BP’s use of posture to respond to the deepwater horizon crisis

This paper focuses on the posture the oil company BP adopted when faced with a legitimacy crisis during one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Against a backdrop of a discussion of the rhetorical aspects of image repair discourse and organisational legitimacy, Hearit’s strategy of corporate apologia was employed to determine the posture BP adopted in relation to the crisis. This paper adds to the literature on image repair strategies by heeding a call by Hearit for the context within which corporate apologia takes place to be taken account of, an approach that warrants a distinct line of research. The literature was further extended by complementing Hearit's strategy with semiotics and analysing its use in both the annual and sustainability reports. The additional focus on the sustainability reports is important, due to the high premium placed on sustainability in the changing business environment. On a practical level this paper contributes to an understanding of how organisations use sustainability reports to respond to legitimacy challenges

Incorporating financial literacy into the secondary school accounting curriculum: a New Zealand perspective

This paper examines whether selected stakeholder groups believe accounting should continue to be taught as an elective subject in its current form at New Zealand secondary schools or whether incorporating a financial literacy component would increase the subject’s relevance to students. A mixed method approach combining qualitative and quantitative research methods was used. An electronically administered survey was used to obtain the responses of secondary school accounting teachers, while additional insight in the form of semi-structured interviews was obtained from other stakeholders. Although respondents generally agreed that students benefited from accounting as an elective subject at secondary school, all agreed that the development of financial literacy skills was important. Difficulties in introducing a new core subject into an already overcrowded curriculum were acknowledged. However, this difficulty could be overcome by making modifications to the subject “Accounting”. As the most widespread, existing “finance” related subject, Accounting would be the most appropriate vehicle through which to teach financial literacy

A biodiversity jigsaw: A review of current New Zealand legislation and initiatives

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the current legislation and initiatives surrounding biodiversity management, protection and sustainable use related to the New Zealand local government sector. Design/methodology/approach: This paper takes the form of an archival review of the academic databases, legislation and biodiversity related websites to ascertain the current legislation and initiatives in place in New Zealand surrounding biodiversity. Findings: The paper found biodiversity to be managed through a combination of legislation, national policies, strategies, trusts and contestable funds. The majority of biodiversity protection on private land is the responsibility of the 78 local authorities that comprise the local government sector through their administration of the Resource Management Act 1991. Despite the legislative requirement to protect and manage biodiversity the paper confirmed that no statutory framework currently exists to guide biodiversity reporting. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to New Zealand biodiversity related legislation and initiatives. As such it may not necessarily be applicable to any other jurisdictions. Practical implications:This review illustrates the difficulty that exists in navigating the disjointed legislation and other initiatives relating to biodiversity. This currently hinders the development of framework for reporting on biodiversity by local government. However the development of such a framework is crucial to the conservation and sustainable use of New Zealand’s unique biodiversity for the benefit of current and future generations. Originality/value: This paper adds to the limited literature in the field of biodiversity reporting and extends it to the local government sector in New Zealand

The accounting profession and education : the development of disengaged scholarly activity in accounting in South Africa

Abstract: Purpose - This paper examines how the actions of the accounting profession, the state, universities and accounting academics have inhibited the development of South African accounting research. Design/methodology/approach - A multiple history approach of traditional archival material and oral history is used. Findings - Since the late nineteenth century, a network of human and non-human (including regulation and transformation) ‘actants’ ensured that accounting education retained a technical focus. By prescribing and detailing the accounting syllabi required for accreditation, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and its predecessors exercise direct control over accounting education. While the professional body claims to support accounting research, this is conditional on it meeting the professional body’s particular view of scholarship. Research limitations/implications – The limitations associated with this research is that it focuses on one particular professional body in one jurisdiction. However, the South African situation provides a cautionary tale of how universities, particularly those in developing countries, should take care not to abdicate their responsibilities for setting of syllabi or course content to professional bodies. Accounting academics, particularly those in a developing country that is experiencing major social, political and economic problems, are in a prime position to engage in research that will benefit society as a whole. Originality – Although Actor Network Theory has been widely used in accounting research and in particular to explain accounting knowledge creation the use of this particular theoretical lens to examine the construction of professional knowledge is limited. This study draws on Callon’s (1986) four moments to explain how various human actors including: the accounting profession; the state; universities; accounting academics, and non-human actors including: accreditation; regulation; and transformation, have brought about South African academic disengagement with the discipline

Incorporating indigenous values in corporate social responsibility reports

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to show how a major state-owned enterprise in New Zealand uses its annual report to promote the image of an organisation concerned with the local community including Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, Māori values and their relationship with the environment. Design/methodology/approach – This longitudinal single case study of Mighty River Power Limited spans the period 2000 to 2009. It involves detailed examination of the narrative disclosures contained in the annual reports, including photographs, over the period of the study to determine whether Mighty River Power used the annual report to present a favourable image to the organisation’s stakeholders. Indigenous partnerships between the organisation and Māori trusts were also investigated to determine how these contributed to the corporate identity promoted in the annual reports. Findings – The analysis found that annual report was used to promote the image of an organisation upholding the Māori value of kaitiakitanga as part of its social responsibility to the local community and environment. Māori partnerships and community environmental group sponsorship were featured extensively in the images and narratives, with specific reference to indigenous values. Originality/value – This paper builds upon previous literature in the field of corporate social responsibility in annual reports and extends it to the state-owned enterprise sector in New Zealand, focusing specifically on the relationship between the entity and the indigenous community in which it operates

South African corporate management's attitude to the accounting standard-setting process and international harmonisation

The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants recently made a decision to adopt accounting standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee rather than continuing to develop standards locally. Reasons used to justify this policy change include: the lack of resources to develop accounting standards from a zero base and, with what has been classified as the sub-standard financial reporting that occurs in South Africa. By adopting International Accounting Standards, amending the standard-setting process and providing legal backing for these standards, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants aims to improve the standard of financial reporting. It will be argued that this decision will effect the contribution preparers of financial statements make to the standard-setting process. Corporate management as preparers of financial information participate in this process by reacting to proposed statements of generally accepted accounting practice in a number of ways, including lobbying the standard-setting body. This thesis aims to establish the views of South African corporate managers to the proposed changes to the accounting standard-setting process which incorporates the adoption of international accounting standards. To achieve this objective, the responses of South African corporate managers to the first six exposure drafts issued by the Accounting Practices Committee based on International Accounting Standards are examined to supply evidence that is descriptive in nature and which provides additional support for the findings of the empirical study. Forty hypotheses were developed and tested in an attempt to establish the views of executives to various issues relating to the accounting standard-setting process, corporate managers as the producers of firm specific financial information, the regulation of accounting, management incentive schemes and the international harmonisation of accounting standards. The tests of the hypotheses together with the findings of the individual case studies, provide evidence to suggest that this new disposition effectively marginalises South African corporate managers from the accounting standard-setting process. Finally, it is concluded that the existence of a management compensation/incentive scheme, is unlikely to influence corporate management's reaction to a proposed accounting standard.AuditingD. Compt. (Applied Accountancy

South African deferred tax practices within the context of positive and normative accounting theories.

Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1993.The primary purpose of this study is to establish whether, by examining the responses to various pronouncements covering deferred taxation, a comprehensive theory of accounting can be said to exist in South Africa. Four case studies were conducted on the responses to the various pronouncements issued by the Accounting Practices Committee on deferred tax. The respondents to these pronouncements were surveyed to establish their perception and understanding of various aspects of accounting theory, deferred taxation and corporate management's influence on the accounting standard setting process. The results of the study indicate that, although the recognition of a positive theory of accounting cannot be conclusively shown to exist, certain of the factors that can be said to drive the accounting standard setting process are identified. A positive relationship is perceived to exist between the accounting standard setting process and management compensation

The institutionalisation of mining company sustainability disclosures

This paper reports the analyses of the social and environmental disclosures of listed South African mining companies and compares the disclosures of larger companies with those of smaller companies using several different categories of comparison. The prior literature suggests that larger companies almost invariably disclose more social and environmental information due to their greater visibility. The expected differences are found in social disclosures, but not in environmental disclosures. An institutional theory framework explains these unexpected environmental disclosure findings. Specifically, normative isomorphism, usually driven by professionalization, becomes more prominent when a field reaches maturity and the field of corporate environmental disclosures among mining companies has reached a level of maturity and professionalization causing disclosures to be similar. These similarities have now reached the stage where small companies disclose the same amount of environmental information, in the same general format, as large companies.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcleprohb201