Meditari Accountancy Research最新文献

Purpose

Based on the comprehensive definition of accounting of Carnegie et al. (2021a, 2021b), this study examines how visual imagery can expand and enhance accountability to stakeholders and create room for more human-centric accounts. This study aims to understand how this use can elucidate and prompt interpretations of rhetorical features aimed at envisioning legitimacy and being perceived as accountable.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a methodological interpretative approach, this paper draws on a qualitative case study based on a Portuguese charity, the Santa Casa da Misericordia do Porto, from 2019 to 2021, including the COVID-19 crisis period, analysing visual rhetoric in annual and sustainability reports.

Findings

The study illuminates how the visual images interact and evoke shared cultural understandings, shaping meanings that can symbolically foster organisational legitimacy and envisions accountability. These symbolic and emotive elements capture and make visible social impacts and reflect broader societal concerns.

Originality/value

The study of visual images within the accounting context can enrich the understanding of accounting as a technical, social and moral practice, while expanding the scope of accountability and promoting a more human-centred approach to accounting. It also adds to the literature on the persuasiveness and rhetoric of accounting and reporting visualisations and on charities’ accountability in crisis period.

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate whether Brazilian firms that legally bond to stricter enforcement and commit to stringent corporate governance requirements experience increased value relevance of discretionary fair value measurements (Levels 2 and 3), and how different measurement levels are associated with firms’ systematic risk.

Design/methodology/approach

The Brazilian data’s distinctive feature helps in analyzing fair value’s relevance in an emerging market with heterogeneous enforcement regimes. Given the inherent self-selection in corporate governance levels and cross-listing decisions, the authors use a two-step generalized method of moments approach. Building upon Song et al.’s (2010) framework, the authors carefully address potential selection biases. Furthermore, the authors expand Riedl and Serafeim’s (2011) model, based on Ohlson’s (1995) model, to explore whether the negative correlation between Level 1 net assets (assets minus liabilities) and firms’ beta is more pronounced compared to Levels 2 or 3 net assets. Additionally, the authors investigate whether this relationship intensifies when firms align themselves with enhanced governance structures and stricter enforcement regimes.

Findings

Fair value measurements which require more judgment (Levels 2 and 3) are more value-relevant when a firm is legally bonded to higher enforcement and better corporate governance. Level 1 fair values of these firms’ net assets are associated with lower systematic risk, while Levels 2 and 3 fair values (high subjectivity valuation) are not.

Originality/value

The authors show that firms that bond to better corporate governance and stricter enforcement regimes mitigate the information risk involved in subjective fair-value measurements.

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the nexus among cloud-based accounting (CBA), employee job performance (EJP) and operational performance (OPP) in the circumstances of Vietnam, an emerging nation. In which the authors examine EJP as a mediator variable inside the research model. Furthermore, the employee digital skills (EDS) factor is examined as a moderating variable for the CBA-EJP nexus and the CBA-OPP nexus, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

The study’s sample was acquired through extensive screening methods. This study used email surveys to acquire data. The survey was sent to 1,200 chief financial officers of Vietnamese firms. For analysis, the ending pattern of 401 e-surveys was used.

Findings

By using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the results imply that the CBA has a favorable effect on EJP and OPP. Furthermore, EJP favorably mediates the linkage between CBA and OPP, whereas EDS play a significant moderator role in the CBA-EJP nexus and CBA-OPP nexus, respectively.

Practical implications

This study highlights the crucial role of human factors (i.e. EDS and EJP) for the internal modern applying behaviors (i.e. CBA) and firm value (i.e. OPP) of firms in emerging markets. Therefore, managers should scrutinize the performance of human factors in an essential interval to improve modern applied behaviors and make them more powerful, thus improving the OPP of their firms. Substantially, firm managers should focus on employing the EDS, which enhances the CBA-EJP nexus and the CBA-OPP nexus, respectively.

Originality/value

This study enlarges the OPP documentation by detailing the beneficial effects of human factors as well as the CBA. Furthermore, the study recognizes the effectiveness of EDS as a moderator variable in the context of developing economies. Finally, this work has been regarded as earlier empirical research that integrates all of the aforementioned components into a single model in emerging economies, particularly Vietnam.

Purpose

This study aims to examine whether tax avoidance is associated with overinvestment and the moderating role of financial reporting quality on such association in Italian private firms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a multivariate regression analysis based on a sample consisting of 65,535 firm-year observations between 2015 and 2022.

Findings

Results show that tax avoidance is positively associated with overinvestment and that such relation is weaker for firms with a higher financial reporting quality than for firms with a lower financial reporting quality. Furthermore, findings hold to a wide range of robustness checks, including alternative measures of main variables, endogeneity and falsification tests.

Research limitations/implications

Since this study focuses on the Italian private firms, the results cannot be extensively generalized.

Practical implications

As this study highlights the importance of tax avoidance on overinvestment, it can be particularly beneficial for managers, policymakers and other parties interested in assessing factors that lead to a capital allocation in less efficient investments.

Originality/value

This study provides novel evidence about the role of tax avoidance on overinvestment in private firms by mitigating the little attention of prior research in this area. It examines the Italian setting that is particularly of interest given the relevance of private firms in such context and the incentives of managers to reduce the tax burden.

Purpose

Within the context of public sector accountability, the purpose of this paper is to examine South African state-owned enterprises (SOEs) auditing practices and how they have contributed to mitigating prevalent corporate governance issues in South African SOEs.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper utilised a thematic content analysis of archival documents relating to South African SOEs. Firstly, to assess the extent to which the auditing dimension of the corporate governance codes, applicable to South African SOEs, conforms with best practices. Secondly, to determine the extent to which the audit practices of all the 21 South African SOEs listed in Schedule 2 of the Public Finance Management Act, have implemented the identified best audit practices.

Findings

The findings suggest that South African SOEs appear to have adopted and implemented best audit practices to enhance the quality of their accountability in relation to their corporate governance practices, as contained in their applicable corporate governance frameworks. However, despite the high levels of conformance, the observation that most South African SOEs continue to fail and require government bailouts, appears to suggest that auditing has no bearing on poor SOE performance, and that other corporate governance factors may be at play.

Practical implications

The discussion and findings in this paper suggest that the auditing practices of South African SOEs are adequate. However, that SOEs in South Africa continue to be loss-making may imply that this has contributed little to mitigating their corporate governance problems. Thus, policymakers and standard setters, including the Institute of Directors South Africa and relevant oversight bodies should pay attention to better developing means by which to curtail fruitless and wasteful expenditures by South African SOEs through improved corporate governance practices.

Social implications

Most SOEs’ mission statements encourage SOEs to be socially responsible and utilise taxpayers’ monies efficiently and effectively without engaging in fruitless and wasteful expenditure. This study is conceived in this light.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, while acknowledging previous studies, this paper is the first to explore this topic in the context of SOEs and in the context of Africa.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue for a transformative shift towards an inclusive and socially responsible framework in accounting education. Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into accounting curricula can help accountants contribute positively towards the goals’ aim. This represents not merely an educational reform but a call to action to forge a path that empowers accounting students to be technically proficient and socially conscious graduates who act as change agents working towards the public interest.

Design/methodology/approach

This study challenges the technical focus of accounting, conceptualising it as a multidimensional technical, social and moral practice, transcending traditional boundaries to address complex societal issues. This paper is primarily discursive, using autoethnography through presenting vignettes written by four female accounting educators across three geographical regions. These first-person narratives foster a sense of interconnectedness and shared responsibility within the accounting community, reflecting a collective commitment to integrating SDGs into accounting education. By sharing personal experiences, the authors invite readers to engage in reflective pedagogy and contribute to shaping a better world through accounting education.

Findings

The transformative potential of purposefully incorporating SDGs into accounting education is not just a theoretical concept. The vignettes in this study provide concrete evidence of how this integration can shape future accountants into socially conscious professionals driven by ethics, equity and environmental responsibility. Our collective reflection underscores the importance of collaboration and continuous learning in aligning accounting education with the SDGs, offering a hopeful vision for the future of this field.

Originality/value

This study builds on existing literature to encourage communication, curriculum development, collaborative teaching approaches, experiential learning opportunities, ongoing evaluation and community dialogue on reshaping accounting education by giving a rare insight into what and how people teach and from what broader motivations. It offers a practical roadmap for educators to integrate SDGs into their teaching.

Purpose

The study aims to examine the extent of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of Canadian cannabis firms and how they view responsibility. It also explores how cannabis firms build their CSR-based organizational identity through Twitter.

Design/methodology/approach

Deductive and inductive content analyses were carried through on tweets for a sample of 18 firms listed on the Canadian marijuana index during the legalization period of the recreational use of cannabis.

Findings

The results of this study show that cannabis firms approach responsibility by focusing on consumer and community/local development and by raising awareness and providing product information. The findings also highlight that the firms build their organizational identity mainly around their products’ medical benefits, the scientific efforts behind product development and the continual stigmatization they experience. At the industry level, cannabis firms attempt to build a harmonized identity to neutralize stigma.

Originality/value

This study allowed for a comprehensive understanding on how cannabis firms position themselves within an emergent sin industry and how they create their CSR identity through Twitter. It advances our understanding on the meaning of responsibility about the specific and distinctive features of the cannabis industry. From the methodology side, this study developed two content analysis tools: a coding instrument and a dictionary. These tools could be useful for conducting future studies related to the CSR disclosure of cannabis firms worldwide.

Purpose

The materiality principle is one of the top trends in sustainability reporting globally. Stakeholders have focused on the principle of materiality because of its vital importance in the context of sustainability. Materiality serves as a content-selection principle for determining the most significant sustainability matters to be included in sustainability reports. This has made reports more relevant for various stakeholders. Using the resource-based view and stakeholder theory, this paper aims to examine and uncover the antecedents and outcome of materiality disclosure in sustainability reporting.

Design/methodology/approach

To measure the extent of materiality disclosure, a content analysis was performed on the corporate reports of the largest listed companies in Malaysia. The relationships among the variables under investigation were examined using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.

Findings

While the results show that board activity, board independence and board size play significant roles as antecedents of materiality disclosure, this is not so with nationality diversity and gender diversity. In addition, the results have shown that the outcome of materiality disclosure is not significantly linked to corporate financial performance. The results show that normative stakeholder considerations are the primary motivating factor behind corporate sustainability reporting in Malaysia.

Practical implications

These results are of great interest to regulators, stakeholders, investors and companies alike. Enhancing materiality disclosure in sustainability reports can help in the transition to sustainable development and the successful achievement of the United Nations sustainable development goals.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to examine the interplay between board diversity and materiality disclosure, along with their connections to corporate financial performance.

Purpose

This study aims to explore natural resources from a public sector accounting perspective, focusing on their definitions, classifications, recognition criteria and disclosure requirements provided by different standard-setters and regulators at both international and national levels.

Design/methodology/approach

By reviewing accounting frameworks for natural resources, this study extrapolates accounting dilemmas around the debate on natural resource accounting, using the dialogic accounting perspective as a theoretical framework.

Findings

Natural resources cannot be defined as a single category. Various categories have different characteristics, requiring different standards to recognize multiple orientations. This avoids monetary reductionism. Furthermore, uncertainty, both in existence and measurement, may disqualify some of these resources from being considered assets. Perhaps, concentrating on the flow of services derived from natural resources is better than focusing on their valuation. This may lead to a split-asset approach (flows and underlying assets) for certain resources. This study’s findings indicate that public-sector entities should consider preparing a separate non-financial report regarding the management of natural resources with the objective of maintaining inter-generational equity.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the debate on natural resources from an accounting and reporting perspective, highlighting the importance of holding public-sector entities accountable for the use of natural resources.