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The firms that do worst on the environment and human slavery in the 2023 Chocolate Scorecard are those whose mission statements extend to little more than making chocolate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent global and local concerns have had a significant impact on society. COVID-19 has shown the global reality of widespread inequality and the importance of ensuring that universal health coverage [...]

ABSTRACTPacific Island Countries (PICs) commonly rely on intergovernmental Official Development Aid (ODA) to assist with social and environmental challenges. Therefore, how national governments are accountable for these commitments is an important issue for donors and recipients. This study investigates the donor side of this relationship by exploring Australia’s ODA relationship with Solomon Islands through its recent Pacific Step-up programme. Given the geographic closeness and history between Australia and Solomon Islands, we adopt critical geopolitics as a framework to inform the analysis. We find that the two common metaphors, familyand step-up,are evidence of Australia’s accountability relationship with Solomon Islands; while the concept of tug-of-warexplains the background and rising geopolitical anxiety between two regional powers, Australia and China. This study extends our understanding of aid accountability within a novel intergovernmental environment and offers an alternative explanation rooted in a politics of power.

The article focuses on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) new draft guide aimed at helping businesses collaborate on sustainability projects while adhering to competition laws. Topics include the guide's focus on environmental sustainability, the potential oversight of social aspects such as equity and community impact, and the importance of a balanced approach that addresses both environmental and social elements in sustainability efforts.

Purpose: Temporary labour mobility programmes (TLMPs) are initiated by high-income nations to fill their labour demands by offering temporary work opportunities to migrants from low-income nations. TLMPs also seek to contribute to economic development in workers' home countries. This paper aims to assess the accountability of New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Scheme and Australia's Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) in reaching their economic development objectives in one sending nation, Samoa. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study with RSE and SWP workers and key informants (collectively stakeholders) in Samoa was undertaken to assess the contributions of these schemes to economic development. An interdisciplinary research approach was taken using the Pacific methodology of talanoa. Talanoa was used to “operationalise engagement” and empower local stakeholder accounts. Findings: Talanoa supported the elicitation of accounts that contributed nuanced insights into the accountability of TLMPs. Specifically, stakeholder accounts revealed limitations in the ability of the RSE Scheme and SWP to meet their economic development objectives for Samoan communities and workers. Adjustments are necessary to meet Pacific nations' economic development objectives. Practical implications: This study responds to calls for on-the-ground accounts of stakeholders involved in TLMPs. It provides insights that may contribute to the development of more effective TLMPs, particularly regarding economic development in workers' home countries. Originality/value: Drawing on dialogic accounting literature, which calls for engagement with the marginalised, a talanoa approach has been engaged to assess TLMPs via on-the-ground participant accounts in a specific context. This paper introduces talanoa to the critical and social accounting literature, to move beyond a typical accounting qualitative interview process and encourage greater engagement and collaboration with Pacific scholars and partners.

ABSTRACTMany white-collar workplaces have changed substantially because of the pandemic. This paper examines how the rise of technology-based distributed work arrangements impacts on the knowledge, skills and competencies that higher education graduates must possess to be successful in post-pandemic white-collar work environments. In addition, this paper examines prior literature to identify digital forms of Work Integrated Learning as a mechanism through which higher education providers can assist graduates in their post-pandemic transition from university to the workplace.

The 5th Edition of the Chocolate Scorecard, released by Be Slavery Free, two Australian universities, and sustainability interest groups, assesses the policies and practices of chocolate traders, manufacturers, brands, and retailers. The scorecard ranks companies based on criteria such as traceability, fair labor practices, climate change, and deforestation. This year, Ritter Sport and Tony's Chocolonely were recognized for their sustainable practices, while Lindt and Mondel¿z received lower ratings. The scorecard also highlights the need for retailers to address human rights and environmental issues in their supply chains. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: It is difficult for corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) to provide accountability to stakeholders. This paper assesses whether accountability-based CSR systems can be created through the application of Spotlight Accounting and WikiRate as a hybrid forum. Design/methodology/approach: The current paper explores the utility of Spotlight Accounting for CSR through assessing its application to a hybrid forum, WikiRate. This process involved engaging student researchers to collect CSR data from the United Nations Global Compact's (UNGC) corporate action group (CAG) and recording this information into the WikiRate platform. Aggregate analysis was conducted to assess the limitations and challenges of the data to inform decision-making. Findings: Spotlight Accounting exposes challenges within traditional applications of CSR. These challenges impact comparability, decision usefulness and accountability of CSR data for stakeholders. Practical implications: This paper provides recommendations to enhance the accessibility and relevance of company information to assist in the provision of Spotlight Accounting. In doing so, it highlights the usefulness of CSR to leverage greater accountability between corporations and society. Originality/value: This paper applies the emerging practices of Spotlight Accounting and presents it as an alternative way to research and conceptualise external accounts, reporting and accountability. This form of accounting has the potential to enhance communications and partnerships between companies and society as well as challenge dominate power dynamics held by corporations.

Purpose: Sustainability is one of the leading challenges of our age, and higher education plays a vital role in supporting the implementation of sustainability initiatives. There has been substantial progress in business schools introducing sustainability into courses with extant literature detailing case studies of sustainability education and student perceptions of their learning. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap in literature from educators' perspectives on their experiences of introducing sustainability teaching using specific teaching tools for sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a case study on a sustainability teaching tool, WikiRate, that was embedded into business and management courses at seven higher education institutions from across the globe. Interviews were conducted after course delivery to gain insights into the practical challenges of designing and implementing a sustainability education activity. Findings: The findings show that educators perceive sustainability as a complex issue, presenting a challenge to teaching in university systems whose normative curricula are rooted in instrumental problem-solving. Furthermore, educators described challenges to their own learning in order to implement sustainability into curricula including the need for compromises and adaptions. Originality/value: This empirical study reports on educators' experiences embedding sustainability into their courses through an innovative teaching tool, WikiRate. This paper has implications for reframing how we can approach sustainability education and presents discussion ways to teach complexity without reduction or simplification.

ABSTRACTThis paper considers an alternative way of gathering and evaluating information on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the actions taken towards sustainable development. Social accounting theory is currently limited in conceptualising external accounts that sit outside the description of silent or shadow accounts. With the emergence of technological platforms that enable CSR information to be collectively located, new models of stakeholder engagement are growing using the wisdom of the crowd for information collation and analyses. This paper outlines a crowdsourced platform, WikiRate, which aims to both empower corporate transparency surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals and assist in multidimensional stakeholder participation and decision making. Existing theoretical characterisations of external accounts are used as a way of understanding the WikiRate engagement model and more broadly its relationship with social accounting. Through analysis and theoretical development, this research has implications for imagining and exploring new social accountings and social accountants that can lead to emancipatory change. ‘Spotlight accounting’ is introduced as a process that illuminates global organisational transparency and sustainability through crowdsourcing by independent stakeholders.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an initiative designed to introduce business students to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through researching, reporting and reflecting on authentic corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Through this initiative, business students develop first-hand experience with organisational sustainability efforts through examining CSR reporting against the SDGs. Students are prompted to analyse organisational behaviour to form their own judgements, and increase awareness of social, ethical and environmental organisational practices. Design/methodology/approach An experiential learning activity is introduced that was developed in partnership with the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) network, and WikiRate, an online CSR reporting platform, employing the SDGs as a framework. In this paper, we present a pilot study on the initiative in order to examine and evaluate student perceptions of the activity, and their post-activity reflections on CSR and the SDGs. Findings This paper offers educators a practical way to meet curriculum challenges for teaching students the theory and practical applications of sustainable business

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a forward-looking case of climate change induced displacement in the Pacific Islands as a multidimensional phenomenon with a moral dimension. Instead of seeking to provide a definitive solution to an imagined problem, the authors have identified the complexity of the situation through an exploration of the accounts of place and accountability for the consequences of displacement. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explores displacement from a sociological perspective. The authors use the sociology of worth (SOW) to anchor explicit and competing moral claims in an evaluation regime that considers questions of justice and the common good. The public accounts of place in the Pacific Islands provide the empirical material for a consideration of a situated crisis. While SOW is generally adopted for current crises or disputes, this study explores the pre-immigrant story and a future case of displacement. Bauman’s (1998, 2012) perspective on globalization is used to narrate the local conditions of place in a global context as reflective of a dominant social order. Findings: Since place is a multidimensional concept and experienced according to various states of being including physical, functional, spiritual and emotion or feeling, displacement is also felt at a multidimensional level. Thus to provide an account of a lived experience and to foster a moral accountability for climate induced displacement requires a consideration of multiple accounts and compromises that need to be considered. Research limitations/implications: As with the majority of accounting research that is concerned with the suffering of those at a distance, we too must tackle this conundrum in a meaningful way. As members of a society that is the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gas, how do we speak for our drowning neighbors? The paper concludes with some insights from Boltanski (1999) as a way forward. Originality/value: The paper presents a forward-looking scenario of a looming crisis from a sociological perspective. It adds to the literature on alternative accounts by using stories, media, government reports and other sources to holistically build a narrative grounded in a current and imaged social order.

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses, and responds to, one aspect of perceived failures of social and environmental accounting to make societies more sustainable. First, we argue that Charles Taylor’s concept of moral sourcescan articulate part of the ‘motivational gap’ between social and environmental accounts and sustainability. A moral source is an ideal that inspires people to enact their beliefs. Without a compelling moral source, social and environmental accounts may increase people’s knowledge of sustainability issues without changing their behaviour. Second, we use religion to illustrate the typeof moral source that social accounting might mobilise. Drawing on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home(2015), we outline how moral sources can clarify what sustainable action requires and help commit people to these actions. Third, we apply this religious moral source to social and environmental accounting research into climate change-induced migration. Our paper does not argue that religion in general, or Catholic texts in particular, are the only moral sources accounting research could use. Rather, we use this religious discourse to illustrate the potential value of more directly linking social and environmental accounting to ‘moral sources’ that perform a comparable rolein motivating sustainable social practice.

•WikiRate is a pedagogical innovation that develops knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) forsustainability.•The WikiRate pedagogical innovation is helpful in developing a sustainability mindset.•Responsible Management Educators should use more the student's voice to understand what students learn from different pedagogies.