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The purpose of this paper is to explain how public sector accounting has changed and is changing due to public governance development.

This paper conducts a traditional literature review based on selected studies in the fields of accounting, public administration and management. The aim of the review is to explain how diverse forms of public governance influence the fate of public sector accounting, including accountability, performance measurement, budgeting and reporting practices.

Public governance is developing into more inclusive but also complex forms, resulting in network, collaborative and digital governance. Consequently, the focus and practices of public sector accounting have changed, as reflected in new types of accountability, performance measurement, budgeting and reporting practices.

Drawing upon literature from different fields enables a deeper understanding of the changes in public sector accounting. Nevertheless, the intention is not to execute a systematic literature review but to provide an overview and resolve the scattered body of knowledge generated by previous contributions. The areas of risk management and auditing were not included and deserve further attention.

This paper discusses the need to continually redefine and reassess public sector accounting practices, by recognising the interdependencies between different actors, citizens and digital technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organisations to transform face-to-face teams into virtual ones through the adoption of remote working modes. This event has represented the starting point of a process that is changing how management control (MC) systems are designed and implemented to guide employees towards organisational objectives. The previous literature on virtual teams (VTs) has devoted scant attention to MC issues. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring how MC – and particularly cultural control – has changed to cope with the shift from face-to-face to VTs and by analysing the interrelationship between the different control mechanisms and the resulting tensions.

The research adopts the methodological framework based on abduction to provide a theoretical explanation and conceptualisation of MC in virtual settings. To tackle the research objective, this work undertakes a cross-sectional field study based on semi-structured interviews with managers of different service companies.

The results of the research highlight the key challenges that managers are called to deal with to design and change MC systems when implementing remote working. In particular, managers must cope with the reduced possibility to leverage cultural controls. To do this, this study’s analysis found that managers act by introducing and/or removing formal and informal controls and by orchestrating the interplays and tensions between these mechanisms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, to date limited attention has been paid to MC in VTs. Moreover, few researchers have investigated the process of MC change from face-to-face to VTs. This work aims to contribute to this nascent stream of literature by providing interesting implications for both research and practice.

This paper aims to explore the opinions and recommendations of various experts on the integrated cash waqf micro enterprise investment (ICWME-I) model, particularly in terms of its suitability, applicability and prospects in the market.

The research involves primary data which are collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with experts from various backgrounds. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data.

The experts support the suitability of the ICWME-I model in providing financial services to micro enterprises. They highlight the importance of establishing, managing and operating ICWME-I model under the aegis of the State Islamic Religious Council in Malaysia or the corporate sector. They further emphasize that the characteristics of micro enterprises, the element of sustainable funding, the importance of proper management and administration, legal matters and public awareness are key factors that influence the sustainability of the ICWME-I model.

This paper adds to the literature on waqf and micro enterprises especially from the Malaysian context. The paper validates the ICWME-I model in terms of its suitability, applicability and prospects in the market by interviewing experts from various backgrounds.

The aim is to examine the importance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) see in different network partners regarding successful tendering in public procurement, and whether this perception predicts the number of joint bids and wins.

The data were collected by an electronic questionnaire which was sent to the registered users of the leading electronic platform for public procurement in Finland. The data were analysed with statistical methods.

The findings suggest that a favourable perception of the importance of horizontal networks in public procurement is associated with a larger number of joint bids and better success in joint bidding. However, the results do not establish a positive correlation between vertical networks and consortium bidding.

The data were collected from a single EU country. Since the criteria for bidding consortia may vary between countries, different results might have been achieved from other countries.

SMEs should be encouraged to form bidding consortia and acquire related experience. Policymakers should minimise barriers to consortium bidding, e.g. by offering more information. They should also assess the merits of joint bidding because they rarely encourage SMEs to bid as a consortium.

Consortium bidding is a way of enhancing SMEs’ possibilities to participate in public tender contests, even in large contracts.

While consortium bidding has been recognised to enhance SMEs’ possibilities of participating in public procurement, there is limited research into how SMEs’ network collaborations relate to bidding as a consortium.

This study aims to investigate the effects of board cultural diversity (BCD) and board gender diversity (BGD) of the board of directors on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in the European banking sector using resource-based view (RBV) theory. In addition, this study analyses the linkages between BCD and BGD and knowledge sharing on the board of directors to improve ESG performance.

This study selected a sample of European-listed banks covering the period 2021. ESG and diversity variables were collected from Refinitiv Eikon and analysed using the ordinary least squares model. This study was conducted in the European context regulated by Directive 95/2014/EU, which requires sustainability disclosure. The original population was represented by 250 banks; after missing data were excluded, the final sample comprised 96 European-listed banks.

The findings highlight the positive linkages between BGD, BCD and ESG scores in the European banking sector. In addition, the findings highlight that diversity contributes to knowledge sharing by improving ESG performance in a regulated sector. Nonetheless, the combined effect of BGD and BCD negatively impacts ESG performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to measure and analyse a regulated sector, such as banking, and the relationship between cultural and gender diversity for sharing knowledge under the RBV theory lens in the ESG framework.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of the nature of ownership and board characteristics on the investment choices in joint ventures (JVs) from the dimensional point of view, controlling for the effect of JV type and other components of intellectual capital.

The authors study a sample of Italian, Spanish, German and French nonfinancial listed firms over the 2010–2018 period, controlling for the fixed effects of the company's sector of operation and the year. The authors also analyze the effect of family control and influence on JV investment size, taking into consideration certain board characteristics, the type of JV, human capital efficiency, structural capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency while also controlling for a firm's profitability and size. To test the hypotheses, GLS panel data was used.

The results indicate that the size of the investment in JVs is smaller for family firms than for nonfamily businesses. The presence of CEO duality has an opposing effect on the size of the investment in joint ventures as it has a lowering effect in family businesses while it exerts an amplifier influence in nonfamily businesses. Moreover, the type of joint venture has a significant effect for family firms: the choice of a link joint venture reduces the size of the investment. The authors find that human capital efficiency increases JV investment size for all firms.

This study is the first to analyze the effect of the main dimension of socioemotional wealth – family control and influence – on a firm's JV investment size. It controls for the effect of JV type – link or scale – and the interplay of the other IC components.

Higher productivity in the potato value chain in Rwanda requires good quality seed potatoes. The article analyzes how innovations were introduced in the framework of a development project resulting in a partnership between a firm and two educational institutions to produce better seed potatoes, using the Triple Helix approach.

In the Triple Helix model government, academia and the private sector work together to develop and introduce innovations. This led to producing and introducing improved seed potatoes at an affordable price through a public private partnership (PPP). Interviews with experts and a survey of local producers were carried out to identify factors influencing the success of the partnership.

A Service, Training and Innovation Center (STIC) has been created to produce the first clean potato seeds in Africa on a commercial scale, based on cultivation of in vitro potato plantlets and aeroponics to produce mini-tubers. It is called Seed Potato Advancement Centre, an education–enterprise partnership, using these plantlets to produce mini-tubers through aeroponics. Seed multipliers are responsible for the next three stages of seed multiplication. The final product is the certified potato, sold to ware potato farmers. The availability of disease-free seed potatoes in Rwanda gives a boost to the potato value chains and contributes to food security. The partnership was successful because of the support from the government and donors, with the private sector and the extension services helping to implement the innovations effectively.

The limitation is that the number of experts interviewed is limited and the survey did not only deal with potato-related activities. The focus is on one region only, but the most important potato growing area in Rwanda.

STICs function as a tool for cooperation between government, private sector and the knowledge sector to achieve commercial and development goals. They function as a channel for technology transfer. They allow applied research, including agronomic research; information collection; and dissemination, networking, training, organization of outreach activities. The model can be repeated in other sectors and countries.

The paper looks at a PPP in agriculture with educational institutions. Second, the Triple Helix and value chain literature is used to study the introduction and implementation of appropriate innovations, while factors determining the success of the partnership were identified. This concerns the first production of clean seed potatoes in Africa on a commercial scale.

Industrial tourism not only strives to preserve industrial heritage, but can also be a strategy for being familiar with the history of industry and attracting tourists to new destinations. This paper examines the issue of promoting petroleum industrial tourism in the case of Khuzestan, Iran. The research aims at determining appropriate strategies for promoting petroleum industrial tourism.

The data were analysed through a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) model.

The results revealed the competitive strategy as the best. Lastly, strategies such as: concentric diversification, joint venture strategy, conglomerate diversification and horizontal diversification were proposed as key solutions. The results support the view that establishing an exploratory ecomuseum in the territory of Khuzestan Province can be a suitable concentric diversification strategy towards petroleum industrial sustainable tourism in the future.

The main originality of this paper includes linking tourism with the petroleum (oil and natural gas) industry and its natural landscapes for the first time in a case study. Therefore, the results of this research can extend the literature in this regards. Moreover, this paper attracts tourists to visit natural landscapes of petroleum heritage.

This paper aims to examine the emergence of passion-driven entrepreneurship within the context of small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs). SMSTs are seen as peripheral areas lacking the resources to support autonomous economic development and renewal. The paper explores the relationship between entrepreneurship and the context of SMSTs through the concepts of entrepreneurial passion (EP) and domain passion (DP). Industrial marketing and purchasing approach is adopted as a theoretical foundation to conduct the analysis through the actors–activities–resource framework.

This paper adopts a multiple case-study methodology. Two passion-driven entrepreneurial ventures (PDEVs) have been traced from the conception of the initial idea until the new ventures establishment.

EP and DP emerge as key resources in transforming the initial idea into a real entrepreneurial venture in resource-scarce settings as SMSTs. Shared passion fosters the involvement of local actors and the propensity to overcome relevant hurdles in the entrepreneurial process.

This paper contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship through the analysis of the role of PDEVs in SMSTs’ contexts. It highlights the role of “passion for place” as a new dimension of passion in entrepreneurial studies. From a managerial perspective, it emphasizes the role of passion as a key resource for networking and marketing. From a policy perspective, it calls for monitoring and support for training, funding and networking.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model of business development that provides operational ways to increase the competitive presence of more micro and small ventures (both actual and new) in enlarged markets, including international ones.

The paper develops a conceptual model starting from the identification of the most usual constraints limiting the SMEs and entrepreneurship development and success. After this stage, the model was built with the help of selected concepts, which represent a theoretical framework of support.

Regarding the universe of SME and entrepreneurship, the authors usually find some weaknesses: markets mainly local/regional, absence of growth, cooperative networks and/or international operations, because of several usual constraints: limited competences and resources, absence of critical mass on buying/selling and difficulty to cooperate. These shortcomings represent an economic waste when there are competitive offers and/or endogenous resources.

The model will be applied in a Portuguese county, in this way the authors expect to make an empirical research in the near future.

The model surpasses the, usual, limited skills of people and organisations betting in their competitive specialisation, with the assumptions that few people can be successful entrepreneurs/managers, but quite everyone can perform something competitively. The organisation/structure – Local Development Platform (LDP) – has the responsibility to assure the competitiveness of value chains built over networks of these agents. Additionally, the LDP should provide collective resources to lower the investments and operational needs of the agents involved, provide the added value services necessary for offers and agents’ competitiveness, achieve critical mass on buying and selling and enlarge/open new markets. These resources are organised in up to five specialised platforms, to service a strategy structured along five axes of development.

With this model, it is possible to increase the levels of employment and welfare.

A practical/operational integrated model able to be applied in different contexts will help private and public agents to define and implement strategies of development to enable the growth and success of SMEs and entrepreneurial initiatives in the international markets context.