Current Research
Dr. Gamble's research on accountability provides insights on:
- Performance Measurement
- Internal controls
- Social & Environmental audits
- Social impact measurement
- Fraud
- Tax Policy
Can Tax Policy Choice Architecture Motivate Positive Climate Change Actions?
In proposing policies that positively address climate change, governments face the daunting task of gaining support from citizens who often have polarized views about climate change. Choice architecture theory (Thaler, Sunstein, & Balz, 2013) suggests that the context in which people make decisions and the specific information presented impacts individual decisions. Two important aspects of choice architect theory are frames and messages. In the present study, we examine whether designing a climate change tax policy using either a penalty or incentive frame, along with different messaging strategies (i.e., mechanistic, reasons-based, storytelling or no message related to climate change), impacts the effectiveness of the policy. To examine whether these aspects of choice architecture can impact the effectiveness of the policy, we use an on-line experiment with 347 participants recruited through MTurk.
While we find that framing a tax provision as a penalty is less effective than framing it as an incentive, we find that the messaging moderates the impact of the frame. Penalty provisions are more effective when paired with a step-by-step explanation of how climate change will affect the earth (a mechanistic nudge) while incentive frames are more effective when paired with a personal climate change narrative (a storytelling nudge). In supplemental analysis, we further examine those participants with the most strongly polarized views about climate change, finding that political affiliation is the most distinguishing characteristics between the groups. Further, the groups differ in their trust in governments, view of the world, contempt for others, and willingness to compromise.
Uncovering accountability cracks: Microfoundational missteps during crisis
This paper explores accountability during crisis. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a primary United States government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. State governments required all nonessential businesses to close their doors, risking an existential liquidity crisis for many small businesses. The PPP was intended to substitute government funding for lost revenues so small businesses could continue paying their workers, but was hastily deployed. In line with Felin et al. (2012), we study microfoundational accountability failures of the PPP that led to suspicious borrowing and plausible fraud.
Our qualitative results highlight three shared banker perspectives regarding the PPP – hasty implementation, ethical dilemma, and regulatory morass. Our quantitative results offer a conservative 27% estimate of borrowers that submitted deceptive loan applications. This amounts to approximately $214 billion of taxpayer money that fell through the cracks. We found suspicious borrowing disproportionately associated with sole proprietorships, loans originated by Fintech banks, and later PPP funding rounds. The practical implications of this research is that we offer insights into how to combat the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of individual and process failures that pave the way for fraud. Our approach demonstrates a way to understand the accountability weak points and estimate the impacts of these accountability missteps.
Given that international crisis and economic turbulence are likely to occur in the future, we see it as prudent not to repeat foundational accountability missteps of the past. For future rapid mobilization of crisis response, we offer guideposts to hold individuals, organizations, and institutions to account.
Crafting Accountability: Unraveling the Micro-Foundations of Responsibility
This research explores craft business accountability in a highly competitive industry that is characterised by significant capital and labor requirements. This is of particular interest because it is not clear what micro-accountability structures guide craft business owners in an industry controlled by corporate players. Therefore, gaining a deep understanding of craft accountability intricacies offers invaluable insights into the success of craft businesses across a multitude of industries. Initially, we use interviews with 16 ski area executives to identify and classify organizational pressures and boundary variations across seven craft criteria. This classification process allows us to pinpoint the most craft-like ski area for our subsequent round of interviews. In this phase, we scrutinize the accountability framing structure of three closely related craft businesses.
Our paper builds upon the insights put forth by Gamble and Caton (2023), who delineate the diverse forms of environmental reporting within the ski industry. Expanding on this groundwork, we delve deeper into three framing aspects inspired by Goffman (1959, 1974) concerning craft accountability: the bonds that unite us, defining success, and the essence of the craft experience. These three micro-foundation dimensions of craft accountability present a contrasting perspective to conventional corporate accountability frameworks. Notably, our exploration reveals that the interplay of these dimensions serves as a cohesive force within their rural community, which is grappling with the challenges posed by urban migration—a phenomenon of concern throughout the globe.
From beer brewing to watchmaking, the landscape of craft-based businesses is vast and diverse. These enterprises play a pivotal role in bolstering stability within the communities they call home. Recognizing the fundamental tenets of craft accountability and delineating its distinctive characteristics vis-à-vis larger competitors within the same industry constitutes a crucial step toward community revitalization nationwide. Importantly, our findings resonate beyond the scope of craft industries, extending their relevance to sectors characterized by a spectrum of organizational sizes and structures.
Is it time to rethink a rich man’s view of a poor man’s needs? Seeing impact measurement through recipient’s eyes
Human trafficking is a devastating violation of human rights and a complex, pervasive issue that causes both physical and psychological trauma. Global estimates now suggest that nearly 25 million individuals are trafficked each year (Human Trafficking Institute, 2022). Of these, approximately 20 million are subjected to forced labor, and 5 million are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Among those forced into labor, 11 million are women and over 3 million are children. Appallingly, 99% of those trafficked for sexual exploitation are women and girls. This stark reality underscores the disproportionate moral and ethical challenge human trafficking poses to the dignity and fundamental rights of women and girls.
This paper focuses on the role of impact measurement as a communicative tool within the context of human trafficking. By impact measurement, we refer to the assessments used to hold individuals and organizations accountable for their efforts—what Maas and Liket (2011) describe as the process of screening, monitoring, reporting, and evaluating outcomes. For their part, a range of organizations, from governments and NGOs to private and social enterprises, actively attempt to measure and communicate their efforts to combat human trafficking. Often, these efforts are driven by external demands for accountability, with stakeholders expecting transparency regarding the allocation of resources.
In this paper, we explore individual-level accountability and impact, with a focus on how recipients themselves perceive, measure, and communicate impact. Our research, conducted in partnership with an organization in Nepal, spans a 20-year period, examining the reporting of impact from the perspective of those directly affected by the horrors of trafficking. This social enterprise is dedicated to addressing the plight of Nepalese girls at high risk of being trafficked into sex and labor industries. Our study seeks to amplify the voices of this profoundly marginalized group—young girls on the brink of exploitation—by capturing their perspectives on impact. By gathering insights from these girls, their families, teachers, and community leaders, we aim to offer a fresh view on micro-level impact measurement and accountability, rooted in the lived experiences of those most vulnerable.
Property Taxes: The Gift That Keeps on Taking... and Taking... and Taking
Governments face the complex challenge of designing and implementing tax policies that promote social well-being while balancing the diverse expectations and beliefs of citizens. A key obstacle is gaining public support for these tax policies, as taxpayers often have conflicting views on what constitutes fair taxation and how tax revenues should be allocated. These differences frequently stem from varying perceptions of fairness and equity. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that affect taxpayer perceptions of fairness and equity. In this paper we explore if taxpayer views are affected by their opportunity to choose how funds are allocated or if they perceive that the tax structure infringes on their personal sovereignty. More specifically, we test two hypotheses regarding the impact of choice and sovereignty on individual sentiment.
Our experimental study reveals that the allocation of property tax revenue significantly influences both taxpayer sentiment and sovereignty. These findings contribute four key insights to the field of ethics, particularly in the context of tax policy.
Developing an authentic reporting identity: An accounting approach to biodiversity and species preservation
This paper answers calls for research on organizations pursuing biodiversity preservation from an ecocentric management perspective. As such, it explores a journey of biodiversity accounting in the highly competitive Chilean wine industry that is characterized by complex ecosystems and environmental threats. This is of particular interest because it is not clear how organizational biodiversity accounting and reporting accountability structures and approaches come to be and how they guide the strategic organizational biodiversity preservation choices.
We narrate the wine producer’s sustainability journey toward developing its authentic reporting identity, including how its biodynamic certification process influenced it production process, and sustainability accounting and reporting. To achieve this, we conduct an analysis using multi-sited ethnographic (MSE) design, which involves several time deepening strategies, multiple observation points, and data collectors.
Over time, the biodynamic certification process and attempts at reporting under the GRI guidelines led to an approach to biodiversity, exposing the limitations of both the accounting system and external reporting to foster the biodiversity required for sustainable outcomes. These findings add to our understanding of the evolution of sustainability reporting as a journey of accounts and point to the possibility that our contemporary understanding of the entity is problematic and misguided. This suggests that what is material for sustainable outcomes cannot be made transparent within the current approaches to materiality in sustainability reports. This is further complicated by efforts to quantify biodiversity protection efforts.