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Over the last decade, international accounting harmonization and convergence and the increasing adoption of IFRS as national standards have become dominant topics in international accounting research (Alp & Ustundag, 2009; Ashbaugh & Pincus, 2001; Cairns, Massoudi, Taplin, & Tarca, 2011; Christensen et al., 2007; Daske, 2006; Daske & Gebhardt, 2006; Daske et al., 2008; Ding et al., 2007; Gastón, García, Jarne, & Laínez Gadea, 2010; Haverals, 2007; Hellmann, Perera, & Patel, 2010; Lantto & Sahlström, 2008; Othman & Zeghal, 2006; Peng & van der Laan Smith, 2010; Schleicher, Tahoun, & Walker, 2010; Tyrrall et al., 2007). In this move toward convergence, the politics associated with IAS setting by the IASB has become an important and controversial topic in international accounting research. Although previous studies have aimed to examine political issues and stakeholder's perception toward the standard-setting process of the IASB (Alali & Cao, 2010; Chiapello & Medjad, 2009; de Lange & Howieson, 2006), no study has critically examined the complexity of factors influencing attitudes and public opinion toward this standard-setting process. Given that attitudes are likely to guide behavior and lead stakeholders to either advance the work of the IASB or create obstacles, it is timely and relevant to analyze attitudes toward this issue. A recent study has provided evidence that stakeholders’ acceptance of IFRS and preparers’ overall perception of IFRS may influence compliance and the quality of financial reports (Navarro-García & Bastida, 2010). As such, it is the objective of this chapter to provide insights into determinants of attitudes toward the IASB's standard setting and critically examine the influence of power structures and perceived legitimacy on individual attitudes and public opinion.¹ Specifically, this study examines German attitudes toward the promotion of professional judgment by the IASB since the adoption of IFRS in the EU in 2005.

For professional sustainability work, graduates need to be able to work in teams and collaborate with stakeholders; in other words, they need to have developed interpersonal competence. There is growing evidence that project-based sustainability courses facilitate interpersonal competence development. However, research so far has focused on single case studies and on assessing learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of how graduate students learn interpersonal competence in project-based sustainability courses.

This study adopts a multi-case study approach triangulating observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups supported by Photovoice method. A comparison of three project-based sustainability courses in graduate programs at universities in the USA, Germany, Switzerland and Spain is conducted to gain generalizable insights on how interpersonal competence can be developed through project-based sustainability courses.

Receiving inputs, experiencing, reflecting and experimenting are four learning processes supportive of interpersonal competence development. Interpersonal attitudes seem to be mostly learned through a combination of experiencing and reflecting, followed by experimenting; not surprisingly, interpersonal knowledge is mostly developed through a combination of receiving inputs, experiencing and (collective) reflection; and interpersonal skills seem to be mostly learned through a combination of receiving inputs and experimenting, or, more directly, experiencing and experimenting.

These findings support the unique learning opportunities offered through project-based sustainability courses and can help instructors to better facilitate students’ development of interpersonal competence.

The value of this study is three-fold: (i) it provides a comprehensive picture of interpersonal competence, including attitudes, knowledge, and skills; (ii) it spells out specific teaching and learning processes; and (iii) it links these to specific interpersonal competence facets and components.

To be able to achieve the uptake and usage of green buildings requires various actors within the construction value chain to be engaged. Despite its global uptake, green building construction is still at its nascent stage in Ghana. Most studies in sub-Saharan Africa point to the lack of knowledge as one of the mitigating factors against its development. However, there is a dearth of studies assessing the level of knowledge of stakeholders. The terms “knowledge” and “awareness” of green building construction are often used interchangeably in the Ghanaian Construction Industry (GCI). This study seeks to unearth the level of knowledge of stakeholders on green building construction through a comparative analysis of construction professionals and demand-side operators.

A structured questionnaire was issued to professionals in the various recognised bodies in the construction industry and public and private institutions in Ghana. Frequency, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, median statistics and Mann–Whitney U-Test were used to rank and analyse the level of knowledge of stakeholders.

Construction professionals were more aware of green building construction than the demand-side operators. It was further identified that only a few of these stakeholders had hands-on experience as the majority of them have gained their awareness through research studies. Based on the findings of the study, it was revealed that the concept of green building construction is more abstract to stakeholders than practical despite their positive attitude towards its adoption.

Contextually, the study has aided in showing the level of knowledge of stakeholders on green building construction. The findings of the study aside from it aiding policymakers have also helped in identifying the perceptions and attitudes of stakeholders, their strengths and weakness in green building construction. It is recommended that due to the differences in socio-political structures and construction methods, a clear definition of green building based on the availability of resources in the GCI will encourage its adoption.

The study used two stakeholder groupings in the GCI as the unit of analysis. This enabled insightful discoveries into the knowledge-attitude gap of Ghanaian stakeholders that are driving the adoption of green building.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the readiness of Ugandans to accept electronic voting under the restrictive conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A semi-structured questionnaire, built on a five-point-Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree was used to get quantifiable data from four main electoral stakeholders i.e. the policymakers, urban and semi-urban youth, rural voters and government officials. These stakeholders were purposively and conveniently selected because of the influential roles they play in promoting electoral democracy in Uganda. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the authors adopted correlational and quantitative research designs to collect and analyse data. Data was collected from a maximum sample size of 384 as recommended by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) from which 252 useful responses (65.6% response rate) were obtained. Using a statistical package for social scientists version 21.0, the authors performed a Pearson correlation coefficient to determine the relationships between study variables and linear regression analysis to predict the readiness of the stakeholders to accept e-voting more especially under the constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was a positive significant relationship between perceived usefulness (PU) and attitude towards adoption, perceived ease of use and attitude towards adoption, attitude and readiness and finally trust propensity and readiness. The regression results show that 65% of the variations in readiness to adopt e-voting can be explained by perceived ease of use, PU, trust propensity and attitude towards adoption. Attitude towards adopting e-voting accounts for the highest variations in the model followed by trust propensity and finally PU. However, perceived ease of use was found to be insignificant.

The study was limited to only PU, perceived ease of use, trust propensity, attitudes towards using/adoption and readiness to accept e-voting amidst the COVID-19 strict conditions. In Africa, electoral democracy can be influenced by a number of factors such as finances, education levels, sectarianism, voter rigging, perceived risk, political and economic environment. These were not taken into consideration yet they would affect the stakeholders’ attitudes and perceptions which would directly or indirectly affect the adoption of electronic voting.

Given the low levels of technology infrastructure in the country, there is a general low uptake of technology-oriented systems. The internet reach is low and quality is poor whilst the radio and televisions network is limited to a few urban settings, poor quality technology systems such as the recently acquired voter biometric systems and the constant government actions to switch off the internet and social media whenever there are contentious political issues. These inadequacies together with the restrictive COVID-19 conditions have compromised the participation of stakeholders which dents the stakeholders’ readiness to accept e-voting which consequently compromises electoral democracy in the country. Therefore, government, electoral observers, the international community and civil society organizations need to accelerate the technology infrastructure development in the country, training and development of technical skills and competences, as well as mass mobilization on the use of technology-oriented platforms aimed at promoting electoral democracy. The country should come up with ICT policies and regulations that encourage the use of ICT in areas that promote democracy. These may include; the use of an easy e-voting system such as emails and voting via the post office. Also, Lawmakers, civil society organizations and the international community should make it punitive for anyone who disenfranchises people through internet disconnection, denial of access to broadcast, print and online media. These interventions will restore peoples’ attitudes and perceptions towards electronic voting, consequently increasing their levels of participation in the electioneering process.

The Ministry of Health, the Uganda Police Force and other security agencies have come out strongly to enforce the COVID-19 standard operating procedures which among others include the banning of political gatherings, processions and meetings of any kind. As a remedy, the Electoral Commission is encouraging political parties, electoral candidates, voters and other stakeholders to use technology-oriented systems such as mobile phones, broadcast and print media, the internet and others to reach out to the electorate. With the government in full control of all these electronic, print and broadcast media, having previously switched them off during the 2011 and 2016 polls consequently disenfranchising many people from their democratic rights, it remains unknown the extent to which the electorate is ready to accept and appreciate scientific voting more so during this time when restrictions against COVID-19 are not making it any better for the voters and other key participants to carry out their political and civil activities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse what constitutes trust for residents in the infill development context, who are the targets of trust, and does residents’ trust predict their attitudes towards infill development.

Two studies were carried out. A qualitative study in three housing developments was followed by a quantitative study with 906 respondents in the Helsinki area, Finland.

Four stakeholders relevant to the residents’ trust were identified: the board of housing development, the housing manager, city planners, and construction companies. Three dimensions were found to constitute residents’ trust in these stakeholders (competence, benevolence and integrity). Furthermore, analyses revealed that trust in city planners and construction companies significantly predicted residents’ attitudes towards infill development.

The findings of this study have implications on the management of the infill development process. More attention should be paid to how residents’ perceptions of trust towards the other stakeholders are formed in order to facilitate successful infill projects. The quantitative study was carried out in different residential areas. Based on this study, the authors were not able to analyse whether and how the characteristics of the residential areas might influence the results, which represents a limitation of this study.

This paper provides in-depth insights into the role of trust in explaining residents’ attitudes towards infill development. Previous research devoted to the topic is scarce, neglects residents’ perspectives and lacks empirical evidence. The discussions are mainly contemplation based on case examples. No previous studies have explicitly studied the significance of trust with large samples.

Company stakeholder responsibility considers stakeholder engagement and management as key to long-term firm success. The purpose of this paper is to examine how top managers’ stakeholder responsibility attitudes change and how they balance stakeholder responsibilities and economic interests.

The authors conducted empirical research using the company stakeholder responsibility framework by conducting a repeated cross-sectional survey in Finland in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

The study shows how development in the business context influences managers’ attitudes towards stakeholder responsibility. Simultaneously with the expansion of free competition in 1990s Finland, managerial commitment to company stakeholder responsibility strengthened in Finnish industry.

The target group consisting of industrial managers both in a single-country context and the social desirability bias present in survey research may limit the generalisability of the results.

The study contributes to the discussion of the role of situational factors in the development of corporate responsibility by showing that while economic changes have some influence on managerial attitudes, the expansion of free markets, together with increased regulation in certain areas, appears to influence managers’ stakeholder responsibility attitudes to an even greater degree.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer responses to CSR in a developed and emerging economy (The Netherlands and India).

The paper uses a survey of 95 consumers in each country to investigate attitudes to CSR platforms and CSR initiatives and responses to CSR‐based marketing strategies (in terms of attitude to the company and purchasing intent).

The study found similar attitudes across nationalities to both CSR platforms and CSR initiatives, with greater importance assigned to CSR reflecting legal and ethical (rather than philanthropic) concerns. (Some) CSR‐based marketing strategies, reflecting an ethical (people/planet) concern, led to significantly more positive attitudes to the company and higher purchasing intent. The study found some cross‐cultural variation in the extent to which different CSR‐based marketing strategies influenced consumer outcomes.

This is an exploratory study, limited to highly educated consumers. The study provides indications that stakeholder expectations in emerging and developed economies may be more similar than previously suggested. The philanthropic platform conventionally pursued in Indian business may not be the most effective way to engage (all segments of) Indian consumers. Findings suggest it is important that companies monitor stakeholders' CSR attitudes to ensure that CSR policy orientations meet stakeholder expectations.

This paper uses an innovative approach to investigate responses to CSR policy and communications. CSR research on emerging economies is underrepresented in the literature. The findings suggest areas of further enquiry with implications for global business.

In spite of the increased interest of academics, there has not been a thorough examination of the actors and factors of accessible tourism (AT) development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between stakeholders’ attitudes, collaborative intervention and corporate sustainability and responsibility (CS&R) and the implementation of accessible tourism (IAT).

Focus group discussion, an expert content validity test and structural equation modelling were all used as part of a mixed-methods approach. At the longest sea beach in the world, located in Bangladesh, data was collected from the tourism stakeholders using an on-site questionnaire survey.

Stakeholders’ attitude is significantly related to their collaborative intervention, but accessibility inclusive corporate substantiality and responsibility (AICSR) mediates the relationships between attitude and implementation, as well as collaborative intervention and implementation. As a result, AICSR is identified as a key driver in the IAT.

Purposive sampling was used to select stakeholders from Bangladesh’s most popular tourist destination. Nonetheless, the statistically valid model of this exploratory study can be tested for generalization in other contexts with a large sample size. The findings will bring diverse stakeholders to light and encourage barrier-free tourist growth that could improve the destinations’ comparative advantage and competitiveness.

This study is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, one of the first studies to use rigorous quantitative methods to investigate AT implementation with a focus on CS&R. It adds to the existing AT literature by providing a scale and model of IAT while highlighting the extent to which AT can be implemented within CS&R.

尽管学术界对无障碍旅游发展的参与者和因素越来越感兴趣, 但还没有相关研究对此领域进行彻底的调查。本研究的目的是调查利益相关者的态度、协作干预、企业可持续性和责任 (CS&R) 与实行无障碍旅游 (IAT)之间的关系。

本文采用的混合研究方法包括了焦点小组讨论、专家内容有效性测试和结构方程模型 (SEM)。在位于孟加拉国的世界上最长的海滩上, 我们通过现场问卷调查从旅游利益相关者那里收集了数据。

利益相关者的态度与其协作干预显著相关, 但企业可持续性和责任的无障碍包容性（AICSR）在态度与实施以及协作干预与实施之间的关系中起中介作用。因此, AICSR 被确定为实施无障碍旅游的关键驱动力。

立意抽样法用于从孟加拉国最受欢迎的旅游目的地选择利益相关者。尽管如此, 该探索性研究的统计有效模型可以在具有大样本量的其他情况下进行泛化测试。调查结果将揭示不同的利益相关者, 并鼓励无障碍的旅游增长, 从而提高目的地的比较优势和竞争力。

本文是最早以CS&R为重点, 使用严格的定量方法调查实行无障碍旅游的研究之一。它通过提供 IAT 的规模和模型来补充现有的无障碍旅游文献, 同时强调无障碍旅游可以在 CS&R 中实施的程度。

A pesar del creciente interés de los académicos, no se han examinado a fondo los actores y factores del desarrollo del turismo accesible. El propósito de este estudio es investigar las relaciones entre las actitudes de los actores, la intervención colaborativa y la sostenibilidad y responsabilidad corporativa (RSC) y la implementación del turismo accesible (ITA).

El estudio utiliza un enfoque de métodos mixtos que incluye una discusión de grupo focal, una prueba de validez de contenido de expertos y un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (MEE). En la playa marítima más larga del mundo, situada en Bangladesh, se recogieron datos de los agentes turísticos mediante una encuesta con cuestionario in situ.

La actitud de las partes interesadas está significativamente relacionada con su intervención colaborativa, pero la sustancialidad y la responsabilidad corporativa inclusiva de la accesibilidad (SRCIA) media las relaciones entre la actitud y la implementación, así como la intervención colaborativa y la implementación. Como resultado, la SRCIA se identifica como un factor clave en la implementación del turismo accesible.

Se utilizó un muestreo discrecional para seleccionar a las partes interesadas del destino turístico más popular de Bangladesh. No obstante, el modelo estadísticamente válido de este estudio exploratorio puede probarse para su generalización en otros contextos con una muestra grande. Las conclusiones mostrarán diversos grupos de interés y fomentarán el crecimiento del turismo sin barreras que podría mejorar la ventaja comparativa y la competitividad de los destinos.

Se trata de uno de los primeros estudios que utilizan métodos cuantitativos rigurosos para investigar la implantación del turismo accesible centrándose en la RSC. Contribuye a la bibliografía existente sobre turismo accesible al proporcionar una escala y un modelo de ITA, al tiempo que pone de relieve hasta qué punto se puede implementar el turismo accesible dentro de la RSC.

Nature plays an important role in tourism experiences with more people seeking leisure activities in outdoor settings. Tourism management can facilitate a reduction of impacts and enhancement of experiences but requires sensitivity to individual markets to be effective. This chapter investigate stakeholders’ perspectives for managing Chinese tourism to Wet Tropics. Specifically, it aims to determine overall thoughts as well as individual attitudes toward different futures. Guided by the concept of saturation of ideas in qualitative data, 18 in-depth interviews were conducted with stakeholders in north Queensland. Findings indicate that they are optimistic toward all futures but have different plans for and concerns about individual tourism markets.

The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes among church administrators to church tourism, and the vexing challenge of categorizing church properties as tourist attractions for the city visitor. Furthermore, it seeks to ascertain if in the current economic climate, evidence of a collaborative inclination exists between core and peripheral supply‐stakeholders towards delivering a church tourism trail in this visitor‐rich area of Dublin city.

Data were gathered to coincide with the busiest period of the tourist season. Using a qualitative methodology involving a series of semi‐structured interviews, initial research concentrated on attitudes to church tourism among both church administrators and church visitors. Subsequent interviews with key informants from both core and peripheral stakeholder groups focused on their attitudes to stakeholder collaboration in the development of a localized church tourism trail.

The findings of this paper would suggest broad support among most church administrators towards tourism and contextualising church properties as heritage attractions. However, operational dissonances associated with “church ethos” and “collaborative engagement”, particularly when embedded within individual fears of being associated with an official “tourist trail” were viewed as collaborative impediments among some traditional and peripheral stakeholders.

As international competition for the urban tourist intensifies, this paper, in adopting a supply‐sided perspective has, through counterpointing psychological barriers to the development of a church tourism product, with the absence of collaboration champions in the area, highlighted a number of limiting factors to adding value to the visitor experience in Dublin's Liberties. Challenges abide!