Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer theoretical and practical insights on the ways in which integrated thinking is observed in practice. Integrated thinking is linked to integrated reporting, and described as an attribute or capacity for senior management to constructively manage tensions between the multiple capitals (manufactured, intellectual, human, natural, social and relationship as well as financial capital) in strategy, resource allocation, performance measurement and control. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical framework is developed from the accounting and systems thinking literature, linking integrated thinking to sustainability. Soft versus hard integrated thinking approaches are applied to contrast the siloed management of sustainability with a model that focuses on relationships and broader indicators of societal health and well-being. Practical illustrations of the conceptualised framework are presented for discussion and for further empirical research. Findings – The illustrative examples offer a diversity of corporate, government and not-for-profit viewpoints, providing evidence of both hard and soft integrated thinking in practice. Valuable insights are provided into innovative approaches that foster and make explicit the soft integrated thinking skills and map them to broader societal outcomes. Research limitations/implications – Potential problems can arise if hard integrated thinking dominates over the soft, and data required for internal management accounting purposes become narrow, linear and segregated. Routines and practices will then be based on quasi-standards, further concealing the soft integrated thinking that might be occurring within the organisation. Originality/value – With theoretical roots in systems thinking, this paper contributes to the relatively underexplored area of integrated thinking in accounting for sustainability.

While a number of studies relating to activity‐based costing (ABC) have been conducted, relatively few have been conducted in the South East Asia region. This paper reports the results of a survey of firms in Thailand regarding issues associated with ABC adoption and implementation. The study finds that the rate of ABC adoption in Thailand was relatively high (58% of all respondent firms having ABC knowledge and adopting ABC as an idea; 35% of respondents overall) compared with other Asian countries. In particular, firms with greater variation in product complexity, complexity of production service processes and intensity of capital equipment were more likely to adopt ABC. In line with previous studies, top management support was identified as a key criterion influencing the success of ABC.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a survey of independent directors on a range of issues relating to the execution of their role including the independent directors' perceptions relating to board effectiveness, board interactions, information sources, and performance and evaluation. A survey was forwarded to independent directors of the top 200 Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed companies. The paper aims to provide the perceptions of independent directors themselves and so contribute to the literature through a better understanding of the nature of the work performed by Australian company independent directors and the environment in which it occurs. Findings suggest that the fundamental role of the independent director has not changed as a result of the corporate governance reforms.

This paper provides empirical evidence relating to the characteristics of firms adopting ABC compared to those not adopting ABC. The empirical evidence is based on responses received from 120 manufacturing companies. The characteristics explored relate to what are referred to as firm characteristic and business environment variables which are defined as those relating to: cost structure, production complexity, production diversity, firm size and the level of competitive intensity. Five hypotheses are developed from a discussion of the literature relating to adoption issues. The results suggest that there would appear to be significant differences between firms adopting ABC and those not adopting ABC in relation to production complexity, firm size and level of competitive intensity, while there would appear to be no significant differences in relation to the proportion of overhead costs in total manufacturing costs and production diversity.

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