The Development of Accounting Regulation in Extractive Industries in Australia, South Africa and Canada

In view of the economic significance of extractive industries, the special accounting issues raised, and the numerous calls over many years for standardization, there has been less regulation of their accounting than as expected. The development of accounting regulations and practices in the extractive industries in 3 countries is reviewed, which are Australia, South Africa and Canada.     

THE URBAN LEFT IN POWER: Comparing the Profiles of ‘Municipal Socialists’ and the ‘New Urban Left’ in Swiss Cities

Today, many cities in post-industrial societies are strongholds of left and progressive political forces. Almost 100 years ago, left parties had instituted municipal socialism in several European cities. In this article, we compare these two periods of left urban rule by focusing on the long-term changes over the last 120 years in the socio-demographic profile of urban left elites in four major Swiss cities. Our analysis of left elected representatives at six key dates highlights the main differences between the municipal socialists of the interwar period and the new urban left that rules contemporary cities. The former are members of the working class, blue-collar workers without university education, while the latter are members of the upper-middle class, highly educated sociocultural professionals. The results of our analysis contribute to a better understanding of the sociological composition of urban left-progressive political forces, an aspect that is somewhat neglected in recent research on the urban left. We discuss the potential political implications and further research avenues for contemporary debates in urban studies, in terms of urban policy priorities and political mobilization.     

Defining the ‘Social’ in ‘Social Entrepreneurship’: Altruism and Entrepreneurship

What is social entrepreneurship? In, particular, what’s so social about it? Understanding what social entrepreneurship is enables researchers to study the phenomenon and policy-makers to design measures to encourage it. However, such an understanding is lacking partly because there is no universally accepted definition of entrepreneurship as yet. In this paper, we suggest a definition of social entrepreneurship that intuitively accords with what is generally accepted as entrepreneurship and that captures the way in which entrepreneurship may be altruistic. Based on this we provide a taxonomy of social entrepreneurship and identify a number of real cases from Asia illustrating the different forms it could take.     

Contesting Eco-Urbanism from Below: The Construction of ‘Zero-Waste Neighborhoods’ in Chinese Cities

How should we understand the recent rapid spread of eco-urbanism around the world and its move into the mainstream? This understanding has become increasingly dominated by narratives of the urban sustainability fix, which stresses the logic of capital accumulation. Within the broader structural processes of ecological modernization, such as transitioning to low-carbon growth, consideration of—let alone interest in—the diversity of local politics that shapes the practice and forms of contestation of eco-urbanism has often been relegated to a position of secondary importance. Meanwhile, investigations of the relationship between the growth of climate governance and grassroots environmental activism often ignore space production as an underlying process of political-economic transformation. Drawing on a detailed case study of the prevalence of zero-waste neighborhood experiments in many Chinese cities, which have recently become obsessed with low-carbon growth, this article underscores the potential of grassroots activism to change the nature, dynamics and landscape of eco-urbanism significantly. On the basis of the intriguing evidence presented here, it calls for a new understanding of eco-urbanism: one which is more attentive to the diversity, heterogeneity and contextual sensitivity of urban change at the grassroots level.     

Infrastructure Disruption in ‘Silicon Savannah’: Exploring the Idea of the Creative Class and their Relation to Quality of Place in Nairobi,Kenya

Debates around urbanization, infrastructure disruption and the creative class rarely appear alongside each other in research on African cities. This article connects these different narratives, which are currently exerting their influence on the future direction of these cities. The economic value of the creative class is that their work centres on innovation—a quality seen as essential to ‘new-economy’ urban growth. Quality of place (that which makes ‘New York New York’) is said to attract the creative class to certain cities, as lifestyle amenities are valued as much as employment opportunities. Nairobi is an example of an African city currently attracting both Kenyan and expatriate creative class workers, particularly in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. In this article we take Richard Florida's creative class theory as a departure point to offer insights into why this group chooses to live in Nairobi and to describe Nairobi's quality of place, with a particular focus on infrastructure disruption. The case study reveals that Nairobi's quality of place differs fundamentally from the normative attributes prescribed by creative class theory and, in some instances, it is considered to be highly frustrating and unattractive.     

Engaged Scholar(ship) in purchasing and supply management (PSM): Creative tension or squeezed in the middle?

Purchasing and supply management research influences practice through the advancement of knowledge and theoretical principles and is positioned as an academic discipline. For the individual researcher, it calls for skills and experience that can be associated with engaged scholarship. This paper explores tensions inherent in engaged scholarship, that arise during the quest to interact closely with professionals to ensure relevance and impact while living up to research quality criteria. The paper concludes that the individual researcher in a field such as PSM is easily left with guidelines that point in multiple directions regarding personal achievement and institutional merits.     

Diffusing ‘best practice’ in Chinese multinationals: the motivation,facilitation and limitations

With increasing global integration, the diffusion of ‘best practice’ is a critical activity in MNCs, particularly for those from developing countries which have recently joined global markets. Recent research has suggested that ‘reverse diffusion’ is an important approach to the internationalization of management. However, there is little empirical evidence in support of this argument. This paper draws on in-depth case studies of the UK subsidiaries of Chinese MNCs to explore the nature and characteristics of diffusion activities. It confirms that ‘reverse diffusion’ played a positive part in the internationalization process of these companies, although the impact on the home firms is limited. It also found that new forms of management transfer are emerging in these Chinese MNCs. This suggests that the diffusion of ‘best practice’ in MNCs can be varied with different national and organizational characteristics.     

‘Sweet deals’: State-owned enterprises,corruption and repeated contracts in public procurement

We show how a price analysis of stable relations between customer and supplier in the public procurement of homogeneous goods can help differentiate opportunistic from honest behaviour among economic agents. We consider two types of stable relations: repeated procurements and connections based on the state ownership of suppliers. On the basis of a large dataset on the procurement of granulated sugar in Russia from 2011 to 2013, we find that for private suppliers, prices of repeated contracts were lower compared to one-time deals when procured through more transparent procedures and higher when procured through non-transparent procedures. For non-transparent procedures, we observe significant overpricing of contracts with state-owned suppliers compared to private suppliers, especially in the case of repeated contracts, whereas for competitive e-auctions, there is only a small difference between the contract prices of state-owned suppliers and private suppliers.     

Accounting and the ‘Art of Government’: Margaret of Austria in Abruzzo (1539–86)

This paper analyses the accounting, accountability and disciplinary practices triggered by the Ordinances of 1571 in the feudal State of Abruzzo, whose sovereign was Margaret of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles V. In a scenario stimulated by the ascent of mercantilist discourse and police schemes, new ‘technologies of government’ were forged to optimize the State's collection of receipts and to minimize fraud, rendering public officers accountable and their activities visible and controllable ‘at a distance’. Using the ‘governmentality’ framework, this paper analyses the Ordinances that disciplined the activities of the primary finance/accounting and police officers in Abruzzo. The paper complements and extends the previous literature by illustrating the wide array of accounting- and non-accounting-based disciplinary techniques enforced by the sovereign in order to shape, align and even seduce the behaviour of officers/functionaries working in the State apparatus, and the general population. The analysis goes beyond the existing literature by unveiling the implementation of the hitherto undisclosed disciplinary double system of gratification–punishment advocated by Foucault, that also involved the population in the ‘State control of the mechanisms of discipline’. In a related vein, the accounting system applied displays representational, translational and distributive properties, along with novel incentive schemes.     

‘Intended’ and ‘implemented’ HRM: the missing linchpin in strategic human resource management research

We argue that inconclusive findings in the SHRM literature regarding the relationship between HRM systems and organizational performance may result primarily from methodological weaknesses and a failure of researchers to distinguish between HR practices intended by the organizations and those actually implemented. Rather than relying upon a single respondent per organization as is the norm, we contrast reports of both managers and non-managers from inside and outside HR departments to highlight differences between intended and implemented HRM. The findings, arrived at with the help of 195 interviews, 508 questionnaire responses and several company documents, support our expectation: implemented HRM may be substantially different from intended HRM; consistent implementation increases employee satisfaction with HRM, which is positively related to organizational performance. The current study thus highlights new factors that require attention in developing HR–performance analyses and also suggests that a mere imitation of HRM in the hopes of improving organizational performance creates no value. It is crucial that HR departments and managers remain committed and supportive to the development of effective HRM systems by focusing upon actual ‘implementation’ within their organizations.     

‘Znakomstva I Svyazi’ (Acquaintances and connections) – Blat,the Soviet Union,and mundane entrepreneurship

The discussion regarding entrepreneurship and society has often presupposed that this society by necessity will be one that embraces the market economy as a guiding principle. This paper questions this assumption by discussing a command economy, namely the Soviet Union, as a fundamentally entrepreneurial society. By introducing the case of the blat, ‘Russia’s economy of favours’, the paper illustrates how mundane individual economies can be a part of entrepreneurship, and how flexible opportunity networks can support the rigidity of a command economy. Continuing from this, the exclusion of such irregular economies is discussed from an ideological rather than an analytic standpoint. The paper further presents some inferences that can be drawn from the case of the blat and which problematizes common assumptions in entrepreneurship studies.     

A science mapping analysis of ‘marginality,stigmatization and social cohesion’ in WoS (1963–2019)

Quality & Quantity - The current socio-economic and politico-humanitarian crisis is reflected in the progressive entanglement of social cohesion. The increase of social, political, and economic...     

Technical Inefficiency Effects Among Paddy Farmers in the Villages of the ‘Office du Niger’, Mali,West Africa

A stochastic frontier production function incorporating a model for technical inefficiency effects (Battese and Coelli, 1995) is applied to field data on paddy farmers from 29 villages in the Office du Niger in Mali. Four conventional factors (land, labor, fertilizer and machinery) are considered as inputs of production. The technical inefficiency effects in the stochastic frontier were related to firm-specific variables, institutional factors, social organisation, ecological considerations and health factors. Data were obtained from an economic survey conducted during two consecutive agricultural seasons (1989 and 1990) on 844 farms of the Office du Niger. The null hypothesis of the absence of technical inefficiency effects was rejected. A supportive institutional environment and a coherent organisation of land use were the best correlates of technically efficiency. The social environment was also found to contribute to technical efficiency of the paddy farmers: within the village, the greater the degree of ethnic cohesion, the greater the efficiency of the farmers. Health status of households had an effect in that healthy families tended to be more technically efficient than unhealthy ones. Farmers with more extensive sorghum cultivation were less efficient as paddy farmers. These results may help agricultural policy makers formulate strategies. Technical efficiency may be improved by intensifying agricultural training regarding one specific crop and, through the control of parasitic diseases which place a burden on family households.     

In what sense ‘regional development?’: entrepreneurship,underdevelopment and strong tradition in the periphery

This paper explores whether entrepreneurship can help less successful regions to improve their regional economic situation, without all the benefits that entrepreneurship brings when being ‘stripped out’ to more successful regions. The paper uses the idea that peripheral regions possess qualities of tradition and underdevelopment, and that these help to anchor new firms into these regions, resistant to their concentration in core regions. The paper explores whether particular entrepreneurial events can be regarded as ‘densifying’ the regional entrepreneurial environment, thereby making a positive contribution to its economic development. The paper explores the role of these negative anchors to the entrepreneurial events and the densification process by following a sequence of high-technology spin-out firms in the North East of England. Using a realist methodology attempting to interview all the firms within the sequence which could be found, the paper discovers that quite positive advantages exist within these negative qualities.The paper then considers whether these processes, such as plant closure, might drive entrepreneurship in all regions.     

Large,entrepreneurship and regional development policy: ‘growth poles’ in the Mezzogiorno over 40 years

Large firms are often perceived by economists and policy-makers as ‘growth poles’ to promote development in backward regions. The idea behind the ‘growth poles’ is that large firms may have a leverage effect on the birth and growth of small and medium sized firms. Regional policy in Italy, particularly in the Mezzogiorno, has subsidized large external plants since the 1950s. A new wave of planning agreements in the 1990s is going to redesign and to strengthen this policy orientation. This paper offers empirical data on plant location and growth at provincial level over 40 years. There is no evidence of overall long term growth impact of large acternal plants in the Mezzogiorno, while there are interesting variations by sectors. A theoretical interpretation of the impact of large firms on local entrepreneurial resources is offered, pointing to the negative effects of large firms on the supply of local entrepreneurship. Policy implications are discussed.     

‘And now I’m free’: Women’s empowerment and emancipation through entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia and Sweden

Critical perspectives have called for the study of women’s entrepreneurship as a route to social change. This ‘social turn’ claims women are empowered and/or emancipated through entrepreneurship with limited problematisation of how these interchangeably used concepts operate. Using an institutional perspective in combination with a narrative approach, we investigate women entrepreneurs’ life stories on their ‘road to freedom’ where entrepreneurial activity enables them to ‘break free’ from particular gendered constraints. Through juxtaposing women’s narratives in the contexts of Saudi Arabia and Sweden, the relationship between empowerment and emancipation is disentangled and (re)conceptualised. The findings distinguish between empowerment narrated as individual practices to achieve freedom for the self within institutional structures and emancipation as narrated as a wish to challenge and change structures of power and reach collative freedom. The yearning for collective emancipation propels women’s stories of entrepreneurship by raising expectations for entrepreneurship as a vehicle for institutional change. Such stories may fascinate and inspire others to engage in entrepreneurial endeavours to become empowered, but whether they reach emancipation remains an empirical question to be answered. The performative dimension of entrepreneurial narratives is, however, their ability to turn emancipation into an (un)reachable object of desire, with a quest for even more individual empowerment and entrepreneurial activity, at the same time excluding other forms of human conduct as conducive for change.     

Visualising Africa at diaspora expense? How and why humanitarian organisations ignore diaspora audiences in their ‘ethical’ communications

Critical commentaries on visual constructions of distant suffering within humanitarian communication research have critiqued and problematised how International non-governmental organisations (INGOs) frame Black and Brown distant ‘Others.’ However, much focus has been on the implications of these mediated imageries for overseas communities, while African diaspora have received much less attention. African diaspora is critical in current debates around representation, especially given increased criticisms around the ethicality of INGO fundraising communications for UK-situated Black racialised publics. This article thus complicates existing debates by repositioning the empirical preoccupation with distant Others ‘over there,’ towards UK-situated African diaspora ‘over here.’ Using interview evidence with UK-based INGO professionals involved in the production and dissemination of imageries of humanitarian issues, it explores how INGOs construe African diaspora populations in considerations around, and implications of, the ethicality of their communications. Revealing that African diaspora are largely absent or ‘afterthoughts’ in INGO consciousness and practices for three central reasons. (1) They are not considered distinct and differentiated donor audiences worthy of strategic prioritisation, (2) Implicit professional/organisational ‘whiteness’ limits reflexive foresight of potential implications (negative or positive) of communications for diaspora and, (3) INGOs temporise over the (im)practicalities of ‘diaspora inclusive’ agendas for ethical communication.     

Disentangling (new) labour market divides: outsiders’ and globalization losers’ socio-economic risks in Europe

Quality & Quantity - In post-industrial and globalized economies, socio-economic risks have become ubiquitous for workers. Two segments of the labour force seem particularly exposed: namely,...     

The importance of ‘fitting in’: collaboration and social value creation in response to community norms and expectations

Abstract

This article explores the effects of embeddedness in communities upon entrepreneurial practices. Based on the lived experiences of 10 craft entrepreneurs, this study reveals that within certain contexts, such as craft communities, entrepreneurs are expected to exhibit high levels of camaraderie and generosity, which leads them to create social value by supporting their peers and freely sharing their resources. Entrepreneurs achieve ‘fitting in’ not only by learning accepted norms, but also by performing strategic actions which allow them to temporarily adapt their conduct to meet the expectations of community members. Thus, this study exposes a largely concealed element of social entrepreneurial practice. This article also reveals that embeddedness in communities can lead entrepreneurs to collaborate with potential competitors. Craft entrepreneurs share their economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital in order to support and help revitalise their communities, to perpetuate their respective industries and to sustain a genuine interest in hand-crafted products. They consider such supportive behaviour a social responsibility that is shared among community members and a task that is passed from one generation to the next. Thus, this article reveals that collaboration and social value creation can be embraced in response to community norms and expectations.     

When tools ‘bite first’: How tools-for-reflection (do not) afford reflection and knowledge creation

The paper delineates how our understanding of reflection and knowledge development changes, if we drop the widespread assumption that objects such as tools merely ‘talk back’ (Schön) or ‘bite back’ (Engeström & Blackler) when humans use them. By drawing on the notion of affordances, the paper provides an account of how tools ‘bite first’, which means that their materiality pre-reflectively affords certain patterns of thinking and acting as well as affective states while others are less likely. My 12-month action ethnography basically offers three insights. First, my findings indicate that a tool’s materiality which affords flexibility, complexity, embodied engagement, and happiness is more likely enacted as ‘facilitative reflection’, a type of reflection that results in knowledge creation. Second, if a tool’s materiality affords less flexibility, an entity-focus, detached interaction, and frustration, ‘oppositional reflection’ is enacted, a second type of reflection that does not result in knowledge creation. Since only ‘facilitative reflection’ results in knowledge creation, the affordances-based account of tools-for-reflection also challenges the widespread argument that reflection leads to knowledge creation. Third, I offer some fresh insights into the relation between a tool’s materiality, breakdowns, and associated affective states.