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The purpose of this paper is to explain how proponents of biodiversity offsetting have sought to produce an ecologically defensible mechanism for reconciling economic development and biodiversity conservation.

The paper analyses a case study biodiversity offsetting mechanism in New South Wales, Australia. Michel Callon’s framing and overflowing metaphor is used to explain how accounting devices are brought into the mechanism, to (re)frame a space of calculability and address anxieties expressed by conservationists about calculations of net loss/gain of biodiversity.

The analysis shows that the offsetting mechanism embeds a form of accounting for biodiversity that runs counter to the prevailing dominant anthropocentric approach. Rather than accounting for the biodiversity of a site in terms of the economic benefits it provides to humans, the mechanism accounts for biodiversity in terms of its ecological value. This analysis, therefore, reveals a form of accounting for biodiversity that uses numbers to provide valuations of biodiversity, but these numbers are ecological numbers, not economic numbers. So this is a calculative, and also ecocentric, approach to accounting for, and valuing, biodiversity.

This paper contributes to the extant literature on accounting for biodiversity by revealing a novel conceptualisation of the reconciliation of economic development and biodiversity conservation, producing an ecologically defensible form of sustainable development. The paper also makes a methodological contribution by showing how Callon’s framing and overflowing metaphor can be used to enable the kind of interdisciplinary engagement needed for researchers to address sustainable development challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in achieving biodiversity conservation and preventing the extinction of species. The Red List is a calculative device that classifies species in terms of their exposure to the risk of extinction.

The paper draws on theorising in the Social Studies of Finance literature to analyse the Red List in terms of how it frames a space of calculability for species extinction. The analysis then traces the ways that this framing has overflowed, creating conditions for calculative innovations, such that assemblages of humans and calculative devices (i.e. agencements) are constructed with collective capabilities to act to conserve biodiversity and prevent species extinctions.

This paper has traced three ways that the Red List frame has overflowed, leading to calculative innovations and the construction of new agencements. The overflow of relations between the quality of “extinction risk”, produced by the Red List, and other qualities, such as location, has created opportunities for conservationists to develop agencements capable of formulating conservation strategies. The overflow of relations between the identity of the “threatened species”, produced by the Red List, and other features of evaluated species, has created opportunities for conservationists to develop agencements capable of impelling participation in conservation efforts. The overflow of ecological relations between species, discarded by the Red List’s hierarchical metrology of extinction risk classifications, has created opportunities for conservationists to develop agencements capable of confronting society with the reality of an extinction crisis.

The paper contributes to the accounting for biodiversity literature by addressing its fundamental challenge: explaining how accounting can create conditions within society in which biodiversity conservation is made possible.

This study aims to articulate the conceptual foundations of the role of accounting infrastructure (calculative practice and the communicative dimension of accounting) in extractive industries (EIs) towards a sustainable orientation from an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective.

This study is a literature-based analysis of the calculative property and communicative dimension of accounting in EIs, using the concepts of calculability, assemblage and other related concepts from ANT to identify potentialities and limits of the roles of accounting in this sector.

While accounting infrastructure can influence social and environmental outcomes, it has not, as yet, led to ecologically and socially sustainable practices in EIs. Calculative properties and the communicative dimension of accounting infrastructure have capabilities to foster the phenomenon of “sustainability” in EIs by valuing, disclosing (reporting) and governing EIs towards a sustainable orientation. Conceptualizing sustainable EIs as a promissory economy, accounting infrastructure serves as a tool not only to represent past performance but also to enact the future: it helps to shape a sustainable future for the industry by informing and triggering behavioural decisions of EIs firms towards sustainable practices.

This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future sustainability accounting research. The research agenda discussed in this paper can be used to enrich our understanding of the role of accounting in sustainability.

This paper charts a direction for future research by interpreting the role of sustainability accounting within networks of sociotechnical relations, using ANT concepts which attach importance to the dualism of nature and society. Conceptualizing sustainability accounting and reporting as an infrastructure, which draws more attention to the relationality characteristic of accounting, the study goes beyond the traditional interpretation of accounting as a mediation device and draws on a contemporary view of accounting by invoking the dynamic relation between accounting and society, in the context of EIs.

This research seeks to explain how a national government becomes capable of constructing an account of its biodiversity performance that is aimed at enabling formulation of policy in pursuit of SDG 15: Life on Land.

The research examines a case study of the construction of the UK government's annual biodiversity report. The case is analysed to explain the process of framing a space in which the SDG-15 challenge of halting biodiversity loss is rendered calculable, such that the government can see and understand its own performance in relation to this challenge.

The construction of UK government's annual biodiversity report relies upon data collected through non-governmental conservation efforts, statistical expertise of a small project group within the government and a governmental structure that drives ongoing evolution of the indicators as actors strive to make these useful for policy formulation.

The analysis problematises the SDG approach to accounting for sustainable development, whereby performance indicators have been centrally agreed and universally imposed upon all signatory governments. The analysis suggests that capacity-building efforts for national governments may need to be broader than that envisaged by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The purpose of the paper is to improve the calculability of a continuum damage failure model of composite laminates based on Tsai-Wu criteria.

A technique based on viscous regularization, a characteristic element length and fracture energies of fiber and matrix are used in the model.

The calculability of the material model is improved. The modified model can predict the behavior of composite structure better.

The convergence problem and the mesh softening problem are main concern in the calculability of numerical model. In order to improve the convergence, a technique based on viscous regularization of damage variable is used. Meanwhile, characteristic element length and fracture energies of fiber and matrix are added into the damage constitutive equation to reduce the mesh sensitivity of numerical results. Finally, a laminated structure with damages is implemented using a User Material Subroutine in ABAQUS/Standard. Mesh sensitivity and value of viscosity are discussed.

This paper discusses and integrates the concept of complexity in the performance measurement and management (PMM) theory by providing a comprehensive framework to design and evaluate the overall coherence alignment of an indicators hierarchy in unstable and changing environment.

An original, comprehensive and dynamic framework has been proposed and then applied on a sample case of a large-scale retail trade (LSRT) company, starting from relevant frameworks and criteria in the scientific literature.

This research shows that organizational changes may significantly impact the coherence alignment of an organization's indicators hierarchy. In addition, it finds that even though the alignment at the operational level is obtained, its effectiveness should be evaluated in relation to the organization's strategic orientation. Indeed, without assessing the strategic alignment of an indicators system, an aligned hierarchy at the operational level could lead to ineffective results.

This paper focuses on the topic of measuring the coherence inside an indicators hierarchy, which seems not to be addressed in the literature. Thus, it opens a new research stream, integrating the studies on performance indicators with an essential element that often causes flawed performance measures in organizations.

Organizations could adopt this framework to design effective PMM systems and maintain them in light of the organizational changes.

This study introduces different metrics to evaluate the coherence and alignment of an indicators system, being one of the few research studies to address this topic in the context of complex and changing environments.

The purpose is to examine the insights gained from applying Ritzer's thesis of McDonaldization to international qualitative marketing research, in particular the four pillars of McDonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control.

The factors influencing choice of qualitative method in practice are examined drawing on the literature, the authors' observations based on experience (a team of practitioners) and a qualitative research study, using a mix of interviews and a workshop with those who co‐ordinate international research or who are subject to the co‐ordination.

The research suggests McDonaldization or “factory farming” may be a reality in some quarters in the qualitative marketing research industry and examples of how the four pillars of McDonaldization bear on the industry are examined.

There is a need to determine and monitor the extent of the McDonaldization phenomenon and at the same time explore across different cultures two key interfaces that can be adversely affected by McDonaldization, namely the respondent‐researcher interface and the researcher‐researcher interface when the researchers come from different cultures.

Management may now reflect on whether their practices increase or decrease the likelihood of gleaning qualitative insights and the case for considering developing a more eclectic research philosophy.

This paper provides a new framework for evaluating applied qualitative marketing research.

The chapter describes the recent history of Sustainability Indices in three Latin American countries: Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. In these countries, local Stock Exchanges have been recently launching their own Sustainability Indices. This ongoing trend may indicate a particular way of addressing Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) in the region. The chapter relies on secondary data, mainly documents published by the Stock Exchanges themselves, and on some selected academic and practitioner oriented articles. All three countries present some common features. In all cases, local stock markets launched Sustainability Indices, and their composition has been publicly available from the beginning. Consequently, SRI is now developing in the region in a different way from that of developed markets. The chapter is based on secondary data only. Further research may involve interviews and surveys with different stakeholders (i.e., investors, quoted companies, public officials). The illustration of a different way of developing an SRI market may help public officials and investors from other countries, either in Latin America or elsewhere, who intend to promote SRI. There are few studies on SRI in Latin America, and comparative research between different countries in the region is still rare.

The aim of the paper is to define the role of trust and reliance in business relationships.

After this paper identifies gaps in the literature, a conceptual model is developed, and its implications analyzed and discussed.

One of the particularities of trust is its inherent anthropocentricity. As a concept, trust appears to be more applicable at the level of inter‐personal relationships than to inter‐organizational relationships. Business relationships involve both inter‐personal and inter‐organizational relationships. The paper considers a number of other possibilities and argues that there is a need to look at reliance as an incremental intellectual lens on business relationships.

Within a business‐to‐business marketing context, the paper discusses the impact of such a multi‐faceted conceptualization for research in business relationships.

Marketing researchers often neglect the fact that relationships between organizations are based on mutual interests, and attempt to stretch the concept of trust towards inter‐organizational relationships without the necessary theoretical scrutiny.

Applying the concept of trust to personal relationships and reliance to inter‐organizational relationships, the paper introduces a complementary, rational standard that contributes to the calculability in exchange relationships.

Does the organizational culture of the base organization affect the way its projects are carried out? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between one aspect of organizational culture, namely the formal rationality of the base organization and how projects are approached. The concept of McDonaldization is used to describe formal rationality; it covers four aspects: efficiency, predictability, calculability and control. Two types of approaches (here called project perspectives) to project management are studied: the task perspective (focus on a clearly defined endeavour from the start of the project) and the organizational perspective (focus on supporting the base organization in its change efforts). The relationship between formal rationality of the base organization and choice of project perspective is revealed.

Empirical study based on a survey of 164 managers.

The paper shows that the degree of formal organizational rationality affects choice of project perspective: the more rational the base organization, the more dominant the task perspective. The size of the project is of significance, telling us that, in general, larger projects are less task‐ oriented than smaller and medium‐ sized, everything else being equal.

Further studies may be of interest to reveal the relationship between organizational culture of the base organization and project management. Better operationalizations of the constructs of rationality and project perspective are presented, which opens up for further studies on the relationship between rationality and project management.

It is important for managers to know that the way the project work is approached is affected by the organizational rationality of the base organization.

The paper shows the importance of the organizational culture of the base organization, especially the degree of formal rationality, for how project work is done. It presents new operationalizations of formal rationality and project perspective to make way for further studies on the relationship between organizational rationality and project management.