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This paper draws on the case of a multinational energy company to explore the role played by management control systems (MCSs) in enacting governance policies at the local (subsidiary) level.

This research mobilizes the literature on governmentality to interpret MCSs as technologies of government that can be drawn upon to translate governance policies into practice. In particular, the authors discuss this process by interpreting “governance” as an epistemic object, that is an object that generates knowledge because of its inherent incompleteness and abstract nature.

The paper shows how MCSs act as technical objects insofar they attract, bind and engage local subsidiary managers in the generation of knowledge about governance policies (i.e. the epistemic object) set at the global level, thereby enacting these policies locally.

The findings have practical implications by showing how subsidiary managers engage with MCSs to translate and implement broader governance policies in their daily activities.

This research contributes to the accounting literature on governmentality by showing the role of MCSs as technologies that enact governance at the local level through the process of knowledge generation that these technologies enable. Such knowledge is triggered by the engagement between different participating subjects, attracted by MCSs in the attempt to define governance in practice.

This paper aims to explore the role of socioemotional wealth (SEW) in family firms’ (FFs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and practices. The authors draw on the notion of “Socioemotional endowment” (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2010), to interpret how the different dimensions of the FIBER model impact on the instrumental, moral or relational motives that push companies toward CSR.

The authors develop an integrated framework that analyzes motives of CSR practices (distinguishing between moral, instrumental and relational ones) and dimensions of FF’ SEW. The idea is that it is not possible to analyze the CSR attitude of FFs without distinguishing among the five dimensions of SEW (family control and influence; identification of family members with the firm; binding social ties; emotional attachment; and renewal of family bonds to the firm through dynastic succession).

The authors posit that FFs are particularly likely to engage in instrumental, moral or relational CSR practices depending on the FIBER dimension that they consider as primary reference point to achieve the goal of preserving SEW. In particular, out of the five FIBER dimensions, relational and instrumental motives appear to be more present in firms’ priority, when they deal with CSR activities.

Most of the literature on CSR and FFs concentrates on the differences between family and non-family firms (non-FFs) in approaching social responsible practices. Instead of debating whether FFs are more or less socially responsible than non-family organizations, the authors add to this literature by arguing that it is much more relevant to analyze which approach family firms (as an heterogeneous group) are more likely to adopt in relation to CSR. In so doing, they contribute to FFs studies on sustainability, by demonstrating that CSR engagement can be differently influenced and interpreted through the five dimensions of the FIBER model.

Although accounting and reporting visualisations (i.e. graphs, maps and grids) are often used to veil organisations’ untransparent actions, these practices perform irrespectively of their ability to represent facts. In this research, the authors explore accounting and reporting visualisations beyond their persuasive and representational purpose.

By building on previous research on the rhetoric of visualisations, the authors illustrate how the design of accounting visualisations within integrated reports engages managers in a recursive process of knowledge construction, interrogation, reflection and speculation on what sustainable value creation means. The authors articulate the theoretical framework by developing a longitudinal field study in International Fashion Company, a medium-sized company operating in the fashion industry.

This research shows that accounting and reporting visualisations do not only contribute to creating unclear and often contradicting representations of organisations’ sustainable performance but, at the same time, “open up” and support managers’ unfolding search for “sustainable value” by reducing its unknown meaning into known and understandable categories. The inconsistencies and imperfections that accounting and reporting visualisations leave constitute the conditions of possibility for the interrogation of the unknown to happen in practice, thus augmenting managers’ questioning, reflections and speculation on what sustainable value means.

This study shows that accounting and reporting visualisations can represent good practices (the authors are not saying a “solution”) through which managers can re-appreciate the complexities of measuring and defining something that is intrinsically unknown and unknowable, especially in contexts where best practices have not yet consolidated into a norm. Topics such as climate change and sustainable development are out there and cannot be ignored, cannot be reduced through persuasive accounts and, therefore, need to be embraced.

This paper aims to investigate the link between corporate social performance (CSP) and cost of debt financing. Despite academic debate has focused on the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CSP (expressed through accounting and market measures of profitability), few empirical researches have analysed the relations between CSR, cost of debt and its relation with the risk profile of a firm. The literature on the cost of debt determinants generally documents a negative association between measures of the risk of the firm and its cost of debt. The literature on CSR defines risk reduction as one of the potential benefits related to CSR activities. Thus, the expectation is that high CSP scores are inversely related to cost of debt.

Using a unique data set of 332 firms over a time period of five years antecedent to the global financial crisis, a linear regression model is applied.

The results show a positive relation between CSP and cost of debt, demonstrating that CSR is not a value driver with an impact on the firm’s risk profile.

The research has also practical implications as it makes managers aware of the potentiality of CSP to reduce the firm’s cost of debt.

These findings enlarge the empirical research on the value of CSP, expanding it towards a quite new area of investigation: the cost of external financing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the enabling role of accounting and reporting practices as discourses about sustainability unfold inside organizations. In particular, the authors investigate how managers attempt to connect the concept of “sustainability” to their specific experience, as they seek to make sustainability meaningful (i.e. filling it with unfolding meaning) through accounting and within particular discursive spaces.

The authors rely upon the case of LOGIC, a large international oil and gas company operating in more than 70 countries worldwide. The authors analyze the evolution of discourses concerning sustainability inside the company, as well as the changing accounting and reporting practices, with a particular focus on integrated reporting.

The authors show that accounting and reporting practices (such as integrated reporting within LOGIC) provide the conditions for “sustainability”—as a discursive concept—to become meaningful, while evolving themselves as they are attached to this concept. They do so by enabling individuals (the management team within LOGIC) to connect their diverse experiences and aspirations to the concept of sustainability. Rather than filling sustainability with stable meaning, the authors observed that individuals are attracted by the gaps left by accounting representations, leading to the development of new practices and unfolding meanings within specific discursive spaces.

Most of the literature on sustainability accounting and reporting practices concentrate on the need for these practices to mirror what companies do about sustainability. Differently, the authors add to the very few studies on “aspirational” reporting that have emphasized the enabling effects of the gap between what companies say and do about sustainability. The authors do so by demonstrating that accounting is “aspirational” not only because it stimulates corporate efforts toward an imaginary better future, but also because it attracts managers’ particular aspirations through its representational gap. The authors show that this gap enables meaningful connections between individuals (their particular experience and aspirations) and “sustainability,” bringing this concept into their specific discursive space and, thereby, leading to the emergence of new practices.

This paper aims to explore the role played by digital transformation (DT) in enabling continuous accounting (CA) and its impacts on intellectual capital (IC). In so doing, the paper provides momentum for the emerging trends of the DT movement in the field of accounting.

The analysis relies on the exploratory case study of Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation that is constantly involved in DT processes. Data sources include semi-structured interviews and internal documentation.

The paper shows how CA is facilitated by DT, a process that allows collaborative relationships, learning and transparency. These activities contribute to IC empowerment through three main mechanisms: empowerment through dialogue, empowerment through learning and increased reliability of data.

The findings have practical implications by showing how DT applied to accounting provides a highly transparent way to collect, manage and analyze financial data, freeing time for high-value activities, optimizing decision-making processes and increasing IC.

DT and digital technologies have created new opportunities for companies – worldwide – to elaborate and communicate accounting information. The originality of this research derives from connecting DT to the relatively innovative topic of CA.

The chapter builds on the literature of Agency and Signalling Theories to analyse the corporate governance factors associated with the voluntary decision to prepare an Integrated Report according to the <IR> International Framework promoted by the IIRC.

The chapter is based on the results of a probit regression run with regard to a sample of 35 companies that joined the Pilot Programme in 2011 and 137 similar companies that did not.

The analysis of two samples of European companies reveals that adhesion to the IR Pilot Programme is positively related to the gender diversity and size of the board.

Further research is required in order to study the differences between listed and non-listed companies in terms of variables affecting the adoption of the <IR> Framework and to increase the time range of our study. In addition, it would be interesting to include other variables capturing different aspects other than corporate governance, since the decision to join the Programme, as the results of our analysis have shown, may also be influenced by other factors, such as strategy decisions and communication policies.

The chapter adds to the existing literature by showing the main governance characteristics that impact the decision to adhere to the IR Pilot Programme. It is also important to the existing literature regarding the role played by gender diversity in corporate governance mechanisms and CSR policies.

This contribution aims to clarify the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an issue of governance and a strategic tool more than a mere communication activity, with a potential impact on both organizations and their economic and financial performance.

The paper provides an overview of the literature contribution on CSR and its impact on value, offering a new conceptual model useful both for managers and relevant stakeholders in assessing, through an integrated approach, the company performance.

The analysis focuses on how CSR investments can create value for companies and for stakeholders in general. This can occur if the related benefits exceed the related costs, generating a favorable balance toward what we called the virtuous cycle of CSR. This cycle is made up of four steps – decision, design, action and result – that define a potential value creation path that a responsible firm can take, assuming that it integrates a social agenda into its competitive strategy and assuming that the market appreciates real and effective social efforts of companies.

Because the descriptive chosen approach, the research could be enriched with a quantitative analysis to test the proposed propositions further.

This paper fulfils the need, identified in the major literature, of a temporary ceasefire on corporate social performance and its link to financial performance, focusing on tools and instruments that can practically modify the companies' approach to CSR and the evaluation processes of its impact on business, strategy and disclosure.