Corporate images of audit firms in a multilingual society.

The paper investigates the corporate images of the leading auditing firms in Belgium, focussing on the perceptions of the two language groupings in Belgium, the Dutch speaking Flemings and the French speaking Walloons. Our major objective is to assess whether there are differences in the corporate images of a company's audit firm that can be attributed to the differing self-images of Flemings and Walloons. The corporate image of the audit firms was ascertained by using a semantic differential measuring instrument, which contained a number of anthropomorphic dimensions. Based on a review of the literature concerning the images and cultures of the two language groupings, we develop hypotheses of an association between these anthropomorphic dimensions of corporate image and the images and culture of the two language groupings. We obtained an assessment of the dimensions of corporate image via a postal questionnaire to financial executives of leading Belgium companies. Our analysis of the data shows that there is a relationship between the images and culture of the two language groupings, but that the relationship is an inverse one, whereby an attribute that is associated more with one of the two language groups is assessed by a respondent from that language group to be less in his or her audit firm. The paper also shows that the Big Five are perceived differently to each other by the two language groupings and that the Walloons perceive bigger differences amongst the Big Five than do the Flemings.Image;

And then there were four: a study of UK market concentration - causes, consequences and the scope for market adjustment

While concentration measures are a good indicator of market structure, the link with competitiveness is more complex than often assumed. In particular, the modern theory of industrial organisation makes no clear statement regarding the impact of concentration on competition - the focus of this paper is concentration and no inferences are made about competitive aspects of the market. The extent and nature of concentration within the UK listed company audit market as at April, 2002 and, pro forma, after the collapse of Andersen is documented and analysed in detail (by firm, market segment and industry sector). The largest four firms held 90 per cent of the market (based on audit fees) in 2002, rising to 96 per cent with the demise of Andersen. A single firm, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, held 70 per cent or more of the share of six out of 38 industry sectors, with a share of 50 per cent up to 70 per cent in a further seven sectors. The provision of non-audit services (NAS) by incumbent auditors is also considered. As at April 2002, the average ratio of non-audit fees (paid to auditor) to audit fees was 208 per cent, and exceeded 300 per cent in seven sectors. It is likely, however, that disposals by firms of their management consultancy and outsource firms, combined with the impact of the Smith Report on audit committees will serve to reduce these ratios. Another finding is that audit firms with expertise in a particular sector appeared to earn significantly higher nonaudit fees from their audit clients in that sector. The paper thus provides a solid empirical basis for debate. The subsequent discussion considers the implications for companies and audit firms of the high level of concentration in the current regulatory climate, where no direct regulatory intervention is planned

Using Online Role-playing Games for Entrepreneurship Training

This edited collection of chapters explores the application, potential and challenges of game-based learning and gamification across multiple disciplines and sectors, including psychology, education, business, history, languages and the ..

An approach to evaluating the user experience of serious games

The use of serious games to support learning continues to expand across a range of educational and training settings. Hence, a need exists to understand more fully how users experience such games. This study seeks to describe and assess an approach to the evaluation of user-experience applied within the context of a specific serious game developed to address the training needs of people working in social enterprises. Drawing on an extensive literature review, the development of a survey instrument to capture the multi-dimensional nature of user-experience is explained as is the evaluation process employed. Findings from surveys of individuals working in social enterprises are analysed and discussed. The results demonstrate the value of the proposed method of user-experience evaluation. Recommendations for practice and further research are outlined, identifying in particular the importance of qualitative insights in the evaluation process and the need for greater understanding of the inter-relationships between the various dimensions and attributes of user-experience in serious games

Economic and Environmental Impacts of Harmful Non-Indigenous Species in Southeast Asia

10.1371/journal.pone.0071255PLoS ONE88-POLN

Publication Records of Faculty Promoted to Professor: Evidence from the UK Accounting and Finance Academic Community

This study investigates the publication profiles of 140 accounting and finance faculty promoted to the senior rank of professor at UK and Irish universities during the period 1992 to 2007. On average, approximately 9 papers in Association of Business Schools (ABS) (2008)-listed journals, with 5 at the highest 3*/4* quality levels in a portfolio of 20 outputs are required for promotion to professor. Multivariate analysis provides evidence that publication requirements in terms of ABS ranked journal papers have increased over time, an effect attributed to the government research assessment exercise. There is no evidence that requirements differ for: internal versus external promotion, male versus female candidates; accounting versus finance professors, research intensity of institution peer group; or government research ranking of unit. There is also no evidence of a substitution effect in relation to increased recent publication history, quantity of non-ABS outputs or sole-authorship, all of which show a significant complementary effect. It is noted that there is very limited overlap in the UK and US publication journal sets, suggesting underlying geographically-based paradigm differences. The benchmarks provided in this study are informative in a range of decision settings: recruitment; those considering making an application for promotion to a chair and those involved in promotion panels; cross-disciplinary comparisons; and resource allocation. The evidence presented also contributes to the emerging policy debates concerning the aging demographic profile of accounting faculty, the management of academic labour and the Research Excellence Framework

Real World Learning: Simulation and Gaming

Simulations and games are being used across a variety of subject areas as a means to provide insight into real world situations within a classroom setting; they offer many of the benefits of real world learning but without some of the associated risks and costs. Lean, Moizer, Derham, Strachan and Bhuiyan aim to evaluate the role of simulations and games in real world learning. The nature of simulations and games is discussed with reference to a variety of examples in Higher Education. Their role in real world learning is evaluated with reference to the benefits and challenges of their use for teaching and learning in Higher Education. Three case studies from diverse subject contexts are reported to illustrate the use of simulations and games and some of the associated issues

Real World Learning and Authentic Assessment

As students increasingly adopt a consumerist lifestyle academics are under pressure to assess and mark more students’ assignments in quicker turn around periods. In no other area is the marketisation shift between student and academic more apparent in the accountability that academics now need to demonstrate to students in their grading and feedback (Boud & Molloy, 2013). When evaluating their higher education experience students are most likely to complain about their grading or feedback (Boud & Molloy, 2013) and National Student Survey results consistently indicate that this category, more than any other, has the highest student dissatisfaction rates (Race, 2014)

Strategic Decision Behavior and Audit Quality of Big and Small Audit Firms in a Tendering Process

We investigate the strategic decision making of audit firms in a tendering process. In particular, we are interested in how audit firms behave to acquire audit clients and which audit quality is ensured. Our main findings are manifold. First, if two big audit firms are competing, we do not observe that each firm tries to acquire all clients. However, if one big and one small audit firm are competing, we find evidence that the big audit firm generally apply strategies to acquire all available clients. In contrast, the small audit firm uses a clear "Guerilla Strategy" which means that the firm concentrates only on few clients whereas the other clients are almost ignored. Second, small audit firms are better off if more clients do exist in the tendering process. Thus, the legislator should ensure that more audit clients are tendered if the competitiveness of smaller audit firms should be enhanced. Third, in a situation in which the competitive advantage of big audit firms increases over-proportionally, we do not observe that big audit firms are able to decrease the market share of small audit firms markedly or are even able to push small audit firms out of the market. Fourth, we find that the quality level of an audit is higher if the client is acquired by a small audit firm. This implies that increasing the number of smaller audit firms could increase the quality level of the audit market