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The purpose of this paper is to share personal experience on the early stages of taxonomy construction, reflecting on the potential role of contextual classification techniques as applied by the records management profession as a tool in effectively organising information, resources and services within intranet and/or portal environments. The paper also aims to assess the additional benefits to be secured where linking content to business purposes can create or reveal new meaning.

The paper draws on experience, personal opinion, published literature and discussions with peers to assess the applicability of contextual classification as a tool to support taxonomy development.

The paper concludes that classification of information, resources and services within intranet and/or portal environments using a citation order of function, activity, task, sub‐task is likely to be of significant value, requiring further investigation to fully assess impact and applicability. Contextual classification receives much discussion in general records management terms, however its applicability in supporting portal and/or intranet development appears to receive little attention. The requirement to generate improvements in information retrieval from a host of on‐line services (of which taxonomy development is one example) is reinvigorating the role of the informational professional. Given the criticality of improving the management and retrieval of information it is desirable that stronger interdisciplinary links are established across the information profession to further develop “information retrieval” as a subject discipline.

The article suggests that the role of contextual classification to organise information, resources and services within intranets/portals requires further investigation and reflection to assess its applicability, value and impact. Initial findings and reflection of the application of contextual classification in the design of elements of a university portal taxonomy have proven to be successful, suggesting that wider discussion and reflection is now required. It is also suggested that the information profession take steps to build stronger interdisciplinary links to advance the development of information retrieval as a subject discipline.

The London Mayoral Election of 4 May 2000 was probably the first in British electoral history when all the candidates had established a presence in cyberspace. An analysis of the 11 websites showed that politicians are beginning to realise the potential influence of the Web in political circles, both as a means of publication and also for canvassing support. Most of the web pages were well designed with a reasonable amount of content and simple levels of interactivity. Multimedia features were also evident on most sites, though in terms of currency and timeliness of information, some improvements could still be made.

This paper aims to examine a management control constructed by senior managers, a core value focused on sustainability, as it travels through time and space. The criticality of sustainable development suggests the need to understand the effects that core values have on organisational actions.

A case study methodology carried out at a multinational organisation is used. This analysis was informed by an actor-network theory which allowed placing the organisation’s sustainability focused core value at the centre of this research.

It was found that management control, in the form of a sustainability-focused core value, took on an active role in the case organisation. This enabled the opening of space and time that allowed actors to step forward and take action in relation to sustainable development. It is shown how the core value mobilised individual actors at specific points in time but did not enrol enough collective support to continue its travel. The resulting activities, though, provided a construction of sustainable development within the organisation more in line with traditional profit-seeking objectives rather than in relation to sustainability objectives, such as inter- and intra-generational equity.

These findings suggest possibilities for future research that examines the active role that management controls may take within sustainable development.

This paper shows the active role a management control, a sustainability focused core value, took within an organisation. This builds on the research that examines management control in relation to sustainability issues and sustainable development as well as the literature that examines core values.

A management accounting perspective that underscores a quest for reducing conventionally appraised costs, negative output costs as well as heightened eco-efficiency has been used in pursuit of the study’s two main study objectives. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, the study seeks to further understanding of the relationship between product output volume, carbon costs, and CO₂ emission volume in carbon-intensive firms. Second, it identifies factors affecting climate change abatement strategies pursued by these firms. Heightening appreciation of the climate change challenge, combined with minimal CO₂ emission research undertaken from a cost management perspective, underscores the significance of the study.

A triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data collected from Slovenian firms that operate in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme has been deployed.

CO₂ polluting firms exhibit differing carbon cost structures that result from distinctive drivers of carbon consumption (product output vs capacity level). Climate change abatement strategies also differ across carbon-intensive sectors (energy, manufacturing firms transforming non-fossil carbon-based materials, and other manufacturing firms) but are relatively homogeneous within them.

From a managerial perspective, the study demonstrates that carbon efficiency improvements are generally not effective in triggering corporate CO₂ emission reduction when firms pursue a growth strategy.

Global warming signifies that CO₂ emissions constitute a social problem. The study has the potential to raise societal awareness that the causality of the manufacturing sector’s CO₂ emissions is complex. Further, the study highlights that while more efficient use of environmental resources is a prerequisite of enhanced ecological sustainability, in isolation it fails to signify improved ecological sustainability in manufacturing operations.

The paper has high originality as it reports one of the first management accounting studies to explore the distinction between combustion- and process-related CO₂ emissions. In addition, it provides distinctive support for the view that eco-efficiency is more consistent with the economic than the environmental pillar of sustainability.

Triangulation of research methods is crucial to thoroughly explore how tourism can be better linked to the local economy in the Pacific's ‘Small Island Developing States’ (SIDS) because it includes the use of multiple data collections, analytical methods, data sources and theories or perspectives (Rocco et al., 2003). The exploration of the interactions between the various stakeholders in tourism and the wider economy will help linkages to be understood and enhanced. The research focuses on the following stakeholders: tourists, growers, small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs), government officials and village councils. The study explores the ways in which each of these stakeholder groups interacts with each other and their perspectives on the issues surrounding the linkages between tourism and agriculture.

The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the use of a case study of Niue and multiple data-gathering techniques to collect critical information on the linkages between tourism and agriculture in Pacific SIDS. The findings and lessons learned from a single case study of Niue using a mixed-methods approach potentially benefit other island nations in the region. This chapter begins with a discussion on the usefulness of case study research and then justifies the use of a mixed-methods approach and multiple stakeholders to better understand the linkages between tourism and agriculture in SIDS. The complexities of the inter-sectoral analysis being undertaken and the lack of prior data in this area necessitated a mixed-methods approach to the research. The chapter thoroughly discusses the research process and participants, including the design of research tools and the conduct of field work. Then the chapter focuses on research findings and concludes by reviewing the lessons learned from this research approach and its use of a case study and mixed methods to gain a holistic insight into the potential for enhancing the linkages between tourism and agriculture on Niue.

The natural environment has become an increasingly important business issue over the last ten years while shareholder views on the importance of corporate environmental disclosure have not been extensively investigated. The purpose of this paper is to report the requirements of individual shareholders for the disclosure and regulation of environmental information and their intended use of the information.

Respondents were questioned using an online survey whether they want specific types of environmental information from companies and if so, where they want it disclosed, why they want it disclosed and if they feel strongly enough about it to want it made compulsory and be subject to an audit. The authors regard New Zealand as an ideal experimental setting for the investigation of shareholder views and focus on the members of an active shareholders' association in New Zealand and obtain a very high response rate.

The paper finds that most shareholders are very positive about the disclosure of a range of environmental information items and furthermore they want environmental information to be made compulsory, to be audited, and to be published in the annual report and also on the company website. The most important reason given by shareholders for requiring environmental information is that they want companies to be accountable for their environmental impacts. The results are potentially significant for company governance and management decision making and will also have policy implications for regulators.

The findings have important implications for the government, the accounting profession and other standard setters. The paper suggests that the time has come for legislators, regulatory bodies and standard setters to take note of the policy implications if such a large proportion (59 percent – 72 percent) of shareholders want environmental disclosure to be compulsory and prescribed and not left to the discretion of companies.

The information needs of individual shareholders who make their own investment decisions should be of great interest to regulators, because such investors rely on publicly available information, whereas institutional investors also collect private information. Regulators need to remove information asymmetry by regulating and/or mandating disclosures and shareholder requirements for information should be an important consideration.

This paper is of high value. The paper addresses why the information is requested and what it would be used for, something that the studies prior to the year 2000 did not cover. In addition this study is the first to survey New Zealand investors 1996, i.e. prior to the resurgence of late in societal interest in environmental issues.

This chapter discusses the distributed, volunteer nature of an information delivery cooperative which became formally designated as the IDS Project and how a “coalition of the willing” has been able to move the resource sharing community forward on a national scale through innovations in training, support, and technology. The authors use a case study approach to highlight some of the major accomplishments of the IDS Project, such as the Article Licensing Information Availability Service (ALIAS), IDS Search, the Mentor Program, and the Regional Users Groups. The team-based structure of the IDS Project allows for groups to work independently and from multiple locations while still creating a synergistic result through the combination of community and innovation. Distributed teams often provide enriched user skills for the group but often cause difficulties due to the distance, communication, and differing requirements of the different local institutions. The IDS Project’s use of technology and periodic face-to-face meetings has reduced the issues with distributed teams and created highly effective working groups. These groups, such as the mentors and the Technology Development Team, have provided excellent service and training to the member libraries. Through the use of the Best Practices Toolkit, the Getting It System Toolkit, ILLiad Addons produced by IDS, and other national services, the IDS Project has made it possible for libraries that use ILLiad to benefit from its developments.