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Drawing on the phenomenological concepts of “empathy” and “communal emotions” developed by Edith Stein (1917, 1922), the purpose of this paper is to discuss the co-existence both of the legitimacy and accountability perspectives in voluntarily delivered social and environmental reporting (SER), based on different “levels of empathy” towards different stakeholders.

The paper adopts an interpretive research design, drawn from Stein’s concept of empathy by using a mixed-method approach. A manual content analysis was performed on 393 cooperative banks’ (CB) social and environmental reports from 2005 to 2013 in Italy, and 14 semi-structured interviews.

The results show that CBs voluntarily disclose information in different ways to different stakeholders. According to Stein, the phenomenological concept of empathy, and its understanding within institutions, allows us to interpret these multiple perspectives within a single social and environmental report. Therefore, when the process of acquiring knowledge in the CB–stakeholder relationship is complete and mentalised (level 3, re-enactive empathy), the SER holds high informative power, consistent with the accountability perspective; on the contrary, when this process is peripheral and perceptional (level 1, basic empathy), the SER tends to provide more self-assessment information, attempting to portray the bank in a positive light, which is consistent with the legitimacy perspective.

The concept of empathy introduced in this paper can assist in interpreting the interactions between an organisation and different stakeholders within the same social and environmental report. Moreover, the approach adopted in this paper considers different stakeholders simultaneously, thus responding to previous concerns regarding the lack of focus on multiple stakeholders.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between bank market power and stability of financial institutions in Italy between 2001 and 2012. The authors first test the existence of a U-shaped relationship between market power and financial stability. Second, they regress the market share indicator on bank risk-taking to underline whether financial stability is affected by increasing or decreasing the market power of banks. Third, they explore whether this relationship is affected by the size, level of capitalization and credit insolvency of banks.

Relying on highly territorially disaggregated data at labor market areas level, the authors estimate the impact of bank market power and other explanatory variables on a proxy of risk taking behavior such as the banking “stability inefficiency” derived simultaneously from the estimation of a stability stochastic frontier. Bank market power is taken into account through an individual measure based on loans. Financial stability is calculated through the Z-score. The authors use, as risk-taking measure, the stability inefficiency whose estimation approach is the stochastic frontier analysis.

The empirical evidence shows that the inefficiency of financial stability is found to be U-shaped related with respect to the measure of market power. Bank size is an essential factor in explaining the relationship between bank market power and risk-taking. Cooperative banks have fewer incentives to gain market power to better perform in term of risks. The reform of the cooperative banks that took recently place in Italy is not supported by the data.

The relationship between bank market power and financial stability has been analyzed using a rich sample of cooperative, commercial and popular banks in Italy over the 2001-2012 period. The authors rely on labor market areas being sub-regional geographical areas where the bulk of the labor force lives and works. The paper investigates the market power-stability link considering both cooperative and non-cooperative banks. Indeed, specific attention has been paid on cooperative banks because of their mission in favor of the local community as only few studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, examine cooperative banking.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically informed analysis of social and environmental reporting (SER) evolution, i.e. how and why the SER evolved over time in a cooperative bank in Italy.

The paper is based on a qualitative fieldwork case study conducted from 2011 to 2015. Information and data were collected through several methods including: interviews with managers involved in the SER’s process; analysis of the SER-related documents; analysis of the website; and observations in the field. The analysis of the empirical evidence draws on the institutional logic (IL) perspective, which provides theoretical insights to interpret the role of the contrasting institutional forces in the evolution of SER.

The empirical analysis unveils three different stages in the evolution of SER: the “birth” whereby a new form of social reporting was initiated; the “development” through which SER was implemented to become a formal component of the organizational management; and the “de-structuring” when the SER was gradually de-composed. This gradual de-structuring, as well as the initiation and implementation processes, was influenced by different institutionally infused rationalities and logics. These institutionally infused rationalities and logics, along with the specific organizational and contextual events, provided the resources, and created the space and opportunity, for the SER-related changes to occur.

The analysis offers theoretical insights to understand “how” (i.e. processes) and “why” (i.e. the conditions under which) SER gradually evolved, i.e. emerged, was constructed and developed during the phases of implementation and post-implementation. Furthermore, it is shown that SER is multifunctional in nature and unveils how and why these multiple functions change over time. Finally, the analysis provides a theoretical contribution by illuminating the role that different and contrasting ILs play in driving the adoption of organizational practices.

The purpose of this paper is to find out how effectively implemented are measuring approaches to compliance and whether there is a correlation between the measures implementation, financial specialisation and international activity. The authors evaluate if the regulatory framework implies a measure cost asymmetry, depending both on the proportionality principle and on the existence of different supervisors with an heterogeneous set of enforcement rules.

The analysis is based on a survey involving 84 financial firms (banks, investment companies and insurance companies). Two criteria have been used to interpret the results: the prevailing workability within international and domestic intermediaries; the intermediary typology, creating a distinction between banks other financial intermediaries (FIs) and insurance companies.

Italian financial firms are sensitive to minimise sanctions, but the reputational impact is becoming more important. International firms are more sophisticated than domestic ones for their ability to measure both the probability of non‐compliance events and their severity. Banks show the highest attitude to adopt insurance or financial contracts to minimise the negative impact of non‐compliant behaviours. Small FIs are late in measuring the exposure and losses due to non‐compliance actions.

Four years after the Basel Document on compliance, a large percentage of firms is still managing the process within a function with different purposes; nevertheless, reputational impact has become more important. Small intermediaries show a lower attitude to implement a risk management approach, with a capital management sensitivity. This finding addresses the question about the existence of size effect which could reduce the compliance attitude.

Thailand is a developing economy underpinned by high levels of wealth inequality and an ingrained patronage culture. This research aims to examine how social enterprises (SEs) have been encouraged in Thailand in recent years as “micro-level challenges” to capitalism and their potential impact in addressing inequality.

Through analysing policy documents and consultations, this paper traces the development of Thai policies intended to encourage SEs’ development. Additionally, the paper uses case study interviews and documents to demonstrate how SEs tackle inequality. From these, a framework is developed, outlining SEs’ roles and interventions to reduce inequality.

Thailand’s new policy is in contrast to those countries where SEs face policy neglect. Nevertheless, government has been slow to embed processes to encourage new SEs. Despite SEs’ “challenge” to capitalism, listed companies are increasingly providing in-kind and financial support. The case study data shows SEs reduce inequality as they work with rural citizens to increase their employment and incomes. This work may also contribute to diminishing rural citizens’ dependency on political patronage.

While SEs can address inequality gaps, the research includes only existing SEs on specific lists. Nevertheless, the Thai experience will be useful to other developing countries, especially those beset by political patronage.

The research shows legislation is insufficient to support SE growth and inequality reduction. The framework highlights the need for both government policy attention and interventions from donors and companies to support SEs’ efforts.

The article aims to investigate whether the integration between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and intellectual capital (IC) reports could be a plausible issue. To address this aim, the paper posits three main research questions: whether there is a theory able to explain the relationship between IC and CSR (RQ1); whether empirical surveys provide evidence of the links between CSR activities (CSRA) and IC (RQ2); and whether organizations have started to disclose social and intangible issues in a single document within the Italian context (RQ3).

To answer the RQs, we decided to arrange three different literature reviews. In detail, to address RQ1, we searched for theoretical studies focussing on an resource-based view (RBV) perspective of IC or CSR or both. To address RQ2, we searched for empirical studies addressed to test the links between CSRA and the creation and development of organizational IC. To address RQ3, we searched for empirical studies focussing on companies’ experiences of integration of CSR and IC reports or on surveys on this theme in the Italian context.

All the three literature reviews provide evidence that the trend to move towards an integration of social and IC issues in a single report is a plausible issue, from a theoretical, management and disclosure point of view.

The main limit of the research lies in its theoretical nature; however, the study can provide an impulse for further research on the existing trend in the real-life context, and can also provide the theoretical basis on which to build a model that, starting from the relationships among the different kinds of voluntary reports, provides the criteria and methods to integrate the firm’s corporate voluntary reports in a single report. For researchers, this result also has an implication to control for intangibles, for example, assessing the relationship between CSR and corporate performance may explain some of the mixed findings that have occurred in the past.

The article inserts CSR and IC within the RBV theory. Such recognition provides managers the theoretical framework to treat them conjointly, being aware that these two dimensions are intertwined. The article also provides evidence that CSRA impact on IC creation and development. The main implication for company managers is that, when developing a strategy aimed at strengthening IC, they should consider not only all components of intellectual capital but, above all, also include CSR actions and attributes in strategy formulation. Finally, the article provides evidence of a trend towards an integration of CSR and IC reports within the Italian territory. An integrated CSR–IC approach could have relevant implications on the development of the Italian territory characterized by a large number of SMEs and networks of firms that are an integral part of the local community, whose success is often related to their capability to acquire consensus from local stakeholders such as employees, public authorities, financial organizations, banks, suppliers and citizens.

The article provides three main contributions: first, the paper suggests that the integration of the two different perspectives IC and CSR finds its theoretical justification in the RBV theory, which is scarcely applied to explain the link between these two perspectives; second, the article provides evidence of the real effects that investments in CSR have on the maintenance and developing of organizational IC; third, it provides evidence that there is a trend moving towards an integration of social and IC issues in a single report in the Italian context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the implementation of headquarters-originated employment practices affect multinational corporation (MNC) ability to exploit the value of organizational social capital of the acquired subsidiary.

The authors use qualitative insights collected over 16 years from a Danish company to illustrate how a foreign MNC’s interference with the balanced structure of relations, norms, and roles in a subsidiary jeopardized the value of existing social capital.

The authors argue that changes in the collective perception of employment practices create the collective response, constructive or destructive, resulting respectively in the gain or loss of the performance benefits arising from organizational social capital.

The authors suggest two guidelines and two general propositions for future research on the value of organizational social capital in international takeovers.

The results indicate that local management and employees could use organizational social capital as a unique feature of the local business system when competing with other subsidiaries in the same MNC.

Public accountability was formally imposed on the Thai Government in 1997 when the World Bank compelled public sector reforms as a condition for bailing the country from bankruptcy. Despite regulating to promote public accountability for 20 years, the public accountability of Thai Government is still criticized as poor. However, the specific areas of public accountability needing improvement have not been clearly identified in Thailand. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the Thai Government discharges its public accountability.

Prior literature supported annual reports as essential means by which public sector entities discharge their public accountability, and addressed the desirable aspects of reporting which permit the public’s monitoring of their government’s performance. That is: the account must be publicly accessible, timely, reliable and adequate. This paper evaluates the 2016 annual reports of the Thai Central Government departments against these aspects in tandem with the reporting regulations.

The results show that reliability and timeliness of annual report disclosures are the most problematic, followed by accessibility and adequacy. It was also found that the existing regulations provide only mild sanctions on government officers for their non-compliance. Further, statistical evidence suggests that larger departments report better on voluntary items than departments with smaller revenue.

These weaknesses of the reporting and regulations provide immediate suggestions for public policy regulators as to how to improve the Thai Government’s public accountability. These results are also expected to be useful to international lending institutions to be aware of particular issues when considering their foreign aid programs. Theoretically, the paper supports the necessity of public accountability mechanisms, in particular public sanctions, which need to be strong enough to motivate governments’ public accountability. It also highlights that public accountability aspects can be useful to measure or evaluating public sector reporting in emerging countries such as Thailand.