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1 – 10 of over 14000Stefania Servalli and Antonio Gitto
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the research related to “the interplay between accounting and the state, politics, and local authorities in the broad government and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the research related to “the interplay between accounting and the state, politics, and local authorities in the broad government and administration of food for sustainability of populations” (Sargiacomo et al., 2016). Considering contemporary examples and investigating the genealogy of an 18th-century reform of fishery management (the New Plan), the authors explore the role played by accounting and calculative practices when local authorities intervene using forms of discipline based on control systems that acted on commons (fish), people and space.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is historically grounded on archival research on a fish provisioning case during the 18th century in Ancona, an Italian town on the Adriatic coast. The investigation adopts an approach focussed on the use of disciplinary methods in the terms highlighted by Foucault. This perspective offers a lens capable of revealing the key role of accounting in a period when discipline became “general formulas of domination” (Foucault, 1977) and the Papal States were looking for food provisioning solutions (Foucault, 2007). The study highlights similarities with contemporary fishery management.
Findings
The paper shows that governability of fishery in a commons' logic is not limited by the properties of the good, but rather “it is achieved through the objects and instruments that are deployed to make it possible” (Johnsen, 2014, p. 429). It reveals forms assumed by economic calculation in different eras and their contribution in the art of governing realised by the state (Hoskin and Macve, 2016). The study unveils how accounting effectively operates using “naming and counting” activities (Ezzamel and Hoskin, 2002) based on a system of documents and accounting registers; these have a pivotal role in redefining fishery management and in keeping goods (fish) and people (fishermen) under control. The investigation also highlights the importance of properly quantifying data in fishery management, confirming the literature on the topic (Beddington et al., 2007, p. 1713). In contemporary situations, data refer to quantifying the fish stock in the sea and the consequent estimation of fish catch. In the historical investigation, although environmental protection was not an issue, quantification refers to the fish that entered the town of Ancona, whose estimation was the result of a new calculative approach adopted by local authorities facing fish needs. In addition, it offers early evidence of organised and rational-based control mechanisms that were the result of Enlightened ideas emerging in the Papal States context.
Originality/value
Despite the fact that fish represent a fundamental good for governments to act on in response to a population's needs, there has been no attention paid to how governmental authorities have used disciplinary mechanisms to intervene in fishery management or the role played by accounting. This study's novelty is its investigation of fishery, using Foucauldian disciplinary methods to understand accounting's contribution in fishery governance. In addition, this investigation permits to unveil the role of accounting to support one of the main principles of the governance of commons that is represented by the congruence between rules and local conditions (Fennell, 2011, p. 11; Ostrom, 1990, p. 92).
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The study aims to investigate how the presence and absence of institutional equivalents (interaction of industry peers and local peers) affect the earnings management practices of…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to investigate how the presence and absence of institutional equivalents (interaction of industry peers and local peers) affect the earnings management practices of firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses discretionary accruals to operationalize earnings management. A sample of 18,744 Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed firm years spanning over 12 financial years (March 2010–March 2021) has been considered and analyzed through panel data regression models.
Findings
The author’s results show that the earnings management practices of a firm's institutional equivalents and the firm's own earnings management are positively associated, implying that firms closely follow their institutional equivalents. This association is found to be more pronounced among focal firms when the difference between the earnings management levels of industry peers and local peers is greater. Further, the author find that large firms aggressively imitate their industry peers and local peers, whereas profitability does not influence their imitation behavior.
Practical implications
The author’s findings have implications for understanding peer imitation processes, particularly when firms face increasingly multifaceted institutional environments. It suggests auditors and analysts take into account the earnings management practices of local and industry peers while analyzing the client's financial statements and making forecasts, respectively.
Originality/value
The study is among the pioneering attempts to explore the domain of earnings management from the lens of institutional equivalence and provides compelling evidence that the interaction of industry peers and local peers impacts the earnings management practices of firms.
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Martina Fuchs and Johannes Westermeyer
The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope for action of local human resource managers, who are employed in foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs), for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope for action of local human resource managers, who are employed in foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs), for implementing training activities. These managers are situated in relationships to headquarters and the local environment. Related to this is the question whether MNCs contribute to the local skill base by implementing training activities or whether they exploit the existing skill formation system.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focusses on German subsidiaries of MNCs with headquarters in the USA and the UK, France, China and Japan. The study is based on 107 expert interviews with subsidiary managers and representatives of local stakeholder organisations, such as educational organisations, chambers, economic promotion agencies and governmental bodies in Germany.
Findings
The study reveals that headquarters introduce general schemes for training. In addition to these MNC-internal trainings, local managers use their information advantage over headquarters to implement dual training activities.
Research limitations/implications
The training activities of subsidiaries are dependent on the institutional settings of the host country.
Practical implications
Albeit dual training activities are laborious and tie the local managers down for the medium and long term, the future need of the subsidiary for adequately skilled workforce prompts local managers’ engagement in implementing dual training activities.
Social implications
Subsidiaries contribute to the local skill base and do not act in a free-rider position, at least in the German variety of capitalism.
Originality/value
The study deepens insights on distanced relations within and how subsidiaries generate scope for action by using this kind of relationships.
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Mika Luhtala, Olga Welinder and Elina Vikstedt
This study aims to investigate the adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the new performance perspective in cities. It also aims to understand…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the new performance perspective in cities. It also aims to understand how accounting for SDGs begins in city administrations by following Power’s (2015) fourfold development schema composed of policy object formation, object elaboration, activity orchestration and practice stabilization.
Design/methodology/approach
Focusing on a network of cities coordinated by the Finnish local government association, we analyzed the six largest cities in Finland employing a holistic multiple case study strategy. Our data consisted of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), city strategies, budget plans, financial statements, as well as results of participant observations and semi-structured interviews with key individuals involved in accounting for SDGs.
Findings
We unveiled the SDG framework as an interpretive scheme through which cities glocalized sustainable development as a novel, simultaneously global and local, performance object. Integration of the new accounts in city management is necessary for these accounts to take life in steering the actions. By creating meaningful alignment and the ability to impact managerial practices, SDGs and VLRs have the potential to influence local actions. Our results indicate further institutionalization progress of sustainability as a performance object through SDG-focused work.
Originality/value
While prior research has focused mainly on general factors influencing the integration of the sustainability agenda, this study provides a novel perspective by capturing the process and demonstrating empirically how new accounts on SDGs are introduced and deployed in the strategic planning and management of local governments.
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The study aims to explore institutional adaptation for sustainable water resources management at the local level in the context of increasing climate-related challenges in…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to explore institutional adaptation for sustainable water resources management at the local level in the context of increasing climate-related challenges in Zimbabwe using the case of a semi-arid area in the mid-Zambezi Valley, north of the country.
Design/methodology/approach
Inspired by the critical institutionalism approach, the study uses qualitative methods (i.e. key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, community workshops and documentary review) to understand the role of different formal and informal water-related institutions vis-à-vis responding to climate-related challenges in the case study area, and how the identified institutions can improve their efforts in the context of national water and environmental policy and regulation frameworks. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.
Findings
The study found that climatic challenges in the case study area, as in most of rural Africa, have raised the stakes in local water management with respect to regulating access to and balancing competing interests in, and demands for, water. It ultimately argues for the embracing of complexity thinking and flexibility in local water management as well as clear coordination of institutions across scales in the face of increasing climate-related challenges.
Originality/value
The study adds to case studies and evidence-based analyses focused on institutional alternatives for climate adaptation vis-à-vis water resources management in water-stressed rural African communities.
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The aim of administrative reform— a special public policy instrument of governments— is to improve the capacity of public service delivery systems. This study examines the…
Abstract
The aim of administrative reform— a special public policy instrument of governments— is to improve the capacity of public service delivery systems. This study examines the reform-led service delivery situation of public institutions at the local level in South Asia. The study offers an in-depth qualitative study with gleaned data, focusing on primary education in the country in relation to MDGs basic education. Local administration in the country has been a ‘low modicum of self-governance to provide public services. Institutional capacity dealing with educational management has called into question. Primary education in the country is quantitatively discussed while qualitatively is in a state of disarray. As a thorough academic qualitative study with a country-specific case has by far not been explored yet, it fills the information gap. Little is known about the public service delivery capacity with primary education at the local level. This study implicates governments and development partners such as the UN SDGs for effective partnership in development in an era of post-CVID-19 crisis.
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Annika Strömberg, Maria Engström, Heidi Hagerman and Bernice Skytt
The purpose of this paper is to contribute new knowledge about how first line managers (FLMs) in elderly care perceive their situation, with a focus on differences in management…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute new knowledge about how first line managers (FLMs) in elderly care perceive their situation, with a focus on differences in management approaches at the intersection of the central and local parts of the organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study has a qualitative approach and is part of a larger project on FLMs in elderly care. The results presented here are based on a secondary analysis of 15 of the total of 28 interviews carried out in the project.
Findings
The main results are twofold: the majority of FLMs perceived differences in management approaches between local and central management; the differences caused some struggle because FLMs perceived that the management system did not support the differences. The two main aspects that caused the FLMs to struggle were differences in the foci of the management levels and difficulties in influencing the conditions of management.
Originality/value
The results contribute to the debate on what aspects are important to sustainable management of elderly care. It is common knowledge that FLMs have a complex position, intermediate to the central, upper level management and their subordinates at the local level – levels with different foci and interests. The study contributes new knowledge about what these differences consist of and the dilemmas they cause and offers suggestions as to what can be done to reduce both energy waste and the risk of low job satisfaction.
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This study aims to examine the latent capability of alternative-responsible tourism and ecotourism management in sustainable tourism and rural communities' livelihoods in Musina…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the latent capability of alternative-responsible tourism and ecotourism management in sustainable tourism and rural communities' livelihoods in Musina Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa, and benchmark the capability with other African countries amid climate change and environmental degradation dilemmas. Hence, the aforementioned objective coordinates with various agrarian locations elsewhere abroad.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature reviews, document reviews, interviews, and focus group discussions were employed to gather data, which was enriched by field observation views. To this end, potential climate change-linked environmental degradation, rural tourism, agricultural, and environmental management issues came to the fore.
Findings
Environmental degradation poses a possible threat to natural resource management, as evidenced by the rural development, ecotourism and agricultural activities within the study region. Thereupon, environmental degradation supplements the probability of adverse effects from climate change and precarious incomes. According to the research, responsible tourism and ecotourism are vital to promoting sustainability in rural localities.
Originality/value
The plenteous biodiversity of the municipality offers a better scenario for sustainable ecotourism in tandem with agritourism efforts to address the identified ongoing and liability issues. These issues have therefore symbolized the need for an adequate and allied tourism strategy to boost the local people in Musina Municipality and, conceivably, throughout the continent.
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Pekka Valkama, Harald Torsteinsen and Pekka Kettunen
The study examines how introducing joint municipal arm's length bodies (ALBs) into municipal waste management has influenced the preconditions of democratic governance.
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines how introducing joint municipal arm's length bodies (ALBs) into municipal waste management has influenced the preconditions of democratic governance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors describe and explain the democratic implications of joint municipal agencification by reviewing the perspectives of representative and participative democracy. Through this approach, the authors apply the exit–voice framework developed by Albert Hirschman to highlight the potential roles and rights of citizens. This research includes country case studies of Finland and Norway. The authors analyse and systematize Finnish and Norwegian waste and organizational policies by reviewing national regulatory documents, commentaries and guidance materials to identify the fundamental missions and institutional traditions of the alternative organizational forms of joint ALBs.
Findings
The study findings highlight that joint agencification has an adverse effect on the democratic governance of waste management policy and services even though these are public monopoly services. They also demonstrate that all joint municipal ALBs limit the classic elements of representative democracy in general, and that private-law ALBs limit residents' rights to influence and participate.
Originality/value
This study contributes to local public management studies by applying Hirschman's theory to comparative reviews of joint agencification and ALBs. It revealed the similarities and differences between the different organizational forms of joint ALBs applied in Finland and Norway. It also demonstrated how the democratic rights of residents depend on how municipalities collaborate.
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Pussadee Nonthacumjane and Jan Michael Nolin
This study aims to propose the four different typologies for understanding local information.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose the four different typologies for understanding local information.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied a conceptual approach to analyze and clarify how the concept local information can be understood in wildly different ways. Furthermore, this study employed conceptual analysis of 36 studies. For the conceptual analysis, coding was applied to formulate and abstract four typologies for understanding local information with specific focus on the Thai cultural heritage setting.
Findings
The four different typologies include local information as an array of different interpretations as diverse meanings of local, local information as cultural heritage, local information as subject of information management and situated local information.
Research limitations/implications
This study mainly focuses relevant typologies for understanding local information in the Thai context.
Originality/value
This study contributes and extends the literature in the local information field and the cultural heritage context. In addition, an eclectic strategy of using several alternative typologies for dealing with essentially contested concepts is suggested. This can be useful not only for supporting librarians working with local information but also in other practices dealing with broadly defined concepts.
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