1,720,987 research outputs found
Islamic banks: sustainability, integrated reporting and religion
No full textOver the last few decades a growing awareness of the role of firms in society has emerged and, consequently, a call for a different approach towards accounting and accountability. Among various proposals, Integrated Reporting (IR) represent the more recent and ambitious one, even if some critical matters have to be dealt with by companies involved in its implementation. In effect, some Authors have already highlighted that it is necessary to introduce a cultural change in order to develop a new approach with reference to the measurement and communication (Songini et al., 2015). In this sense, in recent years critical and interdisciplinary research has significantly challenged the predominantly technical and a-political view of business and accounting. This has led to growing consensus that the most valuable insights are gained from studying practices in the organizational and broader social settings in which they operate, i.e. their cultural context. On the basis of the above, Islam does represent a strongly important field of study for the cultural context into which IR could develop. In effect, in Islamic thought, it is believed that Adam, the progenitor of the human race and Islamic prophet-was appointed Trusteeship (khalifa) or guardian of the planet Earth; in addition, a concept unique to man is amana or trust (Rizk, 2014). Allah offers amana to the heavens, to the earth, to the mountains - to the rest of creation - who all refused; only mankind was foolish enough to accept it. A trust entails one who entrusts and a trustee. Qur’an is embodied with the principles of moderation, balance and conservation, which are the core of sustainable development and provide a framework for discernment, without which there would arguably be no limits to waste, extravagance or greed both individual as well as corporate. Further exploration does suggest that the accountant, and hence accounting, is actually given a very key role. The person that is described as accountant or Muhtasib in Islam is the one responsible for making sure that business is not harming the community. Tawheed (unity) stimulates the desiderata of an explicit public commitment to reasonable and comprehensible accounting – full and relevant disclosure – in the public interest, as such an explicit commitment becomes a charge in relation to which those formally regulating accounting can be held accountable. At the same time, Islam encourages humankind to experience lazkiyah (self-correction) through active participation in life, since only behaving ethically in the materialistic life (duniya) Muslims prove their worth to Allah (Hassan, 2016). The paper is mostly theoretical, yet it offers fruitful practical insights since only a truthful assessment of the cultural pattern, as such as Islam, can lead to a conscious approach towards sustainability. This paper offers insights for future research on the broad field of social and environmental issues, as well as Integrated Reporting, since it suggests to take always in account – when addressing issues and potentialities of non financial reporting – the cultural pattern
Piani contro la corruzione, modelli organizzativi e whistleblowing: l'esperienza italiana
No full textLa corruzione è fenomeno invasivo e complesso, capace di innestarsi in modo anche subdolo nei tessuti della pubblica amministrazione e degli enti privati. Sin dal 2001, con i modelli organizzativi ex d.Lgs. n. 231, e poi dal 2012, con la legge n. 190/2012, il legislatore nazionale ha impostato presidi di prevenzione per la corruzione, irrobustiti a fine 2017 dalla normativa (per la prima volta, organica) in materia di whistleblowing. Il presente volume esamina, in una prospettiva economico-aziendale e con un taglio originale ed innovativo, i passaggi sopra indicati, cercando di ricondurli all'unità tipica delle scienze aziendali
INTEGRATED REPORTING AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE: IS NATURAL CAPITAL NEGLECTED?
No full textWe have entered a new geologic era, the Anthropocene, also defined as the Age of Humans, in which humans are doubtless responsible for ensuring sustainable development. Further research is required to assess actions carried out by business organizations with reference to environment preservation. Our paper contributes to the academic discussion on the role of integrated reporting with a focus on natural capital. We propose to investigate whether and how companies report about natural capital in their integrated reports (IR), in the domain of South Africa. In our study, we investigate the type of information and its positioning in the IR and, notably, in the business model (BM). Our paper provides many contributions to literature. First, it exposes the extent and type of information that can be provided on natural capital through IR. Moreover, the paper contributes to the debate about the efficacy of IR to really enhance sustainability practices
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE DISCLOSURE IN ITALY IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE
No full textNowadays climate change represents the most critical issue facing the global economies, and, at the same time, the most misunderstood risk that organizations face in the coming years. The necessity to cover this gap has led to the spread of alternative disclosure frameworks, such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), established in 2015. In our research, we focus the attention, amongst the TCFD recommendations, on the thematic area of governance, as we are interested in studying companies’ awareness of climate change and the extent to which they assess environmental issues, risks and impacts. The adherence to TCFD policies appears, amongst the major results of the analysis, limited, with a rather significant polarization of information between good and bad reporters. Our findings provide interesting insights and implications both from a theoretical and managerial point of view, displaying that, in line with mimicry studies on corporate disclosure, the conduct of companies towards climate change disclosure suggest an imitative behaviour amongst competitors
Rhetoric, accounting and accountability: Covid-19 and the case of Italy
Full text linkThe current dramatic context of COVID-19 has urged academics and practitioners to tackle the topic of the pandemic not only regarding its medical side but from the perspective of social sciences, accounting and accountability as well. In this sense, our paper moves from the pivotal work of Higgins and Walker (2012) and Merkl-Davies and Brennan (2017) and tries to trace the use and the extent of accounting communication by companies during the peculiar context of the pandemic. Considering the nature of the elements to be evaluated, we applied a manual content analysis, a more suitable technique than software to capture subjective and emotional elements. Among the main preliminary results of the paper, the volume and the importance of emotional content come to the surface, such as self-assessment and emotional tone. The paper confirms the important role of rhetorical analysis in understanding the quality and the meaning of the information provided by companies and contributes to the stream of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) studies on corporate reporting
Impairment losses and changes in the composition of CGUs: Anything new after the storm?
No full textThe rationale of the paper is that the current financial crisis, which has deeply affected the economic situation and future forecasts, may also impact on the results of the impairment test procedure and on the quality of disclosure on intangibles and impairment test. Moreover, companies may be incentivized to increase the size of their CGUs, so that the amount of possible goodwill impairment is mitigated by surplus assets.
Our research answers to the following questions, with regard to the companies included in the Italian FTSE MIB.
a) What are the results of the impairment test procedure in 2008, compared to previous years?
b) Are there any differences in disclosure in 2008, compared to the previous year?
c) Have CGUs changed from 2007 to 2008? That being the case, can we put forward implications on the “real” reasons for the change? That is to say, are there economic reasons for the change, or is the change related to earnings management purposes?
We run a specific analysis on goodwill, since the “volatility” of its value is normally greater than the one of other assets. Moreover, we separately examine banks and insurance companies (B&ICs), both because the financial crisis hit their financials severely and they are under strict control by their Regulatory Bodies. In other words, they seem an interesting field of research under both the evaluation and the disclosure perspective of analysis.
The results of this preliminary research demonstrate an increased level of impairment losses in 2008, more evident for B&ICs. Companies which record impairment losses disclose more information and present a weaker economic situation than the control group.
Such results suggest further developments of the research, both in terms of evaluation and disclosure issues
BIODIVERSITY AND BUSINESS: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT BIODIVERSITY ACCOUNTABILITY?
No full textThe aim of this paper is to investigate the complex relationship between
global business and biodiversity. Since business organizations impact biodiversity
degradation and at the same time have to face the consequences of
the loss of biodiversity, it seems necessary to further investigate the role played
by business organizations in alleviating biodiversity loss (Reade, Goka, Thorp,
Mitsuhata and Wasbauer, 2014).
In order to study how business organizations comprise the topic of biodiversity in
reality, this research primarily proposes a literature review on biodiversity in the
field of accounting, management and organization.
This assessment is significant being, as far as we know, one of the first systematic
reviews of the literature on biodiversity and natural capital
University social responsibility: The case of Italy
No full textIncreasing attention is now being paid to the concept of sustainability as a crucial element of our life at all levels. The awareness that attention must be paid not only to the present, but also and above all to the future of the society in which we live has increased attention to social and environmental issues, such as climate change and the digital revolution. This transformation has also impacted the public sector: in particular, the scientific attention in the university sector has led to the birth of the concept of University Social Responsibility (USR), which suggests that universities sustainably re-transform their work. However, this issue has so far only been the subject of a few studies. The purpose of this article is to promote greater awareness on the part of universities of the importance of addressing sustainability issues. The results of the analysis, obtained thanks to the use of a questionnaire and interviews, depict the state of the art in the adoption of social reporting practices by Italian universities and identify the main reasons and barriers to the adoption of these practices
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