75,197 research outputs found
Embedding generic employability skills in an accounting degree: development and impediments
This paper explores and analyses the views of, and effects on, students of a project that integrated the development of employability skills within the small group classes of two compulsory courses in the first year of an accounting degree at a UK university. The project aimed to build, deliver and evaluate course materials designed to encourage the development of a broad range of employability skills: skills needed for life-long learning and a successful business career. By analysing students' opinions gathered from a series of focus groups spread throughout the year, three prominent skill areas of interest were identified: time management, modelling, and learning to learn. Further analysis highlighted the complex nature of skills development, and brought to light a range of impediments and barriers to both students' development of employability skills and their subject learning. The analysis suggests the need for accounting educators to see skills development as being an essential element of the path to providing a successful accounting education experience
Recommended from our members
Global communication part 2: the use of apparel product data management technology
Improving IT communication systems, through the evolution of future PDM applications, is a theme that has received attention due to its perceived benefits in developing global supply chain success factors. This paper discusses the developments and capabilities of such systems, found within global fashion supply chain relationships and environments. Major characteristics identified within the data suggest that PDM technology appears to be improving the speed of data transfer; however, evidence also suggest that the technologies are evolving quicker than consumer understanding, and arguably cost more to implement, train staff and maintain. Nevertheless, PDM technology increases communication efficiency and helps to enhance social economic and corporate development. The article discusses the findings and also presents the issues regarding human interaction; iconography, infrastructure necessity and individual communication enhancements using a variety of technology processes. PDM technology adoption is still a prevalent topic for the long-term developments of global strategy and communication amalgamation
Innovation as a community-spanning process: strategies to handle path dependency.
In this paper, we further develop and apply the notions of path creation and path dependency during technological innovation processes. The process of technological innovation is portrayed as an activity of spanning boundaries between and across communities of practitioners. Communities of practice are characterised by shared beliefs, evaluation routines and artefacts. These beliefs, routines and artefacts create powerful path-dependencies that inhibit path-breaking innovations. Based on exploratory empirical research, a model on handling path-dependency during the creation of technological innovations is proposed.Processes; Strategy; Evaluation; Innovations; Model;
Towards a General Theory of Financial Control for Organisations
In this paper, a theory of accounting, control and accounting-related areas is outlined.It is based on a number of previous research-oriented books published over several decades and the author´s specific own experiences from internal and external processes with organisations in focus.Consistency and integrative power of the ideas have been tested in relation to certain books in various fields outside the core of the subject:theatre,sociology, applied systems theory,economic history, institutional theory and economics.The general approach can be described in simple terms as follows.There are global value chains, from resources to output that are in use.These chains change with time.Uncertainty and unpredictability prevail for the present state and for possible changes; to some extent it is possible to estimate risks of the future. At any moment, each organisation has taken some limited position on a chain.Each organisation has a hierarchy which lies above operations. Over time, chains, organisations, hierarchies, output and personal functions vary. According to the approach, insights into control problems for every organisation and system can be gained by analysing relationships between global value chains and a hierarchy of one or several organisations.Time is crucial.financial control; management control; public administration; financial entities; financial reporting; dependencies; function-driven organisations; pay-driven organisations; transfer-driven organisations; supervisory boards; mass media; auditors; natural systems; panarchy; pseudo-commercial units; inter-organisational control; long-term control; short-term effects; hierarchies; global value chains; vertical control; horizontal control; corporate governance; remote control; controllability; transparency; values-in-use; values-in-exchange; fair values; historical costing; opportunity costs; product costing; transfer pricing; local optimization; time-bound optimization; longitudinal relationships.
The Global People competency framework: competencies for effective intercultural interaction
This Competency Framework explains the competencies that are needed for effective intercultural interaction. In contrast to the Life Cycle Model for Intercultural Partnerships (see the Global People Toolbook) which presents the competencies by stage (i.e. key competencies are identified for each stage of a project life cycle), the Competency Framework presents them by clusters. Intercultural competencies can be grouped into four interrelated clusters, according to the aspect of competence they affect or relate to:
- Knowledge and ideas
- Communication
- Relationships
- Personal qualities and dispositions
We overview these four clusters in Section 2.
In Sections 3 – 6, for each competency cluster, we list the key component competencies, along with descriptive explanations of each of them. We also provide case study examples from the eChina-UK Programme to illustrate one or more of the following:
- How the competency manifests itself;
- Why the competency is important or is needed;
- How the competency can be displayed in behaviour;
- What problems may occur when the competency is not present.
The Competency Framework is thus useful for those who wish to gain a systematic, in-depth understanding of intercultural effectiveness and the competencies need to achieve it
Scientific Models of Human Health Risk Analysis in Legal and Policy Decisions
The quality of scientific predictions of risk in the courtroom and policy arena rests in large measure on how the two differences between normal practice and the legal/policy practice of science are reconciled. This article considers a variety of issues that arise in reconciling these differences, and the problems that remain with scientific estimates of risk when these are used in decisions
Handling a large number of preferences in a multi-level decision-making process
The complexity of a decision is related to the number of persons that are involved, as well as to the diversity of their preferences based on their knowledge, experience or area of expertise. Consequently, it is a challenge to adequately handle a large number of heterogeneous preferences considering that all the participants are considered to be an important source of information to make better motivated decisions. Addressing this challenge constitutes the main motivation in this dissertation because these days decision makers seem to be increasingly interested in the opinions (or preferences) given by persons around a community (and sometimes around the world) through different sources including social media channels.
This PhD study provides a set of tools that helps a decision maker to make better motivated decisions by a proper handling of a large number of preferences, identifying and evaluating relevant preferences and handling multiple perspectives. Herein, by 'preference' is meant a greater interest expressed by an individual for a particular alternative over others; by 'relevant' is meant a variety of preferences which are significant (or important) to a particular person acting as a decision maker; and by 'perspective' is understood a position (e.g., social, technical, financial or environmental) adopted by a decision maker when expressing his/ her preferences or constraints
The Need for a Different Approach to Financial Reporting and Standard-setting
International Financial Reporting Standards are questioned. Possibly, there is a need for a different kind of standards and a different procedure for developing them. No doubt, there is a need for a more profound theoretical approach to these issues. Theory-building in accounting should include approaches whereby problem descriptions have a broad coverage and cross the boarders of traditional specialisations. In this paper, a theoretical approach is outlined. According to this approach, insights into control problems for every organisation and system can be gained by analysing relationships between global value chains and a hierarchy of one or several organisations. Time is crucial. Instrumentality is regarded as an inevitable and necessary guide line for any control system that relates resources to functions and visions. Instrumentality concerns the effects of tools on certain functions. In the paper financial reporting and standard-setting are placed in a wide context in which longitudinal relationships are essential for individuals, organisations and control systems. Basic financial accounting concepts and their relationships with business events are discussed. The importance of uncertainty for financial reporting is emphasized, and so is the fact, that control from top-levels is exercised at a distance. A tendency to instrumentalism is also recognized: measures and procedures, for example standard setting procedures, tend to be important in themselves, irrespective of ultimate economic functions in a wider perspective. The analysis in the paper is one application of a general approach to financial control for all types of organisations. The general approach is based on a number of previous research-oriented books published over several decades and the author´s specific own experiences from internal and external processes with organisations in focus. Consistency and integrative power of the ideas have been tested in relation to certain books in various fields outside the core of the subject: applied systems theory, theatre, sociology, economic history, institutional theory and economics.financial reporting; International Financial Reporting Standards; standard-setting; accounting standard setting bodies; supervisory boards; corporate governance; transparency; market value accounting; mark-to-market; fair values; historical values; accounting theory.
Quantifying the behavioural relevance of hippocampal neurogenesis
Few studies that examine the neurogenesis--behaviour relationship formally
establish covariation between neurogenesis and behaviour or rule out competing
explanations. The behavioural relevance of neurogenesis might therefore be
overestimated if other mechanisms account for some, or even all, of the
experimental effects. A systematic review of the literature was conducted and
the data reanalysed using causal mediation analysis, which can estimate the
behavioural contribution of new hippocampal neurons separately from other
mechanisms that might be operating. Results from eleven eligible individual
studies were then combined in a meta-analysis to increase precision
(representing data from 215 animals) and showed that neurogenesis made a
negligible contribution to behaviour (standarised effect = 0.15; 95% CI = -0.04
to 0.34; p = 0.128); other mechanisms accounted for the majority of
experimental effects (standardised effect = 1.06; 95% CI = 0.74 to 1.38; p =
1.7 ).Comment: To be published in PLoS ON
Recommended from our members
An agent-based fuzzy cognitive map approach to the strategic marketing planning for industrial firms
This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Industrial Marketing Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Industrial marketing planning is a typical example of an unstructured decision making problem due to the large number of variables to consider and the uncertainty imposed on those variables. Although abundant studies identified barriers and facilitators of effective industrial marketing planning in practice, the literature still lacks practical tools and methods that marketing managers can use for the task. This paper applies fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) to industrial marketing planning. In particular, agent based inference method is proposed to overcome dynamic relationships, time lags, and reusability issues of FCM evaluation. MACOM simulator also is developed to help marketing managers conduct what-if scenarios to see the impacts of possible changes on the variables defined in an FCM that represents industrial marketing planning problem. The simulator is applied to an industrial marketing planning problem for a global software service company in South Korea. This study has practical implication as it supports marketing managers for industrial marketing planning that has large number of variables and their cause–effect relationships. It also contributes to FCM theory by providing an agent based method for the inference of FCM. Finally, MACOM also provides academics in the industrial marketing management discipline with a tool for developing and pre-verifying a conceptual model based on qualitative knowledge of marketing practitioners.Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Korea
- …