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Net energy importing countries (NEICs) pursue strategic policies to reduce the consumption of energy from conventional sources and increase that of renewable energy to attain energy security and sustainable development. However, net energy exporting countries (NEECs) rely substantially on the proceeds realised from oil and gas exports to mainly NEICs to finance government activities. This paper aims to investigate the effect of increased consumption of renewable energy in developed NEICs on the Nigeria’s oil and gas exports.

The study was undertaken by analysing macro-economic annual time-series data set (1980-2014) using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach.

Both the short-run and the long-run results of the ARDL modelling reveal that renewable energy consumption in developed NEICs is affecting Nigeria’s oil and gas exports negatively, thereby causing significant decrease in the amounts of revenue being generated therefrom.

Like most empirical studies, the conduct of this research has encountered some challenges. Thus, the use of rather small sample in terms of period covered (1980-2014), annual frequency of data and focus on one NEEC (Nigeria) are the key limitations of this paper. While the first two challenges were dealt with by using ARDL, future research can focus on other NEECs to extend the study.

The findings have several policy implications, including the need for Nigeria to focus on developing internal market trajectories to increase domestic utilisation of its conventional energy rather than depending on external markets. The results also suggest the need for public policymakers to develop a strategic plan that will effectively address the external economic threat arising from the influence of global energy transition.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first effort to empirically examine the effect of renewable energy consumption by developed NEICs on the Nigeria’s oil and gas exports. The paper contributes to the literature by providing insight into and documenting evidence that the world is taking transitioning to cleaner energy sources very seriously.

The objective of this research project was to ascertain the role of management accountants in relation to strategic human resource management (SHRM) and the information provided for SHRM. To achieve this objective four case studies (two UK and two Canadian organisations) were conducted using a grounded theory approach. The two most important HR strategies in these cases were training and leadership development, which were linked to the overall goals of each organisation. Management accountants played a key role in providing information for the SHRM planning process in all four cases. The role of management accountants during the strategic planning process was very much as integral team members with a facilitating role. In all four cases management accountants provided HR managers with information for decision making.

There is growing evidence that Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) activities are being pursued in an interdisciplinary manner. One such discipline where management accounting could contribute is in Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). The integration of business strategy and Human Resource Management minimises the risk of neglecting human resources as a vital source of organisational competitive advantage. It also provides a broader range of solutions for solving complex organisational problems and ensures that human resources are given consideration when setting company goals. This empirical study examines the current role of management accounting in relation to the SHRM process using data from surveys of Finance Directors and Human Resource Directors from both Canada and the UK. The results reveal that Canadian Finance professionals are more involved in providing information for developing, evaluating and controlling Human Resource (HR) strategy than UK Finance professionals. Both HR and Finance respondents considered that there was a need for a closer partnership between HR and Finance professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to explore firm–stakeholder environmental accountability relationship in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

The paper develops, from the interdisciplinary literature, a normative framework that links the dominant environmentalism paradigm to the business-firm-causality environmental philosophy. The link is underpinned by the theory of stakeholder identification and salience to enable the identification and evaluation of the importance placed on each environmental stakeholder group by oil and gas companies in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.

This paper submits that three factors, originating from how these companies identify and classify green stakeholders, lead to little and unimpressive efforts to effectively discharge environmental accountability. These factors include weak, legal powers of regulatory environmental stakeholders; non-recognition of the host communities as powerful environmental stakeholders; and non-recognition of the Nigerian public as legitimate environmental stakeholders.

Underestimating the importance of some key, environmental stakeholders and the weak powers of regulatory environmental stakeholders leads to limited commitments to environmental accountability by oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria. Inevitably, this results in persistent conflict, violence, destruction of the oil companies’ properties and other various forms of unrest common in the Niger Delta.

The paper develops a unique normative framework from the relevant literature in environmental ethics, environmental management and environmental accounting that are used to evaluate firms-stakeholder environmental accountability relationship.

This study examines social responsibility information disclosure on the Internet by Portuguese listed companies in 2003 and also analyses annual reports as a disclosure medium for those companies which disclose such information on their web pages. The results are interpreted through the lens of legitimacy theory, according to which companies disclose social responsibility information to present a socially responsible image so that they can legitimise their behaviours to their stakeholder groups. Companies in sectors that have a larger potential impact on the environment or in industries with a high visibility among consumers seem to exhibit greater concern to improve the corporate image through social responsibility information disclosure. Results thus suggest that legitimacy theory may be an explanation of social responsibility disclosure by Portuguese listed companies.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Implementation and Disclosure in the Banking Sector: the case of banks with Islamic identity in Syria. This study aims to explore Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD) in Syrian banks which have an Islamic identity, investigating their motivations when implementing and disclosing CSR and the challenges banks have faced. This study employed content analysis to extract knowledge from 33 annual reports published by three banks which have Islamic identity in Syria over the period 2008–2020. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with five participants who are aware of CSRD policy in the banks in the sample, in order to gain a fuller understanding of their motivations in relation to CSR and any challenges they faced. This article draws on the overlap between Stakeholder and Legitimacy theories in order to explain the motivations of the banks in question. The study found that banks which have an Islamic identity increased their levels of CSR implementation during the conflict crisis but were not publishing details on these activities because of a concern regarding the Islamic modesty around charitable actions and to avoid upsetting the sensibility of beneficiaries. Interviewees commented that in the time of conflict crisis, many Syrians needed relief and support. Because of this, banks in our research sample decided to take responsibility to lessen the negative impact of the conflict crisis on the Syrian community. In addition, the analysis revealed that banks engaged with Environment and Human Right issues after 2013 because they wanted to fulfil the requirements of their national partners.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between human resource (HR) policies, management accounting and organisational performance in Canada, Japan and the UK.

A cross case analysis of the observations emerging from each of six case studies (two in Canada, two in Japan and two in the UK) result in a set of 13 findings.

The seven main HR policies emerging from this study are the “job for life” (in one British and two Japanese cases), recruitment, training, performance‐related bonus scheme, teamwork, organisational culture and pensions. Important communication links between HR managers and management accountants are budgets, strategic plans, performance‐related bonus scheme and decision making. The “job for life” policy, employee recruitment decisions, viewing employees as assets (rather than costs), training, performance‐related bonus scheme, teamwork, organisational culture and a good pension scheme all had an impact on organisational performance.

It is very difficult to link specific HR policies with changes in organisational performance because of the number of other variables affecting organisational performance and the time lags involved.

Several of the case studies are making real progress in establishing links between specific HR policies and changes in organisational performance by using benchmarking or employee opinion surveys or a combination of the results of both external benchmarking and employee opinion surveys over a number of years.

Responds to the widely‐reported methodological problems which have arisen in research into corporate social and environmental reporting. Reports on an attempt to build a database of UK company social and environmental disclosure. The motivation behind the database is an attempt to provide, first, a data set which both refines and develops earlier attempts to capture and interpret such disclosures; second, a data set covering several years to permit longitudinal analysis; and third, a public database for accounting researchers who wish to pursue, in a systematic and comparable way, more focused hypotheses about social and environmental reporting behaviour. Explains the motivation for, the background to, and process of establishing such a database and attempts to expose the difficulties met and the assumptions made in establishing the structure of the data capture. The resultant database has already proved useful to other UK researchers. Aims to help researchers in other countries to develop their own methods of enquiry in a manner which will avoid them having to reinvent wheels and will produce results which will be broadly comparable at an international level.

PurposeTo explore whether there is an audit expectations gap in the public sector between the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) auditors in Bangladesh and the users of the CAG reports namely the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament that examines the CAG audit reports and the international funding agencies (IFAs) that provide external funding in the public sector in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe perceptions of CAG auditors and users of their reports were explored using a questionnaire based on a theoretical framework of accountability and six related audit concepts.FindingsThere were statistically significant differences in perceptions between 17 CAG auditors and the 15 members of the PAC on 13 of the 25 variables and between these 17 CAG auditors and nine representatives of the IFAs on 14 of these variables.Research limitations/implicationsThe relatively small number of respondents to this questionnaire is a limitation of this research project.Practical implicationsBetter training for the CAG auditors into their report users' information requirements and expectations and better training for the members of the PAC and the representatives of the IFAs coupled with more cooperation between the CAG auditors, the PAC and the IFAs might help to reduce this audit expectations gap in the public sector in Bangladesh.Originality/valueThis is the first time that statistical evidence has confirmed the existence of an audit expectations gap between CAG auditors and users of their audit reports in the context of the public sector.

Takes as its departure point the criticism of Guthrie and Parker by Arnold and the Tinker et al. critique of Gray et al. Following an extensive review of the corporate social reporting literature, its major theoretical preoccupations and empirical conclusions, attempts to re‐examine the theoretical tensions that exist between “classical” political economy interpretations of social disclosure and those from more “bourgeois” perspectives. Argues that political economy, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory need not be competitor theories but may, if analysed appropriately, be seen as alternative and mutually enriching theories from alternative levels of resolution. Offers evidence from 13 years of social disclosure by UK companies and attempts to interpret this from different levels of resolution. There is little doubt that social disclosure practice has changed dramatically in the period. The theoretical perspectives prove to offer different, but mutually enhancing, interpretations of these phenomena.