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The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that notwithstanding the fact that stewardship theory embraces things like trust of directors, their professionalism, loyalty and willingness to be concerned for the interests of others, as well as rejecting the foundations of classic agency problems that are asserted by agency theory, board accountability is as relevant to stewardship theory as it is to agency theory.

The paper applies the theory underlying board accountability in corporate governance, which is so often applied both in the corporate governance literature and in practice with agency theory in mind, to stewardship theory.

While the idea of accountability of boards is generally associated with an explanation and conceptualisation of the role and behaviour of directors as agents within classic agency theory, the paper demonstrates that board accountability is a necessary part of board life even if the role of directors is explained and conceptualised in terms of stewardship theory.

The paper suggests some accountability mechanisms that might be employed in a stewardship approach.

While many authors have talked in general terms about board accountability and its importance, this is the first paper that has engaged in a substantial study that links board accountability directly with stewardship theory, and to establish that accountability is necessary.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that offers a wealth of natural experiments and produced new data about broadband, clouds, and the Internet in times of crisis. In this chapter, we characterise and evaluate the evolving impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on traffic patterns and loads and the impact of those on Internet performance from multiple perspectives. While we place a particular focus on deriving insights into how we can better respond to crises and better plan for the post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’, we analyse the impact on and the responses by different actors of the Internet ecosystem across different jurisdictions. With a focus on the USA and Europe, we examine the responses of both public and private actors, with the latter including content and cloud providers, content delivery networks, and Internet service providers (ISPs). This chapter makes two contributions: first, we derive lessons learned for a future post-COVID-19 world to inform non-networking spheres and policy-making; second, the insights gained assist the networking community in better planning for the future.

In 1993, the operation of Australia's financial reporting legislation was reviewed by a Senate Committee (‘the Committee’). It proposed various changes to the Financial Transactions Reports Act 1988 (FTRA), most of which were accepted in the Government Response in 1995. One of the few points of disagreement was whether the reporting requirements of the FTRA should be extended to cover solicitors.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize and characterize a series of alicyclic two-component waterborne polyurethane (2K-WPU) which is composed of non-ionic polyisocyanate aqueous dispersion and hydroxyl aqueous dispersion.

The appearances of aqueous dispersions and 2K-WPU films were observed by photographs. The micromorphology of alicyclic polyisocyanate aqueous dispersion was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The molecule structures of WPU were studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The effect of NCO:OH molar ratio of two components and trimethylolpropane (TMP) content on the thermal stability, mechanical and water resistance properties of 2K-WPU films was studied.

It was found by SEM that alicyclic polyisocyanate particles in aqueous dispersion showed a kind of spherical particle appearance, in which hydrophobic polyisocyanate was encapsulated by hydrophilic ether linkages segment. FTIR showed that WPU was polymerized through mixture of polyisocyanate component and hydroxyl component and increasing NCO:OH molar ratio of two components from 1.1:1 to 1.5:1 had increased the content of urea, urethane and allophanate of 2K-WPU films. Increasing NCO:OH molar ratio had improved the mechanical and thermal properties of the 2K-WPU film, but the water resistance of the 2K-WPU film increased first and then weakened. Increasing TMP contents from 1 to 0.75 mol for 1:5 system had improved the mechanical, thermal and water resistance properties of the 2K-WPU film.

The investigation established a method to prepare alicyclic 2K-WPU which is composed of non-ionic polyisocyanate aqueous dispersion and hydroxyl aqueous dispersion. The prepared 2K-WPU film could be applied in the field of waterborne surface coating, e.g. textile, wood and synthetic leather surfaces (Hasan et al., 2017; Akindoyo et al., 2016).

The paper established a method to synthesize alicyclic two-component 2K-WPU. The effect of NCO:OH molar ratio and TMP content on the thermal stability, mechanical and water resistance properties of 2K-WPU films were studied.

This article examines the essence of the New Age movement: its reservations about the Judaic‐Christian heritage, its pantheistic/monistic orientation, its individualism, its search for the mystical experience, its skepticism of modern science and technology, its openness to androgyny, its ecumenicalism, and its prediction of a new dispensation. The article traces the New Age predecessors and influences: gnosticism, the Catholic potpourri, romanticism, the writings of C.G. Jung, and Theosophy. It speculates that the movement’s influence – given its individualism, skepticism of structure and organization, and hostility toward modern methodology – will be implicit and indirect. Finally, it notes the ambivalence of the core ideology, lending itself to both “progressive” and “non‐progressive” interpretation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent the professional identity of accountants, as manifested in a set of advanced cognitive, emotional and social intelligence competencies relevant to their professional activities, varies with the respective accounting position.

The systematically developed, formally clearly structured job advertisements for accounting positions provide content-rich representations of those holding the advertised position and thus contribute to revealing the professional identity. This study conducts a content analysis of 600 profiles of accountants presented in job advertisements of German organizations to identify the characteristic set of advanced cognitive, emotional and social intelligence competencies, juxtaposing different accounting positions at various stages of professional life. German organizations were targeted because they traditionally clearly differentiate between financial accounting and management accounting.

The job advertisements suggest that accountants develop a multifaceted professional identity reflecting their area of specialization and their level of entry. Financial accountants are more likely to be team-oriented than management accountants, and non-executive accountants are more likely than executive accountants. Analytical thinking seems to characterize management accountants rather than financial accountants. An independent way of working appears to be more pronounced among financial accountants than among management accountants.

This study refines the understanding of the professional identity of accountants by exploring the recruitment of accountants, the initial step of professional socialization. It identifies the most relevant advanced cognitive, emotional and social intelligence competencies based on a broad sample of job advertisements for accounting positions in organizations of different sizes and industries. By contrasting the competencies relevant to different positions and at different stages of their professional lives, it becomes evident that distinct professional identities of accountants coexist. The relevant competencies may be developed during higher education and continuing professional education. They may also be incorporated into individual performance evaluations and used as the basis for promotion decisions.

Currently, the expectancy that surrounds the Fourth Industrial Revolution, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0 (I4.0), is huge. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to unveil whether and how organizational and managerial practices are associated to different levels of adoption of I4.0 technologies.

To reach this aim, the authors carried out a survey involving Italian manufacturing firms. Then, the authors used a cluster analysis and t-test to analyze data.

Results show that two clusters of firms based on their level of adoption of I4.0 technologies (high vs low) can be identified. Then, using a t-test, the authors found statistically significant higher levels of a number of organizational and managerial practices for firms with a higher level of adoption of I4.0 technologies.

This paper contributes to the debate surrounding I4.0 by stressing the organizational and managerial challenges that firms willing to undertake an I4.0 transformation have to face, which goes beyond the sole application of I4.0 technologies.

Entrepreneurs and managers need to be aware that the path toward I4.0 requires not only focusing on the application of the I4.0 technologies, but also on the development of a series of organizational and managerial practices that become key to face the fourth Industrial Revolution.

The authors posit here that I4.0 requires firms to bridge the capability gap, as well as overcome cultural barriers preventing entrepreneurs and managers to change their way of doing business. To this regard, this study highlights I4.0 is an all-encompassing paradigm that involves many dimensions of the firm.

In previous efforts the author has examined the various “men” of economics or human‐nature assumptions of “economic thinkers” as a way of treating the history and philosophy of the discipline. Here, under the thematic penumbra of “Man as the Centre of the Social Economy”, and hoping to incorporate the fruits of further inquiry into the matter, those “creatures” and their fashioners are critically reconsidered with a view towards arriving at a more adequate conception of a truly human “economiser” and – accordingly – science of human economy. In Part II, having presented homo oeconomicus in both his/her “impudent” and “honourable” versions, we shall attempt to transcend homo socioeconomicus and even our own (former) homo oeconomicus humanus as well.