No abstract

Purpose\ud The issue of gender inequality in the Italian universities and academic context does not seem to be particularly debated and is really rare. Starting from this “lack of interest”, the paper aims to inquire into the “state-of-the-art” of existing inequality in the scientific and academic path of Italian female scholars and academia, answering the following research question: Is discrimination between women and men linked to the number of scientific contributions in periodicals and their presence within academic boards of scientific accounting associations and journals in Italy?\ud Design/methodology/approach\ud The methodology is primarily developed through a deductive analysis of the literature strands concerning gender accounting, accounting in academia and the role of women in universities and academia. Second, within the inductive perspective, the authors have chosen to inquire into the scientific publications of women on the oldest Italian journal in the accounting field – the Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria e di Economia Aziendale (RIREA). Subsequently, the position and career of women were analysed in academia investigating their presence and role within the boards of a sample of Italian journals and the main Italian accounting scientific associations\ud Findings\ud Accordingly, this paper concentrates on gender inequalities in university and academia in Italy and on eventual obstacles that get in the way of the existence of scientific contributions in journals and of career progress of those women who carry on scholarly work in accounting.\ud Research limitations/implications\ud The analysis confirms the need to open more space for women at the summits of political, economic and cultural institutions, including accounting academia and scientific journals. The paper has some limitations concerning the consideration of only Italian journals and academic associations. Then, we will develop the analysis in comparative terms, as attention will be addressed on the participation in scientific committees and boards of some of the major international scientific associations of accounting. Moreover, we will consider the narrative approach describing the stories of Italian women and accounting scholars to carefully investigate the reasons for this persistent discrimination.\ud Originality/value\ud The innovative contribution of the paper is due to the fact that the authors are unaware of previous studies aimed at investigating if female accounting scholars are under-represented compared to their male colleagues within the top positions of the most prestigious Italian accounting associations and scientific journals. Previous research also did not investigate the existence of correlation between Italian women’s scientific productivity, their under-representation within academia and scientific career

The paper aims to analyse and discuss the evolution towards a sustainable business model and to focus on the motivations and the implications on the mission, the governance and the accountability of companies. Moreover, the theoretical framework of values-based, ethical and sustainable leadership has been used as interpretative key for the case-study analysis. After presenting the literature review, the second part of the work is based on the inductive approach applied to the analysis of the experience of an Italian medium-sized company (SGR Group) belonging to the energy sector (oil & gas). Recently this company has started a new project aimed at renewing its business model and deepening its sustainability orientation, which has already been experienced for years. The project is finalized at identifying and assessing vices and virtues which affect the governance and the leadership model, as well as the company's stakeholders engagement processes. The case exemplifies a resilience capability derived from a sustainable business model activated through relationships among internal and external stakeholders and supported by an ethical-based transformational leadership model which, in turn, derives from and nurtures the coherence among the mission-governance and accountability model. Specifically, the analysis confirms the propositions drawn from the literature review relative to the fact that the coherence among mission, governance and accountability is a key driver for effective business model and that sustainable business models derive from and are characterized by sustainable leadership models, which include transformational, ethical-based and values-virtues-driven leadership.

The debate on accounting truth is an old problem (Brilo¤ , 1979) and it is at present more and more important in harmonization process, especially involving small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Their users' needs regarding the extents and type of accounting information as well as the costs of their providing are widely discussed as the arguments for di¤ erential reporting for SMEs, although there is still more literature

No abstract