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1 – 10 of over 200000Gordon Boyce, Wanna Prayukvong and Apichai Puntasen
Social and environmental accounting research manifests varying levels of awareness of critical global problems and the need to develop alternative approaches to dealing…
Abstract
Social and environmental accounting research manifests varying levels of awareness of critical global problems and the need to develop alternative approaches to dealing with economy and society. This paper explores Buddhist thought and, specifically, Buddhist economics as a means to informing this debate. We draw on and expand Schumacher's ideas about ‘Buddhist economics’, first articulated in the 1960s. Our analysis centres on Buddhism's Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and associated Buddhist teachings. The examination includes assumptions, means and ends of Buddhist approaches to economics; these are compared and contrasted with conventional economics.To consider how thought and practice may be bridged, we examine a practical application of Buddhism's Middle Way, in the form of Thailand's current work with ‘Sufficiency Economy’.Throughout the paper, we explore the implications for the development of social accounting, looking for mutual interactions between Buddhism and social accounting thought and practice.
Moustafa Mohamed Nazief Haggag Kotb Kholaif and Xiao Ming
The research aims to profoundly investigate the correlation between uncertainty-fear against COVID-19, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and labor practices issues…
Abstract
Purpose
The research aims to profoundly investigate the correlation between uncertainty-fear against COVID-19, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and labor practices issues based on ISO 26000.
Design/methodology/approach
Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted for data analysis and hypotheses testing on a sample of 304 managers and employees in the Egyptian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Findings
Preliminary results indicate that the uncertainty-fear against COVID-19 positively affects CSR practices in SMEs. CSR positively impacts labor practices dimensions. However, CSR has an insignificant effect on the social protection and work condition dimension. Also, CSR has a significant mediating role in the association between uncertainty-fear toward the pandemic and labor practices. But, this relation is insignificant regarding social protection and work condition dimension.
Practical implications
Managers could develop a consistent strategy for applying CSR practices, providing clear information and focusing on their procedures to protect their workforce during COVID-19. Governments should impose policies to guarantee that all employees have the same opportunities and not discriminate directly or indirectly in any labor practice.
Originality/value
Based on both the “stakeholder” and “social-cognitive” theories, this study shed light on the optimistic side of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it also brings the concepts of social responsibility, sustainability and green practices back into the light, which helps in solving labor issues.
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Bo Edvardsson, Per Skålén and Bård Tronvoll
Purpose – The aim is to introduce a sociological perspective on resource integration and value co-creation into service research using a service systems approach.
Abstract
Purpose – The aim is to introduce a sociological perspective on resource integration and value co-creation into service research using a service systems approach.
Methodology/approach – Conceptual and a case study of the service system a Telecom Equipment and Service Provider is embedded in is reported.
Findings – The service practice of the service system is framed by social structures of signification, legitimation, and domination. However, the practice is also independent of the structures since it is embedded in and shapes the structural realm.
Research implications and limitations – Drawing on structuration and practice theory, the chapter offers a new framework describing how social and service structures and practices can inform and reveal mechanisms of service system dynamics. Based on the framework, three propositions are developed focusing on the mechanisms of resource integration and value co-creation. The implications need to be generalized in future research by studying other empirical contexts.
Practical implications – The chapter provides some tentative guidelines on how organizations can design service systems that enable and support customers and other actors in their resource integration and value co-creation processes by paying attention to social structures and forces and not only resources as such.
Originality – The chapter explicates how social structures have implications for value co-creation and resource integration in service system. It makes systematic use of structuration and practice theory to understand the social dimensions of service systems. A distinction between intended and realized resource integration is made.
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The paper aims to elucidate the potential of a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. Drawing on a practice-theoretical understanding of change, the paper discusses…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to elucidate the potential of a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. Drawing on a practice-theoretical understanding of change, the paper discusses how a socio-cultural approach can inform social marketing and enhance the possibilities of the field to address complex, multifaceted issues that require changes beyond the individual.
Design/methodology/approach
While the paper is conceptual in nature, it uses an illustrative example of food waste as the basis for an investigation of what a socio-cultural approach, rooted in practice-theoretical understanding of change, means for social marketing.
Findings
The paper is conceptual in nature but highlights new opportunities for social marketing connected to a socio-cultural approach foregrounding practice changes. The paper introduces potential roles that social marketers can adopt to initiate and support practice changes in the context of food waste.
Practical implications
The paper emphasises the importance of focussing on the socio-culture and practices connected to the issue in question, both when scoping for insight and when developing the ways to address it.
Originality/value
By integrating a practice-theoretical understanding of change, social marketing and food waste literature, the paper offers novel insights about the potential of adopting a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. The paper discusses a socio-cultural approach to social marketing in context, emphasising the roles social marketers can play in practice changes.
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The purpose of this paper is to propose a new analytical framework in examining corruption from the social ontology perspective by using the Schatzkian practice theory to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a new analytical framework in examining corruption from the social ontology perspective by using the Schatzkian practice theory to assess the interconnectedness among social practices constituting the social reality.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory paper is part of the author’s study to assess the complex corruption phenomenon in Indonesia from multiple perspectives to gain a better understanding of its nature and dynamics. By drawing from the existing literature on the Schatzkian practice theory, the COVID-19 pandemic and the corruption phenomenon, this study investigates the potential changes of the new constellation of practice-arrangement bundles within the social reality and how such changes may alter corruption practices in the future. Furthermore, this study also uses publicly available reports from several national and international agencies to explore possible future scenarios from the interconnectedness of corruption, anti-corruption and pandemic practices. This paper constructs a new analytical framework for assessing the corruption phenomenon and designing the most appropriate anti-corruption strategy from such an exploration. The framework also serves as a reference for future anti-corruption research.
Findings
The author establishes that all social phenomena are constructed by an interconnected, dynamic and ever-changing constellation of practice-arrangement bundles within the social reality. As a largely social phenomenon (at least in Indonesia), corruption is also constructed by webs of practice-arrangement bundles. For decades, corruption practices in Indonesia have always been interconnected with anti-corruption practices in ways that changes in one group of practices will drive changes in the others. With the adoption of the pandemic practices centered around social distancing, social restriction and social safety net, corruption practices appear to transform to adapt to the new environment. Therefore, future anti-corruption research should aim to examine the structure and dynamics of corruption, anti-corruption and pandemic practices to highlight changes or potential changes within the three groups of practices to determine the most appropriate intervention measures and anti-corruption strategy.
Research limitations/implications
This exploratory study is self-funded and relies primarily on documentary analysis to explore the corruption phenomenon in Indonesia. Future studies will benefit from in-depth interviews with former corruption offenders and corruption investigators.
Practical implications
This exploratory paper contributes to developing a sound corruption prevention strategy by proposing a new analytical framework for assessing various social practices, particularly those associated with corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
This paper highlights the importance of understanding the structure, interconnectedness and dynamics of social practices, particularly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, to better understand the corruption phenomenon.
Muhammad Al Mahameed, Ataur Belal, Florian Gebreiter and Alan Lowe
This paper explores how social accounting operates in the context of profound political, social and economic crises. Specifically, it examines how companies constructed…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores how social accounting operates in the context of profound political, social and economic crises. Specifically, it examines how companies constructed strategies of action to produce and organise social accounting practices under different sociopolitical and economic contexts prior to and after the Arab Spring.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on Swidler's theory of “Culture Toolkit” and 43 semi-structured interviews with 17 firms and their stakeholders in the Arab region.
Findings
The study argues that context influences social accounting practices by shaping a cultural toolkit of habits, skills and styles from which companies develop their social accounting related strategies of action. During “settled” periods, companies draw on resources to develop their social accounting practices whilst they seek knowledge and feedback on boundaries and expectations of the socio-political and economic contexts. During “unsettled” periods, companies begin to adopt highly organised meaning systems (i.e. ideologies) from which new ways and methods of social accounting practices are deployed.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the extant literature by providing insights into social accounting practices in the under-explored context of the profound political, social and economic crises that followed the Arab Spring. In addition, we introduce Swidler's Culture Toolkit theory to the accounting literature.
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Gregory Theyel and Kay Hofmann
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of sustainability practices by small and medium‐sized manufacturing (SMM) firms, the ways these firms work with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of sustainability practices by small and medium‐sized manufacturing (SMM) firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices, stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses data from telephone interviews with 296 companies, a sustainability typology, and descriptive and statistical regression analysis.
Findings
The majority of the firms are adopting sustainability practices at least to some degree, stakeholders such as community advocacy groups, employees, suppliers, customers, and the local media are influencing the adoption of sustainability practices, and firms with high adoption rates of environmental practices are more successful in product and process innovation.
Practical implications
The results of this research can help firms and stakeholder groups with their joint efforts to develop sustainability strategies. Community advocacy groups, employees, suppliers, customers, and the local media are capable of motivating firms to give something back to the communities in which they conduct their business.
Originality/value
This paper contributes new understanding of the adoption of sustainability practices by SMM firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices, stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation.
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Although the generation of social value is the focus of social entrepreneurship, little research attention is paid on how social value and transformation can be created…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the generation of social value is the focus of social entrepreneurship, little research attention is paid on how social value and transformation can be created. By adopting a market approach, this study aims to develop a framework showing how social enterprises in tourism/hospitality can generate social value and transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
A thorough literature review revealed that a market approach is an appropriate lens for understanding social entrepreneurship. Consequently, a framework based on “learning with the market” is proposed as a useful tool for identifying, managing and also creating (new) opportunities for social ventures. The justification and the theoretical underpinnings of the market-based framework are further supported by discussing various other theories and concepts.
Findings
The framework identifies three capabilities that social entrepreneurs need to develop for generating social value and transformation: network structure, market practices and market pictures. Several examples from tourism and hospitality social enterprises are analyzed for showing the applicability and usefulness of the framework.
Research limitations/implications
The paper proposes a conceptual framework as well as several research directions for further testing, refining and expanding it.
Practical implications
By applying the framework on several tourism and hospitality social enterprises, the paper provides practical implications about the capabilities that social enterprises should develop for engaging with other market actors to identify and exploit (new) market opportunities for social value co-creation, and influence market plasticity for forming new markets and driving social change.
Social implications
The suggested framework identifies the capabilities and the ways in which (tourism/hospitality) social enterprises can engage with and form markets for co-creating social value and escalating their social impacts through social transformation.
Originality/value
The paper provides a new marketing approach (that overcomes the limitations of traditional economic theories) for understanding how social enterprises can shape, manage and engage with social markets for generating social value.
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Ravindra Baliga, Rakesh D. Raut and Sachin S. Kamble
Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is a relatively new sub-field of supply chain management (SCM). The performance of SSCM is based on the triple bottom line…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is a relatively new sub-field of supply chain management (SCM). The performance of SSCM is based on the triple bottom line approach encompassing people-planet-profit, hence being defined not in only in social and environmental terms, but also the economic. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated study which uses antecedent-practices-performance principles in order to determine the drivers of SSCM practices, and the impact of these practices on sustainable supply chain performance. The importance of the study lies in the fact that the Indian Government is making significant efforts to boost the manufacturing sector, and sustainability is among the significant imperatives for Indian manufacturing to be competitive globally.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model based on the antecedents-practices-performance principles was developed, and included six constructs identified from the literature: the drivers being the motivators of sustainability, lean management (LM) and supply management (SM), the practices were the environmental and social practices in the supply chain and, finally, the sustainable supply chain performance; eight hypotheses were conceived in the model development process. The survey instrument was conceptualised from an in-depth study of literature and was employed to conduct a survey of 211 operations and supply chain managers and functional heads from the Indian manufacturing industry. The scales were validated by employing the confirmatory factor analysis, followed by structural equation modelling to develop the structural relationships between the constructs using Amos 20.0.
Findings
The results of the SEM suggest that the antecedents, i.e. motivators, LM and SM, have a significant bearing on environmental and social practices in the SCM; these practices, in turn, also have a positive relationship with SSCM performance (except the relationship between LM and social practices in SCM) with acceptable goodness-of-fit measures. Thus out of the eight hypotheses, seven can be said to statistically significant.
Research limitations/implications
In addition to the motivators of sustainability, the study based on extant literature has considered LM and SM among the drivers of sustainability in SCM. The study has also identified that in earlier studies, the focus has been on environmental practices, and this integrated study has also included social practices in the supply chain.
Originality/value
This study suggests that sustainability performance may also be realised through lean and SM principles; an integrated perspective has been adopted with the consideration of both environmental and social practices. Further, the proposed model represents a novel integration of literature from diverse domains such as environmental management, business ethics and corporate social responsibility as well as performance management.
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The purpose of this paper is to contribute significantly to the empirical investigations related to the impact of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute significantly to the empirical investigations related to the impact of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices on performance in Chinese firms. The paper also aims to theorize and empirically assess a comprehensive SSCM practices and performance model. The model incorporates two aspects of SSCM practices: internal and external management, and analyses the impact on corporate sustainability performance from all dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops a conceptual model to investigate the impact of SSCM practices on the firm performance. Based on the data of 172 Chinese firms, this paper analyzes the impact of SSCM practices on firm economic performance, environmental performance, and social performance for each dimension by using PLS structural equation methods.
Findings
The results show that firm’s internal SSCM practices have a positive impact on firm’s environmental performance and social performance. Moreover, environmental performance and social performance are positively related to economic performance.
Originality/value
A comprehensive SSCM practices performance model is proposed and empirically assessed for Chinese firms. The results of this investigation support the hypotheses that SSCM practices are environmentally and socially necessary and are favorable for business. A series of approach and implications of SSCM practices is recommended.
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