Riccardo Stacchezzini

Governmentality rationales and calculative devices: The rejection of a seventeenth-century territorial barter proposed by the King of Spain

Almost 400 years ago, Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantova and Marquis of Monferrato, refused a territorial barter proposed by the King of Spain, who had offered the Isle of Sardinia in exchange for the Marquisate of Monferrato. In 1618, an advisor to the Duke drafted a report to highlight the governmental issues surrounding the island. This Relatione, together with correspondence between the governors and advisors engaged in the prospective transfer, reveals why the Duke rejected the proposal. These sources provide the foundation for a close analysis of the potential effects of the trade on the Duchy’s welfare, as well as the problems associated with its government. Using a model based on the Foucauldian governmentality framework, this analysis reveals that denying the barter was the result of rational behavior, driven by territorial governability aims.

What does materiality mean to integrated reporting preparers? An empirical exploration

Purpose - This paper aims to understand how the principle of materiality gets implemented in integrated reporting (IR) contexts. Design/methodology/approach - Drawing on an interpretation of materiality as a social construction, this research explores the meaning that practitioners attach to the principle during their implementation of it. Following an existing framework for exploring materiality in corporate reporting, this study investigates the meaning by focusing on who participates in determining IR materiality and to whom the IR is addressed. This analysis benefits from in-depth interviews with persons involved in the preparation of IR for a firm that pioneered this form of reporting. Findings - In IR preparers’ view, the meaning of materiality corresponds with the company strategy: The IR describes strategic priorities and related actions and results. Capital providers are the primary intended addressees of the material information. Although several actors engage in IR preparation, the materiality determination process is governed by a specific “IR hub” in strict collaboration with and dependence on the chief financial officer. Research limitations/implications - In an IR context, materiality is intimately connected to the function that preparers assign to the report. Originality/value - This novel research opens the “black box” of the process by which materiality gets defined and then practically implemented in an IR context.

The interplay of knowledge innovation and academic power: Lessons from “isolation” in twentieth-century Italian accounting studies

Accounting scholars investigate the role of academia in the process of knowledge production, highlighting how paradigms may produce negative effects on knowledge innovations, nourish academic elites, and limit fruitful debates. The current article extends this debate by investigating the cultural isolation experienced by Italian accounting scholars during the twentieth century, when accounting academia supported and protected the Italian paradigm of Economia Aziendale. Drawing on a Foucauldian genealogy perspective, this story of Italian accounting studies demonstrates that isolation results from an interplay of broad paradigmatic content and a recruitment policy focused on professors aligned with this paradigm. The Foucauldian perspective helps interpret knowledge innovation, thus enriching the debate about knowledge production, paradigm innovation, and the role of elites in accounting research.

Integrated reporting and narrative accountability: the role of preparers

Purpose: The International Integrated Reporting Council claims that integrated reporting (IR) can enhance corporate accountability, yet critical and interpretative studies have contested this outcome. Insufficient empirical research details how preparers experience accountability while constructing IR; to fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to analyse how the preparers’ mode of cognition influences the patterns of accountability associated with IR. Design/methodology/approach: A functionalist approach to narratives helps elucidate the role that the IR preparers’ narrative mode of cognition plays on accountability towards stakeholders. The empirical analysis particularly benefits from in-depth interviews with the IR preparers of a global insurer that has used IR since 2013. Findings: The preparers’ narrative mode of cognition facilitates dialogue with IR users. It addresses accountability tensions by revealing the company’s value creation process. Preparers’ efforts to establish a meaningful dialogue with a growing variety of stakeholders through broader and plainer messages reveals the potential of IR as a narrative source of a socializing form of accountability. However, financial stakeholders remain the primary addressees of the reports. Research limitations/implications: This paper focusses on preparers’ views; further research should integrate users’ accountability expectations. Originality/value: This paper offers new insights for dealing with corporate reporting and accountability in a novel IR setting.