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This paper aims to examine why the sustainability paradox exists and how it unfolds by focusing on intraorganizational dynamics. It explores how organizational actors perceive and make sense of sustainability and thereby contribute to the sustainability paradox.

In a case study on IREN, an Italian listed multi-utility with considerable engagements with sustainability, data collection through interviews, e-mails and document analysis revealed contradictions raised by directors and middle managers. Findings were analyzed by iterating with the literature used to frame this study, which combines organizational sensemaking, paradoxes and management control.

The sustainability paradox comprises various facets. Directors and middle managers interpret sustainability differently depending on their role within the organization and their perceptions of the concept itself. Different interpretations thus occur within and across organizational levels and functions, impacting how sustainability is implemented and monitored. The use of parallel management control systems (MCSs) reflects multiple and fragmented sensemaking, which explains the facets of the sustainability paradox.

Although this work illuminates the role played by individuals at top- and middle-management organizational levels and MCSs in relation to the sustainability paradox, more research is needed on how individuals make sense of sustainability at the lowest organizational levels.

Organizations claiming commitment to sustainability must establish communication forms on the practicalities of sustainability throughout the organization to stimulate shared sensemaking and the design and use of inclusive MCSs.

This paper explains why and how organizations unconsciously enact various facets of the sustainability paradox.

This paper aims to explore how organizations use annual reporting for legitimacy purposes in the context of the ten recently privatised regional water companies in the UK. Although privatization required the water plcs to establish a distinctly different organizational legitimacy for themselves as customer‐focused companies commensurate with their new private sector status, it was clear from the nature of their privatization that they would experience difficulties in achieving this. Privatization did little to change their previous monopoly character, and this created discrepancy with the model of private sector companies operating in customer‐led competitive markets.

The paper uses a content analysis of statements concerning customer service in annual reports. The analysis examines the variety of ways in which the ten water plcs deployed both assertive and defensive impression management techniques in their attempts to gain, maintain and repair their legitimacy as customer‐focused companies.

The analysis emphasises the importance of the role of corporate reporting as a resource in legitimacy management. The paper also argues that, despite sustained efforts, the water plcs did not wholly succeed in persuading all their customers that the privatization of water was “a good thing”.

The paper will be valuable to researchers and practitioners alike, as it attempts to take further one's understanding of how organizations use corporate reporting for legitimacy purposes by examining a much more extreme case of the legitimacy problem than has been previously considered in the literature: namely, the need for an entirely new basis for corporate legitimacy.

Public-interest entities – among which are listed companies – are obliged to publish nonfinancial disclosure in some countries and regions. The European Commission established mandatory nonfinancial disclosure by Directive 2014/95/EU. While a large body of literature was developed on sustainability reporting quality (SRQ) in voluntary context, evidence about the effect of mandatory nonfinancial disclosure on SRQ is controversial and previous experiences worldwide did not make clear if obligatoriness improves SRQ. This chapter aims to bridge the gap of empirical evidence about this phenomenon in European countries, focusing on first implementation of new legislation by Italian and German companies. The research has an explorative character and it adopts content analysis methods performed on sustainability reporting practices of companies listed in FTSE-MIB and DAX 30. The analysis aims to understand if obligatoriness affects SRQ, causes some changes in reporting practices such as harmonizing Italian and German ones by performing a cross-country comparison. The findings suggest that obligatoriness improves reporting quality and, above all, it fills the gap between different countries by fostering the adoption of international guidelines and the consequent introduction of some content, such as materiality analysis and quantitative measures of social and environmental performance.

Despite the plethora of frameworks proposed, there is little evidence of organizations measuring and reporting their IC. This paper aims to shed light on the factors that can hinder or promote the utilization of IC accounting for managerial purposes, thus contributing to understanding why IC frameworks are not so widespread in practice.

To investigate the issue at hand, a multiple case study of three Italian companies, which have been measuring their IC for several years, will be used, adopting a critical perspective. The actual research project was conducted using an interventionist approach.

The paper shows how IC model utilization and IC mobilization are influenced by several factors such as: the project's connection to a specific strategic objective, the system's interactive design, its complexity, the predominant use of non‐financial indicators (which can be ambiguous and provocative), the backward‐ or forward‐looking nature of the resultant measurement tools and the osmosis between company‐wide and local control systems.

Being referred to a multiple case study, results cannot be generalized to other organizations. The adoption of an interventionist approach and the IC model applied may have influenced the results obtained.

The findings can help companies to make the IC accounting implementation processes more effective and create the conditions that can help mobilize IC.

The paper investigates IC in action, thus contributing to narrowing the gap between theory and practice, and offers new insights on some hindering or enabling factors which may influence the diffusion of IC accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse companies listed on the FTSE MIB, in order to investigate the introduction of different types of open innovation practice as a key factor to develop a competitive advantage to pursue value creation.

This research uses a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design. A quantitative study was conducted to determine the firms listed on the FTSE MIB that for more than 10 years have paid dividends and beat the yield of the market. The qualitative analysis was designed to provide insights into the adoption of at least one open innovation practice by the listed companies selected in the quantitative phase.

This work is based on an empirical analysis undertaken with 40 Italian companies listed on the FTSE MIB. In particular, the authors highlight 16 companies that for more than a decade have regularly paid dividends and, at the same time, have beat the FTSE MIB Index. All of these companies implemented at least one open innovation practice during the period investigated.

This is among the first pioneer research works based on the potential relationship among value creation, innovation practice and competitive advantage in the Italian market. This study highlights the fact that 16 out of 40 companies listed on the FTSE MIB create more value for shareholders over a long period, and all of these firms adopt different open innovation practices (e.g. partnership and collaboration with external entities; mergers and acquisitions and alliances; investment in start-ups; hackathons and call for ideas; outsourcing R&D) as a key factor to develop a sustainable competitive advantage.

This paper is located within the corporate social reporting and stakeholder management literature. It is concerned with the use of the Internet as a way of communicating with stakeholders and the extent to which this communication is or is not two‐way. The evidence from the electricity industry in the UK is that the Internet is used but this use is selective and there is little true dialogue. It appears that the Internet provides an opportunity for greater corporate accountability in the future but whether this potential will be fulfilled is as yet unclear. Further research of a longitudinal nature is required to see how the Internet and more specifically corporate social or stakeholder reporting develops over time.

This paper aims to provide a stakeholder analysis of the environmental management strategies and a two‐dimensional (economic and environmental) performance of an Australian energy company that seeks environmental excellence. Unlike the dominant largely positivistic studies which seek an association between environmental and financial performance, the paper aims to use the richness of a case study methodology to gain a deeper understanding of how environmental concerns are handled and what outcomes in terms of environmental and economic performance are achieved.

An in‐depth case study approach involving interviews, archival material and site visits is used in this paper. It starts with a brief engagement with the largely positivistic literature, highlighting the major deficiencies of this scholarship and then presents a more interpretive empirical analysis using an Australian energy company.

The paper finds that there are socio‐political processes that are enlisted to control, monitor, and instil discipline in the organization's pursuit of its social initiatives, which help to improve both its financial and environmental performance.

The paper provides evidence that environmental and economic performance are not always mutually exclusive, and corporate entities can excel in both simultaneously. The paper also provides evidence that the environmental strategies may be overt attempts at pushing the socio‐political agenda of the dominant stakeholder group. What seems like a win‐win situation may only represent a political‐ethical attempt to promote environmentalism in the Australian energy sector.

This paper uses a two‐stage investigation process to extend one's understanding of the relationship between corporate environmental and financial performance. First, evidence of improving environmental and financial performance of an energy company is provided, and then the paper explores why and how this relationship exists in the second stage of the analysis. The mainstream and critical accounting literature is bridged by focusing on issues that are largely the domain of one sub‐literature with a differentiated case study that is largely encouraged in the other.

This study aims to develop a framework to systematize the emerging literature on integrated thinking and offers empirical insights on how integrated thinking has been practiced within an organization. The paper also introduces the contributions that compose the special issue “exploring integrated thinking in action: theoretical interpretations and evidence from the field” and outlines avenues for future research.

The paper critically reviews the literature on integrated thinking and proposes a framework that classifies prior studies into three areas, namely, integrated thinking and sustainable strategies; integrating thinking in practice; the concept and measures of integrated thinking. The study also provides an illustration of the ways in which integrated thinking has been adopted by a European energy company to shape and execute its purpose-driven strategy, as well as the benefits that have emerged. The paper uses the framework developed from the literature to introduce the contributions of the special issue and to suggest future research opportunities.

The study shows that while the literature on integrated thinking is still in its infancy, the evidence emerging from contemporary organizations supports empirical-driven research and stimulates a variety of theoretical and empirical contributions that will enable the academic debate to move forward.

The theoretical and practical insights offered by this study, together with those provided by the papers of this Meditari Accountancy Research special issue, will foster future research on integrated thinking. In particular, the framework developed in this paper may be drawn upon by researchers to plan new research projects on integrated thinking and its adoption within organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key roles embedded in the informal organizational structure (informal networks) and to outline their contribution in the companies' performance. A major objective of the research is to find and characterize a new key informal role that synthesises problem solving, expertise, and accessibility characteristics.

A framework for an in‐depth informal structure analysis based on social network analysis (SNA) methodology is structured and applied in a case study of a knowledge‐based enterprise operating in the information systems industry.

The paper identifies and characterizes the key informal roles (namely opinion leaders, central connectors, bottlenecks, experts, consultants, or helpful people) and a new one, called pilus prior (first lancer) that synthesises problem solving, expertise, and accessibility characteristics.

Future research will move through the enlargement of the sample that will allow a better generalization of the results and the development of a model to quantitatively evaluate the performances of individuals recognized as informal leaders.

The proposed framework has a general applicability and can be a valuable tool for an in‐depth organizational analysis based on SNA methodology. Consequently, some directions are provided to increase cooperation and knowledge sharing flows inside the company and to align the formal organizational processes to the informal one.

The results of the research have been achieved by using an original approach, the joint analysis of three informal networks. The case suggests that pilus priors are the informal emerging leaders in the company who outperform their colleagues.

The Covid-19 pandemic represents an extraordinary and unpredictable event influencing the whole economy and society. Using a case study approach, the authors explored how big companies operating in Italy were able to respond to the crisis to ensure business continuity. Therefore, the authors discussed different business disruptions caused by Covid-19; in addition, they developed an integrated policy framework in which they proposed specific strategic responses for increasing the level of organizational resilience. The aim of the paper is to discuss and reflect on the ability of specific companies to increase their level of organizational resilience when unexpected events happen.

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with target CEOs of four major companies operating in Italy in different industries. Especially, the authors focused on multiutilities, media and communications, investment banking and mobile telecommunications. The interviews were based on questions dealing with Covid-19 implications and strategic responses to navigate this complex scenario.

Based on the CEOs' contributions, the authors presented short-term actions and long-term strategies planned and implemented by each Italian company. In particular, the authors emphasized similarities and dissimilarities in terms of strategic responses and future business development.

The analysis of practical cases was helpful for increasing their knowledge on organizational resilience and for providing the managerial community with a policy framework to navigate unexpected events like the Covid-19 pandemic.