Open Access
Tracking habitus across a transnational professional field
(SAGE, 2016) Spence, Crawford; Carter, Chris; Belal, Ataur; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Archel Domench, Pablo; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
The sociology of the professions has shied away from cross-national comparative work. Yet research in different professional jurisdictions emphasizes the transnational nature of professional fields. Further work is therefore needed that explores the extent to which transnational professional fields are characterized by unity or heterogeneity. To that end, this article presents the results of a qualitative interrogation of the habitus of partners in 'Big 4' professional service firms across, primarily, five countries (Bangladesh, Canada, France, Spain and the UK). Marked differences are observed between the partner habitus in Bangladesh and the other countries studied in terms of entrepreneurial and public service dispositions. In turn, these findings highlight the methodological relevance of habitus for both the sociology of the professions and comparative capitalism literatures: for the former, habitus aids in mapping the dynamics of transnational professional fields; for the latter, habitus can elucidate the informal norms and conventions of national business systems.
Open Access
Dimensión económica de los principios rectores: carencias de un marco conceptual contradictorio
(La Ley (Wolters Kluwer), 2011) Archel Domench, Pablo; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
La Ley 2/2011 de 4 de marzo de Economía Sostenible nace con el objetivo, según reza su artículo primero, de introducir las reformas estructurales necesarias para crear las condiciones que favorezcan un desarrollo económico sostenible. Lo que nos encontramos a lo largo de un abanico de artículos y disposiciones es un compendio de medidas de lo más diverso que abarcan, entre otros asuntos, desde el modelo energético deseable para nuestro país hasta las descargas en Internet. La oportunidad de la Ley viene justificada, tal y como se nos dice en el Título Preliminar, por la necesidad de adoptar medidas que permitan afrontar la crisis económica y financiera mundial que ha interrumpido el largo periodo continuo de crecimiento, una de cuyas consecuencias más negativas es el fuerte incremento del desempleo en un corto espacio de tiempo. El objetivo de nuestro trabajo es analizar los conceptos y principios que aparecen en el Título Preliminar (artículos 1 a 3) donde se define el objetivo de la ley, el concepto de Economía Sostenible y se enuncian brevemente los principios resultantes, hasta un total de nueve, de la acción de los poderes públicos. De esta manera, el Título Preliminar vendría a ser una especie de marco conceptual, un espacio en el que se fijan los conceptos básicos sobre cuya base se va a construir el resto del articulado posterior. Para ello, nuestro trabajo lo estructuramos de la siguiente manera. En primer lugar, la siguiente sección efectúa un breve repaso de los conceptos económicos básicos que han ilustrado la literatura sobre el Desarrollo a lo largo de los últimos años y que son empleados para articular el Titulo Preliminar de la Ley de Economía Sostenible. Partiendo de la obra de Adam Smith (La riqueza de las naciones) y pasando por los planteamientos que identificaban desarrollo con crecimiento de la riqueza, nuestro trabajo se abre a otras voces que, como las de Amartya Sen (1988, 1999), analizan de forma crítica la relación entre crecimiento y desarrollo. Seguidamente, el epígrafe tercero analiza en detalle los tres artículos del Título Preliminar. Nuestro trabajo no se limita a exponer el contenido de los mismos, sino que pretende ser una aportación crítica al debate existente sobre el significado de la expresión Desarrollo Económico Sostenible. Por último, la sección cuarta presenta un resumen del capítulo y efectúa unos comentarios finales.
Open Access
Taste matters: cultural capital and elites in proximate Strategic Action Fields
(SAGE, 2017) Spence, Crawford; Carter, Chris; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Archel Domench, Pablo; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
Recent literature suggests that elites are increasingly fragmented and divided. Yet there is very little empirical research that maps the distinctions between different elite groups. This article explores the cultural divisions that pertain to elite factions in two distinct but proximate Strategic Action Fields. A key insight from the article is that the public sector faction studied exhibits a much broader, more aesthetic set of cultural dispositions than their private sector counterparts. This permits a number of interrelated contributions to be made to literature on both elites and field theory. First, the findings suggest that cultural capital acts as a salient source of distinction between elite factions in different Strategic Action Fields. Second, it is demonstrated how cultural capital is socially functional as certain cultural dispositions are strongly homologous with specific professional roles. Third, the article demonstrates the implications for the structure of the State when two culturally distinct elites are brought together in a new Strategic Action Field.
Open Access
Language was always a companion of the empire
(Elsevier, 2024) Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Larrinaga González, Carlos; Martínez, Daniel E.; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
This editorial discusses how the hegemony of the English language in academic research shapes and perpetuates specific forms of power. This is a matter of both equity and justice—the additional effort faced by researchers to integrate themselves into the dominant language and the racial, economic, and social hierarchies that are often expressed and acknowledged through language. The aim of this special issue is to give the Spanish language a central position and in so doing, foster a space for contemplation that presents diverse viewpoints, research focuses, themes, and styles that have previously been overshadowed by the dominance of English. The special issue features five articles showcasing the diversity of critical accounting research in Spanish-speaking contexts. This editorial concludes with a note from the journal’s co-editors, reaffirming Critical Perspective on Accounting’s commitment to promoting multilingualism. This initiative aims to enrich academic dialogue and ensure that local contexts and perspectives are adequately represented in global discussions.
Open Access
The construction of the normative persuasion of social and environmental reporting regulation
(Emarald, 2024) Luque-Vílchez, Mercedes; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Larrinaga González, Carlos; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Purpose – This study aims to understand why some social and environmental reporting (SER) regulations are more successful than others in modifying collective corporate reporting behaviour and expectations. More specifically, it presents a qualitative and historically informed exploration of the construction of the enabling conditions for corporate adoption of SER regulation in a national context. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on insights from structuration theory and the sociological approach to legal studies, the authors examined the normative persuasion of the first regulation in Spain requiring firms to disclose social and environmental information in a stand-alone report: Article 39 of the Spanish Sustainable Economy Law. The case study is based primarily on 38 semi-structured interviews with relevant actors involved in this SER regulation from 2008 to 2014. Other sources such as legal and policy documents, historical documents, books, press reports and field notes from attendance at technical meetings related to the phenomenon under study help inform and complement the analysis of the interviews. Findings – The analysis reveals that the agency of regulators, regulatees and other relevant actors involved in the SER regulation led to the law becoming a dead letter. However, only by examining the structural circumstances, shaped by history and socio-economic context, can the authors understand how the normative persuasion of law is constructed or undermined. Research limitations/implications – The study underscores the importance of the national context in developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) regulation and the crucial role of history. The results of this research also suggest that significant progress towards a more transformative CSR regulation cannot be achieved without the support of enabling structures/ Practical implications – Recent SER regulations (European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and IFRS sustainability standards, to mention those that are gaining most traction) may not achieve sufficient compliance if those responsible for drafting them do not ensure that the conditions for the emergence of regulatory persuasion are met. Regulators must therefore have a profound understanding of how these conditions are constructed as part of a historical process inextricably linked to the social structures of the environment in which the law is to be applied. Social implications – The study reveals the changing landscape of corporate social responsibility, where scientists, academics, NGO activists and civil society organisations struggle to gain some agency in a field populated by actors, such as trade unions or employers, who were constitutive of Western industrial liberal democracies. Originality/value – This study presents an in-depth and historically grounded analysis of the dynamics involved in creating the conditions that lead to successful SER legislation in a national context.
Open Access
Is critique sustainable? A commentary on Bigoni and Mohammed
(Elsevier, 2023) Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Reflecting on the reactions that Bigoni and Mohammed's article “Criticism is unsustainable: A polemic” has provoked in me, I describe in this essay a number of tensions in the field of critical accounting that I sincerely believe must be taken seriously if critical accounting research is to fulfil its emancipatory potential. I also advocate the establishment of a dual analytical/programmatic agenda in the field of critical accounting that enables academic contributions to support the necessary social transformations. This agenda must put the disadvantaged (human and non-human, present and future) at the centre of our research and it should be centred around the co-creation of programmes that allow us to clearly link our academic contributions to the resolution of the social and environmental problems analysed.
Open Access
The influence of pro-environmental managers' personal values on environmental disclosure: the mediating role of the environmental organizational structure
(Emerald, 2019) Luque-Vílchez, Mercedes; Mesa-Pérez, Enrique; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Larrinaga González, Carlos; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine in greater depth the influence of internal factors on the disclosure of environmental information by companies. The influence of pro-environmental managers¨ personal values on environmental disclosure quality is analyzed and the extent to which the influence of those values is mediated by the practices associated with the environmental organizational structure of the company. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a partial least squares structural equation model to analyze the relationship between the quality of the environmental information disclosed by 137 environmentally sensitive Spanish firms, their level of commitment towards the environment and the personal values of the directors in charge of those reports. Findings – A central finding of this work is that a positive relationship between the pro-environmental managers’ personal values and environmental disclosure quality is fully mediated by the environmental organizational structures of their companies. Practical implications – A better understanding of the relationship between the personal values of managers and corporate environmental reporting quality will contribute to the design of policies that can enhance firm transparency and accountability, for example, by educating future managers in sustainability values. Social implications – Light is cast on the mechanisms that can enhance corporate transparency and accountability in relation to environmental matters. Originality/value – In this paper, a quantitative study of the internal driving forces of environmental disclosure is conducted, an aspect that has often been ignored in the literature on quantitative voluntary social reporting. The merit of this approach is its contribution to the literature through the analysis of the reasons why powerful actors within firms could (or could not) develop corporate social reporting practices.
Open Access
The missing link between parents' preferences and daughters' survival : the moderator effect of societal discrimination
(Elsevier, 2016-02-01) Echavarri, Rebeca; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
The premature mortality of female children is an alarming demographic outcome in many countries of the world. The most popular explanation for this phenomenon is the prevalence of son preference. However, empirical findings indicate that the assumption of a positive relationship between wanted daughters and female children¿s survival is not found in every scenario, and it does not have a clear explanation in the literature. To fill this gap, we present a simple model that provides insights into how the positive marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival might decrease with higher societal discrimination against young females. The model draws on the emerging literature that examines the erosion of cognitive and noncognitive skills that results from poverty and discrimination. Our theoretical findings are tested for the case of India, using the third round of the National Family Health Survey, with Zero-Inflated Poisson models. Our estimates provide support for the interaction of parents¿ preferences and societal discrimination against female children. In particular, we show that the statistical significance of the marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival disappears in contexts of high societal discrimination against female children. Our study contributes to the literature by questioning the commonly held assumption of additive separability between the effect of family and societal characteristics. One central implication is that the alleviation of poverty alone might fail to automatically reduce sex-based discriminatory practices, and that multidimensional interventions are required that target the individual and society
Open Access
An evolutionary model of prenatal and postnatal discrimination against females
(Elsevier, 2020) Alcalde Unzu, Jorge; Echavarri, Rebeca; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Discrimination against born and unborn females is a well-documented phenomenon in countries such as India, China, Taiwan or Korea. Empirical studies support both additive and substitutive relationships between prenatal and postnatal discriminatory practices against females. We introduce a theoretical evolutionary model that endogenizes the preference for sons in a society, and consequently, can explain why one type of relationship or the other emerges in a society.
Open Access
Global ends, local means: cross-national homogeneity in professional service firms
(SAGE, 2015) Spence, Crawford; Dambrin, Claire; Carter, Chris; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Archel Domench, Pablo; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
An expanding institutionalist literature on professional service firms (PSFs) emphasizes that these are ridden by contradictions, paradoxes and conflicting logics. More specifically, literature looking at PSFs in a global context has highlighted how these contradictions prevent firms from becoming truly global in nature. What it takes to make partner in the Big 4 is at the core of such interrogations because partners belong to global firms yet are promoted at the national level. We undertake a cross-country comparison of partner promotion processes in Big 4 PSFs in Canada, France, Spain and the UK. Synthesizing existing institutionalist work with Bourdieusian theory, our results suggest that PSFs in different countries resemble each other very closely in terms of the requirements demanded of their partners. Although heterogeneity can be observed in the way in which different forms of capital are converted into each other, we show there is an overall homogeneity in that economic capital hurdles are the most significant, if not the sole, set of criteria upon which considerations of partnership admissions are based.