title: The effect of sustainability reporting on financial performance: An empirical study using listed companies

authors: Reddy, Krishna

subjects: sustainability

abstract: Purpose - This study investigates the effect sustainability reporting has on companies’ financial performance. Sustainability reports are voluntarily released by companies that provide additional information to the stakeholders regarding the impact their activities have on the environment and society. 
Design/Methodology/Approach: This empirical paper analyses and identifies overlaps, gaps, limitations and flaws in current constructs of sustainability reporting. Using event study method to estimate abnormal returns for a 31 day event window for a sample of 68 listed companies, 17 listed in New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) and 51 listed in the Australian Stock exchange (ASX). 
Findings: Results of the empirical study indicate that sustainability reporting is statistically significant in explaining abnormal returns for the Australian companies. The cross-sectional analysis results of the combined dataset for the two countries support the view that the contextual factors of industry type significantly impacts abnormal returns of the reporting companies. In this regard, this study identifies several contextual factors, such as industry and type of sustainability report, that have the potential to impact the relationship. Only the CSR type of sustainability report was significant in explaining the abnormal return of New Zealand companies. 
Practical implications: To underscore the practical implications of the theory, it shows, by reference to the model, how sustainability reporting influences financial performance for companies engaged in industries that have environmental implications. However, the simplistic model may also have many other applications in management and the social sciences.
Originality value: The proposed model is highly original in providing a framework for studying the impact of sustainability reporting in companies that have an environmental impact.

text: The effect of sustainability reporting on financial performance: An empirical study using listed companies Purpose - This study investigates the effect sustainability reporting has on companies’ financial performance. Sustainability reports are voluntarily released by companies that provide additional information to the stakeholders regarding the impact their activities have on the environment and society. 
Design/Methodology/Approach: This empirical paper analyses and identifies overlaps, gaps, limitations and flaws in current constructs of sustainability reporting. Using event study method to estimate abnormal returns for a 31 day event window for a sample of 68 listed companies, 17 listed in New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) and 51 listed in the Australian Stock exchange (ASX). 
Findings: Results of the empirical study indicate that sustainability reporting is statistically significant in explaining abnormal returns for the Australian companies. The cross-sectional analysis results of the combined dataset for the two countries support the view that the contextual factors of industry type significantly impacts abnormal returns of the reporting companies. In this regard, this study identifies several contextual factors, such as industry and type of sustainability report, that have the potential to impact the relationship. Only the CSR type of sustainability report was significant in explaining the abnormal return of New Zealand companies. 
Practical implications: To underscore the practical implications of the theory, it shows, by reference to the model, how sustainability reporting influences financial performance for companies engaged in industries that have environmental implications. However, the simplistic model may also have many other applications in management and the social sciences.
Originality value: The proposed model is highly original in providing a framework for studying the impact of sustainability reporting in companies that have an environmental impact.

year: 2010

title: Trader sailor spy: The case of John Pringle and the transfer of accounting technology to the Cape of Good Hope

authors: Samkin, Grant

subjects: accounting technology

abstract: The transfer of accounting technology to the southern hemisphere during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been considered previously by Carnegie and Parker (1996), Foreman (2001) and Carnegie et al. (2006). Set at the Cape of Good Hope in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, this study adopts a microhistory approach to evaluate the contribution made by John Pringle, an employee of the East India Company, to the transfer of British-style accounting technology. The circumstances of the time mean that, as an individual, Pringle’s long-term contribution to the transfer of accounting technology was minimal and limited to training the assistants he employed. As far as can be established, this is the first article that considers how an individual, who was not an accounting author, contributed to the transfer of British-style accounting technology to southern Africa.

text: Trader sailor spy: The case of John Pringle and the transfer of accounting technology to the Cape of Good Hope The transfer of accounting technology to the southern hemisphere during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been considered previously by Carnegie and Parker (1996), Foreman (2001) and Carnegie et al. (2006). Set at the Cape of Good Hope in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, this study adopts a microhistory approach to evaluate the contribution made by John Pringle, an employee of the East India Company, to the transfer of British-style accounting technology. The circumstances of the time mean that, as an individual, Pringle’s long-term contribution to the transfer of accounting technology was minimal and limited to training the assistants he employed. As far as can be established, this is the first article that considers how an individual, who was not an accounting author, contributed to the transfer of British-style accounting technology to southern Africa.

year: 2010

title: A critical race analysis of Māori representation in university strategic documents in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Waitoki, Waikaremoana

subjects: critical race theory

abstract: Following the recent claims lodged at two universities in Aotearoa New Zealand alleging the existence of racism, there has been scepticism towards the professed commitments by universities to create an inclusive and safe environment for Indigenous Māori. As a Kaupapa Māori-informed study, we (a group of Māori and Tauiwi scholars) employed tenets of Critical Race Theory to examine how the representation of Māori is racialised and subordinated in university strategic documents. We located five predominant discourses portraying different mechanisms that reify whiteness in university practices such as the selective interpretation of Te Tiriti articles, targeted recruitment of Māori, framing of Māori as dependent on the Crown to succeed, commodification of mātauranga Māori, and avoidance of conversations about structural racism, colonisation, and racial equity. Our findings suggest that university strategic goal statements need to incorporate a critical race analysis, or else risk perpetuating practices that fall short of challenging the status quo.

text: A critical race analysis of Māori representation in university strategic documents in Aotearoa New Zealand Following the recent claims lodged at two universities in Aotearoa New Zealand alleging the existence of racism, there has been scepticism towards the professed commitments by universities to create an inclusive and safe environment for Indigenous Māori. As a Kaupapa Māori-informed study, we (a group of Māori and Tauiwi scholars) employed tenets of Critical Race Theory to examine how the representation of Māori is racialised and subordinated in university strategic documents. We located five predominant discourses portraying different mechanisms that reify whiteness in university practices such as the selective interpretation of Te Tiriti articles, targeted recruitment of Māori, framing of Māori as dependent on the Crown to succeed, commodification of mātauranga Māori, and avoidance of conversations about structural racism, colonisation, and racial equity. Our findings suggest that university strategic goal statements need to incorporate a critical race analysis, or else risk perpetuating practices that fall short of challenging the status quo.

year: 2024