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Education tends to colonize. Established authorities (teachers, curricula, and examinations) instruct newcomers, extending conditional membership. This presents a dilemma for teachers seeking to instill in their students habits of critical, creative, and lateral thinking. In Australia as elsewhere, blueprint educational documents embody lofty aspirational statements of inclusion and investment in people and their potential. Yoked to this is a regime routinely imposing high-stakes basic-skills testing on school students, with increasingly constrictive ways of doing, while privileging competition over collaboration. This chapter explores more informal, organic learning. This self-study narrative inquiry explores my career in terms of a struggle to be my most evolved, enlightened self, as opposed to a small-minded, small-hearted mini-me. To balance this, I examine responsible autonomy (including my own), rather than freedom. This chapter also explores investment in humans, with the reasonable expectation of a return on that investment. It draws and reflects upon events in or impacting my hometown, Sydney, Australia, focusing largely on WorldPride, the Women's World Cup, and a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament, all of which took place as I compiled this chapter. Accordingly, the narrative focuses primarily on sexuality, gender, and race. I explore the capacity of my surroundings to teach me and my capacity to learn from my surroundings. The findings and discussion comprise diary-type entries of significant events and their implications for (my) excessive entitlement. The final section of this chapter reviews what and how I have learned.

This study examines the relationship between Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices and financial distress in times of uncertainty.

Thomson Reuters ESG database, Compustat and Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) were used to derive a final sample size of 1,572 firms and 11,618 firm-year observations from 2003 to 2022. Fixed-effects regression was used to analyze the data.

It was found that increasing ESG involvement leads to an increase in Z score (i.e. lower financial distress), and this impact was more profound during the COVID-19 period and also when firms' innovativeness increased. However, during the COVID-19 period, increases in capital expenditures weaken the positive effect of ESG on financial distress.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on the impact of ESG performance on financial distress and the nature of this relationship during times of uncertainty such as COVID-19.

This study offers insights to managers and practitioners when developing their corporate financial strategies, particularly financial distress management, showing the potential benefits of innovativeness and capital intensity during turbulent times similar to COVID-19.

Little knowledge exists on how ESG engagement helps weather financial distress during periods of uncertainty due to external shocks (e.g. COVID-19). This paper looks at the effect of ESG engagement on financial distress and how capital intensity and innovativeness could influence this relationship while giving fresh insights into the impact of COVID-19.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of electric tugboat deployment in maritime transportation, including an in-depth assessment of its advantages and disadvantages. Along with the identification of advantages and disadvantages of electric tugboat deployment, the present research also aims to provide managerial insights into the economic viability of different tugboat alternatives that can guide future investments in the following years.

A detailed literature review was conducted, aiming to gain broad insights into tugboat operations and focusing on different aspects, including tugboat accidents and safety issues, scheduling and berthing of tugboats, life cycle assessment of diesel tugboats and their alternatives, operations of electric and hybrid tugboats, environmental impacts and others. Moreover, a set of interviews was conducted with the leading experts in the electric tugboat industry, including DAMEN Shipyards and the Port of Auckland. Econometric analyses were performed as well to evaluate the financial viability and economic performance of electric tugboats and their alternatives (i.e. conventional tugboats and hybrid tugboats).

The advantages of electric tugboats encompass decreased emissions, reduced operating expenses, improved energy efficiency, lower noise levels and potential for digital transformation through automation and data analytics. However, high initial costs, infrastructure limitations, training requirements and restricted range need to be addressed. The electric tugboat alternative seems to be the best option for scenarios with low interest rate values as increasing interest values negatively impact the salvage value of electric tugboats. It is expected that for long-term planning, the electric and hybrid tugboat alternatives will become preferential since they have lower annual costs than conventional diesel tugboats.

The outcomes of this research provide managerial insights into the practical deployment of electric tugboats and point to future research needs, including battery improvements, cost reduction, infrastructure development, legislative and regulatory changes and alternative energy sources. The advancement of battery technology has the potential to significantly impact the cost dynamics associated with electric tugboats. It is essential to do further research to monitor the advancements in battery technology and analyze their corresponding financial ramifications. It is essential to closely monitor the industry’s shift toward electric tugboats as their prices become more affordable.

The maritime industry is rapidly transforming and facing pressing challenges related to sustainability and digitization. Electric tugboats represent a promising and innovative solution that could address some of these challenges through zero-emission operations, enhanced energy efficiency and integration of digital technologies. Considering the potential of electric tugboats, the present study provides a comprehensive review of the advantages and disadvantages of electric tugboats in maritime transportation, extensive evaluation of the relevant literature, interviews with industry experts and supporting econometric analyses. The outcomes of this research will benefit governmental agencies, policymakers and other relevant maritime transportation stakeholders.

This paper aims to unravel the puzzle that the United Kingdom’s high-quality government accounting and fiscal architecture is associated with low-quality outcomes, including poor productivity growth, high public debt, public services which do not meet citizen expectations and historically high levels of taxation. It contributes to public sector accounting research in the fields of fiscal transparency and governance.

This paper uses Miller and Power’s (2013) economization framework and Dunsire’s (1990) concept of collibration to explain why being a global leader in public sector accounting reform and in fiscal and monetary architecture has not protected the UK from weak governance. The intersection of economization’s roles of accounting with modes of government accounting clarifies the puzzle.

Whereas accruals government accounting contributes to fiscal transparency, this is not a sufficient condition for well-judged policy and its effective application. Collibration is the dominant mechanism for mediation in the fiscally centralized UK, but it has failed to deliver stable outcomes, in part because Parliament is limited in its ability to hold back inappropriate behaviour by the Executive. Subjectivization has disrupted adjudication because governments at all levels resist constraints on their behaviour, with unpredictable and often damaging consequences.

This paper provides insights through the combined lens of economization and modes of government accounting, demonstrating the practical value of this conceptualization. Although some causes for unsatisfactory outcomes are specific to the UK, there are cautions for accounting and fiscal reformers in other countries, such as Member States of the European Union.