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The study analyses how management control supports the organisation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Video interviews with top and middle-level managers who were directly involved in handling the response to the COVID-19 crisis in late winter and spring 2020 form the empirical base. The object-of-control framework and the distinction between organic and mechanistic management controls inform the exploratory case analysis of a large food retail cooperative in Italy.

Both organic and mechanistic management control mechanisms enabled an immediate response and management of the crisis. The use of cultural, action and results controls supported employees' health and safety coordination, a tight monitoring of financial performance and social interventions in support of the local community.

The study provides original exploratory insights on the use and role of management control in the context of an unprecedented emergency and an unplanned setting (i.e. a pandemic crisis), which is an under-investigated topic in the accounting literature. The study shows how management control operated, linking moral and technical aspects as well as facilitating organisational adaptation and pandemic effects mitigation.

Analyzing how and what the local multi-utility AIMAG learned through the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes, the purpose of this paper is to “normalize” the organizational learning (OL) triggered by disasters.

Seven managers who experienced the earthquakes were interviewed. The collected data are supplemented by archival materials. The analysis was conducted based on the 4I model (Crossan et al., 1999), using the qualitative data analysis tool “NVivo.”

The earthquakes audited AIMAG’s knowledge repositories, revealing its weakness and strength. When the earthquakes struck, individuals intuited the situations based on their previous experience, interpreting the need to respond to the interruptions and begin recovery immediately. The collective interpretation formed the basis for joint actions, which integrated the group learning at the organizational level. The effective cognition and behavior were instituted to the organization, and the new knowledge was absorbed into the organization’s knowledge repositories awaiting the next audit.

The concept of “learning through disasters” is advocated. By perceiving disasters as a series of interruptions that may have happened before and may re-occur, the learning is connected to organizations’ past and future through knowledge repositories. In addition, by analyzing data based on the multi-level OL model, the learning triggered by disasters was observed to occur throughout the organization at individual, group and organizational levels, in which routines played a critical linking role.

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which health and safety action controls, results controls and informal controls affect the integration of health and safety issues into management actions, which in turn leads to improve health and safety performance. It also investigates the extent to which those health and safety control mechanisms contribute complementarily to the integration of health and safety issues.

A survey of 108 Italian non-listed firms tests a set of hypotheses based on complementarity theory and object of control framework.

Not all the health and safety control mechanisms positively influence the integration of health and safety issues into business practices and external stakeholder relations. Complementarity between health and safety control mechanisms is significant only for higher health and safety performance companies, indicating that the health and safety control mechanisms operate as a package.

The health and safety performance measure could be replaced in future research by improved inter-subjectively testable information, although collecting health and safety quantitative data is difficult. An additional limitation is the response rate.

The findings encourage companies to design and use a comprehensive set of health and safety control mechanisms to promote a healthy workplace.

The paper contributes to the management control, sustainability management control and health and safety accounting literature. The paper provides an in-depth interdisciplinary analysis of the effectiveness of different control mechanisms in the context of health and safety that hitherto has rarely been investigated despite the multiple importance of the topic.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the link between identity and crisis deriving by natural disasters, exploring the function of the shared identity linking individuals, groups, organizations and its external networks. The shared identity is not static. It is a dynamic self-reflexive learning process and is reciprocal. The object of the research is a medium-sized multi-utility company, which experienced the 2012 earthquakes, and how responsibly and rapidly it responded and recovered in collaboration with its stakeholders in the local territory.

Semi-structured interviews were directed to both managers and to selected representatives of the “vertical external networks” of the company (local authorities, a consumer association and a trade association). The primary data were supplemented by archived materials for data triangulation.

The research highlights the importance of identity and relationship with local stakeholders and communities when facing the earthquakes. Believing themselves to be socially responsible, ethical and capable, employees were highly motivated and collaborative. Resuming normal services was AIMAG’s priority. The behavior of AIMAG, its employees and its local stakeholders were guided by a shared community identity. After the earthquakes, this shared community identity was strengthened, thus improving the community’s resilience.

The paper highlights the role of identity in linking both inside and outside an organization, in contributing greatly to joint decision making and action, and, finally, in increasing the awareness of the company leaders and staff regarding the importance of their actions for the whole local community. This research advocates the role of identity in disaster risk reduction.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey-based study performed on Italian SMEs in the “hotel, restaurant, café” (HORECA) sector, aimed at investigating the relationship between pro-environmental strategies and competitiveness and how such strategies can be exploited to outperform competitors.

The survey involved 317 Italian SMEs. Regression models have been developed to analyze the causal relationship between three dimensions of competitiveness (competitive advantage over competitors, customer satisfaction and employees’ motivation), and environmental practices that can be adopted by HORECA SMEs.

Top management commitment emerges as a key driver of competitiveness, confirming the strategic relevance of a sound approach to sustainability also in SMEs operating in the tourism sector. Moreover, actions aimed at investing in green food products (e.g. organic food) and awareness campaigns emerge as strong predictors of good business performance. Finally, at managerial level, entrepreneurs and owners evaluate the implementation of internal sustainability monitoring systems as a relevant support to increase their competitive performance.

Since the results are limited to Italian HORECA businesses, a cross-country comparison could represent a potential improvement of the research. Moreover, since the sector is characterized by the predominance of small and micro firms, specific attention should be devoted to the role played by entrepreneurs’ personal values in shaping business strategies.

The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the relationship between SMEs in the tourism sector and the environmental dimension analyzing the link between the adoption of “green” practices and the competitive performance. The results suggest that customer involvement represents an essential pre-requisite to turn sustainability into an opportunity of market distinctiveness and stress the strategic role of the implementation of performance monitoring systems.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the scholarship on public management models and to advance the theoretical conceptualization of the complexity of performance management systems (PMSs). The paper explores how the characteristics of PMSs vary within and across different organizational units in common institutional context, based on the case of a regional authority in Italy.

A framework of analysis considering both objective and subjective factors was derived from a combination of performance typologies in the public sector, namely ideal types of managing performance (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2007) and performance regimes (Jakobsen et al., 2017). The combination of the characteristics of these two models across different Directorates General (DGs) has also been explored through a nested case study (Starman, 2013). Data were gathered via a desk analysis of official documents regarding the planning and programming of a regional authority along with in-depth interviews with top-level managers.

The results highlighted a clear differentiation of PMSs, both within and across DGs. The findings of the study reveal the hybrid nature of PMSs within a common institutional context.

Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Bouckaert and Halligan (2007) and Jakobsen et al. (2017), the paper provides an integrated approach for analysing PMSs, considering both objective and subjective dimensions. Insights and indications for future research on hybridity at a meso level of public organizations are highlighted.

This paper introduces the second part of a AAAJ special issue on accounting, accountability and management during the COVID-19 emergency. The authors analyse the themes that emerge from the second part of the special issue, which allows us to identify the diverse accounting and accountability practices across different geographical and organisational contexts. The authors also provide an overall picture of the contributions of the special issue, with insights into avenues of future research.

Building on the first part of the AAAJ special issue, the paper draws together and identifies additional emerging themes related to research into the COVID-19 pandemic and how it impacts accounting, accountability and management practices. The authors reflect on the contributions of the special issue to the interdisciplinary accounting research project.

The authors identify two macro-themes and outline their contributions to the accounting literature. The first deals with the changes and dangers of accounting and accountability practices during the pandemic. The second considers accountability practices in a broader sense, including reporting, disclosure and rhetorical practices in the management of COVID-19.

The paper shows the pervasive role of accounting and accountability in the unprecedented and indiscriminate health crisis of COVID-19. It highlights the important role of special issues in producing timely research that responds to unfolding events.

This paper contributes to current debates on the roles of accounting and accountability during COVID-19 by drawing together the themes of the special issue and identifying future interdisciplinary accounting research on the pandemic's aftermath.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role intermediaries can play in an small to medium‐sized enterprise's (SME's) pursuit for corporate sustainability with a focus on eco‐innovation. The research identifies drivers and barriers for eco‐innovation, and highlights effects induced through collaboration between SMEs and local authorities, on the one hand, and consultancies, on the other.

This paper is based on an exploratory qualitative interview study among German SMEs of the metal and mechanical engineering industry that have participated in “Ecoprofit”, an intermediary based program that aims at introducing organizations to the concept of sustainable development through implementation of eco‐innovations.

The key findings are that first, the proactive approach by a public intermediary (here local authority) is one essential push factor to trigger eco‐innovations in SMEs with low absorptive capacity. Second, it is found that SMEs may need facilitation for eco‐innovation from different types of intermediaries (public and private) with different levels of support, which can range from customized and individual to more loosely held support, such as networks.

This study discusses the challenges of corporate sustainability with a focus on eco‐innovations for SMEs and proposes a “complex intermediary” consisting of a local authority and consultancies as one means to engage SMEs in sustainability. Moreover, it focuses on SMEs in the B2B context, organizations that are often overlooked despite their vast impact. Furthermore, by using a single industry approach, in‐depth findings for the metal and mechanical engineering industry are presented.

The purpose of this study is to investigate food supplement intake among gym-goers.

A cross-sectional study, using a validated questionnaire, was conducted. All participants were gym-goers who voluntarily enrolled from eight selected gyms in Perugia. A multivariate regression analysis was performed.

In our sample, 44.9per cent (n = 57) of participants consumed dietary supplements, at least once a week, with no association with sex (p = 0.5) and educational level (p = 0.4). Supplements intake was statistically significant and associated with very low intake of mineral water (p = 0.01), diet specific for fitness programmes (p < 0.01), information about nutrition from personal trainers (p < 0.01), frequency of physical activity (p = 0.01), society’s attention to nutrition (p = 0.04) and marginally with frequency of weigh control (p = 0.05).

Food supplements intake seems to be extensively used among gym-goers, and it seems related to information about nutrition from personal trainers. However, specialized personnel, such as dietitian or nutritionist, should supervise supplements intake.