of this paper is two-fan-Q&A sessions held in October 2021 and June 2022. Both are naturally occurring discussions between two groups such as are found in previous research on routine events and accountability. This is a theoretically consequential case study.

A key insight of the paper is to identify the practical and symbolic dimensions of accountability. The paper demonstrates the need to align these two dimensions when responding to questions: a practical question demands a practical answer and a symbolic question requires a symbolic answer. Second, the paper argues that most fields contain conflicting logics and highlights that a complete performance of accountability needs to cover the different conflicting logics within the field. In this case, this means paying full attention to both the communitarian and results logics. A third finding is that a performance of accountability cannot succeed if the audience rejects attempts to impose an unpalatable definition of the situation. If these three conditions are not met, the performance is bound to fail.

An important theoretical coontribution of the study is the application of Jeffery Alexander’s work on political performance to public performances of accountability.

The phenomenon explored in the paper (what the authors term “grassroots accountability”) has broad applicability to any situation in organizational or civic life where the power apex of an organization is required to engage with a group of informed and committed stakeholders – the “community”. For those who find themselves in the position of the fans in this study, the observations set out in the empirical narrative can serve as a useful practical guide. Attempts to answer a practical complaint with a symbolic answer (or vice versa) should be challenged as evasive.

This paper studies an engagement of elite actors with ordinary (or grassroots) actors. The study shows important rules of engagement, including the importance of respecting the power of practical questions and the need to engage with these questions appropriately.

This paper offers a new vista for interdisciplinary accounting by synthesizing the accountability literature with the political performance literature. Specifically, the paper employs Jeffery Alexander’s work on practical and symbolic performance to study the microprocesses underpinning successful and unsuccessful performances of accountability.