Syrus Islam | Auckland University of Technology (original) (raw)

Papers by Syrus Islam

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2022

The COVID-19-induced disruptions have hardest hit social economy enterprises. While impact invest... more The COVID-19-induced disruptions have hardest hit social economy enterprises. While impact investing is considered a promising vehicle to stimulate and grow social economy enterprises, little is known about how impact investors are actually responding to sustain and grow social economy enterprises amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that impact investors sacrifice additional financial returns in pandemic-focused impact investments where they see the potential for attaining significantly higher than usual social impact by protecting hundreds of vulnerable social economy enterprises and beneficiaries amidst the pandemic. We also find that guarantees are introduced as an innovative impact investment instrument to tackle the pandemic, although they have remained heavily underutilized. Furthermore, debt instruments tend to dominate in pandemic-focused impact investments. Finally, in response to the pandemic, impact investors emphasize developing and strengthening a supportive social impact ecosystem to protect both portfolio and non-portfolio social economy enterprises and their beneficiaries. We also explain how the impact investing market has evolved during pandemic times and how it might evolve post-pandemic to support social economy enterprises.

Australian Journal of Management, 2021

We examine the match/mismatch between the demand and supply of impact investments. We show that s... more We examine the match/mismatch between the demand and supply of impact investments. We show that some geographic regions display an upward match, while others exhibit a downward match. We explain how regions with well-developed (or less-developed) economies are not necessarily equal to regions with well-developed (or less-developed) impact investment markets. We also highlight the sectors exhibiting a match or mismatch between the demand and supply of investments, and explain the potential reasons. Regarding both geographic and sector concentration, the demand for investments is much more concentrated than their supply. Finally, early-stage companies suffer from an undersupply of investments, while growth-stage companies display an upward match and mature companies have an oversupply of investments. These findings have implications for impact investing theory and practice, including the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.

Australian Journal of Management, 2021

Social enterprises have attracted increased attention from both researchers and practitioners aro... more Social enterprises have attracted increased attention from both researchers and practitioners around the world. In the social enterprise context, scaling social impact is considered the main currency or key performance metric. Two overarching social impact scaling strategies are organizational growth strategy and ecosystem growth strategy. However, to date, little cumulative knowledge exists on these two social impact scaling strategies. To address this issue, this paper conducts a systematic review of 111 peer-reviewed articles. It identifies and discusses key insights into organizational growth strategy and ecosystem growth strategy as a means to scale social impact in social enterprises. Based on these findings, the current paper also develops a framework to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of social impact scaling strategies in social enterprises. Finally, the review identifies gaps in the existing literature and discusses a comprehensive agenda for future research.

Accounting & Finance, 2021

Impact investing has great potential to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals... more Impact investing has great potential to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by financing the growth of social sector organizations. This paper conducts a systematic literature review to develop cumulative insights into impact investing in social sector organizations. It identifies four streams of impact investing research: impact investment decision making, impact evaluation in impact investing, behavioral issues in impact investing, and impact investing ecosystem. This paper also identifies nine main research focus areas within these research streams and discusses key insights into each of them. Finally, building on prior research, this article offers a comprehensive future research agenda.

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2020

Scaling social impact is a key concept in the social enterprise literature. While central, the wi... more Scaling social impact is a key concept in the social enterprise literature. While central, the wide range of meanings and the lack of conceptual uniformity detract from its usefulness. To tackle this issue, this paper conducts a systematic review to derive an integrative definition of scaling social impact: Scaling social impact is an ongoing process of increasing the magnitude of both quantitative and qualitative positive changes in society by addressing pressing social problems at individual and/or systemic levels through one or more scaling paths. Alongside improving conceptual clarity, the definition offers an operational structure with five underlying elements, setting the basis for new empirical work and theorising in social enterprise research.

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2020

Scaling social impact is regarded as the main currency in social enterprise and social entreprene... more Scaling social impact is regarded as the main currency in social enterprise and social entrepreneurship. Many social enterprises scale their social impact through ecosystem growth strategy, under which they indirectly address targeted social problems by growing and/or sustaining a supportive social enterprise ecosystem through activities such as organising advocacy campaigns and supporting other social enterprises to grow. However, the existing literature is largely biased towards the success stories of ecosystem growth strategy. Countering this “success bias”, this article presents a framework describing how, under certain conditions, scaling social impact through ecosystem growth strategy can create unintended consequences. In doing so, this paper also challenges the prevailing reductionist view of ecosystem growth as a social impact scaling strategy and provides a more reliable and comprehensive account of this scaling strategy. This article hopes to stimulate future research on greater understanding and management of unintended consequences of ecosystem growth strategy in social enterprise, as well as delineating the boundary conditions of this strategy with regard to scaling social impact.

Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2019

Although a firm’s strategy map is likely to evolve over time, empirical research on the evolution... more Although a firm’s strategy map is likely to evolve over time, empirical research on the evolution of strategy maps is largely underexplored. Drawing on fieldwork, this study examines strategy map evolution from a value creation perspective. The findings show that a firm's strategy map evolves in response to delivering new value and/or existing value through new value creation design themes. Furthermore, value creation design themes underlying strategy maps are dynamic in that certain design themes of an existing strategy map continue as part of the new strategy map, whereas others are abandoned. The study also shows that over time, design themes underlying strategy maps can change their role from value creation to value protection. Finally, this study discusses how the use and change of strategy maps can be linked, and how the use of a strategy map can influence its design.

Accounting and Finance, 2019

This study examines the managerial sensemaking process around business models. Drawing on fieldwo... more This study examines the managerial sensemaking process around business models. Drawing on fieldwork, this study introduces a model to describe how managerial sensemaking occurs around business model development and use. This study shows that managerial sensemaking around business models occurs through a mutually co-constituted process, a separate yet shared process, or a combination of them resulting from an interplay between sensemaking and sensegiving activities. To facilitate their sensemaking around business models, managers draw on several schemas. Over time, some schemas underlying business models remain unchanged, while others change in varying degrees.

Pacific Accounting Review, 2018

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to synthesise the prior literature on strategy maps to dev... more Purpose – The purpose of this study is to synthesise the prior literature on strategy maps to develop a practitioner’s guide to the design of strategy map frameworks. Robert Kaplan and David Norton introduced the strategy map in their 2000 Harvard Business review article. A strategy map visually represents how the critical elements of an organisation’s strategies are linked together. In an organisation’s strategy execution process, a strategy map complements a performance measurement framework such as the balanced scorecard.
Design/methodology/approach – This is a technical paper, which primarily builds on the prior literature on the strategy map design. In particular, this study reviews 41 publications on strategy maps in the period 2000-2015, including observation of 333 strategy map frameworks.
Findings – This study develops 14 design principles across seven features of a strategy map framework. This study also identifies a significant lack of empirical research on strategy map design features and principles.
Research limitations/implications – Future research could examine whether and why various design features and principles could exert different or same effects (e.g. decision-relevance).
Practical implications – The developed design features and principles can be used by practitioners as guidance for developing customised strategy maps for their organisations.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by serving as a one-stop shop” for both practitioners and researchers seeking a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the strategy map design features and principles.

Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 2018

Purpose – Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are at the heart of most organisations. The obje... more Purpose – Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are at the heart of most organisations. The objective of this study is to examine the attitudes of top-level managers towards the incompleteness of PMSs.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on an in-depth field study conducted in an energy and environmental services provider based in New Zealand. The data obtained from twenty semi-structured interviews was triangulated against on-site observations and company documents.
Findings – The findings suggest that whether the incompleteness of a PMS is considered problematic or non-problematic depends on the role that the PMS plays in implementing a firm’s strategy. We show that when the PMS is mainly used to trigger improvement activities on and around strategic objectives, and managers perceive adequate improvement activities to exist, they consider the incompleteness of the PMS in relation to these strategic objectives non-problematic. In contrast, managers are concerned about the incompleteness of the PMS when an inadequate level of improvement activities is believed to exist around strategic objectives.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the nascent literature on managerial attitudes towards the incompleteness of PMSs by identifying conditions under which the incompleteness is considered problematic or non-problematic. We also contribute to the literature on the association between design qualities of PMSs and firm performance by suggesting that poor design qualities of a PMS (such as incompleteness) may not always translate into poor firm performance.

Pacific Accounting Review, 2016

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to reconceptualize the notion of relations underlying per... more Purpose: The objective of this paper is to reconceptualize the notion of relations underlying performance measurement models (PMMs) and explicate the ample exciting research opportunities that this reconceptualized viewpoint offers.
Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper, which primarily builds on and extends the contemporary research that challenges the traditional viewpoint that cause-and-effect relations are a necessary element of every PMM.
Findings: The reconceptualized viewpoint suggests that a PMM can be built on any combination of cause-and-effect, finality, and logical relations, as opposed to only cause-and-effect relations. This paper presents several exciting research opportunities that the reconceptualized perspective offers.
Originality/value: The different types of relations underlying PMMs and their appropriate validation techniques are a relatively novel concept and also, a complex phenomenon which has received very limited attention in the accounting literature. This paper extends this nascent literature by outlining the research implications of this novel concept.
Keywords: Performance measurement models; Cause-and-effect; Finality; Logical; Relations; Reconceptualize.

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2022

The COVID-19-induced disruptions have hardest hit social economy enterprises. While impact invest... more The COVID-19-induced disruptions have hardest hit social economy enterprises. While impact investing is considered a promising vehicle to stimulate and grow social economy enterprises, little is known about how impact investors are actually responding to sustain and grow social economy enterprises amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that impact investors sacrifice additional financial returns in pandemic-focused impact investments where they see the potential for attaining significantly higher than usual social impact by protecting hundreds of vulnerable social economy enterprises and beneficiaries amidst the pandemic. We also find that guarantees are introduced as an innovative impact investment instrument to tackle the pandemic, although they have remained heavily underutilized. Furthermore, debt instruments tend to dominate in pandemic-focused impact investments. Finally, in response to the pandemic, impact investors emphasize developing and strengthening a supportive social impact ecosystem to protect both portfolio and non-portfolio social economy enterprises and their beneficiaries. We also explain how the impact investing market has evolved during pandemic times and how it might evolve post-pandemic to support social economy enterprises.

Australian Journal of Management, 2021

We examine the match/mismatch between the demand and supply of impact investments. We show that s... more We examine the match/mismatch between the demand and supply of impact investments. We show that some geographic regions display an upward match, while others exhibit a downward match. We explain how regions with well-developed (or less-developed) economies are not necessarily equal to regions with well-developed (or less-developed) impact investment markets. We also highlight the sectors exhibiting a match or mismatch between the demand and supply of investments, and explain the potential reasons. Regarding both geographic and sector concentration, the demand for investments is much more concentrated than their supply. Finally, early-stage companies suffer from an undersupply of investments, while growth-stage companies display an upward match and mature companies have an oversupply of investments. These findings have implications for impact investing theory and practice, including the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.

Australian Journal of Management, 2021

Social enterprises have attracted increased attention from both researchers and practitioners aro... more Social enterprises have attracted increased attention from both researchers and practitioners around the world. In the social enterprise context, scaling social impact is considered the main currency or key performance metric. Two overarching social impact scaling strategies are organizational growth strategy and ecosystem growth strategy. However, to date, little cumulative knowledge exists on these two social impact scaling strategies. To address this issue, this paper conducts a systematic review of 111 peer-reviewed articles. It identifies and discusses key insights into organizational growth strategy and ecosystem growth strategy as a means to scale social impact in social enterprises. Based on these findings, the current paper also develops a framework to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of social impact scaling strategies in social enterprises. Finally, the review identifies gaps in the existing literature and discusses a comprehensive agenda for future research.

Accounting & Finance, 2021

Impact investing has great potential to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals... more Impact investing has great potential to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by financing the growth of social sector organizations. This paper conducts a systematic literature review to develop cumulative insights into impact investing in social sector organizations. It identifies four streams of impact investing research: impact investment decision making, impact evaluation in impact investing, behavioral issues in impact investing, and impact investing ecosystem. This paper also identifies nine main research focus areas within these research streams and discusses key insights into each of them. Finally, building on prior research, this article offers a comprehensive future research agenda.

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2020

Scaling social impact is a key concept in the social enterprise literature. While central, the wi... more Scaling social impact is a key concept in the social enterprise literature. While central, the wide range of meanings and the lack of conceptual uniformity detract from its usefulness. To tackle this issue, this paper conducts a systematic review to derive an integrative definition of scaling social impact: Scaling social impact is an ongoing process of increasing the magnitude of both quantitative and qualitative positive changes in society by addressing pressing social problems at individual and/or systemic levels through one or more scaling paths. Alongside improving conceptual clarity, the definition offers an operational structure with five underlying elements, setting the basis for new empirical work and theorising in social enterprise research.

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2020

Scaling social impact is regarded as the main currency in social enterprise and social entreprene... more Scaling social impact is regarded as the main currency in social enterprise and social entrepreneurship. Many social enterprises scale their social impact through ecosystem growth strategy, under which they indirectly address targeted social problems by growing and/or sustaining a supportive social enterprise ecosystem through activities such as organising advocacy campaigns and supporting other social enterprises to grow. However, the existing literature is largely biased towards the success stories of ecosystem growth strategy. Countering this “success bias”, this article presents a framework describing how, under certain conditions, scaling social impact through ecosystem growth strategy can create unintended consequences. In doing so, this paper also challenges the prevailing reductionist view of ecosystem growth as a social impact scaling strategy and provides a more reliable and comprehensive account of this scaling strategy. This article hopes to stimulate future research on greater understanding and management of unintended consequences of ecosystem growth strategy in social enterprise, as well as delineating the boundary conditions of this strategy with regard to scaling social impact.

Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2019

Although a firm’s strategy map is likely to evolve over time, empirical research on the evolution... more Although a firm’s strategy map is likely to evolve over time, empirical research on the evolution of strategy maps is largely underexplored. Drawing on fieldwork, this study examines strategy map evolution from a value creation perspective. The findings show that a firm's strategy map evolves in response to delivering new value and/or existing value through new value creation design themes. Furthermore, value creation design themes underlying strategy maps are dynamic in that certain design themes of an existing strategy map continue as part of the new strategy map, whereas others are abandoned. The study also shows that over time, design themes underlying strategy maps can change their role from value creation to value protection. Finally, this study discusses how the use and change of strategy maps can be linked, and how the use of a strategy map can influence its design.

Accounting and Finance, 2019

This study examines the managerial sensemaking process around business models. Drawing on fieldwo... more This study examines the managerial sensemaking process around business models. Drawing on fieldwork, this study introduces a model to describe how managerial sensemaking occurs around business model development and use. This study shows that managerial sensemaking around business models occurs through a mutually co-constituted process, a separate yet shared process, or a combination of them resulting from an interplay between sensemaking and sensegiving activities. To facilitate their sensemaking around business models, managers draw on several schemas. Over time, some schemas underlying business models remain unchanged, while others change in varying degrees.

Pacific Accounting Review, 2018

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to synthesise the prior literature on strategy maps to dev... more Purpose – The purpose of this study is to synthesise the prior literature on strategy maps to develop a practitioner’s guide to the design of strategy map frameworks. Robert Kaplan and David Norton introduced the strategy map in their 2000 Harvard Business review article. A strategy map visually represents how the critical elements of an organisation’s strategies are linked together. In an organisation’s strategy execution process, a strategy map complements a performance measurement framework such as the balanced scorecard.
Design/methodology/approach – This is a technical paper, which primarily builds on the prior literature on the strategy map design. In particular, this study reviews 41 publications on strategy maps in the period 2000-2015, including observation of 333 strategy map frameworks.
Findings – This study develops 14 design principles across seven features of a strategy map framework. This study also identifies a significant lack of empirical research on strategy map design features and principles.
Research limitations/implications – Future research could examine whether and why various design features and principles could exert different or same effects (e.g. decision-relevance).
Practical implications – The developed design features and principles can be used by practitioners as guidance for developing customised strategy maps for their organisations.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by serving as a one-stop shop” for both practitioners and researchers seeking a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the strategy map design features and principles.

Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 2018

Purpose – Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are at the heart of most organisations. The obje... more Purpose – Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are at the heart of most organisations. The objective of this study is to examine the attitudes of top-level managers towards the incompleteness of PMSs.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on an in-depth field study conducted in an energy and environmental services provider based in New Zealand. The data obtained from twenty semi-structured interviews was triangulated against on-site observations and company documents.
Findings – The findings suggest that whether the incompleteness of a PMS is considered problematic or non-problematic depends on the role that the PMS plays in implementing a firm’s strategy. We show that when the PMS is mainly used to trigger improvement activities on and around strategic objectives, and managers perceive adequate improvement activities to exist, they consider the incompleteness of the PMS in relation to these strategic objectives non-problematic. In contrast, managers are concerned about the incompleteness of the PMS when an inadequate level of improvement activities is believed to exist around strategic objectives.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the nascent literature on managerial attitudes towards the incompleteness of PMSs by identifying conditions under which the incompleteness is considered problematic or non-problematic. We also contribute to the literature on the association between design qualities of PMSs and firm performance by suggesting that poor design qualities of a PMS (such as incompleteness) may not always translate into poor firm performance.

Pacific Accounting Review, 2016

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to reconceptualize the notion of relations underlying per... more Purpose: The objective of this paper is to reconceptualize the notion of relations underlying performance measurement models (PMMs) and explicate the ample exciting research opportunities that this reconceptualized viewpoint offers.
Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper, which primarily builds on and extends the contemporary research that challenges the traditional viewpoint that cause-and-effect relations are a necessary element of every PMM.
Findings: The reconceptualized viewpoint suggests that a PMM can be built on any combination of cause-and-effect, finality, and logical relations, as opposed to only cause-and-effect relations. This paper presents several exciting research opportunities that the reconceptualized perspective offers.
Originality/value: The different types of relations underlying PMMs and their appropriate validation techniques are a relatively novel concept and also, a complex phenomenon which has received very limited attention in the accounting literature. This paper extends this nascent literature by outlining the research implications of this novel concept.
Keywords: Performance measurement models; Cause-and-effect; Finality; Logical; Relations; Reconceptualize.