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This study examines the research behavior of Australian and New Zealand accounting faculty to determine the characteristics that influence research productivity. University reputations are integrally linked with research performance and determining the qualities that predict research behavior may be of particular value in the selection and recruitment process. The study finds that two key factors significantly impact performance: holding a Ph.D. and having an academe-oriented rather than profession-oriented background. These results may be interpreted as affirming the U.S. model of developing specialist academic researchers through doctoral education programs rather than employing faculty with strong professional experience.

Decision speed, flexibility, and innovation have often been cited as key ingredients to business success on the turbulent twenty‐first century business landscape. Sets out to argue that the increasing emphasis on legal and regulatory compliance, the push for which can be attributed to the spectacular collapses of WorldCom and Enron, will burden management with decision‐making speed‐bumps as opposed to protecting shareholders' interests.

The impact of legal and regulatory compliance is discussed within the business decision‐making context. Businesses succeed or fail in a dynamic environment where the smallest advantage can push one competitor ahead of another. Arguments in favour of increasing legal compliance are debated and the impacts of proposed regulatory compliance issues are discussed within the context of the competing business firm and its need for speed and flexibility.

The issue of increasing and stricter compliance for business is far‐reaching. Attempting to protect shareholder interests through further measures of compliance will only introduce further operating complexities for management while increasing costs and reducing decision speeds and flexibility. The impact on firms forced to compete under such conditions will be considerable, particularly if they find themselves on an international landscape competing against firms not burdened with the same regulatory requirements.

This paper is based on original work by the authors commencing with issues surrounding shareholders versus stakeholders, followed by a debate concerning corporate governance mechanisms and a discussion concerning the consequences and impacts of levying further regulatory burdens on business and managers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the measurement and monitoring of social responsibility within the management control system (MCS) of an organisation that subscribes to a stakeholder and social responsibility approach and to propose a framework that provides for the integration of the MCS with social accounting and social responsibility aspects.

The paper is based on a case study of a small privately owned New Zealand manufacturing business that subscribes to social responsibility and stakeholder principles.

Overall, the paper finds that the MCS of the case organisation did not measure or monitor social responsibility. Building on the case findings and the literature examined, a framework is proposed that provides for the integration of the MCS with social responsibility. A significant finding is that both formal measurement and informal control are key aspects in developing a MCS that incorporates social responsibility considerations.

The findings relate to a single manufacturing organisation based in New Zealand. Future research could examine different settings (i.e. country, organisation type, etc.) and investigate application of the proposed framework in relation to particular performance measures and controls that organisations may possibly adopt.

Organisations following a stakeholder and social responsibility approach should also consider the design of their MCS.

This paper helps to fill a gap in the literature concerning knowledge about the design and operation of MCSs in relation to stakeholder and social responsibility issues. Few studies in this area have been based on a case study approach. The paper further contributes to the literature by proposing a framework that provides for the integration of the MCS with social responsibility aspects.

This study examines the association between management control systems (MCSs), specifically the interactive and diagnostic use of controls, with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure-action portrayal gap (i.e. the disparity in employees’ perception of their organisation’s emphasis on CSR disclosures relative to CSR actions) and the subsequent impact on employees’ perceptions of organisational performance, both operational performance and corporate social performance. Data were collected using a survey of US lower-level managers, with the data obtained from 209 respondents and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results reveal that the interactive and diagnostic use of controls both exhibit a significant negative association with the CSR disclosure-action portrayal gap, that is, the use of these controls reduces the gap. In addition, the various dimensions of the CSR disclosure-action portrayal gap exhibit a significant negative association with both operational and corporate social performance, that is, lower gap, higher performance. The study contributes to the CSR literature by providing the first empirical insight into employees’ perception of both CSR disclosures and actions, and hence, the CSR disclosure-action portrayal gap. In addition, the study contributes to the MCS and organisational performance literature by providing the initial empirical insight into the role of MCSs in mitigating the gap through enhancing the interactive and diagnostic use of controls, and the negative association between the gap and employees’ perceptions of organisational performance.

This study examines possible influences on the level of collaboration in published research by the most productive authors of accounting literature. Understanding the collaboration tendencies of these authors should benefit early-career-stage accounting faculty. Seven factors are examined for the publications of 93 of the most productive accounting authors. These productive authors are found to include fewer coauthors on their publications early in their careers. The number of coauthors increases through their first 16 to 17 years and then decreases through the remainder of their careers. The results also indicate that productive accounting researchers include a greater number of coauthors on more recently published articles and on longer articles. Fewer coauthors are included when a productive author is affiliated with a “top-10” university or on articles published in highly ranked accounting journals. Lastly, the results show that prolific authors seek out coauthorship throughout their careers and usually include one or more coauthors on their publications. Implications from these results and specific suggestions for accounting faculty are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new model of corporate governance that is holistic – incorporating internal and macro perspectives across legal, regulatory, sociological, ethical, human resource management, behavioural and corporate strategic frameworks. Researchers have signalled the need for “new theoretical perspectives and new models of governance” due to a dearth of research that is context‐driven, empirical, and encapsulating the full spectrum of reasons and actions contributing to corporate crises.

The approach consists of theory building by reviewing the literature and examining the gaps and limitations.

The proposed model is a distinctive contribution to theory and practice in three ways. First, it integrates the firm‐specific, micro factors with the country‐specific, macro factors to illustrate the holistic nature of corporate governance. Second, shareholders and stakeholders are shown to be only one component of the model. Third, it veers away from singular approaches, to dealing with corporate governance using a multi‐disciplinary perspective. The paper argues that such a holistic and integrated view is a necessity for understanding governance systems.

The challenge is to operationalize the model and test it empirically.

The model is instructive and of use for practitioners in attempting to understand, explain and develop governance models that are appropriate to their national and industry settings.

This paper argues that narrow‐based models are limited in their approach and in a sound and integrative review of the up‐to‐date literature contributes to theory‐building on corporate governance.

This paper aims to report the results of a study into visitor evaluations of interactions with hotel employees in Mauritius. Given that the island's core tourism product is based on luxury resorts, tourist‐hotel employee interactions possess a potential for determining satisfactory or unsatisfactory holiday evaluations on the part of visitors.

A sample of 103 visitors is interviewed using a semi‐structured guide comprising open‐ended questions. This approach reflects the lived experiences of guests and helps to better assess the role played by nationality when reporting visitor‐staff interactions. Data are analyzed using both thematic analysis and textual analysis software.

Nationality, ethnicity and languages spoken are found to be factors that determine differences in requirements from hotel staff on the part of tourists. Nationality is the strongest discriminator of these requirements.

As with many examples of qualitative research, the findings are time and place specific. Yet nonetheless, the concepts of personal construct theory permit some generalization.

Resort complex staff and management need to note the differences required by guests of different national groupings, and to appreciate that less than warm responses by some clients are not indicative of dissatisfaction.

The paper distinguishes between guests not only on the basis of nationality and ethnicity, but also languages spoken. No similar study relating to resort complexes in Mauritius has been identified. The study also uses two modes of textual data analysis to support the interpretation offered.

Drought conditions affected an acute water scarcity crisis across large parts of Australia through the late 1990s and into the 2000s. Public policy responses emphasised demand management strategies. This study aims to examine the response to these challenges within a large Australian university from 1999 to 2010.

Case study utilising semi-structured interviews.

Staff empowered to take an emergent approach to issues of social concern, initiated water accountability change focused on water efficiency from 1999, and “water principles” from 2002. A growing network had some success translating and enrolling others over coming years. However into the late 2000s, as drought conditions abated and with a renewed focus on financial control, developments that had not established clear links to core accountability mechanisms eroded. This study demonstrates that measurement is essential to understanding patterns of water usage, but also needs to establish links to core systems of accountability to broadly change behaviour.

Higher education continues to be an environment where creative responses to community challenges can be nurtured. Despite increasing pressures to focus on financial outcomes, the sector should continue to nurture opportunities to shape issues of community concern through leading practice.

This study provides insight into the development, fragility, and contested meaning of emergent systems of water accountability within the context of a university.