Disruptive Transformations and SDGs in accounting and financial reporting

About:

The world faces cascading global crises resulting in disruptive transformations. The pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine widened preexisting opportunity and achievement gaps. These successive global crises have also aggravated the underlying climate change impacts threatening persons, organizations and even governments. More largely, they have disrupted the path towards sustainability and SDGs implementation and threaten to reverse the progress of several SDGs (The SDG Report 2022). The UN report (2022) confirms this trend and states that the pandemic and the subsequent war in Ukraine continue to magnify deeply rooted problems e.g., insufficient social protection, environmental degradation and climate change. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and War in Ukraine can promise the progress of achieving the SDGs, the emerged unexpected "enemy" can be considered as an opportunity for addressing the SDGs key challenges by exploring the changes that happened in the stipulated time and remap the pathway towards achieving SDGs. The relevance of accounting figures and financial reporting as a basis for organizational and investor decisions need to be investigated.

As it enters its third year, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe and long-lasting concerns worldwide and in almost all sectors. The war in Ukraine has deepened and aggravated the problems around the world. These global and interlinked crises highlighted by the Word Bank (2022) and other International Organizations have had destructive impacts on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a result, the 17 SDGs set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are under threat. Recent literature on the SDGs adoption, achievement and disclosure provide general knowledge of the SDGs and related non-financial reporting. Nevertheless, the role of accounting and financial reporting in these issues was neglected. The accounting may be an important evaluation system to measure the short- and long-term costs and benefits of engaging in SDGs implementation. Also, financial and non-financial reporting may be communication tools about SDGs. It is still much to learn about these neglected issues. 

World Business Council for Sustainable Development member companies and partners have engaged in various CSR and sustainability activities and responded quickly by taking resilient actions to support people, communities and economies around the world. Many public and private organizations redesigned technology and working and/or learning processes to perform tasks virtually. They consequently invested and continue to invest in remote tools, virtual platforms, online meetings software, smart tools, bots, virtual endorsers, security solutions, artificial intelligence, IoT solutions, etc. initiating a rapid shift of digital transformation in almost all domains including education. These technological innovations have been used in accounting universities, organizations and accounting professionals. Future studies may address the relevance of accounting and financial reporting in this issue.

To better understand the effect of the disruptive transformations on SDGs achievement and the role of and consequences on accounting and financial reporting, we invite authors to expand and deepen knowledge about these responses and their long-term consequences but also about the engagement of the public, and private organizations and accounting universities with sustainable development in general and the SDGs in particular in the context of disruptive transformations. We accept original research manuscripts. Such issues call for new insights and perspectives for both theories and practice and from different stakeholders’ perspectives (e.g., private and public organizations, accounting standard-setters, etc).

Companies, investors, governments and international organisms are actors who should be invested to build collectively to achieve the SDGs and to better grasp the levers and inhibitors of better inclusive sustainability. Authors are invited to consider a large spectrum of reactions, decisions, policies, etc. and to circumscribe and assess their impact on organizations and their stakeholders' decision-making process, and the role of accounting and financial reporting for a better engagement in the implementation of SDGs in the context of disruptive transformations. The institutional pressures, attitudes and behaviour regarding the requirements to successfully navigate the crises environment and disruptive transformations for a sustainable future can be studied in the accounting and financial reporting issue.

Papers addressing new methodologies in dealing with these issues are also welcomed.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Accounting schemas, reporting regulation and SDGs agenda achievement.
• SDGs and financial reporting.
• Digital transformation levers and SDGs reporting.
• SDGs agenda achievement, CSR, and management accounting.
• The War of Ukraine, the accounting choices and SDGs reporting.
• Governance of the disruptive transformations and its consequences on the SDGs reporting.
• Disruptive transformations and earnings management.
• SDGs agenda achievement and earnings management.
• Disruptive transformations, SDGs achievements and financial reporting.
• Disruptive Transformations, SDGs reporting and taxation.
• Institutional pressures for SDGs implementation and financial reporting.
• Role of the accounting education in post-COVID 19 and SDGs achievement.
• Technological progress (Digital, AI, IoT, Virtual Reality, Neuro-Science) and SDGs implementation reporting in crisis and post-crisis era (COVID 19, War of Ukraine, etc.).

Guest Editors

Prof. Hanen Moalla

Prof. Hanen Moalla is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the Higher Institute of Accounting and Business Administration (ISCAE) (University of Manouba). She is a member of The National Accounting Council in Tunisia and the Chair of the National Accounting Examination Board. She was the head of the accounting and finance department at ISCAE, an Accounting and Business School in Tunisia. She completed her Ph.D at the Institute of Business Administration of Poitiers (IAE of Poitiers) in France. The research areas of Hanen Moalla include management accounting, financial accounting, auditing, IFRS, IPSAS and corporate governance. She published several articles in international journals such as Emerald journals (Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting). She reviewed several scientific articles published in international journals. She served as reviewer and speaker in various conferences and supervised many research projects in accounting. Moreover, she has a long experience in teaching accounting at the University of Manouba (Tunisia), University of Carthage (Tunisia) and Virtual University of Tunis (Tunisia). Besides, she is a member of the council of the LIGUE Laboratory.  She is a member of several international organizations and associations.

Prof. Raida Chakroun

Prof. Raida Chakroun is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the IHEC-Carthage, Tunisia. She has a long experience in accounting teaching at the University of Sfax -Tunisia (ESC, IHEC, ISAA), University of Carthage-Tunisia (IHEC, EPT) and the Virtual University of Tunis-Tunisia. Her main research interests include international accounting (IFRS/IPSAS), earnings management, voluntary disclosure, corporate social responsibility, auditing and corporate governance. She has published several papers, conference proceedings, and book chapters and served as reviewer and speaker in various conferences. She served as a reviewer for many journals and supervised many research projects in accounting. She is a member of the council of LIGUE Laboratory (ISCAE, Manouba University-Tunisia), and she is a member of several international organizations and associations.

Dr. Rahma Ben Salem

Dr. Rahma Ben Salem is an Assistant professor in Accounting at the Institut Supérieur d’Informatique et de Gestion de Kairouan (ISIGK), Tunisia. She teaches accounting management. She holds a Ph.D in Accounting from the Institut Supérieur de Comptabilité et d’Administration des Entreprises de Manouba (ISCAE Manouba). Her research areas include international accounting, culture, accounting management and audit. She is a researcher affiliated to LIGUE (University of Manouba, Tunisia). Her research interest is related to culture and international accounting.