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PurposeCan sustainability disclosures be a tool for executing image restoration strategies after corporate manslaughter? This is the question explored in this study of Costa Crociere's sustainability reports after the Concordia disaster.Design/methodology/approachMerging traditional textual content analysis with visual analysis and supported by machine learning tools, this is a predominantly qualitative study framed by legitimacy theory, image restoration theory and impression management.FindingsCosta Crociere's voluntary sustainability reporting is strongly influenced by a mix of text and visual signals that distract readers' attention from the disaster. A “nothing really happened” communication strategy pervades the disclosures, with the only rational motivation being to change perceptions and erase memories of this tragic and avoidable event.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the analysis covered multiple sources of corporate information, media coverage was not one of them. A more in-depth exploration of sustainability reporting in the cruise industry, including evidence of similar cases, to test impression management theory would be a worthwhile avenue for future research.Social implicationsWhile Costa Crociere technically followed the customary guidelines of disclosing human resource impacts, there was almost no acknowledgement of the people involved in the accident. Costa Conciere vastly understated their responsibility for the accident, did not apologize, and conveyed very little remorse. The majority of disclosures centred on disaster recovery management.Originality/valueThe authors discuss why and how a company can overcome a legitimacy threat by completely freezing its voluntary sustainability reporting, and the authors show how a company can restore its image by minimizing specific aspects of an accident and shifting attention from the human victims to corporate operations. Incorporating image recognition driven by AI models and combining the results with narrative disclosures contributes an innovative and original analysis technique to the field of impression management. In addition, this research also contributes to our knowledge on the cruise industry – a sector currently under scrutiny for its ethical, social and environmental practices.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to map the service quality (SQ) of Airbnb, to provide additional insight for such top player of short-stay accommodation in the sharing economy context. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method approach is used in two phases. In the qualitative phase, 112,138 online review comments of Airbnb guests were analyzed to generate the service attributes. In the quantitative phase, an online survey (n = 814) was conducted to calculate the performance and importance values of extracted attributes to plot them in an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) matrix. Findings A holistic image of the Airbnb extracted service attributes was presented through the IPA plot. Four types of SQ strategies were proposed, considering the actions priority. “Price reasonability” was the most important service attribute of Airbnb for guests, whereas “Check-in flexibility” was the best performed one. Practical implications The results shed light on the most relevant SQ attributes of Airbnb and proposed suitable strategies that can prioritize relevant stakeholders’ actions and decisions. The study significantly contributes to all decision makers involved in the short-stay accommodation sharing industry to further understand and develop SQ. Originality/value This research, using a comprehensive hybrid method, opens a lens to see more clearly the positioning of different attributes of Airbnb service from importance and performance viewpoints. As a contribution, the SQ of Airbnb was mapped by conducting an IPA for the first time in the literature.

The Ukraine war has immensely affected both food and energy systems due to the significant role of Russia in supplying natural gas and fertilizers globally and the extensive contribution of both Russia and Ukraine in exporting grains and oilseeds to the international markets. Hence, the Ukraine-Russia conflict has resulted in a shortage of crops and grains in the food market, especially in Europe, causing speculations if these resources should still be used for biofuel production (1st Generation). However, the International Energy Agency has warned that lowering biofuel mandates could result in rising petroleum demand and supply concerns. In light of these unfolding events, a systems thinking approach is required to monitor and analyze the implications of this crisis for food and biofuel markets as a whole to alleviate the concerns faced and plan sustainably. In this vein, based on the trade-offs between food system elements and the biofuel supply chain, as well as the potential effects of the war on the food and energy systems worldwide, a causal loop diagram is developed in the present work. According to the insights provided, the key to preventing food insecurity and keeping biofuel mandates on an increasing trend simultaneously amid the Ukraine war is to switch from the 1st Generation biofuels to higher generations. This transition would reduce not only the pressure on the food market to move toward zero hunger (SDG 2) but also pave the way to move towards a circular economy and clean and affordable energy (SDG 7) during the post-war era.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend research on boundary making and breaking through alternative football clubs. These entities have borne out of the disappointment caused by the neoliberal turn of the football industry, which excluded traditional fans from being active actors and therefore call for study and generalization of specific forms of alternative accountability.Design/methodology/approachThe study looks at emerging trends in the accounting and sport literature by drawing on two concepts that emerged in critical scholarship: critical performativity and critical dialogical accountability, with the aim of better understanding how these elements are developed and shaped within an alternative form of football organization. The focus on Football Club United of Manchester drives the ethnographic approach with data collected via participant observation, field-notes, documental analysis and semi-structured interviews.FindingsThe research shows that the pillars of the club's ethos, pushing its critical performative interventions toward setting new boundaries, are democratic governance and accountability, favoring participation and inclusion, and strictly linked to this, a responsibility to local communities. However, the study also highlights the difficulties of maintaining these boundaries when core values are threatened by degeneration.Originality/valueThe study makes a novel contribution to the field of accounting and sport, showing how an alternative football club adopts inclusive accountability systems that go beyond mainstream neoliberal practices. Such an inclusive approach can stimulate critical performativity, moving away from means-end rationality.

Recent policy changes in sustainability reporting, such as the ones related to the new European Directive on non-financial disclosure (2014/95/EU), the standards issued by the American Sustainability Accounting Standard Board (SASB), the G4 guidelines issued by the Global Sustainability Standard Board (GSSB), and the framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) stress the importance of extending the disclosure of ethical, social, and environmental risks within financial and social-environmental reporting. Institutional pressure has notably increased among organizations, in setting up risk management tools to understand sustainability risks within managerial and reporting practices. Given such institutional pressure, the corporate reaction in providing additional sustainability risk disclosure calls for attention and scrutiny. Therefore, this study aims at addressing such issues from an exploratory perspective. We based our analysis on a sample of large Italian organizations that issued sustainability disclosure in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), G4 guidelines, and we tested the relationship between their level of risk disclosure and other relevant variables. Consistently with the literature, we found that “experienced” sustainable reporters provide a significant volume of disclosure, and that disclosure quality on risk is positively influenced by their international presence and reporting experience. However, when accounting for specific risk-related areas of disclosure, only a few of them seem to adopt a managerial perspective linking strategy, risk metrics, and disclosure.

This paper presents the implications of blockchain technologies on sustainability reporting and disclosure, and specifically proposes blockchain use-cases as a possible solution for problems experienced in the field of supply chain carbon information. This study addresses how the reliability of supply chains’ carbon-related information can become more transparent and reliable through a decentralized approach based on blockchain thinking (BT), issues that have been identified as a gap in the literature and in the practice. Scenario analysis and design science research (DSR) are used as a methodological driver to conceptualize over the nature of practical solutions using unified modeling language (UML) diagrams. The resulting use-case focuses on data retrieval in the supply chain. The paper also presents implications for the audit industry and their role in the assurance of such technological architecture implementations. The study is visionary as it offers a conceptualization based on scenario analysis. Developing a scenario enables researchers to depict a prospective situation, develop ability to solve future problems, and to back cast them in current policies, technologies, and actions.

This paper presents an innovative model for integrating thermal compensation of gyro bias error into an augmented state Kalman filter. The developed model is applied in the Zero Velocity Update filter for inertial units manufactured by exploiting Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) gyros. It is used to remove residual bias at startup. It is a more effective alternative to traditional approach that is realized by cascading bias thermal correction by calibration and traditional Kalman filtering for bias tracking. This function is very useful when adopted gyros are manufactured using MEMS technology. These systems have significant limitations in terms of sensitivity to environmental conditions. They are characterized by a strong correlation of the systematic error with temperature variations. The traditional process is divided into two separated algorithms, i.e., calibration and filtering, and this aspect reduces system accuracy, reliability, and maintainability. This paper proposes an innovative Zero Velocity Update filter that just requires raw uncalibrated gyro data as input. It unifies in a single algorithm the two steps from the traditional approach. Therefore, it saves time and economic resources, simplifying the management of thermal correction process. In the paper, traditional and innovative Zero Velocity Update filters are described in detail, as well as the experimental data set used to test both methods. The performance of the two filters is compared both in nominal conditions and in the typical case of a residual initial alignment bias. In this last condition, the innovative solution shows significant improvements with respect to the traditional approach. This is the typical case of an aircraft or a car in parking conditions under solar input.

Urban and territorial development increasingly threatens the preservation of architectural heritage, often leading to degradation or loss. Many historic architectural works, once integral to community identity, now face the impacts of time and neglect. Addressing these challenges requires innovative solutions, and digital technologies offer significant potential for the conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage. This study employs reality-based 3D modeling techniques to generate accurate digital reconstructions of the Church of Santa Croce in Ravenna (Italy), used here as a case study to demonstrate a workflow for phasing analysis and interactive visualization of architectural transformations. The objective is not to produce a philological reconstruction, but to propose a methodological approach for digitally documenting and visualizing, with geometric rigor, the different constructive phases of historical buildings that have undergone structural changes. Using a spatial–temporal navigation approach, the research explores the various historical phases of the site within an interactive 3D virtual environment. The resulting platform facilitates both scholarly investigation and public engagement by providing immersive visualization and enhanced understanding of the monument’s transformation over time. Through this case study, the project underscores the critical role of contemporary digital tools in cultural heritage conservation and explores novel methods for communicating and disseminating historical knowledge.

Acute decompensation often represents the onset of symptoms associated with severe degenerative aortic stenosis (AS) and usually complicates the clinical course of the disease with a dismal impact on survival and quality of life. Several factors may derange the faint balance between left ventricular preload and afterload and precipitate the occurrence of symptoms and signs of acute heart failure (HF). A standardized approach for the management of this condition is currently lacking. Medical therapy finds very limited application in this setting, as drugs usually indicated for the control of acute HF might worsen hemodynamics in the presence of AS. Urgent aortic valve replacement is usually performed by transcatheter than surgical approach whereas, over the last decades, percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty gained renewed space as bridge to definitive therapy. This review focuses on the pathophysiological aspects of acute advanced AS and summarizes current evidence on its management.

While oligotrophic deep groundwaters host active microbes attuned to the low-end of the bioenergetics spectrum, the ecological constraints on microbial niches in these ecosystems and their consequences for microbiome convergence are unknown. Here, we provide a genome-resolved, integrated omics analysis comparing archaeal and bacterial communities in disconnected fracture fluids of the Fennoscandian Shield in Europe. Leveraging a dataset that combines metagenomes, single cell genomes, and metatranscriptomes, we show that groundwaters flowing in similar lithologies offer fixed niches that are occupied by a common core microbiome. Functional expression analysis highlights that these deep groundwater ecosystems foster diverse, yet cooperative communities adapted to this setting. We suggest that these communities stimulate cooperation by expression of functions related to ecological traits, such as aggregate or biofilm formation, while alleviating the burden on microorganisms producing compounds or functions that provide a collective benefit by facilitating reciprocal promiscuous metabolic partnerships with other members of the community. We hypothesize that an episodic lifestyle enabled by reversible bacteriostatic functions ensures the subsistence of the oligotrophic deep groundwater microbiome. Ecological constraints on microbial niches in oligotrophic deep groundwaters remain elusive. This study provides support for the existence of a common core microbiome in two deep groundwater biomes of the Fennoscandian Shield using a genome-resolved, integrated omics analysis.