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The purpose of this paper is to introduce and illustrate the importance of uncovering tacit perceptions during knowledge management (KM) audit, in order to identify cultural barriers that may interfere with KM initiatives. The goal of such KM initiatives is to leverage a firm's capacity to efficiently produce value from knowledge held by employees and embedded in processes. Current audit practices analyze the explicit information gained through interviews and questionnaires, focusing on the organization's culture, existing KM processes and the improved KM processes it wishes to implement. The paper seeks to suggest an approach for uncovering and analyzing tacit perceptions identified through interviews and discussions as an inherent part of KM audit.

The research was conducted during a KM audit in a large international software development organization. The research methodology was composed of two disciplines. The first, used for data collection, was a knowledge‐engineering and management methodology – the CommonKADS. The second, used for qualitative data analysis, was the grounded theory approach.

The KM activities currently taking place in the organization include creation, sharing, access, usage, and maintenance. In interviews and discussions, access was the most emphasized activity. The cultural barriers that were identified relate to the KM roles and responsibilities that occur in daily work. A business process analysis revealed different perspectives of KM from different stakeholders.

The findings of this study are based on a large, multi‐located and highly distributed, yet single organization. Additional research needs to be conducted in order to further validate and generalize the findings.

The principle of identifying tacit perceptions and cultural barriers illustrated in the study may be beneficial in any organization. Identifying the issues that need to be addressed before implementing a KM solution is critical for a successful implementation.

The paper introduces the concept of uncovering tacit perceptions in order to identify cultural barriers that may interfere with a KM initiative. For this purpose, an analysis method was developed and used during a KM audit. Using this audit practice prior to a KM project will enable a better understanding of the risks and challenges that need to be managed to ensure success.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conference-based online social network (OSN) for academics’ knowledge sharing and collaboration around and beyond a conference, while exploring the entanglement of the social and technical aspects of the system.

Following an exploratory study, an OSN prototype was developed and implemented in ECIS 2014. The usage of the OSN platform was monitored and in-depth interviews were conducted with seven of its active users.

Academic researchers have positive attitudes toward using conference-based OSN. However, there is a gap between academics’ perceptions and their actual behavior. Several barriers for engagement were identified, leading to technical and social recommendations, including the following needs: integrating the OSN platform with other conference information systems; addressing privacy concerns; allowing on-going collaboration; increasing OSN vitality; using the wisdom of the crowd; and promotion and its timing.

The case study highlighted existing benefits, and identified potential future benefits from implementing a conference-based OSN. Future research is required to generalize the findings and evaluate the proposed strategies for enhancing user engagement.

This study revealed the set of considerations that should be taken upon launching a new academic OSN, which are beyond the technical issues per se.

The paper presents the expected benefits from, and existing barriers to using a conference-based OSN, and suggests recommendations for encouraging academics to engage in such OSN, in order to enhance long-term social interactions, knowledge sharing and collaboration among conference participants.

This is a first study to examine a conference-based OSN.

Service operations are currently growing in importance, with a consequent increase in academic interest in the matter. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to systematise the concept associated with the service experience by drawing from the definitions which have been established in the relevant scientific literature.

A systematic search in the literature was conducted, aiming to identify the main articles, journals, references, and keywords on the subject of customer experience. Using bibliometric content and analysis a number of articles are analysed towards a concept of service experience.

The study verifies that service experience and service quality are distinct concepts that have to be analysed separately. The construction of this proposed concept has been oriented by content analysis of the reviewed articles. Dimensions and components that categorise this concept in a singular manner have been identified. The service experience, which can be thought of as a process, is composed of the interdependent and complementary dimensions of “predispositions”, “interactions”, and “reactions”, which condition the perception of quality and affect current as well as future purchasing decisions. As a result of their strategic importance for service organisations, customer experiences therefore warrant careful analysis.

This work is theoretical so empirical studies are necessary in order to validate or reject the proposed concept.

Very few systematic literature reviews of the characterisation and conceptualisation on service experience concept are available.

The digital revolution has changed consumer–service provider interaction, spawning a new generation of FinTech. This paper analyzes consumers' reactions to artificial intelligence (AI) (vs human) decisions.

The authors tested their predictions by conducting two experimental studies with FinTech consumers (n = 503).

The results reveal that consumers' responses to AI (vs human) credit decisions depend on the type of credit product. For personal loans, the rejection by an AI provider triggers higher levels of satisfaction compared to a credit analyst. This effect is explained via the perceived role congruity. In addition, the findings reveal that consumers’ rejection sensitivity determines how they perceive financial services role congruity.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is the first to jointly examine AI (vs human) credit decisions in FinTech and role congruity, extending prior research in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt “whole network” perspective and analyzes the governance and control mechanisms in the Universal Postal Union (UPU), one of the oldest and largest inter-governmental networks, through the lens of institutional entrepreneurship theory. The purpose is to introduce a typology of network governance forms to the accounting literature and to analyze the governance and management control mechanisms within the UPU, a “participatory federation” (Provan, 1983) type of network that has managed the challenges of collective collaboration since 1875.

The study benefits from unlimited access to all archival materials of the UPU such as minutes of Congress and committee meetings since 1875 as well as secondary documents and market studies related to the postal sector. The data reported in this study are derived from the archives of the UPU in Berne, Switzerland and interviews conducted with senior officials.

Drawing on the work of Provan (1983) and Provan and Kenis (2008) the authors identify five “ideal type” network governance forms based on such variables as differences in the relative power of network participants and whether these networks have arisen spontaneously or due to external coercion, the authors classify the UPU as a “participatory federation.” Within the theoretical boundaries of this typology the authors identify the multi level governance structures and the use of management control mechanisms by each level of governance. The authors introduce a distinction between the “network constitutional organization” that focusses on the socialization of network members and strategy-level orchestration of the overall network and the “network administrative organization” (NAO) that mobilizes management accounting and control mechanisms to monitor, encourage and facilitate member collaboration. The authors propose that control within a participatory federation is enacted through collective entrepreneurship by governance bodies using management accounting and control mechanisms as institutional carriers.

The paper is focussed on the current state of the UPU’s network structure and processes and did not explore the dynamics around the emergence of the different network governance and control mechanisms. An exploration of the collective construction by network participants of the need for these mechanisms would provide insights into how they emerge and might lead to a better understanding of the role of NAOs in networks.

The paper highlights the challenges faced by collaborative networks and identifies enabling characteristics of a participatory federation’s governance bodies. The empirical observations within the context of the UPU contribute to the theoretical understanding of the desirable characteristics of participatory federations that might be applicable to similar public and private collaborative networks

This study expands the knowledge of management accounting and control systems in networks. It bridges a gap in the accounting literature by adopting a “whole network” perspective and by differentiating types of network governance structures that use management accounting and control systems. This contributes to the understanding of accounting and control across the full range of organizational forms.

Considering the dearth of industry-specific empirical research exploring sustainability reporting in the context of developing countries, this chapter aims to critically examine the extent and the nature of sustainability information disclosure of environmentally polluting industries in India.

Data are collected from business responsibility reports (BRRs), sustainability reports, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports and integrated reports of all 57 energy and mining companies included in NIFTY500 Index at National Stock Exchange of India for the year 2017–2018 and 2018–2019. Content analysis is used to examine the sustainability disclosure practices and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical analysis is performed to test the difference across various dimensions of sustainability reporting of companies.

The results indicate low environmental reporting of the key indicators by energy and mining companies in India. It is found that state-owned companies have better social reporting practices against private sector companies. The findings also indicate that Global reporting initiative (GRI) based reporting have better sustainability disclosure practices and companies reporting based on BRR lack quantitative information disclosure.

The findings of the present chapter have several implications for policymakers, investors, regulators and management of these high environmental and social impact companies in India. The findings which coincide with the key areas of sustainability disclosure can be used for improving sustainability disclosure practices by the various stakeholders.

This is one of the first studies to investigate the nature and extent of sustainability performance disclosure of the companies from polluting industries in India. This chapter also contributes to the existing sustainability reporting literature by providing evidence on industry-specific disclosure in the context of a developing country.

Organisations rarely adopted integrated processes for developing sustainability reports, although the literature and the business context recommend them for efficient reporting to describe the economic, environmental and/or social impacts of organisational activities. Based on system dynamics, this paper aims to propose an integrated process for producing sustainability reports.

The authors conducted action research involving a multi-utility enterprise. This company offers a wide range of public services covering integrated water utilities, environmental hygiene service, transport and mobility and cemeterial management.

The main steps of a process for defining and representing integrated sustainability reports are described, giving a concrete practical example of how the procedure can be applied to a multi-utility company.

System dynamics used as the major contributor to developing integrated sustainability reports also takes into account the nonlinear behaviour of complex systems. Results and implications are assessed from an integrated thinking and reporting perspective.