7,207 research outputs found
Harmonisation, decentralisation and local governance: Enhancing aid effectiveness
During the last decades, international development assistance was often marked by overlaps, duplication of efforts and rivalry between multitudes of donor organisations. In order to translate the principles of the Paris Declaration into practice in the field of Local Governance and Decentralisation (LGD), different donor organisations have joined forces on headquarter level and formed a working group, the Development Partners Working Group for Local Governance and Decentralisation (DPWG-LGD), which is operating since 2006. InWEnt is hosting the secretariat of the group since 2008 and assigned Wageningen International to organise two lead donor workshops. The workshop drew a cross section of delegates who comprised development partners, consultants, academicians, members of parliament and local governance practitioners. The partner countries included Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda whose experiences were mutually re-enforcing and beneficial
Corporate Social Responsibility and the Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Being currently under the pressure of the various imbalances induced in the natural and social environment and faced with the deficiency of its own incremental growth, the economic system â which is exclusively focused on the economic performance â is currently going through a stage of global structural changes meant to connect it to the simple values of the community, society and even humanity as a requirement for its survival and development through the sustainable competitive advantage. Taking into consideration that globalization tends to quickly standardize technologies and to equalize the rates of profits, the area of competitive advantage is extended beyond the area of economic factors (product differentiation, cost reduction, etc.) in interferential areas, where factors such as social responsibility assumed by corporations become levers to increase competitiveness. Corporate social responsibility circumscribes the companyâs set of obligations to the stakeholders (individuals, groups or organizations that are directly or indirectly affected by the actions, goals and policies of the corporation) in a certain system of reference. The multiple groups that make up the reference society of a corporation lead to a multitude of expectations. The legitimacy of these expectations embraces various degrees of validity. Responsibility is a continuous dynamic process meant to harmonize and balance the interests of various groups and the roles they play in relation to and for the purpose of the common good. So far, no system of indicators has been unanimously accepted and no methodology has been crystallized for measuring the effect of the social effort made in the sphere of social responsibility. Nevertheless, research performed over the past years has shown that an ethical behaviour involved in the issues of the natural, social and business environment has an obvious positive influence on the reputation and sales of the corporations. The corporationsâ competitive strategies should include â apart from specific goals such as market share, product differentiation or smart promotion â the goal of harmonizing stakeholder expectations. In this context, the commitment to social responsibility becomes an important pillar in gaining the partnersâ and the publicâs confidence, along with a recognition that would strengthen the companyâs market position and its commitment to a competitive sustainable approach.responsibility, social performance, sustainability, competitive advantage
The Role of the IASB and Auditing Standards in the Aftermath of the 2008/20092 Financial Crisis.
The primary argument of this paper is, namely, that the International Accounting Standards
Board (IASB), is in need of an enforcement mechanism. In drawing attention to this
argument, the paper not only proposes considerations which are to be taken into account if
such a mechanism is to be implemented, but also considers areas in which the regulation of
accounting standards, and auditing standards in particular, have contributed to the recent
global financial crisis. The impact of such standards on pro cyclicality1, the level of success
achieved by the IASB and other international standard setters such as the Basel Committee
on Banking Supervision, relates to how effectively the accounting and audit standard setting
is implemented.
As well as identifying the importance of convergence in contributing towards high quality
audits and the consistent application of auditing and accounting standards, this paper also
acknowledges the difficulties and challenges encountered in attempting to achieve a
convergent framework. Furthermore, through a discussion of recommendations aimed at
consolidating transparency and accounting, as proposed by the G20, ways in which
accounting standards, and consequently the IASB, could contribute further to the
improvement of transparency and accountability of the framework for fair value
measurements and evaluation, are considered.
The absence of enforcement mechanisms, the fact that enforcement actions are carried out at
national level in various EU member states, present sources of obstacles to attempts to realise
the proposals put forward by the G20. This paper not only attempts to address such factors,
but also to suggest ways in which the IASB, to an extent, could realise its goals. Through a
consideration of two enforcement regimes in Europe, namely, Germany and the UK, two
related standards which govern enforcement in Europe, principles on which harmonisation of
the institutional oversight systems in Europe may be achieved , and the vital contribution
made by CESR and EFRAG (the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group), this paper
will consider how enforcement could be implemented by the IASB at European level
Converging Numbers: Harmonization of Accounting Standards with the Context of the Role of the Auditor in Corporate Governance
The recent financial collapse of Enron and other corporate powerhouses as well as the demise of accounting firm Arthur Andersen brings into question the credibility of the auditorâs role in corporate governance. This article comments on the harmonization of accounting standards within the context of the role of the auditor in corporate governance
Adaptable Techniques for Making IT-Related Investment Decisions
The author investigated the main methods used for making IT-related investment decisions. In the view of these methods it can be said that no method was found that would help to make investment decisions 'routinelike'. The use of traditional financial indicators â which would be suitable for so-called regular investments - has a lot of obstructions and it would be dangerous to base decisions only on them. Return on Investment (ROI) methods are used in the case of classical investments (buildings, machineries) to analyze capital investments. Their simplest explanation is that net profit is expressed in percentage of invested capital. If it is a planned investment, a quotient is used for comparing variations. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) has gained upon from the 60âs (in case of several IT-related investments as well), as it made possible to consider certain not quantifiable factors and uncertain elements too, so it meant a great help for choosing between different alternatives. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)-model was created by GartnerGroup in the beginning of the 90âs, which is an excellent method for monitoring IT infrastructure and for analysing direct and indirect costs of possessed and used softwares and hardwares. An another method for making investment decisions, Rapid Economic Justification (REJ) is an attempt made by Microsoft and Intellectual Arbitrage to develop a better-balanced approach for examining and developing IT projects as it had been before. REJ offers the possibility of assessment balance against the cost-models dealing with only the cost side of a project
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