Ambiguity in multicriteria quality decisions.

Quality is becoming an issue of increasing strategic importance in business. The aim of this paper is to analyze quality from a decision-making perspective. Quality decisions are characterized by their ambiguity while their evaluation uses a multicriteria viewpoint. Fuzzy decision theory provides a conceptual framework to model decisions with these features. It enables the decision maker to add his/her own experience and any other type of information to that obtained from hard figures. This theory is applied to a set of quality decision alternatives which are evaluated using different criteria such as their impact on fixed costs, cost of quality, leadtime and flexibility. The approach provided in this paper can be extended to other quality decisions.Quality decision-making; Quality dimensions; Fuzzy multicriteria decision making;

Gender, the state and the audit profession: evidence from Spain (1942–88).

Extant knowledge on gender and auditing overwhelmingly relies on evidence gathered from a limited group of Anglo-Saxon countries. It is widely admitted, however, that gender issues are affected by the institutional contexts of the investigation. The Anglo-Saxon settings, we contend, embrace a number of idiosyncratic, institutional characteristics that advise caution in the generalizability of results. Our study addresses the role of gender in Spanish audit practice during the period 1942 to 1988. The environment of the Spanish audit profession witnessed the peaceful transition from a dictatorship to a full-fledged democracy as well as the emergence of a free market economy from a system characterized by stiff economic autarchy and an overriding intervention of the state in the economy. We found that the dominant role of the state in Spanish society affected the structure of the audit profession and made impossible the emergence of an autonomous project. In particular, our findings reveal that the audit profession did not have an independent strategy about the role of women at work, but mimicked the attitudes deployed by the state during our observation period.

Human capital, age and job stability: evidence from Spanish certified auditors.

During the period 1976-1988, Spain witnessed pervasive transformations that led the country from a military dictatorship to a fully fledged democracy. In turn, the audit profession experienced high demand which doubled the number of members of the Institute of Sworn Auditors of Spain (Instituto de Censores Jurados de Cuentas de España). In this unique social laboratory, we draw on the insights of human capital theory and the entrepreneurship literature to examine the profile of newly certified auditors at the time of receiving the audit certificate that enabled them to (i) become a licensed auditor and engage in public practice, or (ii) become an unlicensed auditor and leave the profession immediately after receiving the professional qualification. Our results indicate that those Spanish auditors who had high general or specific human capital and job stability and were at the younger or older ends of the age continuum were less likely to apply for audit licences than their counterparts (i.e. low general or specific human capital, middle aged, and unstable jobs).Auditors; Audit market; Human capital theory; Entrepreneurship; Spain;

Exploratory Research for the Improvement of the Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language in a Spanish Public Center†

This paper is part of the R&D project DIPURE (El Discurso Público sobre los Refugiados en España in English Public Discourse on Refugees in Spain) and it is one of the research lines of the research group “Andalusian Circle of Applied Linguistics, HUM-194” on the study of teaching Spanish as a second language (SSL) for immigrants and refugees. Its objective is to establish a profile of Spanish second language (SL) students at the Official School of Languages (OSL). To meet this objective, we carried out an exploratory study based on mixed quantitative–qualitative methods, including, among other methods, participant observation and a Likert-type questionnaire used with students of the OSL in Granada, from level A1 to B2. The data obtained has allowed us to reflect on the migration process in Spain and on the work in the classrooms of a public center with students who study Spanish as a second language—their learning beliefs, needs, and attitudes, as well as didactic preferences. The information obtained is envisaged to improve the teaching practice of Spanish as a host language in a public educational context

Governmental Context Determines Institutional Value: Independently Certified Performance and Failure in the Spanish Newspaper Industry.

Many societies demand that independent professionals (e.g. auditors) certify the performance of firms. The value placed on such certification (i.e. the public perception of reliability/unreliability that may impact on an organization's success/failure) is not uniform, however, but contingent upon changing political contexts. This study presents and analyses data on the entire population of newspapers in Spain from 1966 to 1993, a time of peaceful transition from military dictatorship to capitalist democracy. Our results highlight the contingent nature of institutional life, demonstrating how changes in political contexts are associated with varying understandings of institutions. In particular, our findings support the prediction that, under a dictatorship, independently certified performance is not instrumental in organizational success or failure whereas, in a modern democracy, the certification process has a positive effect on the survival chances of firms.independently certified performance; institutional sociology; political regimes; newspaper organizations; organizational failure; Spain;

Ambiguity in multicriteria quality decisions

Quality is becoming an issue of increasing strategic importance in business. The aim of this paper is to analyze quality from a decision-making perspective. Quality decisions are characterized by their ambiguity while their evaluation uses a multicriteria viewpoint. Fuzzy decision theory provides a conceptual framework to model decisions with these features. It enables the decision maker to add his/her own experience and any other type of information to that obtained from hard figures. This theory is applied to a set of quality decision alternatives which are evaluated using different criteria such as their impact on fixed costs, cost of quality, leadtime and flexibility. The approach provided in this paper can be extended to other quality decisions

¿Está aprobado el plan de gestión del distrito de cuenca fluvial de Cataluña?

Pese a su publicación, cabe preguntarse si el Plan de Gestión del Distrito de cuenca fluvial de Cataluña está vigente, pues aún falta la preceptiva aprobación por el Gobierno español. El análisis del fallo de la STC 31/2010 no arroja luz sobre este interrogante pues ha declarado la constitucionalidad de la competencia exclusiva de la Generalidad sobre la planificación hidrológica de cuencas internas

PROBLEMAS COMPETENCIALES DERIVADOS DE LA LEY 40/2010 DE ALMACENAMIENTO GEOLÓGICO DE DIÓXIDO DE CARBONO

El sistema de distribución de competencias establecido por la Ley 40/2010, de 29 de diciembre, de Almacenamiento Geológico de Dióxido de Carbono, que se caracteriza porque el Estado se atribuye competencias ejecutivas importantes, resulta complejo y difícil de justificar en los títulos constitucionales. El conflicto competencial ya ha sido planteado por tres CC. AA. (Aragón, Cataluña y Galicia) ante el Tribunal Constitucional y, sin perjuicio de la resolución que eventualmente recaiga, a simple vista no es fácil entender por qué el Estado se atribuye la competencia para otorgar las concesiones que la Ley regula, cuando tanto en materia de medio ambiente como de minas carece de competencias de ejecución. Además, el análisis de las competencias en juego manifiesta una problemática más amplia que la citada Ley suscita que tiene que ver con las dificultades de coordinación que pueden advertirse y que, sin duda, determinarán una pérdida de eficacia administrativa

Vogues in management accounting research

There exists growing interest in investigating the status and evolution of accounting research. Despite our greater lore about the extant lines of inquiry in the accounting discipline, little is still known about the cross-national dynamics of accounting research ideas. This paper aims at addressing the ebb and flow of managernent accounting research fashions among national groupings of accounting scholars as well as the underlying reasons that differentiate earlier from later adopters of research fashions. Drawing on the institutional sociology and the managernent fashion literatures, definitions of both the accounting organizational field and fashions of research are firstly provided. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) exemplifies our understanding of managernent accounting research fashions. Our results found support for the notions that national communities with high research profile (i) are less vulnerable to the effects of research fashions and (ii) are earlier adopters of research fashions than their counterparts with lower research profile. Lastly, we posit some suggestions for future work aiming at investigating the traveling of research ideas in the managernent accounting field