Stakeholder Accountability Research Articles

THE METHODICAL BASES OF CLUSTER APPROACH IN INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

There are theoretical bases and methodological positions of the application of the cluster approach for the implementation of innovative projects. There were determined the indicators for assessing of the level of scientific and technological development in the innovation projects management, there were established the criteria for innovative clustering, there were formed the methodological foundations for determining of the value of the project-oriented organization while creating clusters within the framework of innovative projects. At the same time, there was determined a synergistic effect of the interaction between the participants of the innovation project and there was created a cluster map of the work of research and business organizations engaged in the implementation of innovative projects. Solving of these tasks requires the creation of a system of clear interaction between the state, business, science and education, based on the use of effective project management tools in the framework of innovation development, where the cluster approach should play an important role. The proposals of the application of the cluster approach in innovative projects can increase the efficiency of the use and implementation of innovative developments in the manufacturing sector by enhancing predictability, meaningful interaction, coordination and accountability of stakeholders in the public sector and private business within the framework of implementing of innovative projects. The system of indicators of innovation development taking into account clusters in the implementation of the project takes into account the following elements: innovative production (the integration of innovations in existing production capacity of one of the large enterprises or the organization of a new small company, where the costs of implementation and use of the innovative product are minimized); technology transfer (promotion of innovations); production financing (the idea must go through the phase of engineering development, the production of a layout, the production of a prototype production in order to become a commercial product, that requires funding); the potential of knowledge (higher education institutions, research institutes, individual specialists working as individuals, a system of informally interacting colleagues from different institutions and universities); training of innovative personnel (improvement of knowledge and competencies, accompanied by the creation of a team for the development of innovative projects).

Quality indicators in a community optometrist led cataract shared care scheme.

Cataract shared care schemes involving community optometrists show wide variation in practice. We report on defined key performance indicators (KPIs) which improve accountability between stakeholders. In this prospective study over nine months at a UK public hospital, we evaluated the outcomes of consecutive direct cataract referrals from community optometrists against two KPIs agreed under a service-level agreement between the Hospital Eye Service and community optometrists: (1) 85% of patients listed for cataract listing at first consultation; and (2) 90% postoperative feedback return rate on patients discharged to community optometrists. A detailed analysis on referral triage, surgical listing and postoperative form return rate is reported in this study. A total of 733 direct cataract referrals were received using a designated referral form of which 86% were listed for cataract surgery. The predominant reason for not listing was a failure to reach the visual threshold set by the local clinical commissioning guidelines. Out of 569 cataract surgical episodes, 402 (71%) patients were discharged on the same day of surgery to community optometrist follow up. Completed postoperative feedback was returned from 374 patients (93%). Direct cataract referrals from accredited community optometrists led to a majority of patients receiving a definitive clinical decision during first consultation. Postoperative community follow up reduced hospital visits and allowed for convenient consultation closer to home following uncomplicated cataract surgery. A service-level agreement with an accreditation scheme measured against KPIs enhances the accountability of stakeholders involved in the cataract shared care scheme.

Who should be responsible for supporting individuals with mental health problems? A critical literature review.

Individuals with mental health problems have many support needs that are often inadequately met; however, perceptions of who should be responsible for meeting these needs have been largely unexplored. Varying perceptions may influence whether, how, and to what extent relevant stakeholders support individuals with mental health problems. To critically evaluate the literature to determine who different stakeholders believe should be responsible for supporting individuals with mental health problems, what factors shape these perceptions, and how they relate to one another. A critical literature review was undertaken. Following an extensive literature search, the conceptual contributions of relevant works were critically evaluated. A concept map was created to build a conceptual framework of the topic. Views of individual versus societal responsibility for need provision and health; the morality of caring; and attributions of responsibility for mental illness offered valuable understandings of the review questions. Creating a concept map revealed that various interrelated factors may influence perceptions of responsibility. Varying perceptions of who should be responsible for supporting individuals with mental health problems may contribute to unmet support needs among this group. Our critical review helps build a much-needed conceptual framework of factors influencing perceptions of responsibility. Such a framework is essential as these views iteratively shape and reflect the complex divisions of mental healthcare roles and responsibilities. Understanding these perceptions can help define relevant stakeholders' roles more clearly, which can improve mental health services and strengthen stakeholder accountability.

Reality and responsibility revisited: Stakeholder accountability in the effort to develop safer opioids.

This supplement is dedicated to an exploration of the science, potential utility, and the current state of abuse-deterrent formulations (ADF) of opioid analgesics. There are many stakeholders in the search for safer pain treatments in general, and safer opioid therapy in particular. Healthcare providers, patients, third-party payors, law enforcement and government regulators, the pharmaceutical industry, and the media all have a stake in seeing pain treated and addiction and overdose avoided. As it applies to ADFs, obviously not everyone has a stake in seeing that ADFs succeed commercially; but all stakeholders certainly have a responsibility to see that any potential advance, including ADFs, in protecting the public health is fairly and thoroughly evaluated. Particularly at a time of crisis. In this article, we revisit the framework used by Passik, Heit, and Kirsh (2006) to evaluate stakeholders' responsibilities with regard to both the opioid abuse and chronic pain epidemics. After evaluating the present status of aspirations delineated over a decade ago, we discuss the updated roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder, with emphasis on the role of ADFs as this technology was unavailable when the original manuscript was written.

Is the Fight against Doping in Sport a Legal Minefield like Any Other?

In the fight against doping, creating a level playing field across all sports is very challenging from a legal perspective. A harmonized approach presupposes first and foremost a supreme regulatory authority on a global level. This task cannot be attributed to the public sector, because there is no supranational authority of public international law capable of dealing with it. Thus, responsibility has to be assumed by a private law entity. This in turn requires complicated contractual agreements by which duties and responsibilities are transferred from the individual to the national level and from there to the top of the pyramid. In practice, this process is not only difficult and cumbersome, it also leads to an accumulation of power at the top of the sports pyramid that must be contained by organizational checks and balances, such as access to justice and the rule of law, accountability, transparency, and possibilities for the respective stakeholders to partake in the decision-making process. The weighting of all these different aspects is demanding and further complicated by the regulatory reach of the various national lawmakers. Since national laws differ considerably and a harmonized legislative approach is nowhere near in sight, a global approach in the fight against doping must push back national laws and legal concepts as much as possible. The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview on all these legal challenges.

Corporate social reporting (CSR) and stakeholder accountability in Bangladesh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate organisational accountability to less economically powerful stakeholders in the absence of formal corporate social reporting (CSR) guidelines. In addition, this study emphasises the role of administrative and institutional reforms in empowering stakeholders in a developing country context, namely, Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach Consistent with prior literature, this qualitative study collected data through semi-structured interviews with 23 representatives from NGOs, media, civil society, customers, regulators, trade union leaders and employees who are considered as less economically powerful stakeholders. This paper draws on the demand for administrative reforms along with an institutional support structure (Owen et al., 1997) to enhance CSR and corporate accountability. Findings The empirical evidence shows that there is a need for a stand-alone mandatory CSR to achieve stakeholder accountability. It also shows that there are demands from “stakeholders to right to know” about the company’s social and environmental performance along with stakeholder engagements. There is a perceived demand for administrative reform along with institutional supports that can contribute to the CSR development in Bangladesh. These administrative reforms would encourage transparent corporate social and environmental practices. Given the socio-economic and vulnerable environmental conditions of Bangladesh, stakeholders in this study suggested contextually relevant CSR guidelines towards greater accountability. Research limitations/implications This paper is one of the few engagement-based studies which explore the perceptions of less economically powerful stakeholders towards CSR developments in an emerging economy – Bangladesh. The findings of this study using the theoretical lens of accountability with administrative and institutional reforms lead us to conclude that companies in Bangladesh have low level of CSR towards stakeholder accountability and stakeholder engagements. Originality/value The paper contributes to the CSR literature by highlighting the needs of CSR from the stakeholder’s accountability perspective.

Seven or Fewer Core Contents of Social Responsibility?

Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) replaces causes of the current crisis by principles of accountability, transparency, ethics, and respect for organizational stakeholders, the law, international standards, and human rights (International Organization for Standardization, 2010). Interdependence and a holistic approach link them and CSR’s core contents. We examined if Slovene companies involve all seven CSR core contents of ISO 26000 (CSR to employees, customers, local community, environment, human rights, ethical behavior, and leadership). The analysis united three of them—CSR to employees, ethical behavior, and human rights—into CSR leadership to employees.

The persistence of cliques in the post‐communist state. The case of deniability in drug reimbursement policy in Poland

This article explores a key question in political sociology: Can post-communist policy-making be described with classical theories of the Western state or do we need a theory of the specificity of the post-communist state? In so doing, we consider Janine Wedel's clique theory, concerned with informal social actors and processes in post-communist transition. We conducted a case study of drug reimbursement policy in Poland, using 109 stakeholder interviews, official documents and media coverage. Drawing on 'sensitizing concepts' from Wedel's theory, especially the notion of 'deniability', we developed an explanation of why Poland's reimbursement policy combined suboptimal outcomes, procedural irregularities with limited accountability of key stakeholders. We argue that deniability was created through four main mechanisms: (1) blurred boundaries between different types of state authority allowing for the dispersion of blame for controversial policy decisions; (2) bridging different sectors by 'institutional nomads', who often escaped existing conflicts of interest regulations; (3) institutional nomads' 'flexible' methods of influence premised on managing roles and representations; and (4) coordination of resources and influence by elite cliques monopolizing exclusive policy expertise. Overall, the greatest power over drug reimbursement was often associated with lowest accountability. We suggest, therefore, that the clique theory can be generalized from its home domain of explanation in foreign aid and privatizations to more technologically advanced policies in Poland and other post-communist countries. This conclusion is not identical, however, with arguing the uniqueness of the post-communist state. Rather, we show potential for using Wedel's account to analyse policy-making in Western democracies and indicate scope for its possible integration with the classical theories of the state.

Nonprofit Organization Governance

Organizational governance has become a popular and important topic in the nonprofit sector literature. This review focuses on the governance of non-membership, paid-staff nonprofit organizations (also called nonprofit agencies), which are characterized by a hierarchical structure, where the board has the ultimate power and the responsibility to ensure that governance functions are carried out. Such agency boards are usually self-perpetuating, unlike the situation in voluntary membership associations, where the members usually elect the board. We contribute to the literature on the governance of nonprofit organizations in three major ways. First, we discuss research themes identified by previous review articles, analyze empirical and conceptual contributions from the recent nonprofit organization governance literature, and identify a number of governance challenges for nonprofit organizations. Second, we present a wide array of theoretical perspectives from different disciplines that may be useful when studying the governance of nonprofit organizations. From a practical viewpoint this is important, as it may assist researchers in the theoretical framing of their papers and help them in the formulation of theory-based hypotheses. Third, we integrate a number of theoretical perspectives by using a paradox perspective. We focus on four important contemporary governance challenges in nonprofit organizations: (1) stakeholder accountability, (2) environmental dependence, (3) volunteer reliability, and (4) board group dynamics. By using a multi-theoretical approach to analyze the ambiguities, paradoxes, and dilemmas associated with these governance challenges, we provide more general theory-based frameworks for the governance of nonprofit organizations than currently available in the literature.

Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Stakeholder Accounts of Testing Experience with a Computer-Administered Test

In keeping with the trend to elicit multiple stakeholder responses to operational tests as part of test validation, this exploratory mixed methods study examines test-taker accounts of an Internet-based (i.e., computer-administered) test in the high-stakes context of proficiency testing for university admission. In 2013, as language testing researchers (expert informants), we reported on our own experience taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) (DeLuca, Cheng, Fox, Doe, & Li, 2013). The present study extends these ndings. Speci cally, 375 current iBT test-takers, who had failed to achieve scores required for admission to university, completed a questionnaire on their test-taking experience. At the same time, two former test-takers who had passed the iBT volunteered for semistructured interviews. Questionnaire and interview responses were coded (Charmaz, 2007) for recurring and differentiating response patterns across these stakeholder groups. Concerns were shared regarding speededness, test anxiety, and test preparation, but these test-takers diffiered from the language-testing researchers in their responses to the computer-administered reading and writing tasks. Implications are discussed in relation to construct representation, the interpretive argument of the test (Kane, 2012), and test-takers’ journeys through high-stakes testing to university study in Canada. Conformément à la tendance de provoquer, auprès des parties prenantes, des réponses multiples aux tests opérationnels de sorte à valider ceux-ci, ce e étude exploratoire à méthodes mixtes porte sur les récits de candidats à un test de com- pétence à enjeux élevés (l’entrée à l’université) et géré par ordinateur. En 2013, à titre de chercheurs en évaluation des compétences linguistiques (experts informateurs), nous avons fait état de notre expérience comme candidats au test d’anglais langue étrangère o ert sur Internet (TOEFL iBT) (DeLuca, Cheng, Fox, Doe, & Li, 2013). La présente étude vient ajouter à ces résultats. Plus précisément, 375 candidats actuels au iBT n’ayant pas réussi à a eindre la note nécessaire pour être admis à l’université ont complété un questionnaire sur leur expérience lors du test. Deux autres candidats qui avaient réussi le test ont accepté de passer des en- trevues semi-structurées. Les réponses au questionnaire et aux entrevues ont été codées (Charmaz, 2007) pour dépister des schémas récurrents et distinctifs parmi les groupes. Si les préoccupations relatives à l’e et des contraintes temporelles sur la performance, à l’anxiété et à la préparation avant le test étaient généralisées, les réponses aux tâches de lecture et d’écriture administrées par ordinateur n’étaient pas les mêmes pour les candidats actuels que pour les chercheurs. Nous discutons des répercussions relatives à la représentation de concepts et à l’interprétation du test (Kane, 2012), d’une part, et aux parcours de candidats aux tests à enjeux élevés impliquant l’admission aux universités canadiennes, d’autre part.

Conflicting stakeholder interest and accountability in non-governmental organisations

The purpose of this paper is to summarise and analyse what is known regarding the ways in which conflicting stakeholder interest may influence accountability. The interests of stakeholders in non-profit organisations (NPOs) as well as the purposes of these organisations are not uniform. The authors used a systematic review process to study the empirical evidence pertaining to how a stakeholder perspective helps to understand accountability and the influences of stakeholders in the Slovenian non-governmental educational organisations. Research provides an empirical analysis from a survey of 78 representatives of Slovenian non-governmental educational organisations. The objective of this paper is to improve the understanding of the accountability relationship between internal and external stakeholders and development NGOs, and in particular to elucidate the highly correlated influences of both parties (external and internal influences of stakeholders).

Stakeholder accountability of Austrian and German health insurance funds

Stakeholder accountability of Austrian and German health insurance funds

Using an information literacy curriculum map as a means of communication and accountability for stakeholders in higher education

Many academic libraries are coping with limited library staff, a burgeoning student population, and constantly evolving curriculum. How can academic librarians ensure that students are receiving a systematic and hierarchical set of information literacy (IL) competencies that will make them agile and adept information seekers and users who can cope with changing modes of information delivery and access? How can they be accountable to students, themselves, and to their institutions? Creating and implementing an information literacy curriculum map (ILCM) can provide a cohesive delivery of IL across the curriculum. A map aligns IL competencies with core courses, specific courses in a discipline, and assessment points. This article will describe the creation and implementation of an ILCM in addressing the needs of stakeholders at colleges and universities. The process of creating and use of the ILCM has facilitated and increased communication among teaching faculty, administrators, and academic librarians at Berkeley College. It has allowed the librarians to be more intentional in their teaching and assessment strategies. Furthermore, an ILCM used in conjunction with an assessment plan has served to make the IL programme and activities more transparent to the institution, thereby ensuring accountability to internal stakeholders and external reviewers.

Stakeholder Inclusion and Accounting for Stakeholders

ABSTRACTStakeholder inclusion in organizational decision‐making, and the resulting issue of value creation, is one of the thorny problems that stakeholder theory has sought to address. Yet progress has been slow, we suggest, because present accounting theory and practice does not address the decision‐making needs of all stakeholders who are at risk due to the activities of organizations. In this paper we develop a transdisciplinary theory of value‐creation stakeholder accounting (VCSA) based on stakeholder risk‐sharing as a superior rationale for stakeholder inclusion. We introduce value‐creation stakeholder partnerships (VCSPs) as a promising mechanism for the implementation of VCSA. VCSA is derived from a fusion of accounting, value‐creation/entrepreneurship, and stakeholder theory, and the VCSP mechanism emerges from distinguishing proprietary‐convention (partnership) from entity‐convention (corporate) accounting. Using this framing we summarize and situate the articles in this Special Issue on Stakeholder Accounting.

Meaningful Measurement for Community‐Based Adaptation

AbstractEvidence indicates ongoing tensions over effective climate change adaptation measurement. Focusing on community‐based adaptation (CBA), we stress that some of these tensions stem from a lack of transparency around the knowledge and learning needs of different stakeholders engaged in CBA investments. Drawing on a participatory assessment of stakeholder information needs and appropriate scales required for effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for CBA, this article presents a new M&E for CBA framework. The framework identifies four levels at which M&E is to be undertaken by CBA practitioners and associated project stakeholders: participatory M&E at community level; M&E at individual project level and comparison across multiple project sites; M&E of capacity of institutions implementing CBA; and M&E of community of practice. The proposed framework tailors its M&E approaches according to these levels. By moving beyond the existing dominant donor‐driven M&E perspective, we argue that this more nuanced approach enhances the usefulness of M&E by ensuring that the accountability of stakeholders engaged in CBA landscapes is legitimate across multiple scales. The framework is applicable for M&E of general development practice, as well as the climate change adaptation and resilience remit.

Responsible Accounting for Stakeholders

ABSTRACTThrough a critique of existing financial theory underlying current accounting practices, and reapplication of this theory to a broad group of stakeholders, this paper lays a normative foundation for a revised perspective on the responsibility of the public accounting profession. Specifically, we argue that the profession should embrace the development of standards for reporting information important to a broader group of stakeholders than just investors and creditors. The FASB has recently moved in the opposite direction. Nonetheless, an institution around accounting for stakeholders continues to grow, backed by a groundswell of support from many sources. Based on institutional theory, we predict that this institution and the forces supporting it will cause changes in the public accounting profession, even if through coercion. We also provide examples of stakeholder accounting, building from the premise that a primary responsibility of accounting is to provide information to address the risk management needs of stakeholders.

Sustainable evaluation and verification in supply chains: Aligning and leveraging accountability to stakeholders

Managers are being challenged by multiple (and diverse) stakeholders, which have variety of expectations and informational needs about their firm’s supply chains. Collectively, these expectations and needs form a multi-faceted view of stakeholder accountability, namely the extent to which a firm justifies behaviors and actions across its extended supply chain to stakeholders. To date, sustainable supply chain management research has largely focused on monitoring as a self-managed set of narrowly defined evaluative activities employed by firms to provide stakeholder accountability. Nevertheless, evidence is emerging that firms have developed a wide variety of monitoring systems in order to align with stakeholders’ expectations and leverage accountability to stakeholders. Drawing from the accounting literature, we synthesize a model that proposes how firms might address accountability for sustainability issues in their supply chain. At its core, the construct of sustainable evaluation and verification (SEV) captures three interrelated dimensions: inclusivity, scope, and disclosure. These dimensions characterize how supply chain processes might identify key measures, collect and process data, and finally, verify materiality, reliability and accuracy of any data and resulting information. As a result, the concept of monitoring is significantly extended, while also considering how different stakeholders can play diverse, active roles as metrics are established, audits are conducted, and information is validated. Also, several antecedents of SEV systems are explored. Finally, the means by which an SEV system can create a competitive advantage are investigated.

“Good” news from nowhere: imagining utopian sustainable accounting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a ray of hope, in the form of a Morris-style utopian dream of a sustainable world, as a basis for new forms of accounting and accountability in contemporary society. Design/methodology/approach – The method is four-fold, weaving together an auto-ethnographic approach, a contextual dialogue between accounting academics and lobbyists, a Morris-inspired utopian metaphor and a stakeholder accountability event in the form of oral disclosures written as a song cycle. Findings – Current efforts at integrated reporting are unlikely to change how large companies do business in order to address the risk of climate change in the short term. If the UN reports on climate change are correct, the authors need to take immediate action. The authors argue that, instead of waiting for climatic disaster to lead to a paradigm shift in corporate practice, “monetisation” of the costs of climate change is one way to encourage integrated thinking and sustainable busines...

Sustainability reporting integrated into management control systems

Purpose– This paper aims to examine how three different organisations integrate sustainability reporting into management control systems (MCS).Design/methodology/approach– A case study examination of sustainability reporting integrated into MCS in three New Zealand organisations.Findings– The integration of sustainability reporting into MCS holds advantages for organisations to operationalise sustainability objectives, broaden stakeholder accountability as well as intensify interactions with stakeholders, formalise organisation beliefs and improve communication of sustainability measures internally. While frameworks such as the balanced scorecard (BSC) can facilitate implementation of sustainability reporting, some organisations may choose to fully integrate the latter into their management control system.Originality/value– Sustainability reporting is sometimes seen as an external reporting philosophy that can be managed as a separate project. The authors show it can be integrated into MCS, either entirely or through tools such as the BSC. The authors develop a framework that may be useful in future studies to locate our case organisations.

Towards a 21st Century Competency-Based Model of Higher Education: The Pragmatics of Accountability

The 21s century brought unprecedented changes to higher education where the focus is increasingly on building competencies or attributes that would allow graduates (1) a better preparation to job markets and (2) an application of their learned knowledge and skills in their roles as ‘glocal’ citizens. Many aspects of competency in higher education and graduate attributes (GA) have been discussed in recent years, be it at the level of conceptualization, stakeholder identification and relative weighting, implementation strategies, curriculum approaches, staff development, quality assurance or the role of students (Hughes & Barrie, 2010). Accountability of various stakeholders is key to the success of a systematic assessment process that should be done in a continuous cyclic loop of feedback (Dugan 2004). With this loop of feedback, improving the learning outcomes and ensuring that the graduating attributes are met during the academic process and after degrees are granted. In this paper, we aim first to tackle the issue of defining competencies by delving into various works that has been done so far on defining competencies and GA. We then present some competency based models in various level of education. Finally, we identify stakeholder and discuss their roles in defining accountability parameters for a criteria-based method of assessment that would allow for comparison between the acquisition levels of different GAs at an institution-wide level. Keywords : Graduating attributes; Competency-based model; Higher education; Formative Assessment, Accountability