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New public management (NPM) has transformed the public sector auditing context, although in quite different ways. Further, investigations into NPM’s impact on public sector auditors and audit institutions have been largely unconnected, with the exception of the critical examination of performance audits. We investigate the question of how public sector auditors’ roles and activities have changed as a result of NPM and later reforms.

We examine and synthesise public sector audit research examining reforms since the year 2000. The research presented considers changes to external and internal public sector audits as well as the development of public sector audit institutions – known as supreme audit institutions (SAIs).

Considerable changes have occurred. Many were influenced by NPM, but others have evolved from the eco-system of accounting, auditing and public sector management. External auditors have responded to an increase in demand for accountability. Additional management and governance techniques have been introduced from the private sector, such as internal auditing and audit committees. NPM has also led to conflicting trends, particularly when governments introduced competition to public sector auditing by contracting out but then chose to centralise to improve accountability. There is also greater international influence now through bodies like the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and similar regional bodies.

NPM reforms and the eco-system have impacted public sector auditing. Sustainability reporting is emerging as an area requiring more auditing attention; auditors also need to continue to develop better ways to communicate with citizens. Further, research into auditing in non-Western nations and emerging technologies is also required, especially where it provides learnings around more valuable audit practices. Empirical evidence is required of the strengths and weaknesses of SAIs’ structural variety.

Road transport is an important sector of the economy, however, its negative impacts on the environment, human health and sustainability of potential economic growth are significant. Transport externalities tend to be neglected within the market process. The damage generated through significant externalities of road transport in Czechia was identified, based on unique data processing, to reach almost 3.5 billion € annually. This chapter presents an overview of internalization taxes and fees, their current rates and generated receipts. If excise duty is disregarded as fundamentally unsuitable for the internalization of externalities, then the receipts from other applied taxes and fees, particularly the road tax, seem to be insufficient. Although economic growth is encouraged, its form is not sustainable in view of the rising phase of the Kuznets curve and the related irreversible environmental impacts.

This paper aims to review research on mental health and well-being (MHW) in tourism, which the United Nations addresses in Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 (SDG 3). The authors also pinpoint future directions regarding how tourism can contribute to this goal from theoretical and practical standpoints.

The authors review the literature on MHW in tourism from the perspectives of tourists, residents and tourism workers.

Researchers have predominantly analysed tourists’ MHW outcomes through the lenses of positive psychology and tourism therapy; only a small number of studies have focused on MHW-related benefits and challenges in terms of tourism development for residents and tourism workers. Investigations of MHW in tourism require interdisciplinary approaches to reveal how tourism promotes diverse stakeholders’ mental health. Practically, there is an urgent need to incorporate tourism products and services into mental health care, and design tourism experience with positive psychology principles.

This study offers insights into fostering MHW through tourism. It specifically proposes theoretical and practical ways in which tourism might enhance MHW for various industry stakeholders, contributing to SDG 3.

本文基于联合国可持续发展目标中的第三个目标（SDG 3）, 对旅游中的心理健康和幸福感研究进行了回顾, 并就旅游如何助推这一目标的实现指明了未来的研究和实践方向。

本文从游客、居民和旅游从业者的角度对与旅游中的心理健康和幸福感相关的文献进行了回顾和评估。

当前研究主要从积极心理学和旅游疗法的视角分析了游客的心理健康和幸福感, 有关旅游业发展对居民和旅游从业者心理健康和幸福感的积极影响及挑战的研究尚不多见。因此, 需采用跨学科进路来揭示旅游业对不同利益相关者心理健康的促进作用。在实践方面, 亟需将旅游产品和服务纳入到心理健康护理体系中, 并依据积极心理学原理来开展旅游体验设计。

本文为通过旅游发展来促进心理健康与幸福感这一主题提供了见解。本文为旅游业如何提高各利益相关者的心理健康与幸福感提供了理论方面和实践方面的进路, 从而助推联合国可持续发展目标中第三个目标的实现。

Este artículo revisa los estudios y las investigaciones sobre la salud mental y el bienestar en el turismo (MHW por sus siglas en inglés, basándose en el Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible 3 (ODS 3) de las Naciones Unidas, y explora las futuras direcciones de investigación y práctica en el impulso del logro de este objetivo a través del turismo.

Se revisa la literatura relevante sobre la salud mental y el bienestar en el turismo desde la perspectiva de los turistas, residentes y trabajadores del sector turístico.

Actualmente, las investigaciones se centran principalmente en el análisis de la salud mental y el bienestar de los turistas desde la perspectiva de la psicología positiva y la terapia de turismo. Sin embargo, hay una falta de investigación sobre el impacto positivo y los desafíos del desarrollo turístico en la salud mental y el bienestar de los residentes y trabajadores del turismo. Por lo tanto, se requiere un enfoque interdisciplinario para revelar el papel del turismo en la promoción de la salud mental para diferentes partes interesadas. En cuanto a la práctica, se debe explorar activamente la integración de productos y servicios turísticos en el cuidado de la salud mental y diseñar actividades turísticas basadas en los principios de la psicología positiva.

Este estudio ofrece perspectivas sobre el papel del turismo en la promoción de la salud mental y el bienestar. Al proponer rutas teóricas y prácticas para mejorar la salud mental y el bienestar de las partes interesadas en el turismo, este artículo tiene como objetivo contribuir al logro del Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible 3 (ODS 3) de las Naciones Unidas.

In spite of the merits of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing and social media, harm to consumers has prompted calls for AI auditing/certification. Understanding consumers’ approval of AI certification entities is vital for its effectiveness and companies’ choice of certification. This study aims to generate important insights into the consumer perspective of AI certifications and stimulate future research.

A literature and status-quo-driven search of the AI certification landscape identifies entities and related concepts. This study empirically explores consumer approval of the most discussed entities in four AI decision domains using an online experiment and outline a research agenda for AI certification in marketing/social media.

Trust in AI certification is complex. The empirical findings show that consumers seem to approve more of non-profit entities than for-profit entities, with the government approving the most.

The introduction of AI certification to marketing/social media contributes to work on consumer trust and AI acceptance and structures AI certification research from outside marketing to facilitate future research on AI certification for marketing/social media scholars.

For businesses, the authors provide a first insight into consumer preferences for AI-certifying entities, guiding the choice of which entity to use. For policymakers, this work guides their ongoing discussion on “who should certify AI” from a consumer perspective.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first to introduce the topic of AI certification to the marketing/social media literature, provide a novel guideline to scholars and offer the first set of empirical studies examining consumer approval of AI certifications.

This paper aims to highlight a broader definition of good building performance that goes beyond the traditional emphasis on technical aspects, only adopting the lens of the social construction of technology (SCOT) in the empirical space of the workplace sector. Several building performance evaluation (BPE) methods focus on technical aspects such as energy consumption, indoor environmental conditions and compliance with building regulations and standards. Technical aspects, albeit important goals, only embed a partial component of what buildings are expected to deliver. There is growing interest in considering the organisational and experiential expectations of building performance, particularly integrating various views of performance as expected by different user groups.

The paper adopts an archival research method to analyse the archive of the workplace consultants DEGW, particularly focusing on their work on London’s Broadgate development in the 1980s and the 1990s.

The findings reveal how voices from a pluralistic client organisation can be addressed to articulate a broad definition of building performance that integrates different viewpoints encompassing technical, organisational and experiential expectations. In DEGW’s work, the views on building performance of various stakeholders involved in the everyday use and management of buildings are identified without imposing predetermined agendas or research notions of performance. Particular emphasis is given to understanding clients as not a homogenous entity but consisting of different interest groups, which implies multiple conceptualisations of building performance and the building itself.

The performance expectations of a building vary between organisations and even within any organisation. Moreover, the needs of an organisation will change over time, and the BPE criteria need to be changed to ensure better alignment between organisations and the physical spaces they occupy. A critical reflection on the conceptualisation of “users” and “building” in BPE methods is required to create an integrated approach towards building performance.

The paper offers insights by adopting the theoretical lens of SCOT to explore an integrated approach to building performance that captures the varied needs of building users through the example of London’s Broadgate development.

This study aimed to detect the relationships between mindfulness and events participation, and then between the later and psychological empowerment.

The proposed model's underlying hypotheses were empirically tested with data collected through an online survey addressed to a convenience sample of frequent leisure participants (n = 199). The authors applied the structural equation model (SEM) to confirm the aforementioned relationships. To assess the adequacy of the psychometric properties of the measures, the authors performed a confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model, with a maximum likelihood estimation method.

Under the effects of the lockdown period environment, the results express a positive relationship between a mindful state of mind – related to observation/attention – and the yearnings and perceptions about the participation in events. This relationship for consistency was proven to be moderated by the perception of the participation importance to the individual subjective well-being/mental health. Due to participation insights, there was a positive effect on psychological empowerment, supporting the relationship that had been hypothesized.

The authors propose and test a new model that contributes to the theory and examines how mindfulness behavior can effect more alluring and intense participation in events and what are the anticipated outcomes in terms of psychological empowerment.

In highly competitive environments, sustainability positioning is crucial for firms, as they are evaluated based on their sustainable practices. This study aims to draw on the legitimacy and information asymmetry theories to explore attributes that impact business-to-business (B2B) sustainability positioning in emerging economies, such as India, within the service industry.

This study used a mixed-methods exploratory research design to examine the attributes affecting sustainability positioning. In the first phase of the study, a qualitative research method was used to explore the attributes influencing B2B sustainability positioning. In the second phase, this study used these factors to develop a structural model.

A variety of attributes was critical in assessing the sustainability positioning of B2B firms. This study identified a number of factors that explain the attributes affecting sustainability positioning in B2B markets. Some of them included environmental consciousness and external assurance.

This study significantly contributes to the theoretical discourse on sustainable practices in B2B businesses in multiple ways. First, it provides empirical data on the relationship between firms’ environmental consciousness and sustainability positioning in the B2B context, thereby adding to and expanding the current literature on this topic. Second, this study investigates the impact of external assurance on B2B firms’ sustainability positioning and shows how it can enhance credibility, transparency and accountability. Finally, it analyzes sustainable positioning in the service sector, specifically in India, thereby contributing to the body of knowledge on this topic.

The case study is designed to help students understand how the “growth at all costs” attitude can lead to compromised corporate governance in a start-up leading to disastrous implications for all the stakeholders. This case study aims to make students understand the components of the fraud triangle, the impact of financial fraud on various stakeholders, the role of venture capitalist (VC) investors and the importance of good corporate governance in start-ups. The case study presents an excellent opportunity for students to discuss the consequences of ignoring good governance in the pursuit of growth in a start-up. After analyzing the case study, the students shall be able to explain the concept of the fraud triangle and to be able to identify the motivation, opportunity and rationalization of financial irregularities in a start-up; analyze the impact of financial irregularities on various stakeholders; comprehend the business model of VCs and evaluate its influence on VC-funded start-ups; and appraise the importance of good corporate governance in start-ups.

The case study revolves around the confession of financial irregularities made by one of the cofounders of GoMechanic, a start-up headquartered in Gurugram, India. On January 18, 2023, Amit Bhasin confessed to financial irregularities in the company’s financial statements, leading to laying off 70% of the workforce of the company. GoMechanic had earlier raised close to US$62m [1] from maverick global investors including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Orios Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures, and was negotiating to raise Series D financing from the Japanese multinational SoftBank with aspirations to be a unicorn (start-up with a valuation of over $1bn). The confession led to a debate about the consequences of the “growth at all cost” culture being followed by start-ups as well as VCs. GoMechanic was not an isolated instance of a lack of governance in the start-ups. The confession had consequences not only for the GoMechanic but for the entire start-up ecosystem of India, which was the third largest in the world. Bhasin stated that the founders take full responsibility for the situation, and they were working on a plan which was most viable under the circumstances. However, it was not going to be easy to regain the confidence of the investors.

The case study is best suited for senior undergraduate- and graduate-level business school students and in executive education programs in courses such as corporate governance and ethics, private equity and entrepreneurial finance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance