The future of corporate reporting: a review article

Significant changes in the corporate external reporting environment have led to proposals for fundamental changes in corporate reporting practices. Recent influential reports by major organisations have suggested that a variety of new information types be reported, in particular forward-looking, non-financial and soft information. This paper presents a review and synthesis of these reports and provides a framework for classifying and describing suggested information types. The existence of academic antecedents for certain current proposals are identified and the ambiguous relationship between research and practice is explored. The implications for future academic research are discussed and a research agenda is introduced

Managing intellectual capital : individual rights and the public interest

Managing intellectual capital and intellectual property is a challenging task, especially for knowledge-based organisations vested with a public interest. Scientific ethics and freedom of information may clash with copyright law or with other intellectual property enactments, thereby engendering conflicts of interest. International law and treaties make for a complex regulatory framework. World-wide advocacy of the open access principle has led to some statutory changes, but its proponents mostly assume that copyright owners will act voluntarily. The implications for knowledge management are elucidated

The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education

The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education

Evolving IT management frameworks towards a sustainable future

Information Technology (IT) Management Frameworks are a fundamental tool used by IT professionals to efficiently manage IT resources and are globally applied to IT service delivery and management. Sustainability is a recent notion that describes the need for economic, environmental and social development with- out compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; this applies to businesses as well as society in general. Unfortunately, IT Management Frameworks do not take sustainability into account. To the practitioner this paper demonstrates sustainability integration thereby allowing CIOs and IT managers to improve the sustainability of their organisation. To the researcher this paper argues that sustainability concerns need to be provided to IT Management through its integration into the mainstream of IT Management Frameworks. This is demonstrated through the high-level integration of sustainability in Six Sigma, C OBI T, ITIL and PRINCE2

Applying performance measures to support decision-making in supply chain operations: a case of beverage industry

Performance measurement systems (PMS) have commonly been applied to evaluate and reward performances at managerial levels, especially in the context of supply chain management. However, evidence suggests that the effective use of PMS can also positively influence the behaviour and improve performance at an operational level. The motivation is to accomplish organisational goals, namely to increase supply chain flexibility by responding to evermore-varying customer demands in a timely manner. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to develop a conceptual framework that adopts performance measures for ex-ante decision-making at an operational level within the supply chain. To guide the research, five questions were asked and subsequently key gaps have been identified. In an attempt to fill the gaps, a case study at a major global brand beverage company has been carried out, and as a result, a conceptual framework of the PMS has been developed. Overall, the research offers a foundation of the applicability and impact of PMS in the supply chain and provides a framework that attends to some of the potential uses of PMS that so far have not been practically applied. The outcomes from the testing indicate that the initial gaps identified in the literature have been addressed and that the framework is judicious with scope for practical applicability. The framework is deemed worthy of further testing in different operational contexts of the supply chain

OECD reviews of higher education in regional and city development, State of Victoria, Australia

With more than 5.3 million inhabitants Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Once a manufacturing economy, Victoria is now transforming itself into a service and innovation-based economy. Currently, the largest sectors are education services and tourism. In terms of social structure, Victoria is characterised by a large migrant population, 24% of population were born overseas and 44% were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. About 70% of the population resides in Melbourne. Victoria faces a number of challenges, ranging from an ageing population and skills shortages to drought and climate change and increased risk of natural disasters. Rapid population growth, 2% annually, has implications for service delivery and uneven development as well as regional disparities. There are barriers to connectivity in terms of transport and infrastructure, and a high degree of inter-institutional competition in tertiary education sector. The business structure in Victoria includes some highly innovative activities such as in biotechnology, but other sectors, especially those with high number of small and medium-sized enterprises, are lagging behind. Most of the larger manufacturing enterprises are externally controlled and there is uncertainty over the long term investments they will make in the state, as well as the place of Victoria in the global production networks