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This chapter provides a list and a brief description of files and documents where the name of Piero Sraffa is mentioned and are currently kept at the Archivio Centrale dello Stato and at the Archivio Storico Diplomatico. For each file or document we provide indication of the reference number where it is conserved and a transcription of one or two of the relevant documents out of more than 500 which have been located. The purpose of the chapter is to illustrate the results of archival research of the last decade, including more recent findings, and furnish a groundwork for further research, which may throw further light on documents already known to us, and lead to the discovery of new documents or information, so as to provide a better basis for the reconstruction of the biography of Piero Sraffa and of people whose lives entwined with his – Antonio Gramsci certainly ranking high among them.

Assessment and evaluation have become increasingly important in the nonprofit sector. Although initially used mostly in educational contexts to measure student learning, the strategy has migrated to other contexts such as measuring overall organizational and institutional successes, and the impact of projects, programs, and operational changes. This growing emphasis is in part due to increasingly stringent requirements imposed by government agencies, foundations, and other funding sources seeking to ensure that their investments result in significant impacts. In addition, the current economic climate and retrenchments in nonprofit agencies including colleges, universities, and public libraries have raised the need for assessment and outcomes evaluation to a critical level.

This chapter, based on a sociological approach, addresses the ethical issues of surveillance research from the perspective of the profound transformations that science and innovation are undergoing, as part of a broader shift from modern to post-modern society, affecting also other major social institutions (such as government, religion, family, and public administration). The change occurring in the science and technology system is characterised by diminishing authority, uncertainty about internal mechanisms and standards, and a declining and increasingly difficult access to resources. Such changes, also related to globalisation and new digital technologies, have transformed the way research is conducted and disseminated. Research is now more open and its results more easily accessible to citizens.

Scientific research is also put under increased public scrutiny, while, at the same time, public distrust and disaffection towards science is rising. In such a context, it is more important than ever to make sure that research activities are not compromised by fraudulent and unethical practices. The legitimate expectations of citizens to enjoy their rights, including the ability to protect their private sphere, are growing. Scientific and technological development is deeply interrelated with the widespread awareness of these rights and the possibility of exercising them, but it produces also new risks, while a widespread sense of insecurity increases. The digital revolution, while improving people’s quality of life, offers at the same time new opportunities for crime and terrorism, which in turn has produced a demand to strengthen security systems through increasingly advanced and intrusive surveillance technologies. Misconduct in the field of surveillance may not only undermine the quality of research, but also further impair society’s trust in research and science as well as in the State and its institutions.

The concept of style is gaining momentum in organizational research. Focussing on its implications for strategy, this paper presents a conceptual and methodological framework to make the notion of style operational and applicable to both research and practice. Style is defined here as a combinatorial, socially situated and semiotic device that can be organized into typologies – recurrent combinations of stylistic dimensions exerting a normative and semiotic function within and across contexts. The empirical analysis, situated in the field of electronic music, considers the music genres and the colour dimension of artists' appearance as components of their style. Results show how coherent style typologies normatively dominate the field and how non-conformist but coherent typologies correspond to superior creative performance. Operating as unifying device, style can transform varied and potentially confounding traits into distinctiveness and shed light on competitive market dynamics that cannot be fully explained via other theoretical constructs.

Purpose – Corporate governance requirements imposed internationally as part of the New International Financial Architecture (NIFA) include compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The appropriateness of applying IFRS in developing countries has long been controversial. Recently, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) extended its project on IFRS for Small and Medium Entities (SMEs) to include developing countries. This paper provides a history of the controversy over IFRS in developing countries and examines the SMEs project as it affects developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses an agenda-setting theoretical framework and document analysis to analyse IASB's published documents as part of its formal due process.

Findings – The controversies surrounding the application of IFRS in developing countries seem likely to continue. The public submission process may be ineffective and too late for those seeking to influence IFRS developments. The findings suggest that those seeking IFRS for developing countries may need to both devise an acceptable solution and obtain inside access to the standard-setting process to achieve this aim.

Research limitations – The research is limited to literature review and documentary analysis and therefore subject to the known limitations of published project documentation in accounting standard-setting.

Originality/value – Contributes to understanding of international accounting standard-setting, including why developing country issues seem likely to continue.