Flows of information and meaning: a vocabulary approach to integrated thinking and reporting

PurposeIntegrated reporting (IR) is increasingly becoming a practice useful not only for accountability but also for managerial purposes because of its potential role as a signifying practice for integrated thinking (IT). In this perspective, this paper aims to explore which of the objects that are represented in integrated reports provide materiality and common understanding to the concept of IT for its effective implementation within organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a vocabulary approach for interpreting the texts of integrated reports as systems of words that are able to provide meaning for a common understanding of the concept of IT. In particular, by focu…

The promotion of tourism in Italian regions from a sensorial perspective: a website content analysis

Recent tourism literature has identified the sensory dimension as key to understanding, planning and marketing tourist experiences. This paper aims to understand to what extent Italian regions consider the sensorial perspective in tourist communication, focusing the analysis on their institutional websites. We used the content analysis method considering two different periods to investigate the evolution of Italian tourism promotion. The results show that for all institutional websites, over time, attention engages only some of the five sensorial dimensions. That is, the communication does not appear balanced. Furthermore, the promotional communication in several regions is more oriented to…

Internal audit professional principles and academic literature over the last decade: is there a gap to bridge

The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) has defined the ethical principles internal auditors must adhere to, allowing them to create a common understanding of ethical behaviour within their profession, thereby promoting ethical culture. This paper aims to analyse the role of these principles in the main branches of internal audit research over the last decade. We examine the most important articles published in this field and categorise them into seven main strands. We assess the extent to which these strands focus on the IIA ethical principles, aiming to identify research gaps in the extant literature. Our findings show that the literature dealing with ethical principles in the recruitmen…

WRITTEN ACCOUNTING NARRATIVES IN CORPORATE REPORTING: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR INVESTIGATING THEIR MEANINGS, DYNAMICS AND CONTEXTS

Multidimensionalità del valore aziendale e valutazione dell’impatto sociale: nuove prospettive di indagine

Nel presente volume viene trattato il tema del “valore” prodotto dalle aziende ponendo enfasi su come questo sia un concetto più ampio rispetto alla sua sola dimensione economico-finanziaria. Nella prima parte della trattazione esporremo come le aziende siano oggi chiamate a ricoprire un ruolo a elevato contenuto sociale, come ciò sia stato teorizzato e stia ottenendo sempre più ampio riconoscimento a livello nazionale e internazionale. Nella seconda parte introdurremo invece il tema della valutazione e rendicontazione degli impatti sociali. Nel fare ciò tratteremo il concetto di “impatto sociale” e la relazione tra sua rendicontazione e valutazione. Illustreremo, infine, una roadmap genera…

Sustainability reporting and public value: Evidence from port authorities

Due to the growing importance of Port Authorities (PAs) in pursuing economic, social, and environmental goals, scholars and policymakers should understand how these PAs can contribute to creating public value. By adopting the strategic triangle framework of public value, we studied how Italian PAs create public value by investigating their non-financial disclosures. For this purpose, we performed a cluster analysis and a lexical correspondence analysis on the textual content of the sustainability reports of eight Italian PAs. The study results allowed us to understand how PAs preserve and disseminate public value, obtain legitimacy and support from stakeholders, and build operational capaci…