Search results
1 – 10 of 144This paper examines the national solidarity in Brunei Darussalam during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential impact on younger generations. Utilising Emile Durkheim's…
Abstract
This paper examines the national solidarity in Brunei Darussalam during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential impact on younger generations. Utilising Emile Durkheim's solidarity theories, I examine how young people's social media use builds on state discourse in the pandemic. I contend that a shift towards an organic society is visible through a social cohesion that is based on differentiated roles. I argue that the citizenry plays a vital role in the forward momentum toward Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0, which illustrates that solidarity cannot be forged as a top-down directive. By prompting economic and creative divisions of labour, the local use of social media in a public health crisis has shown the government a new way to foster solidarity. Significant implications for youth as future leaders of the nation are discussed.
Details
Keywords
Javier Andrades, Manuel Larrán Jorge, Maria Jose Muriel and Maria Yolanda Calzado
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it identifies whether sustainability reporting has become an institutionalized cultural norm in the daily routines and organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it identifies whether sustainability reporting has become an institutionalized cultural norm in the daily routines and organizational practices of Spanish public hospitals. Second, it finds out why sustainability reporting has become (or not) an institutionalized norm in the Spanish public hospital field.
Design/methodology/approach
To accomplish the research aims, the authors have adopted a qualitative method approach by combining two main data sources: (1) a documentary analysis of reports published by 60 Spanish public hospitals that consistently maintained their commitment to this activity over the past 10 years; and (2) a semi-structured interview with seven hospital managers and with seven participants from professional organizations.
Findings
The authors have found that sustainability reporting has not become an institutionalized practice in the Spanish public hospital setting. Based on the notion of normativity, the findings indicate that the institutional conditions that support the emergence of a norm are not met (Bebbington et al., 2012). In particular, the lack of a coherent normative framework, the absence of congruence with previous similar practices and the lack of clarity in the norm explain why a reporting norm has not emerged. Currently, the societal context has not developed an appropriate discourse around the development of sustainability reporting in the Spanish public sector.
Originality/value
The contribution of this research is double: (1) From a practical level, this paper contributes to the accounting literature by analyzing the development of sustainability reporting practices in the public sector; (2) According to the notion of normativity, the novelty of this paper is to explore whether a sustainability reporting norm emerges in Spanish public hospitals.
Details
Keywords
22 July 2011, saw the biggest domestic terror event in Norway since World War II. On this day, a right-wing terrorist placed a bomb in front of the Norwegian government building…
Abstract
22 July 2011, saw the biggest domestic terror event in Norway since World War II. On this day, a right-wing terrorist placed a bomb in front of the Norwegian government building, where the prime minister had his office at the time. Later, the same perpetrator dressed up as a policeman and tricked his way into a political youth camp, where 69 mostly young people were killed. The present case study involves the leading national online news provider, VG, whose website, VG Nett, was Norway’s most-read online news site at the time of the attack. The study addresses the research gap of how news workers and managers see the potential of the affordances of digital media during crisis events. Furthermore, the study looks at how two different discourses of professionalism, the occupational and the organisational, informed journalists’ use of technological and social media affordances during this terror event, and at how online journalists and management reflect upon and continue to refine these approaches five years later. This study stresses the importance of a clear understanding of the decision-making processes that actually guide the handling of those affordances during a crisis event. Ultimately, this study questions not the perceived tension between the two discourses of professionalism, but their relative impact upon domestic crisis journalism in the technological realm.
Details
Keywords
Sophie Giordano-Spring, Carlos Larrinaga and Géraldine Rivière-Giordano
Since the withdrawal of IFRIC 3 in 2005, there has been a regulatory freeze in accounting for emission rights that contrasts with the international momentum of climate-related…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the withdrawal of IFRIC 3 in 2005, there has been a regulatory freeze in accounting for emission rights that contrasts with the international momentum of climate-related financial disclosures. This paper explores how different narratives and institutional dynamics explain the failure to produce guidance on accounting for emission rights.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper mobilises the notion of field-configuring events to examine a sequence of six events between 2003 and 2016, including four public consultations and two dialogues between standard setters. The paper presents a qualitative analysis of documents produced in this space that investigates how different practices and narratives configured the field's positions, agenda, and meaning systems.
Findings
Accounting for emission rights was gradually decoupled from climate change and carbon markets, relegated to the research pipeline, and forgotten. The obstacles that the IASB and EFRAG found in presenting themselves as central in the recurring events, the excess of representations, and the increasingly technical and abstract debates eroded the 2003 momentum for regulation, making the different initiatives to revitalise the project vulnerable and open to scrutiny. Lukes (2021) refers to nondecision-making to express that some issues are suffocated before they are expressed.
Originality/value
The regulation of accounting for emission rights, an area that has received scant attention in the literature, provides some insights into the different narrative mechanisms that, materialising in specific times and spaces, draw regulatory attention to particular accounting issues, which are problematised and, eventually, forgotten. This study also illustrates that identifying interests is problematic as actors shift from alternative positions over a long period. The case examined also raises some doubts about the previous effectiveness of international standard setters in dealing with matters of connectivity between the environment and finance, as is the case for accounting for emissions rights.
Details
Keywords
Chelsey Ann Ahrens, Casandra Kay Cox, Scott Burris and Mollie Dykes
Youth leadership life skills are the “development of life skills necessary to perform leadership functions in real life” (Miller, 1976, p.2). A model developed by Kapostasy…
Abstract
Youth leadership life skills are the “development of life skills necessary to perform leadership functions in real life” (Miller, 1976, p.2). A model developed by Kapostasy indicates life skills should be taught through FFA (Staller, 2001). Thus, it is important to evaluate youth leadership life skills developed to determine the effectiveness of leadership curriculum and its quality and impact. This research study surveyed Arkansas FFA members after attending the 2012 Arkansas Leadership Conference to determine the leadership life skills developed while at the conference. Furthermore, this study looked at relationships between FFA participants and FFA participation with youth leadership life skills and provides recommendations for future research and for practitioners.
Carlos Larrinaga and Jan Bebbington
The aim of this paper is to provide an account of the period prior to the creation of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): a body that was critical to the institutionalization…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to provide an account of the period prior to the creation of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): a body that was critical to the institutionalization of sustainability reporting (SR). By examining this “pre-history,” we bring to light the actors, activities and ways of thinking that made SR more likely to be institutionalized once the GRI entrepreneurship came to the fore.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper revisits a time period (the 1990s) that has yet to be formally written about in any depth and traces the early development of what became SR. This material is examined using a constructivist understanding of regulation.
Findings
The authors contend that a convergence of actors and structural conditions were pivotal to the development of SR. Specifically, this paper demonstrates that a combination of actors (such as epistemic communities, carriers, regulators and reporters) as well as the presence of certain conditions (such as the societal context, analogies with financial reporting, environmental reporting and reporting design issues) contributed to the development of SR which was consolidated (as well as extended) in 1999 with the advent of the GRI.
Research limitations/implications
This paper theorizes (through a historical analysis) how SR is sustained by a network of institutional actors and conditions which can assist reflection on future SR development.
Originality/value
This paper brings together empirical material from a time that (sadly) is passing from living memory. The paper also extends the use of a conceptual frame that is starting to influence scholarship in accounting that seeks to understand how norms develop.
Details
Keywords
Harald Hornmoen and Colin McInnes
The chapter provides recommendations for key communicators’ social media use during pandemic threats. Recommendations are based on findings from two sets of case studies during…
Abstract
The chapter provides recommendations for key communicators’ social media use during pandemic threats. Recommendations are based on findings from two sets of case studies during the 2014–2015 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa: the use by authorities in UK and Norway during the 2014–2015 West African Ebola outbreak; and the use by established media in the UK.
Details
Keywords
Daniel William Mackenzie Wright
Human fascination in the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and alien paranormal phenomenon is rich in history, explored widely in popular culture and many personal beliefs exist…
Abstract
Purpose
Human fascination in the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and alien paranormal phenomenon is rich in history, explored widely in popular culture and many personal beliefs exist across society. The tourism industry offers a range of places where consumers can encounter such a phenomenon. Reports continue to highlight the growth in consumers participating at UFO and alien tourism attractions and locations. Significantly, the purpose of this paper is to shine a light on the relationship between UFOs, aliens and the tourism industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes a pragmatic philosophical approach by embracing a multi-disciplinary analysis. This study examines a range of secondary data information, statistics, reports and research studies.
Findings
By identifying the current impotence of the UFO and alien tourism markets and the growing consumer participation in it, this paper presents a theoretical starting point in the form of a model, which maps the current landscape of the industry from supply and demand perspectives. This study should be seen as a stepping stone towards further research into the UFO and alien tourism industry and provide researchers with a theoretical platform and novel ideas through which to explore the subject.
Originality/value
The phenomenon includes an established eclectic mix of attractions and likewise tourist motivations for visiting are wide and diverse. However, the subject lacks academic consideration. Thus, this paper presents original research and timely discussions on the topic.
Andrew Ebekozien, Clinton Aigbavboa and Mohamad Shaharudin Samsurijan
Housing provision and the neighbourhood's safety are significant social sustainability concerns. If structural issues are not well checked, housing provision and the…
Abstract
Purpose
Housing provision and the neighbourhood's safety are significant social sustainability concerns. If structural issues are not well checked, housing provision and the neighbourhood's safety may become threatened, especially in Lagos State, Nigeria. Thus, this study aims to investigate the perceived root cause of collapsed buildings at the construction stage using two case studies, its effect on social sustainability aspects and suggested measures to mitigate future happening and enhance achieving social sustainability aspects goals.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers collected data from Nigeria's built environment experts and eyewitnesses/employees of selected cases of collapsed buildings. The study adopted a phenomenology type of qualitative research design and analysed collated data via thematic analysis and achieved saturation. The analysed data created three themes.
Findings
Results reveal that inadequate heavy equipment and personnel incapacitated relevant government agencies are responsible for handling emergency and rescue during building projects collapse. Preliminary findings show developers' greed and systematic failures as the root cause of Nigeria's building project collapse (BPC). It categorised the root causes into three groups (developer's related-cause, design team related-cause and government entities related-cause). The study suggested measures to mitigate future happening. The emerged measures were grouped into a penalty, regulatory, byelaw act, technical and safety measures.
Originality/value
This study contributes to curbing the threat to social sustainability of housing provision in cities. It reveals the underlying perceived root cause of collapsed buildings in Nigeria's building industry. Also, it suggested feasible measures to mitigate BPC. These measures may be modified and adopted by other developing countries facing similar challenges.
Details
Keywords
Ewelina Zarzycka and Joanna Krasodomska
The paper aims to examine if corporate characteristics, general contextual factors and the internal context differentiate the quality and quantity of the disclosed non-financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine if corporate characteristics, general contextual factors and the internal context differentiate the quality and quantity of the disclosed non-financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on content analysis of the disclosures provided by large public interest entities operating in Poland after the introduction of the Directive 2014/95/EU. The quality of the KPIs disclosures is measured with the disclosure index. Regression analysis and selected statistical tests are used to examine the influence of the selected factors on the differences in the index value and corporate disclosure choices as regards the KPIs.
Findings
The study findings indicate that the sample companies provide a variety of non-financial KPIs in a manner that makes their effective comparison difficult. The research confirms that mainly industry, ecologists and the reporting standard determine the significant differences in the quality of the KPIs disclosures and the quantity of presented KPIs.
Research limitations/implications
The paper adds to the understanding of the differences in the quality of KPIs presentation and the choice of disclosed KPIs.
Practical implications
The paper includes suggestions on how to change corporate practice with regard to the non-financial KPIs disclosures.
Originality/value
We shed additional light on the importance of internal contextual factors such as the reporting standard and the reporters' experience in providing non-financial KPIs disclosures.
Details