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This paper introduces the special issue on Race and Accounting and Accountability. In so doing, it explores racism in its historical and contemporary forms, the role of accounting and accountability in enabling racism and racial discrimination and also efforts of redress and resistance.

We reflect on several critical themes to demonstrate the pervasive and insidious nature of racism and, review the literature on race and racism in accounting, focusing on studies that followed the seminal work by Annisette and Prasad (2017) who called for more research. We also review the six papers included in this special issue.

While many overt systems of racial domination experienced throughout history have subsided, racism is engrained in our everyday lives and in broader societal structures in more covert and nuanced forms. Yet, in accounting, as Annisette and Prasad noted, the focus has continued to be on the former. This special issue shifts this imbalance – five of the six papers focus on contemporary racism. Moreover, it demonstrates that although accounting technologies can and do facilitate racism and racist practices, accountability and counter accounts offer avenues for calling out and disrupting the powers and privileges that underlie racial discrimination and, resistance by un-silencing minority groups subjected to discrimination and injustice.

This introduction and the papers in the special issue offer rich empirical and theoretical contributions to accounting and accountability research on race and racial discrimination. We hope they inspire future race research to nurture progress towards a true post-racial society.

This study aims to stimulate scholarly attention and practical application pertaining to individuals recognized as “Docs.” Through conducting a comprehensive analysis and acquiring a profound understanding of its many connotations, the objective is to shift attitudes and approaches concerning those who are seen to possess knowledge and value within society.

For this study, culturally relevant pedagogies were used as theoretical frameworks in addition to Sankofa and concept explication being used as methodologies.

The authors identified three themes: (1) honorary cultural practice-community nomination of “professahs” and “docs,” (2) (Black) robinhoods – cultural signifiers of distinction and relatability and (3) docs as catalysts – elevating community via consciousness, trust and mentorship as significant understandings of this distinction.

The study emphasizes the importance of “Docs” in both academic and social contexts. The role of “Docs” serves to alleviate potential conflicts of being a Black intellectual. This study further reveals the ways in which Docs align with, promote or possibly undermine established frameworks of thought. Finally, this study provides institutions with opportunities to consider strategies for the utilization, recognition and integration of individuals who are frequently overlooked or undervalued.

This study aims to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore mental health in Australian construction apprentices from the perspective of key stakeholders in the apprenticeship model. In particular, this study explored how construction apprentices, Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers, industry employers and mental health workers understood the construct of mental health, factors associated with the dimension of psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, and factors associated with the dimension of mental wellbeing.

This study used an exploratory qualitative research design. Data from 36 semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants comprised 19 Australian construction apprentices, 5 VET teachers, 7 industry employers and 5 mental health workers.

In total, 14 themes were generated from the data set. Participants across stakeholder groups reported a limited understanding about mental health. Participants cited a range of negative personal, workplace and industry factors associated with psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, but only reported a few factors associated with mental wellbeing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore the mental health of Australian construction apprentices, and to explore the factors associated with both dimensions of this model from the perspective of key stakeholders in the Australian construction apprenticeship model.

This paper aims to examine how visual elements used in packaging design relate to diasporic consumer identity and influence aesthetic appreciation.

Drawing on social identity theory, research on aesthetic principles and using a mixed methods approach, two studies are conducted. Study 1 involves a qualitative exploration of the nature of diasporic consumer identity and its relation with visual design in packaging. Study 2 involves quantitative testing and calibration of this relationship and its subsequent influence on aesthetic appreciation.

Diasporic consumers from the Middle East appreciate hybrid visual designs and prefer packaging that strikes an optimum balance of visual elements (colour, shapes, patterns) from the heritage aspects of their ancestral homeland and more contemporary aspects from their culture of living. Preference for balance elicits an overall positive diasporic identity feeling that mediates the relationship with aesthetic appreciation of visual design in packaging.

These findings offer new knowledge about the role of visual design in packaging in delivering symbolic value to diasporic consumers, evidencing how diasporic consumers’ dual identities shape aesthetic appreciation and preferences for hybrid visual designs.

Provides marketing practitioners and packaging designers with a concise and contextual directive for creating visual designs that appeal to a growing segment of diasporic consumers.

This research draws on social identity theory to uncover an aesthetic cultural precept – heritage, yet contemporary – that can inform the development of packaging designs targeting diasporic consumers.

This study aims to show the complexities of engagement between students - Venezuelan and Brazilian - and their teachers. This qualitative ethnographic study documents the everyday pedagogies and practices that take place in elementary schools with high levels of refugee and immigrant children. While Brazilian law ensures the basic right to public education, forbidding discrimination based on nationality or immigration status (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação, 1996), the barriers remain. Through the frameworks of multicultural (USA) and intercultural (Brazil) education, this paper shows how Brazilian teachers and students of Venezuelan and Brazilian backgrounds engage, learn from one another and build welcoming spaces, but also how stereotypes are reinforced inside classrooms and schools.

This qualitative study uses ethnography to understand how recent Venezuelan migratory flow influences Brazilian and Venezuelan children’s educational experiences in elementary education. Participants were Venezuelan (N = 57) and Brazilian (N = 76) children in two elementary schools in the city of Boa Vista. Data sources for the study are school observations in four elementary classrooms (1st and 2nd grade) and semi-structured interviews with caregivers, teachers, administrators and other educators. This paper also collected children’s drawings and writings and documents like curricula, strategic planning, guidelines, policies, grades, reports and any other textual or photographic material made available at the city level.

In the field of education, there is a critical need for understanding children’s education experiences. This paper focuses on the experiences of teachers and students in two elementary schools in Brazil. This paper focus on two findings: first that teachers promote the learning of Portuguese to show care toward their Venezuelan students. Second, children in the classroom show solidarity with one another and resist some of the more rigid Portuguese-only practices enacted by teachers. This work uses the frameworks of intercultural (more commonly used in Brazil) and multicultural education to inform the analysis.

In this study, this paper puts these frameworks of interculturalism, multiculturalism, language use and solidarity into conversation to understand the dynamics of two elementary classrooms in the city of Boa Vista, Brazil. While this paper shows the shortcomings of a seemingly multicultural and multilanguage classroom, it also shows how children actively resist the rigidity of teaching and learning in elementary schooling.

This study is a response both to the increasing South–South migration trend in Latin America and its consequences on public education systems. Through multicultural and intercultural lenses, this research highlighted the complexity of interactions within multicultural classrooms by delving into a two-year ethnographic study conducted in Boa Vista, Brazil, focusing on Venezuelan and Brazilian children in two local elementary schools. This paper focused on two main observations this paper refers to as “Teaching Portuguese as a Way of Caring” and “Children's Solidarity Work.” Teachers primarily centered their instruction on teaching Portuguese to migrant children, believing it to lead to quicker integration in the classroom and beyond – thus as a way of caring for their migrant students.

This paper intervenes in existing literature on entrepreneurship and inequalities by proposing a novel reframing of intersectionality as a threshold concept, an important idea that enables us to deepen and progress the understanding of complex subjectivities.

Drawing from education studies, intersectionality is explored through the five key features of threshold concepts: (1) transformative, (2) irreversible, (3) integrative, (4) bounded and (5) troublesome. We offer a set of reflection questions for what we call “doing intersectionality.”

We develop a metacritique of the way in which the concept of intersectionality has thus far been treated in feminist theory and applied in entrepreneurship studies – namely, as the culmination of thinking about difference and inequality, decoupled from its roots in collectivist analysis and Black and anti-racist feminism. The paper invites scholars of entrepreneurial inequalities to both engage and look beyond an intersectional lens to better elucidate the range of historically emergent social hierarchies and systems of power that shape their phenomena of interest.

Through reframing intersectionality as a threshold concept, this paper challenges entrepreneurship researchers to view intersectionality as a foundational starting point for the conceptualisation of complex interactions of social structures, and the structural inequality and power relationships present within their research, rather than a destination.

The construction industry is famous for gender imbalance and reluctance in initiating change. In recent years, construction is becoming an attractive career choice for women. However, this change has been gradual. The purpose of this research was to understand the challenges women are facing in construction sector after a decade of implementation of the Equality Act 2010 in the UK and how women in the sector feel the industry could be further improved. This research investigated real-life experiences to identify where the industry needs to make viable improvements.

A qualitative research methodology was adopted. In total, 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, which was then analysed using content analysis for inference and conclusion.

This research revealed that women still experience adversity forcing them to work harder than usual to prove their belonging in construction sector. The “man’s world” culture is still widespread. However, women have seen improvements over recent years but believe more can be done from an intersectionality perspective. This is pertinent due to the Brexit and Covid-19 situation.

The study contributes to the field of equality and diversity in the construction sector. Women believe that factors such as bespoke initiatives, equal pay, flexible working hours (considering childcare and caring responsibilities), mental health and well-being support, and equality and diversity policies will enable the construction sector to create conducive environment for women now and in the future.

The pervasive issue of employee exploitation has surfaced as a salient ethical quandary within the context of modern-day workplaces, thereby demanding expeditious and imperative deliberation and redressal. This research endeavor aims to meticulously investigate the ramifications of employee exploitation on the proclivity to partake in the act of cutting corners within the workplace. This analysis encompasses the sequential mediating variables of negative emotions, namely resentment, anger, and frustration, as well as moral disengagement.

A purposive sampling technique and self-administered questionnaires were utilized in this study of 132 SME sector personnel. The current study is time-lagged in nature and uses the Amos software, the data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as structural equation modeling.

According to the results, employee exploitation has a strong positive impact on cutting corners. This effect is mediated progressively by negative emotions (resentment, anguish, frustration), as well as moral disengagement. According to the findings, organizations should prioritize addressing employee exploitation to build a healthy work environment that promotes employee well-being and encourages employee voice.

This study’s novelty comes from its analysis of the sequential mediation of negative emotions, as well as moral disengagement, in the relationship between employee exploitation and cutting corners. The study’s findings add to the body of literature concerning management development, conflict handling, and employees’ attitudes and behaviors by offering a thorough grasp of the detrimental effects of employee exploitation on cutting corners as well as useful recommendations for businesses looking to promote productive workplaces.

Although there is a growing body of literature on circular economy disclosure (CED), certain sectors, including the airline industry, remain underexplored despite the particular relevance of circular models in this field. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the dissemination of circular economy (CE) information by airlines through their website and investigating the factors influencing the level of CED. Specifically, this study focuses on the characteristics of the board of directors, given its central role in shaping disclosure practices.

This study employs manual content analysis to measure the extent of CE information disclosed by 105 international airlines through their website. It then conducts a regression analysis to examine the influence of board characteristics on the level of online CED.

The results suggest that airlines with larger, more active and more independent boards of directors tend to be more inclined to disseminate CE information through their website. Furthermore, they demonstrate that board gender diversity does not significantly affect the extent of CE information disseminated.

The study offers valuable contributions by extending CED research to the airline industry and exploring new channels for CE information dissemination. Additionally, it highlights the role of the board of directors in shaping CED practices and confirms the effectiveness of the stakeholder-agency theory in explaining this relationship.

Racial wealth inequality is a significant and growing issue in the USA. Improving the lagging rate of black new venture creation and successful entrepreneurship could help close the gap. The purpose of this paper is to focus needed attention on the financial challenges resulting from institutional and systemic discrimination that black entrepreneurs must deal with. Following this literature review, the paper makes recommendations and broad public policy suggestions.

This study conducts a literature review and discusses the myriad of reasons black entrepreneurs struggle with inadequate access to capital, with special emphasis on weaker entrepreneurial ecosystems that have resulted from systemic racism.

The paper sheds light on several factors which continue to directly impede successful black entrepreneurship including discrimination in lending, distrust in institutions, over-reliance on (inadequate) personal capital and declining black-owned banking and financial institutions, as well as community banking options in black communities.

The paper is conceptual and relies on prior literature. The proposed solutions are just a starting point and are certainly not meant to be all-inclusive or comprehensive. Much future research, particularly longitudinal research, is needed to further develop theory and specific public policies which can close the disparities this study has discussed. This study outlines several key areas in need of further quantitative and qualitative studies to better understand black entrepreneurship.

The US economy will increasingly suffer if the nearly 15% of population (and growing) made up of black communities continues to struggle. The broad-based policy solutions proposed in this paper would allow for increased access to capital that would address the long-term deficiencies and help to close the racial wealth gap.

Through this study’s broad-based potential solutions, entrepreneurial ecosystems can be strengthened to build the environment for successful new venture creation in black communities. The longer-term benefit would be increased tax revenues, improved communities with fewer individuals needing support through government assistance and greater social stability as economic gaps between various racial groups are closed.

Using a broader entrepreneurial ecosystem framework and a systemic racism theory lens, this study discusses the limited capital black entrepreneurs have access to. Following this literature review, this study offers broad-based policy solutions that can strengthen ecosystems and directly address the issues raised in the paper.