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The aim of this paper is to provide critical reflections on the role of standard setters and the endeavours of various organisations to provide sustainability reporting standards.

The authors’ critical reflections are informed by the literature and websites of IASB, International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), global reporting initiative (GRI) and other relevant organisations. The authors use Bourdieu’s concept of field to support their analysis and critique.

The authors highlight how a disrupted standard-setting field will be a distraction from efforts to address real sustainability issues and concerns. Determining the “legitimate” sustainability reporting standards is likely to be an outcome of struggles between occupants in the sustainability standard-setting field. Accordingly, the shape of legitimate standards will be defined by those with power. The concern is the priority and the motive underpinning the endeavours of those with power. The authors propose that it is important for both the ISSB and GRI to serve the interest of a broad range of actors, including those who are not likely to have a say in sustainability reporting standard setting.

This paper contributes to sustainability reporting practice by putting forward a case for strengthening current sustainability reporting practices with appropriate changes to overcome some of the criticisms of the GRI.

The authors highlight that there is a much broader group of stakeholders who require sustainability information and that it is important that the sustainability reporting standards serve the information needs of all stakeholders and not just those of the dominant actors. However, the ISSB with its economic focus will inevitably focus on the concern of investors and market participants.

The originality in this paper is the use of Bourdieu’s concept of field to theoretically highlight how a new standard setter may disrupt the sustainability standard-setting field and act as a distraction from efforts to address sustainability issues and concerns that the world faces.

The aim of this paper is to provide insights into challenges and opportunities in transforming assessment of learning in accounting education from established practices to technology-based methods. 10; 10;

This reflective commentary is based on personal reflections and experiences of three senior academics from the same university on the accelerated utilisation of online assessment in accounting education due to COVID-19. Further information was obtained from document analysis, informal conversations with colleagues and observations.

The findings of this paper suggest that despite numerous challenges, online assessments may replace traditional face-to-face assessments such as tests and exams in accounting and if done properly, this could drive significant improvements in student learning and outcomes. Institutions need to invest in appropriate technology, provide appropriate staff training and ensure good online assessment design that incorporates principles of authenticity and fairness. Robust online assessment practices need to be integrated with e-proctoring systems to ensure academic integrity is upheld.

The paper provides functional insights to higher education management, teaching staff and other stakeholders such as professional accreditation bodies on challenges and opportunities in utilising online assessments. It offers guidance to educators on transforming assessment of learning using the power of technology.

The ideas in this paper are original. The paper shares our lived experiences in transforming established assessment practices in accounting courses to align with online teaching and learning due to COVID-19.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an ethical perspective that goes beyond best practice in performance measurement systems in the public sector to help minimise unintended and unethical effects.

The paper draws on the ethical concepts of bounded ethicality, ethical blind spots and ethical fading to help illuminate the dark side of performance measurement in public sector organisations.

An understanding of the psychological tendencies that create unethical behaviours will assist compliance with ethics and morality and is a way forward towards minimising the unintended consequences of performance measurement in the public sector.

The findings will assist public sector managers by providing a greater understanding of why so many unethical acts occur and how to overcome ethical failures in the design and use of performance measurement systems.

The study adds value by contributing to performance measurement literature on the need to recognise the limitations of the human mind and innate psychological processes that make people systematically and unknowingly engage in unethical behaviour. The ethical concepts proposed in this paper go beyond the best practice notions of performance measurement and extend the toolkit of performance measurement techniques in the public sector.

This paper aims to provide a commentary on how well the New Zealand (NZ) Government has used the budget as a tool to tackle the social and economic problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of public budgeting as a political instrument is also critiqued.

An analysis was carried out of relevant documents that included government policy statements, budgets, news articles and website information on the pandemic. Meaningful interpretation of information and reflections helped provide the basis of the commentary.

Public budgeting has a prominent role in addressing a major global crisis. Budgets need to quickly respond to the needs of the moment in saving lives and sustaining people’s well-being, businesses and the economy. In a crisis situation, the social, political and economic factors become crucial determinants of budgetary policy measures. Although strong political leadership is required to deliver budgets under unimaginable circumstances, the ideology of the political party in government can be a powerful predictor of fiscal policies. Crisis budgeting will result in mounting budget deficits and public debts that will take many years for future generations to pay back.

This paper provides a significant learning for other nations. These lessons will guide budget policymakers to prepare better for potential crisis in the future.

This paper is original and based on the NZ Government’s budgetary response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be valuable in formulating budget policies and public funding decisions in a major crisis.

This paper aims to investigate the use of legitimacy strategies via the usage of photographic disclosures in sustainability reporting as an attempt towards creating value.

This study used visual content analysis to identify disclosure trends and value creation themes from sustainability-related photographs in the annual and sustainability reports of Fonterra Co-operative Group over a ten-year period. The findings were interpreted using legitimacy theory.

The findings show a significant increase in the usage of photographs to legitimise and reinforce the organisation’s sustainability messages. The photographs are dominated by images signalling to stakeholders’ positive sustainability messages, as a systematic method for managing stakeholder expectations to maintain, gain and even repair legitimacy. A majority of photographs have supporting textual narrative, which could be construed as an attempt by the company to make their sustainability messages explicit and provide greater legitimacy of activities and performance with the ultimate aim of enhancing organisational value.

This study contributes towards an in-depth understanding of attempts at seeking legitimacy and creating organisational value through the systematic usage of photographic disclosures in sustainability reporting.

This study has the potential to inform stakeholders on linkages between sustainability photographs, value creation and legitimacy. It can help inform and assist report preparers, designers and users on the potential of photographs as a substantive medium to manage legitimacy in sustainability reporting.

This paper adds to the scant literature on the growing use of photographs as a value adding apparatus in sustainability reporting. This paper also extends the applicability of legitimacy theory to visual disclosure and suggests that legitimacy can be systematically sought to create value.

The purpose of this study is to uncover the extent of utilisation of photographs depicting corporte social responsibility (CSR) information in corporate annual reports and the possible motives for their use.

The study used visual content analysis, based on Banks’ (2001) strategy of “looking through”, “looking at” and “looking behind” photographic images, to examine and analyse 4,933 photographs contained in the 2005, 2010 and 2015 annual reports of 70 companies listed on New Zealand Stock Exchange. The findings were interpreted using the impression management theoretical construct.

The findings show a marked increase in the utilisation of photographs for CSR-associated disclosures by the sample companies. Surprisingly, the quantity of photographs depicting environmental performance has declined, whereas those featuring product responsibility have increased significantly. The “messages” encoded in the photographs create idealistic images of the companies being caring and responsible corporate citizens. This suggests that companies are systematically using symbolic presentations such as photographs of children and families for rhetorical impression management.

The study contributes to a greater understanding of the power of photographs in representing and constructing “reality” of CSR performance. The findings have the potential to inform and assist the promulgation of guidelines for CSR reporting, as well as make users aware that photographs could be exploited as a rhetoric and impression management tool in pursuit of symbolic legitimacy.

The study develops a structured approach for categorising and analysing CSR-related photographs and adds to the scant literature on the utilisation of photographs as a medium for CSR information dissemination.

This paper aims to examine the issues of underrepresentation and barriers that impede Pasifika students’ achievement and success in tertiary accounting education.

The participants of the study were the second- and third-year students from the “Pasifika” ethnic community enrolled in undergraduate accounting degree papers. The first stage of data were collected through face-to-face questionnaire survey and quantitatively analysed. Further data were collected through focus group meetings held as “talona” sessions and analysed using descriptive narrative, to capture the lived experience of the students.

The findings of the study suggest that low self-efficacy beliefs, low self-regulation and culturally unresponsive pedagogical practices negatively impact on Pasifika student success in accounting education. Better student engagement; use of culturally responsive pedagogy; utilisation of internal assessment tools; and more strategic use of group work could help enhance the retention and success of Pasifika students in accounting programmes. The findings also suggest that the institutional support framework for Pasifika students’ needs to be more responsive to proactively help develop their self-efficacy and self-regulation learning needs.

This research makes a significant contribution by informing accounting educators, support staff, tertiary institutions and other stakeholders including Pasifika students, of potential challenges faced by Pasifika students in completing a tertiary accounting qualification. The findings have the potential to assist in the design and implementation of actionable strategies to enhance the retention and success rates for students from this group.

This research complements earlier studies on barriers faced by students from disadvantaged communities in gaining tertiary qualifications and looks specifically at challenges faced by Pasifika students in gaining an accounting qualification.

This study aims to investigate accounting practices within a non-Western (indigenous) context and provide insights into alternative accounting approaches and perspectives.

This study adopts an interpretive research approach to gain an in-depth insight into the functioning of accounting in Solomon Islands’ unique cultural and social-political context. In-depth interviews were conducted to gain insights into the perceptions and meanings held by participants concerning Western accounting practices and their limitations.

The findings provide unique insights into different interpretations of accounting and accountability through two distinct cultural lenses – Western and non-Western. The complimentary and rival explanations on what accounting and accountability are doing and what accounting and accountability should be doing will help close the gap in knowledge and contribute to shaping a better world for indigenous people.

Implications for practice involve fostering collaborative efforts among individuals, communities, leaders and institutions to harness cultural strengths through accounting. Additionally, continuous capacity building and education are essential to develop accounting skills, enhance financial literacy, promote professional expertise and build a pool of skilled accountants with local knowledge to support indigenous communities.

This study is original and provides novel insights supporting the need for accounting to recognise the importance of indigenous perspectives, adapt to cultural sensitivity and integrate cultural norms and values into accounting practices to make an impact and achieve greater social and moral accountability.

This paper aims to investigate the strategy, accounting and accountability interface in sustainability implementation in a large public tertiary education organisation in New Zealand.

The study uses ethnography as an “engaging research” to help explain the real-life enactment of accounting and accountability in advancing/deterring sustainability initiatives. The study draws upon neo-institutional theoretical perspectives to help interpret the findings.

Accounting and accountability are powerful conduits for strategy implementation. Successful sustainability strategy implementation requires the embedding of financial accountability within the implementation process.

A strong ideological commitment from senior management is required to firmly embed sustainability in the tertiary organisation's belief systems, values and norms to get wider organisational acceptance and institutionalisation. Accounting needs to take a position of centrality within organisations to help facilitate sustainability implementation.

Government policy needs to incorporate specific concepts of sustainability into the tertiary education strategy and funding framework to make public tertiary organisations accountable for sustainability to the wider society.

This study provides unique insights into the sustainability implementation process. It complements existing literature on sustainability accounting and accountability.