Accounting and corruption exist in a tense relationship in which accounting is either the solution to or an accomplice of corruption. Diverse areas of accounting research have examined both sides of ...this relationship, but social and environmental accounting (SEA) scholarship has lagged well behind. This is unfortunate, as venality has dreadful impacts on society and the natural environment.
This commentary invites SEA scholars to shed light on the intricate bonds between accounting, corruption and sustainability. To support my argument, I explain why corruption matters to SEA and review prior studies that examine the intersection of these two areas. Building on extant accounting research on corruption, I argue that future research should explore the effects of the new public management (NPM) type of anticorruption reforms on the social and environmental agenda. I maintain that, when used, NPM practices should be adapted to local settings. I also make a case for exploring the potential of locally informed accounting practices to curb corruption that affects sustainability practices.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look more closely, in the context of a given case study, at the role of civil society’s counter-accounts in facilitating democratic change in society, as an ...essential goal of an emancipatory and radical social accounting project. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a Canadian company’s plans to open a gold mine in western Romania is here analysed. Civil society’s opposition to the mining project gave rise to an unprecedented social movement contesting the project’s utility for Romanian society. The role played by counter-accounts produced by civil society groups is investigated. Findings – Counter-accounts produced by civil society played multiple roles in the case study analysed. First, counter-accounts indicated the failure of corporate reports to present the gold mining project in a balanced manner. Second, counter-accounts were successful in problematizing the corporate approach to addressing the social, cultural and environmental impacts of the project, while also nurturing societal debate on these issues. Third, counter-accounts exposed the ideological inclinations of state institutions to favour economic interests over the social, cultural and environmental ones. As a result of these contributions, even if the counter-accounts were subjective, this study claims that they form a good basis for the development of emancipatory accounting. Research limitations/implications – Limitations associated with an interpretative approach and case study research apply. Originality/value – The paper illustrates the potential of civil society’s counter accounts to enable societal debates, as means towards democratic, transformative change.
The role of the tax consultancy industry in promoting tax avoidance products is under increasing scrutiny in the Western world. Various societal actors, such as governmental and non-governmental ...organisations, academics and the media, have voiced their dissatisfaction with the negative effects of tax avoidance on state budgets. This is indicative of a changing attitude towards tax avoidance practices, and the public’s expectations of tax consultancy activities. Applying an institutional logics framework, this paper interprets the traditional values of tax consultancy as articulating commercial logic, and identifies new societal developments exerting pressure for ethical practices in the tax consultancy profession. While there are visible signs of both logics currently coexisting in Western countries, less is known about how these logics manifest in contexts beyond the Western world. We take an in-depth look at tax consultancy in Romania, a country that continuously strives to balance the remnants of its communist past with its newly claimed European identity. We examine the dynamics of these two institutional logics and how the features of Romanian society affect them.
The ability of parents to provide the correct conditions for healthy development, support, and prepare children for maturity determines a child's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social growth. ...According to the literature, numerous factors influence parenting styles. This study aimed to investigate, using sociodemographic parameters, whether the parenting styles of fathers and mothers in families with disabled children differ from one another. The research was conducted at the "Dr. N. Robănescu" National Center of Neurorehabilitation for Children. It included 71 parents of children with cerebral palsy questioned using the Parenting Styles Questionnaire (PSQ), a Romanian-adapted version. Of the five examined parenting styles, the authoritative approach was the most prevalent. The results show a statistically significant difference in the means of uninvolved parenting styles between urban mothers and fathers, a statistically significant difference in the means of authoritarian, authoritative, and uninvolved parenting styles between married mothers and fathers, a statistically significant difference in authoritative parenting style between different education levels; there, was no significant difference in parenting style between different income levels; and a considerable difference in permissive parenting between various employment statuses. This research suggests that some sociodemographic parameters had impact on the parenting styles of our study group.
Accounting scholars have begun to pay increasing attention to commensuration, in other words the valuation of different objects with a common metric. There are also a few studies on a diametrically ...opposed process, namely incommensuration. However, what is missing from this prior research is a more nuanced examination of how (in)commensurability is socially constructed in relation to different approaches to value. Such an examination is important as it adds to our understanding about the interplay of those complex social processes and the associated moral reasoning. The purpose of this study is to examine forms of (in)commensuration work associated with different approaches to the value of cultural heritage. In empirical terms, we study a major controversy related to a Canadian mining company’s plans to open a gold mine in the municipality of Roşia Montană, Western Romania. Our empirical data is gathered from a variety of sources: public documents released by the company, national and international non-governmental organisations, state agencies, and religious institutions; online archives of two major national newspapers from 2002 until 2021; and public consultation material from the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment. Our study makes a twofold contribution. First, we add to the accounting literature on (in)commensuration work by developing and applying a framework that considers both commensuration work and incommensuration work and connects these two forms of work to different approaches to value as well as to the different ways of drawing boundaries around elements of cultural heritage. Second, we expand previous research on accounting and sustainability by focusing on the rarely explored theme of cultural sustainability.
This Editorial is not our regular overview of the year (it would be odd to do it so early in the year) but it accompanies a less ordinary issue of the Social and Environmental Accountability Journal ...(SEAJ). In the first issue of 2024, we feel privileged to have had the opportunity to curate a collection of polemic essays that comment, reflect on and critique recent events and developments of problematic nature: inopportune institutional associations with fossil fuels supporters (AAA collaboration with a Saudi Arabian petroleum and minerals university for the organization of a sustainability conference; the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 organized in a Middle East setting) and academic bigotry perpetuating in the new wave of CSR-related research in North America. In this brief Editorial, we first reflect ourselves on the SEAJ history and long-standing tradition to experiment with alternative publishing formats to provide space for engagement with emerging issues that matter for society and our community. We then introduce the collection of articles that form this issue, after which we end by discussing implications of our reflections for the future of social and environmental accounting (SEA)research.
