My Research & Publications

Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting: Evidence of Reputation Risk Management in Large Australian Companie

(Published in 2019 in the Australian Accounting Review)

This paper provides robust empirical evidence that stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting among large Australian companies is largely rhetorical and reputation-driven. Rather than demonstrating full accountability, firms employ sophisticated rhetorical strategies—such as denial, bolstering, and corrective action—to control narratives, protect legitimacy, and pre-empt reputational damage. By integrating Shrives and Brennan’s (2017) rhetorical framework with the RRM thesis, the study advances understanding of how communication serves both proactive and defensive corporate functions. It calls for a paradigm shift from symbolic disclosure toward embedded stakeholder accountability, where engagement genuinely shapes sustainability priorities and reporting content. Ultimately, this paper underscores that true accountability requires moving beyond reputation management—embracing dialogic, transparent, and participatory approaches that align corporate actions with stakeholder expectations and societal values.

Stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting by Fortune Global 500 companies: a call for embeddedness

(Published in 2023 in the Meditari Accountancy Research)

This paper reveals that sustainability reporting among Fortune Global 500 companies remains partially symbolic and weakly embedded in stakeholder engagement. While most firms identify stakeholders and acknowledge their concerns, few connect these insights to concrete sustainability actions or disclosures. The study calls for a shift from procedural compliance to embedded accountability, where stakeholder engagement informs the definition of material topics, shapes sustainability narratives, and drives organisational learning. By conceptualising embeddedness as the integration of stakeholder dialogue into sustainability disclosure, the paper contributes to the global debate on authentic accountability in corporate sustainability. It argues that true stakeholder engagement must move beyond consultation—becoming an integral, iterative process that co-creates sustainability meaning and practice, ensuring that corporate reports reflect the voices and concerns of those most affected by business operations.

Dividend policy and residual dividend theory: evidence from Indonesia

(Published in 2024 in the Asian Journal of Accounting Research)

This paper provides robust empirical evidence that Indonesian listed companies follow the residual dividend model, prioritising capital expenditure and working capital needs before declaring dividends. The findings reveal that dividend policy in emerging markets is primarily driven by investment requirements and liquidity management, rather than short-term investor expectations. The study advances dividend theory by demonstrating its applicability in developing economies with distinctive institutional and ownership structures. It shows that dividends, rather than being a fixed financial commitment, are a strategic outcome of investment-driven decision-making. Ultimately, this research underscores that sustainable corporate growth in Indonesia depends on balancing reinvestment and shareholder returns, improving disclosure of financial priorities, and strengthening institutional mechanisms that encourage transparency and investor trust in dividend policy decisions.

Corporate responses to sustainability issues: are they rhetorical?

(Published in 2025 in the Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting)

This paper demonstrates that sustainability reporting by Indonesia’s largest companies remains largely rhetorical rather than transformative. Firms employ sophisticated linguistic strategies—especially bolstering, contextual justification, and self-promotion—to sustain legitimacy, protect image, and manage stakeholder expectations. While overt denial or minimisation is rare, selective transparency and symbolic correction prevail, revealing a nuanced form of decoupling between corporate talk and actual practice. By integrating rhetorical and institutional perspectives, the study contributes to understanding sustainability reporting as both a symbolic artefact and a legitimacy-building instrument in emerging economies. Ultimately, genuine sustainability accountability will require stronger regulatory enforcement, third-party assurance, and stakeholder scrutiny to move corporate communication beyond rhetoric toward substantive environmental and social change.

Institutional dynamics and environmental disclosures: insights from Indonesia’s energy sector

(Published in 2025 in the Pacific Accounting Review)

This paper reveals that environmental disclosures in Indonesia’s energy sector are heavily influenced by institutional pressures that often promote symbolic compliance over substantive change. Regulatory mandates like POJK 51/2017 ensure formal adherence but lack mechanisms to stimulate real performance. Mimetic pressures lead firms to imitate global standards for legitimacy, while normative pressures through stakeholder engagement are frequently ceremonial.

Yet, these pressures also open pathways for incremental change—where symbolic practices evolve into substantive sustainability actions over time. The study contributes to institutional theory by demonstrating how symbolic and substantive logics coexist and interact within emerging market contexts. To achieve authentic sustainability, the authors argue that Indonesia must strengthen enforcement, incentivise performance, and localise global frameworks, turning environmental reporting from a compliance exercise into a vehicle for genuine accountability and environmental transformation.

Navigating timeliness: Decoupling in corporate external reporting by Indonesian state-owned enterprises (SOEs)

(Published in 2025 in the Public Money and Management)

This paper reveals that Indonesian state-owned enterprises face deep institutional tensions in meeting reporting deadlines. While regulators impose strict requirements for transparency and accountability, organisational realities—bureaucratic structures, fragmented systems, and limited capacity—make full compliance difficult.
To navigate these pressures, SOEs engage in decoupling, presenting formal compliance externally while informally adjusting internal processes to cope with constraints. Through this lens, timeliness emerges not merely as an administrative challenge but as a reflection of institutional complexity—a balancing act between compliance, legitimacy, and capacity. By framing decoupling as a strategic, context-sensitive adaptation, the paper advances understanding of how accountability operates in public-sector organisations of developing economies. It highlights that achieving genuine transparency requires not only rules and sanctions but also systemic capacity-building, digital integration, and cultural reform to close the persistent gap between policy and practice in corporate external reporting.

Tri Hita Karana: Balinese local wisdom and its role in the triumph over corruption

(Published in 2025 in the Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change)

This paper shows that Tri Hita Karana serves as a powerful ethical and cultural framework for reducing corruption in Bali’s public institutions. By embedding Parahyangan (spiritual accountability), Pawongan (collective responsibility), and Palemahan (environmental stewardship) into accounting and organisational routines, institutions transform compliance-based control into value-driven integrity. Rather than relying solely on laws or audits, this Balinese approach builds internal moral consciousness, strengthens social trust, and nurtures sustainable governance. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that local wisdom can globalise ethical governance—showing how indigenous philosophies like Tri Hita Karana can enrich modern accounting and public management practices by restoring the moral, human, and ecological

Institutional Work in Making Sustainability Reporting Mandatory in Indonesia Through Sustainable Finance

(Published in 2025 in the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies)

The paper shows that Indonesia’s move toward mandatory sustainability reporting was not a top-down imposition but a bottom-up, culturally grounded process driven by collaboration between corporate pioneers, regulators, and civil society. ALPHA’s institutional entrepreneurship, supported by local values and collective effort, transformed sustainability reporting from a voluntary experiment into an accepted pillar of responsible corporate governance under POJK 51/2017.