Organizational change for environmental, social, and financial sustainability: A systematic literature review

Ghani M, Ahmad B. Management accounting systems and economic sustainability: a qualitative inquiry of SMEs in Pakistan

Purpose

This qualitative inquiry sheds light on using management accounting systems to address economic sustainability concerns in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan. Building on the dynamic capabilities (DC) theory, this research endeavors to address the recent calls on management accounting and economic sustainability in the context of SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative research design was adopted in which 13 semistructured interviews were conducted with SME owners of Pakistan. The transcribed interviews were coded and thematic analysis was performed via NVIVO-12 to generate themes.

Findings

Based on the DC theory, the findings revealed that SME owners in Pakistan use management accounting systems to ensure economic sustainability. The authors found that DC are a co-created phenomenon and refer to them as collective DC. Furthermore, the authors found the theme of accounting literacy which played a critical role in the exhibition of DC in a collective manner.

Originality/value

This is one of the earliest studies on management accounting systems that examine economic sustainability in Pakistani SMEs. This research provides novel insights into the use of management accounting systems in Pakistan from the perspective of DC. In Pakistani SMEs, dynamic capacities are co-created and contingent on accounting literacy.

Workplace Spirituality as an Alternative Model for Promoting Commitment to Change and Change-Oriented Organisational Citizenship Behaviour

Considering that the relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational change has only recently sparked scholarly interest, the connection could be more evident, as research has only recently begun. Furthermore, there is a growing tendency to add spirituality as the fourth dimension to sustainability in addition to the environment, social responsibility, and the economy. This study contributes to the academic literature by examining the influence of workplace spirituality on lecturers’ responses to change in their commitment to change and change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (C-OCB). Private universities in Banjarmasin, Indonesia, were selected to research these links. To collect data from 1050 instructors, self-administered questionnaires were used, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed. The findings demonstrated that the workplace spirituality level, exemplified by a solid connection to a higher power, humanity, and nature, affects the lecturers’ commitment to change leading to change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (C-OCB), a dimension of OCB less researched. The findings offer a novel perspective on the relationship between workplace spirituality, lecturers’ attitudes towards change, and change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (C-OCB) in higher education. Since this result has not been examined in the context of change in higher education, several consequences and suggestions for future research emerge. More studies could be used in future research, given that the literature in this area is still in its early stages. The current work is expected to spark future research on this intriguing and fertile issue.

Users’ perception for innovation and sustainability management: evidence from public transport

No one doubts the importance of public transport services in the economic backbone of any country. In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in the contribution to Sustainable Development Goals on the part of governments, companies, and stakeholders. In this sense, transport can contribute to the sustainability of cities and facilitate other social objectives, such as universal accessibility, with innovation being a key pillar for this. Thus, the main objective of this study is to analyze users’ perceptions of the innovation and sustainability of public transport in Spain.

To analyze the user’s perception of public transport, a questionnaire was developed following Bitner’s Servicescape Model. A total of 1,354 responses were collected in different Spanish cities. The main results show that the policies implemented in both innovation and sustainability are perceived positively but do not seem to have much impact on the service user. Public transport users prioritize the speed, frequency, and safety of the service received. In addition, it should be noted that the gender of the user influences the preferences of the objectives, i.e., men value technological development in public transport more. At the same time, women give higher priority to sustainability. The age of users is another variable that conditions public transport users’ perceptions of innovation and sustainability. The results also show users’ preferences for different types of public transport.

The study’s main contribution is that it shows to what extent the innovation and sustainability policies applied in the public transport service are valued and motivate citizens to use the service. The political and management decisions may be disconnected from the reality perceived by users. These decisions may be more linked to regulatory pressures and involve a high implementation cost, so it is necessary to consider the valuation of users’ service so that the benefit or social return of these investments is high, encouraging the use of the service.

Penalty contracts: is it all about paying the cash upfront?

We experimentally investigate the relevance of a cash upfront payment for the effort-enhancing effect of penalty contracts. We find that penalty contracts where participants receive the upfront payment physically before working on a real effort task induce more effort than penalty contracts where participants are only informed about the upfront payment. When comparing penalty contracts with economically-equivalent bonus contracts, we find that penalty contracts lead to higher effort provision than bonus contracts, but only if participants physically receive the upfront cash payment in advance. We suggest that the higher salience of the cash upfront payment might be a core driver of the detected framing effect. Our findings emphasize the importance of experimental design choices when studying framed incentive contracts.

Nexus between Housing Price and Magnitude of Pollution: Evidence from the Panel of Some High- and-Low Polluting Cities of the World

With the growing environmental pollution and adverse climatic conditions, it is now a globally vibrant topic whether housing prices should be associated with the quality of the environment in a particular region. From the microeconomic approach to environmental economics, it is proposed that property prices in any region should be associated with the environmental quality-the concept of hedonic pricing. A negative association between low magnitudes of pollution and high house prices is a precondition to achieving the aim of sustainable development. The study thus starts with the objective of investigating whether there are long-term relations and short-term dynamics between the magnitudes of pollution and house price in the panel of the world’s high-polluting and low-polluting cities for the period of 2012–2021 across 30 cities. Using appropriate time-series econometric procedures such as panel cointegration, panel VECM, and the Wald Test, the study arrives at the conclusion that magnitudes of pollution and house prices in the cities are cointegrated with a stable long-term relationship in all panels. Further, there are strong causal interplays in both the long- and short-term between pollution and house prices in most of the panels of the cities. Thus, policy makers should consider making proper valuations of environmental services to control pollution at the city levels first and then at global levels to reach the proposed goal of sustainable development.

Qualitative analysis on the driving force behind upcycling practices associated with mobile applications: Circular economy perspective

Upcycling is a type of practice included within the circular economy. Although interest in this type of activity has grown in recent years, academic analysis of the drivers that impel these activities is poorly developed. This work focuses on upcycling activities developed in the context of rural tourism. Through field work based on structured interviews applied in the region of Andalusia (Spain), evidence was sought about the drivers that promote this type of practice. In particular, attention was paid to the role of mobile applications as facilitators of upcycling. The main finding was that technology helps in using upcycling practices when considering rural tourism, as demonstrated by the use of mobile applications and websites such as Wallapop. There was also evidence of the different factors that drive the development of upcycling practices: the existence of a traditional social network as a means of obtaining second-hand items, technology as an element that facilitates access to items owned by strangers, the need to offer the image sought by tourists, and a desire to maintain the cultural essence of the region.