Reflections and projections: A decade of Intellectual Capital Accounting Research

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the field of Intellectual Capital Accounting Research (ICAR). The literature indicates that an organisational and business revolution is in progress concerning the need to understand the value of knowledge resources and how to manage them. The paper explores the field of ICAR by examining a decade of published research since Petty and Guthrie's (2000) seminal paper on ICA, “Intellectual capital literature review: Measurement, reporting and management” as published in the Journal of Intellectual Capital.The paper has four specific contributions. The first contribution is to identify the field of scholarship associated with ICAR. The second is to provide a comprehensive picture of what has happened in the field of ICAR over the past decade. Third, it provides evidence as to how and why the field of ICAR is changing. Fourth, it highlights areas for future research and policy developments.From these four contributions our definition of Intellectual Capital Accounting (ICA) emerges. That is, ICA is an accounting, reporting and management technology of relevance to organisations to understand and manage knowledge resources. It can account and report on the size and development of knowledge resources such as employee competencies, customer relations, financial relationships and communication and information technologies. Additionally, the analysis highlights several interesting patterns and worrying trends in the field of ICAR.     

The effects of Shariah board composition on Islamic equity indices' performance

Based on a sample of 54 Islamic indices over the period 2007–2014, we investigate the effect of Shariah board members' educational background on Islamic indices' risk and return characteristics via the screening criteria. Using a capital asset pricing model benchmark analysis, we assess the sensitivity of Islamic indices to their conventional peers in terms of beta and derive a measure of return (Jensen's alpha). First, we observe that the higher the number of members in common among the boards, the higher the risk–return profile of Islamic indices. Second, commonalities among board members lead to standardization of the screening criteria and to similar Islamic indices' performance. Third, we show that different betas across providers depend on the screening criteria, while the economic educational background of board members affects performance in terms of Jensen's alpha. Our study aims at contributing to the governance literature related to board composition and its importance as a possible driver of performance. In addition, given the impressive growth that Islamic finance has experienced during the last decade, this topic is of great interest to the asset management industry.     

Maximum residual levels of pesticides and public health: best friends or faux amis?

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relation between public health and the regulations of Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) of pesticides. Many authors underline the role of trade protectionism in fixing these limits, whereas these regulations should be intended for public health protection. We first establish the link between the MRL for a given chemical in plant products and its level of toxicity. In order to perform this analysis, we cross the FAS USDA MRL database and the classification of the long‐term toxicological effects (LTE) for active substances provided by SAgE pesticide. We then compute a synthetic and polyvalent tool, namely, “Health Score,” which provides a first overview of the link between LTE and MRL by country. Then this score is regressed in a logit model in order to identify the relationship between the countries’ Health Score and the socioeconomic and political characteristics of such areas. Results highlight the importance of public health expenditures in determining the settings of MRL toward stricter levels.     

Value creation in banking through strategic alliances and joint ventures

A large number of studies (DeYoung et al., 2009) analyze merger outcomes in the financial industry, while other forms of business cooperation are still poorly investigated. Our paper examines results of strategic alliances and joint ventures in European and US banking over the period 1999–2009. First, we estimate abnormal returns around the deal announcement date and then these are regressed on a large set of explanatory variables. We show that joint ventures create shareholder value when involving non-banking financial partners and allowing banks to expand abroad, while international strategic alliances tend to destroy shareholder value.     

Picking the Measuring Stick: The Role of Leaders in Social Comparisons

Organizational members frequently evaluate how their abilities and standing compare with those of their colleagues. Although these comparisons can have a negative impact on organizations, little attention has been paid to the role of leaders in these processes. Drawing on interviews with individuals in leadership positions in business schools, we develop a framework to explain what triggers leaders’ attention to social comparisons among faculty and how they become involved in them. Central to this framework are leaders’ self‐schemas, which encompass their preferences about the criteria members should use in making comparisons. Leaders’ self‐schemas are activated by discrepancies between their own comparative judgements and those they perceive members to be making and impel them to act in ways consistent with their preferred bases of comparison. Our framework repositions social comparisons as a multi‐perspectival, political phenomenon in which leaders see themselves as playing a role in shaping members’ evaluations and workplace interactions.     

Rethinking the relationship between local government and financial markets

In the past 20 years local governments have increasingly looked to financial markets for capital financing. The markets want local governments to change their accounting systems and become more transparent, in order to offer information that is more appropriate to private sector investors. The authors argue that this approach is only a partial solution, and that local government and financial institutions would both benefit from changes in their relationships. The article identifies a double knowledge gap that needs to be filled if the public and private sectors want to work together as long-term financial partners.     

Do bond yields follow the hierarchy of risk post BRRD?

With a sample of 4,065 bonds issued by 63 banks from 12 euro area countries during 2013–2017, this study investigates how introducing bail-in regulation has influenced bond yields in secondary markets, by distinguishing between non-bail-inable and different classes of bail-inable bonds. The bail-in risk premium does not follow the hierarchy of risk; it is stronger for less risky bonds. The effect on the spread between senior unsecured and non-bail-inable bonds is much higher than for subordinated bonds. Regarding subordinated bonds, the impact is higher for securities excluded from regulatory capital than for those included.     

Business and Human Rights: A Configurational View of the Antecedents of Human Rights Infringements by Emerging Market Firms

Journal of Business Ethics - This study investigates the antecedents of human rights infringements (HRIs) by emerging market firms (EFs). We used fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)...