A Series of International Lecture Week Webinars

The first week of November 2021 marks the 3^rd International Lecture Week held by Binus Business School. Specifically, our faculty members moderated these three sessions:

1. Neuroeconomics and Financial Decisions (3 November 2021)

This session was presented by Prof. Aljosa Valentincic and moderated by Yanthi Hutagaol, PhD. Prof. Valentincic is a professor of accounting and finance at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. His research is focused on financial reporting processes of private firms, payout policies of public firms and is currently working on a series of papers connecting accounting and finance to neuroscience, cognitive science and psychology.

Traditional economics assumes that we, humans, are consistently rational, selfish agents, capable of complex calculations that maximize utility as consumers and profits as producers of goods and services. Yet, casual observation tells us that this may not always be the case. People trade shares on stock exchanges differently depending on the level of hormones in their body, financial analysts make different recommendations about shares depending on the weather, stock markets yield positive abnormal returns when home football teams win. People also often make mistake in reasoning, evaluating and remembering the state of the world around simply because they ignore contrary objective information available to them. They hold losing shares too long and sell winning shares too soon. They use heuristics, not complex calculations when making decisions, they frame their thinking depending on the context, ignore the easy-to-use discounting calculations in favour of hyperbolic discounting despite the fact that the resulting numbers often do not make sense even to a person not familiar with finance. Companies of course, humans in them) appoint CEOs in part based on their looks despite patchy evidence of their superior returns. All these examples inform us that we must look beyond mathematical formulas to describe the complex world around us, including in finance, accounting, financial statement analysis, and other branches of economics and business. Neuroeconomics helps us direct this search.

2. The EU Green Deal as Facilitator of a Circular Economy (4 November 2021)

This session was delivered by Tim Van Tilt and moderated by Mohamad Ikhsan Modjo, PhD. Tim is a Senior Business Management Lecturer & Coordinator Honours Degree UCLeuven-Limburg (UCLL). As a Senior Lecturer, he is involved in CSR, SDGs and corporate governance, creating business games to facilitate learning, coaching students during international weeks and internships, and enabling international experience through virtual classes. He received his master at HUB-KUBrussel. Before his present position, he worked in Volkswagen D’leteren Finance as Area Manager from 2011-2012.

Our environment is changing rapidly and governments must find answers to the effects and impact of these changes like climate and environmental degradation. Therefore, the European Union has adopted the Green Deal which will transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy. With this deal, the EU strives to ensure there will be no emission of greenhouse gasses by 2050. Moreover, they want to enhance economic growth decoupled from resource use, making the EU less dependent on import of energy and resources. The new circular economy is one of the main building blocks of the Green Deal. It will reduce pressure on natural resources and will create sustainable growth and jobs. The heart of this new economy is the improved management of the entire product life cycle going from the design of products to the encouragement of sustainable consumption aiming to ensure that waste is prevented and the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.

3. A Theoretically Driven Analytical Visual Persuasion Framework: Analysing Photographs in Sustainability Reports (5 November 2021)

This session was presented by Mahmood Momon, PhD. and moderated by Rosaline Tandiono, PhD. Mahmood joined Auckland University of Technology in 2008 as a senior lecturer. Before his present position, he has worked in the School of Accountancy, Massey University New Zealand as a lecturer. Mahmood’s teaching experience also includes teaching at Glasgow University, Scotland (as a tutor) and at the Islamic University of Kushtia Bangladesh as an Assistant Professor.  Mahmood is a professionally qualified cost and management accountant, who in 2006, completed his PhD in social accounting from Glasgow University.

The paper draws from the theoretical constructs of Peirce’s (1991) visual semiotic system of icon, index and symbol and Aristotle’s (1984) persuasive appeals of ethos, pathos and logos, to develop an explicit three-step visual content analysis for photographic images and their accompanied text/caption. Specific application questions for each step of the analysis are designed as a toolkit to complement the applicability of the framework. Sustainability related photographs in the Coca-Cola Company’s 2018 Business & Sustainability Report are examined to illustrate the applicability of the analytical framework.

We thank all speakers and moderators for the wonderful sessions, and hopefully these interesting topics can enrich our perspectives on the latest development in each research area.