Purpose This paper aims to provide insights on student engagement in the learning of accounting during the COVID-19 disruptions and the pivot to online learning. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on reflections of academic staff members teaching accounting papers at two large New Zealand universities. Further supporting information was derived from student feedback collected via paper appraisals. Findings The findings of this paper suggest that there were some successes and numerous challenges in engaging students in online learning of accounting. Strategies that seem to have worked well include the use of synchronous and asynchronous channels to proactively facilitate and provide learning support to students in online learning. The challenges include frustrations with online technologies and the difficulties of making personal connections with students; therefore, engaging some of the cohort in the learning proved to be difficult. Research limitations/implications The findings of this paper suggest that there were some successes and numerous challenges in engaging students in online learning of accounting. Strategies that seem to have worked well include the use of synchronous and asynchronous channels to proactively facilitate and provide learning support to students in online learning. The challenges include frustrations with online technologies and the difficulties of making personal connections with students; therefore, engaging some of the cohort in the learning proved to be difficult. At risk, students were less likely to participate in online live sessions due to issues such as the lack of proper computer equipment, connectivity issues, family responsibilities or the home environment. Practical implications This paper has the potential to inform and enhance practices of higher education institutions, accounting educators and other stakeholders such as support staff on strategies that could be implemented to achieve effective student engagement in online accounting education. Originality/value This paper is original and contributes towards sharing ideas with the academic community on effective teaching practices used during the COVID-19 pivot to online delivery, which can enhance student engagement in business education.

This article investigates organisational responses to emerging concerns about how accountability–autonomy tensions can be managed within the context of university research commercialisation. The findings suggest that changed expectations of university research practices, which result from the introduction of a commercialisation logic, can be managed via the homogenisation of research goals and strategies. The successful management of accountability–autonomy tensions also depends on utilising the various structures and cultural contexts that can be facilitated by decoupling and bridging strategies. Further, while adopting symbolic systems may enhance legitimacy, failure to implement material practices and provide the appropriate cultural context to manage conflicting relationships may put university commercialisation ambitions at risk.

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Practical implications 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. Originality/value 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.

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Research limitations/implications 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. Practical implications 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. Originality/value 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.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the disruptive effects of COVID-19 on supply chains and question the role of accounting information in managing these supply chains in the face of such disruptive effects.Design/methodology/approachThe study first explains the effects of COVID-19 on the supply chains of business entities. It then explains the role of accounting information in supply chain management, questions accounting information's ability to play such a role, and makes recommendations for better accounting disclosures and accounting research for supply chains of firms. To illustrate the salient points, a case study of Fisher and Paykel Healthcare is conducted. It identifies the risks and uncertainties of supply chains exposed by COVID-19 disruptions to businesses.FindingsCOVID-19 has affected Fisher and Paykel Healthcare from both the supply-side (upstream) and demand-side (downstream) perspectives. On the supply side, it has disrupted the supply of raw materials used in the manufacture of respiratory devices and the costs of importing such materials. On the demand side, it has disrupted market logistics and customer demand. This has subsequently affected production. Such disruptions can be overcome through the dissemination of appropriate accounting information for the different stages of the supply chain to the managers. Such accounting information can also be useful to external stakeholders for minimizing their risks.Originality/valueThe study attempts to create an awareness of the supply chain uncertainties faced by managers and stakeholders arising from exogenous shocks, such as a pandemic, and how these uncertainties can be mitigated by aligning accounting information flows with the supply chain activity flows. The observations made in this paper are at a conceptual level and, therefore, can be applied to any industry.

Purpose -This paper evaluates the role and influence played by the discipline of accounting through its association with the multiple logics of government reforms to transform the public tertiary education sector in New Zealand.Design/methodology/approach -The study adopts a case study approach utilising multiple data collection methods. Neo-institutional theory (NIT) provides an insightful and valuable complement to neo-liberalism and enhances our understanding of institutional logics driving government reforms and the transformation of public tertiary institutions.Findings -The findings reveal that accounting has become a powerful conduit for the exercise of the neo-liberalism reforms by government and implemented by managerial control over public tertiary education institutions.Research implications -By addressing a gap in the literature the paper shows how political and economic neo-liberal policies have been implemented in tertiary education with the discipline of accounting being adopted as a prime driver of these reforms. The paper has significant implications for educational management, academics and learners in understanding how and why the inherent nature, objectives and processes of the overall educational experience has undergone a radical reformation.Originality/value -New Zealand is one of the first countries to implement these educational reforms and adopted 'accounting technologies' to reduce costs and improve performance. But the reality has often been very different. Most of the government's original objectives have not been fulfilled and the reforms have been costly for the academic profession. This paper provides a valuable source of learning for academics, managers and politicians.

Over the past three decades, many nations accelerated their efforts to develop academic research commercialisation to help drive their innovation and productivity goals.Despite failure to achieve the desired results, surprisingly very few studies have examined how research commercialisation initiatives are designed at the government level. This study reviews the historical role of the government and the interplay between significant shifts in research direction, funding and accounting that contributed to the development of academic research commercialisation in New Zealand. The paper concludes that funding pressures combined with the government's lack of early recognition and formal endorsement of research commercialisation as a vital activity has contributed to previous low levels of academic research commercialisation. The important lessons to be learnt from the New Zealand case are that academic research commercialisation requires a coherent long-term national strategy that is responsive, promises results and has funding incentives.

Purpose This paper aims to examine new public management (NPM) reform in New Zealand Universities (NZUs) and the process by which government policy changes generated service performance reporting (SPR), and how the SPR practices were institutionalised. It seeks to explain the underlying institutional forces of the reform process, how universities were subjected to accountability pressures through government-imposed managerial techniques and how universities responded to them. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on the theoretical lens of neo-institutional theory and the concept of NPM to interpret the setting of SPR. Data comprise annual reports and other documents produced by the NZUs. Findings The findings show that the development of the SPR was driven by NPM ideals and rationales of greater transparency and accountability. The institutional pressures bestowed extra power to the government by demanding greater accounting reporting of university performance. It also shows the ensemble of institutions, organisations and management practices that were deployed to reorganise performance reporting practices. Research limitations/implications The study adds to the neo-institutional theory work that universities are experiencing extraordinary institutional pressure to become a market-type commodity in New Zealand and internationally. The findings have implications for government, universities, policymakers and public sector professionals who work in public sector reform. Originality/value Through the institutional theoretical lens, the study offers new insights into our understanding of NPM-driven regulation and institutionalisation of managerial techniques. The insights inform policy and practice surrounding design, implementation and the potential effect of future policy changes with reference to the performance of NZUs and internationally.