Search results

This paper explores the way in which industrial pollution has been expressed in the narrative accounts of nature, landscape and industry by William Gilpin in his 18th-century picturesque travel writings. A positive description of pollution is generally outdated and unacceptable in the current society. The authors contrast his “picturesque” view with the contemporary perception of industrial pollution, reflect on these early accounts of industrial impacts as representing the roots of impression management and use the analysis to inform current accounting.

The research uses an interpretive content analysis of the text to draw out themes and features of impression management. Goffman's impression management is the theoretical lens through which Gilpin's travel accounts are interpreted, considering this microhistory through a thematic research approach. The picturesque accounts are explored with reference to the context of impression management.

Gilpin's travel writings and the “Picturesque” aesthetic movement, it appears, constructed a social reality around negative industrial externalities such as air pollution and indeed around humans' impact on nature, through a lens which described pollution as adding aesthetically to the natural landscape. The lens through which the picturesque tourist viewed and expressed negative externalities involved quite literally the tourists' tricks of the trade, Claude glass, called also Gray's glass, a tinted lens to frame the view.

The paper adds to the wealth of literature in accounting and business pertaining to the ways in which companies socially construct reality through their accounts and links closely to the impression management literature in accounting. There is also a body of literature relating to the use of images and photographs in published corporate reports, which again is linked to impression management as well as to a growing literature exploring the potential for the aesthetic influence in accounting and corporate communication. Further, this paper contributes to the growing body of research into the historical roots of environmental reporting.

Consumers may enjoy the information sharing and social support made available when a social media platform is used for pre-purchase research; however, do consumers reevaluate the privacy and security of the platform differently when ordering and payment capabilities are added? As social media systems have evolved into social commerce platforms (SCPs), individuals are often faced with whether to complete a purchase they have been researching or switch to a traditional e-commerce platform to complete the transaction. This research examines consumer trust formation in the SCP channel and how consumer interest and engagement in the channel are maintained and influence consumer decisions to purchase via the SCP.

Based on trust and involvement literature, a research model was conceptualized to capture consumer beliefs about SCP privacy and security and whether the SCP can be trusted, using these inputs into subsequent consumer interest, engagement and decisions on whether to use the SCP for purchasing. The research model was empirically tested using the panel data's structural equation modeling (AMOS) (n = 405). The data showed acceptable reliability and convergent validity, while the original research model provides predictive validity and theory-confirming insights.

Results confirm that consumer perceptions of privacy and security play a crucial role as decision criteria, informing their judgments of whether a new social commerce channel can be trusted enough to conduct purchases. Further, consumer trust supports their interest in the SCP, resulting in enduring and enhanced behavioral use and, to a lesser extent, purchase intent. Still, a majority of this sample declined to purchase using the SCP and rather preferred to transact on tried and trusted traditional e-commerce sites.

This study is among the first to examine trust formation in new SCPs, where consumers are deciding to expand their engagement level from social and informational to commercial.

This paper illuminates our journey as accounting educators by exploring accounting as a technical, social and moral practice towards decolonising ourselves. It lays the foundations for decolonising the higher education curriculum and the consequences for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This paper focuses on the potential to foster a space for praxis by adopting dialogism-in-action to understand our transformative learning through Jindaola [pronounced Jinda-o-la], a university-based Aboriginal knowledge program. A dialogic pedagogy provided the opportunity to create a meaningful space between us as academics, the Aboriginal Knowledge holder and mentor, the other groups in Jindaola and, ultimately, our accounting students. Since Jindaola privileged ‘our way’ as the pedagogical learning process, we adopt autoethnography to share and reflect on our experiences. Making creative artefacts formed the basis for building relationships, reciprocity and respect and represents our shared journey and collective account.

We reveal our journey of “holding to account” by analysing five aspects of our lives as critical accounting academics – the overarching conceptual framework, teaching, research, governance and our physical landscape. In doing so, we found that Aboriginal perspectives provide a radical positioning to the colonial legacies of accounting practice.

Our journey through Jindaola contemplates how connecting with Country and engaging with Aboriginal ways of knowing can assist educators in meaningfully addressing the SDGs. While not providing a panacea or prescription for what to do, we use ‘our way’ as a story of our commitment to transformative change.