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An overview of the current use of handwritten text recognition (HTR) on archival manuscript material, as provided by the EU H2020 funded Transkribus platform. It explains HTR, demonstrates Transkribus, gives examples of use cases, highlights the affect HTR may have on scholarship, and evidences this turning point of the advanced use of digitised heritage content. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper adopts a case study approach, using the development and delivery of the one openly available HTR platform for manuscript material.

Transkribus has demonstrated that HTR is now a useable technology that can be employed in conjunction with mass digitisation to generate accurate transcripts of archival material. Use cases are demonstrated, and a cooperative model is suggested as a way to ensure sustainability and scaling of the platform. However, funding and resourcing issues are identified.

The paper presents results from projects: further user studies could be undertaken involving interviews, surveys, etc.

Only HTR provided via Transkribus is covered: however, this is the only publicly available platform for HTR on individual collections of historical documents at time of writing and it represents the current state-of-the-art in this field.

The increased access to information contained within historical texts has the potential to be transformational for both institutions and individuals.

This is the first published overview of how HTR is used by a wide archival studies community, reporting and showcasing current application of handwriting technology in the cultural heritage sector.

This paper aims to propose a measurement of the materiality of environmental, social and governance information (ESG) reported by listed companies belonging to sensitive industries in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. This analysis is carried out from the insights of stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory and institutional theory. The research questions addressed are: What type of information is considered as material by Latin American companies? Does this information respond to the environmental and social issues within the context of Latin American companies and the needs of their stakeholders?

A materiality index is developed from principal component analysis and factor analysis, which are multivariate analysis statistical techniques used in various fields to develop indices. The designed index examines materiality in the sustainability reports of 65 companies for 2017 and 67 companies for 2018. These firms belong to the energy, mining, chemical, construction, construction materials and public services industries in Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

The results show medium-high materiality indices, mostly in Chilean, Mexican and Colombian companies. In addition, issues such as water management, climate change and occupational health and safety are particularly interesting for companies. For the two years studied and from the perspective of material aspects for the company and its stakeholders, energy, mining and utilities (drinking water and sewage) sectors obtained the highest scores. This shows that the disclosure of ESG information is higher in industries related to the exploitation of natural resources that cause adverse effects on the environment such as extractive industries. Both the analysis presented in this paper and the materiality measurement developed, allow social responsibility managers to have a standard on the level of importance allotted to the different topics disclosed in sustainability reports. Additionally, this study provides a perspective of the material issues recognized by sensitive industries with great environmental impact. Similarly, an analysis of the issues considered material by stakeholders is provided. This allows such issues to be compared, identifying similarities and differences among the issues regarded as material by a company and its stakeholders.

The paper opens the debate is open as to whether the information disclosed response to the needs of stakeholders or whether, on the contrary, the materiality analysis is a process that emerges simply from the interests of the company. These demands for qualitative and field research to complement quantitative studies such as this one to research the stakeholders’ engagement processes in context.

The paper’s purpose a challenge for future research is to strengthen the use of various methodologies that allow knowing the participation processes in the definition of materiality in the ESG information and the companies’ engagement with stakeholders. This stimulates research in the region, which is still in its infancy.

The international literature contains few studies related to the assessment of materiality for sustainability reporting. So this paper contributes proposes measurement of materiality for ESG information.

This study aims to analyse CSR communication in the Latin American Integrated Market companies using Facebook, by studying disclosure and its determinants along with the legitimacy and interactivity of CSR posts.

A content analysis of Facebook posts and an index were developed to establish disclosure levels explained by regression modelling. In addition, an analysis of Facebook posts, reactions and comments was carried out.

Content analysis shows that most of the posts correspond to the categories of society and environment. Regression modelling shows there is a strong association between corporate and board characteristics and disclosure levels. In spite of the dialogic character of Facebook, interactivity levels of messages are low, although high levels of legitimacy are observed in posts by consumer and financial companies.

This study examines companies included in the Latin American Integrated Market. The generalisation of the results is limited to this context.

Understanding CSR communication may enable companies to relate more effectively with their stakeholders and possibly change their practices as a result of the feedback provided.

This study offers an important contribution to the literature on CSR communication by performing an analysis of information disclosure on Facebook and its explanatory factors. Another contribution of this study is its examination of the legitimacy and interactivity of CSR information disclosure in Latin America, a relatively understudied region.

The geopolitical phenomenon commonly known as ‘France-Africa’ (Gourévitch 1997) is the fruit of the historical and political relations that France as a colonizing power has maintained and continues to maintain to this day with its former colonies in Africa. Before the colonial period, Africa was originally made up of autonomous political entities (states). ¹ The current mapping of African states is the result of the European political will expressed at the Berlin Conference held from 15 November 1884 to 26 February 1885. ²

This chapter examines experts’ perceptions of the conditions of their entrepreneurial ecosystems to analyse women’s disadvantages, identify which conditions can improve in comparison to men in Latin America, and if the level of development of their country affects the support women entrepreneurs have. The study is based on regional data collected in Chile and Mexico with one of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor surveys between 2015 and 2018. With a total sample of N = 2,230 male and female experts, the author uses principal component analysis and non-parametric statistics to compare means between genders and also women in different countries. First, male and female experts’ perceptions are compared at the macrolevel and then total women as a subsample are compared between the women experts’ perceptions by country at the mesolevel. At the macrolevel, the results show a clear perceived disadvantage for women entrepreneurs in all conditions except internal market dynamics. At the mesolevel, the findings show that support for women entrepreneurs is better in most conditions for Mexico, which is a less developed country, in comparison to Chile for this case. This chapter goes from studying the general to the particular issues causing gender gaps in entrepreneurial ecosystems in developing Latin American countries. The dataset used represents the biggest data-gathering project in the field of entrepreneurship for the region.

This chapter explores how TESOL teacher educators used self-study to respond to educational policies for emergent bilingual learners (BLs) and their teachers. The purpose was to examine tensions, challenges, and opportunities in our efforts as teacher educators to prepare teachers to teach BLs in mainstream classes through a state-mandated sheltered English instruction (SEI) course. Data sources, including emails, course artifacts, meeting agendas, and journals, pre and post surveys and course assignments were analyzed using mixed methods. Practitioners and participants agreed one SEI course is insufficient. In a coherent approach to preparing mainstream teachers to teach language, learning would be reinforced from coursework to the classroom. Without self-studies that provide an informed response to external policies that shape teacher education, the danger is new policies result in no substantive change.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between research and development (R&D) intensity and innovative performance and R&D intensity as a moderating variable in the relationship between sources of information and innovative performance.

This is a quantitative, nonexperimental, cross-sectional study of the data collected from national surveys of innovation activities from Ecuador, Peru and Chile where the investigation was carried out. A bivariate probit regression was applied.

The results of the investigation pinpoint that R&D intensity is positively related to the innovation of products and processes in Ecuador and Peru. However, no relationship was found in Chile. As a moderating variable of the information sources (customers, suppliers and competitors), and the innovation of products and processes, it shows different results in the three countries examined.

This study contributes to the literature with evidence in countries with low rates of investment in R&D in the countries examined, this relationship does not always exist; this relationship is considered to be dependent on the complexity of the knowledge and internal capabilities of the company required to achieve innovation, and this complexity could vary according to the type of manufacturing and technology level of the companies. Thus, in manufacturing companies of less complexity to achieve the necessary knowledge for innovation, low rates of investment in R&D are sufficient for the relationship to exist.

By increasing their R&D intensity, companies acquire technology and develop internal skills and capabilities that boost their innovative potential. Nevertheless, it is not enough to increase R&D intensity to take advantage of external sources of information, it is also necessary to boost the absorptive capacity to assimilate and take advantage of external knowledge.

This study contributes to the scarce evidence that exists, on the literature in developing countries, on the effect of R&D intensity on innovative performance and provides evidence of R&D intensity as a moderating variable of the relationship between sources of information and innovative performance.

This paper aims to explore the extent to which technology and disruption has been considered within the accounting literature, to introduce the five papers which compose this special issue and to provide an agenda for future research on technology and disruption.

To explore previous works on the disruptive potential of technology in accounting, the study compares topics in accounting research articles that contain variations of the term “disrupt” with those articles containing variations of the term “technology”. Based on the method first proposed in Marrone and Hammerle (2016), an entity linker application was used to extract key topics from the top 50 accounting journals, and these topics were then compared to determine the extent of thematic intersection.

A key finding is that accounting academic articles featuring “disruption” are rarely linked with “technology”. The concept of “disruption” has been largely synonymous with crisis, and the crises endured to date have had predominantly social or environmental causes (e.g. the GFC and natural disasters). The literature on technology has coalesced around three broad themes – creation, deployment and protection – which have not been identified as crises triggers so far. This finding underscores the importance of the papers comprising this special issue, which explore enhanced data visualisation, blockchain and social media, as well as considering how such technologies might be managed and their potential for either emancipation or enslavement.

In relation to the review of prior literature, the primary limitation is that a quantitative approach was taken. Whilst this allows for a greater sample size and replication, a qualitative thematic review may reveal additional findings. The primary implication of this research and this special issue collectively is that there is much more to be done in exploring both the potential benefits and limitations of new technologies for accounting.

In relation to the review of prior literature, no previous studies have undertaken a quantitative analysis of the intersection of technology disruption in accounting research. In relation to this special issue, these papers collectively provide a multi-faceted view of how technology can and will transform the practice and potential of accounting in the years ahead. Finally, the provision of a thematic framework and research agenda will assist future researchers in exploring this dynamic and important field.