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Materiality is an ill‐defined yet important concept in auditing. However, lack of an auditing guideline exposes auditors to possible litigations due to failure to detect material misstatement in the financial statements. This paper assesses decisions by UK courts on materiality thresholds. The results from 28 selected cases failed to reveal any consistency in the adoption of materiality thresholds. A guideline is urgently needed by the Auditing Practices Board to increase consistency in decisions on material transactions/events.

The way in which we teach cultural competence is evolving. There are emerging definitions, new perspectives, and social justice experiences that affect how we react and respond to cultural competency ideologies – ideologies that can polarize or produce change. This chapter will examine the idea of cultural humility and explain why adding it to the diversity, equity, and inclusion lexicon can help engage various discourse communities and deepen one’s understanding of various cultural identities. The authors will briefly review key research findings that examine why college students are often resistant to discourse about culture, race, and bias. Finally, the chapter will use the model of influence framework as a conceptual approach to teach and foster cultural humility in higher education settings.

Teleoperations in hazardous environments are often hampered by the lack of available information regarding the state of the remote robotic device. Typically, ideal camera placements are not possible, and an operator is left with the problem of performing complex manoeuvres in the presence of severe blind‐spots. To address this dilemma, we have been investigating the use of a haptic interface, which not only allows an operator to communicate motion commands to a robot, but also allows the robot to communicate to the operator its motion when performing autonomous collision avoidance. This haptic interface provides total operator control, plus vital information that can be used to decide if and how a robot's autonomous operation should be overridden. This paper details our work in this area and presents the results we have obtained from operator/task performance experimentation with this new haptic communication approach.

Knowledge‐based programming has provided a paradigm for the development of more effective and robust systems in a variety of fields. Its application to flexible assembly systems (FAS) clearly has its origins and continues to receive impetus from the close historical links between the academic disciplines of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. In this article some of its potential benefits to assembly systems are examined within the context of a SERC/ACME‐funded research project carried out at The University of Wales, Aberystwyth. The STAR project explored the potential of a variety of knowledge‐based systems in a number of roles and demonstrated how they might co‐operate. Some of these concepts were further explored and applied in the subsequent EUREKA/FAMOS project known as InFACT.

Public entrepreneurship is increasingly being propounded as a key means of ‘doing more with less’ during the tough times associated with successive rounds of neoliberal restructuring and austerity. The primary aim of this chapter is to provide a critical-exploratory review of sponsorship – a disruptive interjection or particular form of public entrepreneurship.

Public entrepreneurship provides a useful theoretical frame for exploring some emergent ways of delivering public services in a post-Credit Crunch global operating environment. Empirical insights are derived from a single local authority in the United Kingdom.

There is a widespread concern that straitened economic conditions can engender the prevalence of short-term financial considerations at the expense of other objectives. Sponsorship, as a discrete form of public entrepreneurship in some circumstances has the potential to achieve multiple objectives, enriching public value. However, this is contingent of specific contextual factors.

By identifying some risks associated with disruptive interjections intended to open new paths for the sponsorship of public services as well as indicating some opportunities for risk reduction, it is hoped that our analysis may benefit public authorities when they are exploring or evaluating sponsorship ‘opportunities’.

Examining sponsorship through a public entrepreneurship conceptual frame has received limited research attention. Whether sponsorship is a ‘winning solution’ is contingent on the particular form of sponsorship as well as the specific time and place.

Error recovery is the detection and correction of abnormal events or conditions in the operation of a robot system.

The purpose of this paper was to study the effect of workplace loneliness on job performance. This paper also examined the mediating role of employee well-being and psychological safety and the moderating role of person–environment fit (PE fit).

A multi-rated research design was used to collect data. Data were collected from 382 employees and their 97 supervisors of various Indian organizations. The data of job performance was collected from the supervisor of every team. The questionnaire for data collection was distributed at two different time intervals to reduce common method bias.

The findings of this paper supported the role of PE fit in minimizing the negative effect of workplace loneliness–well-being relationship and workplace loneliness and psychological safety relationship. The model also tested the association between workplace loneliness and job performance when the relationship is moderated by PE fit and mediated by well-being and psychological safety.

This paper examines the workplace loneliness from the lens of PE fit theory.

This paper aims to examine the effect of service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction on customer repurchase intention, word-of-mouth, complaining behaviour and price sensitivity, as well as the effect of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction.

A public intercept survey collected data from 480 supermarket customers. Statistical package for the social sciences was used to provide descriptive and inferential analysis.

Results reveal the predominance and magnitude of effect of empathy positively on customer satisfaction, customer repurchase intention and word-of-mouth, and negatively on customer complaining behaviour and price sensitivity. Customer satisfaction also significantly affects these customer loyalty and disloyalty dimensions.

This research was conducted in the supermarket sector of only one country.

Insights have been provided to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty outcomes, and negate customer disloyalty outcomes, in the supermarket sector.

This study provides suggestions to supermarket executives regarding the significance of empathetic, customer-oriented behaviour by front-line supermarket service employees.

Describes the results of a survey conducted by the University of Bradford Management Centre on behalf of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Deals with the route decisions of air‐transit passengers, attempting to determine the relative importance of a wide range of factors. Reports on an investigation of route decisions by a sample of passengers of Leeds‐Bradford Airport in the UK. Discusses comparative perceptions regarding other airports, primarily Schiphol (Amsterdam) and Heathrow (London). Concludes that most air‐transit passengers are interested in reaching their destination as quickly as possible after that time at which they personally wish to leave.

There are many definitions of materiality and such differences in definition show that there is great concern about the applicability of materiality in the auditing profession. Various materiality guidelines have been recommended by both academic researchers and accounting bodies, but the Auditing Practices Board in the UK has yet to recommend a guideline of its own. Looks at the recommendations put forward by those researchers and accounting bodies and the implications and possible pros and cons of having structured guidelines by the auditing profession in the UK. Concludes with a recommended materiality guideline which the Auditing Practices Board should seriously consider and the possibility of applying computer‐based decision aids as a tool to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making by the auditors.