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This paper examines the acceptance, of a group of 79 students, of an educational forum, used for mobile and distance learning, that has been modified to include empathic characteristics and affective principles.

With this study is proposed that the introduction of empathic and affective principles in educational forums is a useful and effective way to increase students’ participation and motivation in educational contexts. After an analysis of existing literature and research on the subject of empathic technology, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) was used as a framework for the research model. The analysis of their acceptance is done via an extended version of the UTAUT that focuses on the use of the variable attitude toward technology and uses gender, age and experience as moderators. A partial least square technique has been used to test the nine hypotheses.

The results confirmed three of the nine hypotheses: performance expectancy and effort expectancy had a positive influence on the students attitudes towards empathic forums, while the effect of social influence and facilitating conditions was considered insignificant; social influence had a positive influence on the students’ behavioral intention to use emphatic forums, while attitude toward technology, performance expectancy, facilitating conditions and effort expectancy were considered not relevant.

The focus of this study was the influence of attitude toward empathic forums, used for mobile and distance learning, and the results establish the grounds for future research on attitude as an important determinant of technology acceptance.

Aurelia Dimas had been sent to investigate the various properties being offered by the State of California in the form of a sale-leaseback agreement. The opportunity was perfect for her firm, Orrington Financial Partners, which had recently expanded its fixed-income portfolio to include real estate. The wide range of offerings in the Golden State Portfolio provided both diversification and stability over a period of decades. She had spent the last week walking the halls of each and every building to see the offering first hand. Now the task of valuing the portfolio rested on her shoulders.

By reading and analyzing this case, students will be exposed to real estate valuation and understand the issues with a sale-leaseback investment. The objectives are obtained by requiring students to justify how and why they make adjustments to the cash flow forecasts provided to them by a real estate advisory firm, explain their methodology for arriving at a specific value for a piece (or a portfolio) of commercial property, and debate the pros and cons of a sale-leaseback structure.

To identify and prioritise real estate management requirements, Accruent recently surveyed 100 real estate executives, more than half at companies with revenues exceeding US$1bn. The results indicate that the vast majority are looking for better ways to manage their real estate portfolios. Pressured by fast growth and stringent new regulatory reporting requirements, real estate professionals are turning in increasing numbers to centralised systems of record that can track and manage all financial transactions. Until recently, these systems were difficult to justify. Manual processes and spreadsheets were considered sufficient and a ‘just pay it’ mentality prevailed, largely because real estate was considered a fixed cost. While the concept of a centralised enterprise‐wide data repository has long been a topic of discussion among visionaries, new technologies are making the vision a practical reality. It is now possible to implement viable systems of record in cost‐effective stages, beginning with lease administration and extending into other business management systems. Though the effort of implementing systems of record can be considerable, many consider it well worth while because it provides companies with the opportunity to improve existing operational processes significantly.

Conventional wisdom states that catastrophe risk securities show no or little correlation with stock and bond markets, and offer significant attractions to investors providing a good diversification of risks. This study examines the correlation between catastrophe risk securities and portfolios of other equities by analyzing catastrophe effects on the Japanese stock market.

Using catastrophe data from SwissRe Sigma publications and stock returns from the Pacific‐Basin Capital Markets database, this paper analyzes stock and abnormal returns in the Japanese stock market using event study methodology.

For the Japanese stock market as a whole, there is no significant catastrophe effect. The results indicate a significant negative correlation between catastrophe loss amount and the insurance industry's equity returns and abnormal returns, a significant positive correlation with the construction industry, but no significant correlation with the real estate industry. This paper also analyzes the impact of catastrophe causalities. The results show little evidence on the significance of these variables.

This study provides important insights to the insurance/reinsurance industry in the Japanese risk market for catastrophe property and mortality risk securitization and to investors who are interested in further improvement of their portfolio risk/return profile by including catastrophe risk securities.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of managerial decision‐making process regarding offshore sourcing of information technology (IT) projects. The study explored the relationship between transaction cost economics and maturity levels of a firm's offshore sourcing activities. Transactions costs theory and firms' offshore sourcing maturity levels provided the framework for studying the decision process.

The present study is a qualitative empirical investigation of the underlying decision process to offshore IT projects. The study is based on interviews of executives in fifteen large to medium size companies.

The data suggest that transaction cost mitigation approaches used by a firm vary based on the size of the company as well as the maturity level of the firm's offshore sourcing activities.

The present study is based on interviews of IT executives in fifteen firms. Case studies and confirmatory studies can provide further insights.

Offshore sourcing maturity can influence cost mitigation tactics used by managers.

This is the first study to explore the relationship between transactions cost economics and offshore sourcing maturity of a firm. Future studies can extend the findings to deepen our knowledge of offshore sourcing challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state of the art and trends with regard to business process measurement by means of a systematic review of literature.

The results are obtained through a systematic review carried out according to existing relevant guidelines. Additionally, a specific methodology through which to systematically obtain all the most important journals is followed. In total, 19 relevant articles are selected and later analyzed. A subsequent critical analysis of the data obtained is applied to identify the gaps in the current literature.

A considerable effort has been made by researchers in the field of business process measurement, particularly in recent years. Many of the defined measures for business processes have been applied to models (approximately 77 per cent). Most of the initiatives concerning business measurement have been adapted from the software engineering field. A small percentage of the existing business process measures has been empirically validated.

The results presented contribute towards providing an updated overview of the current state of research into business process measurement, in order to identify existing research gaps and concerns on which ongoing and future research efforts on this topic can be focused.

This paper aims to explore accounting across time and space via novels.

The paper uses distant readings.

The paper reveals peculiarities and commonalities of the work of Certified Public Accountants 70 years ago and now.

The originality/value is to be decided by readers.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with tools to help change their organizational culture. Specifically, this chapter investigates the importance of leadership in understanding and changing culture within organizations and explores different change management models to effectively change culture within organizations. This chapter summarizes tools from the Leadership and Change Management literature, including findings from the author’s studies, and best practices from a variety of industries.

Tools are provided so that readers can target leadership changes in preparation for cultural change. Leadership behaviors at the top of an organization are discussed using the full-range leadership model, with a specific focus on understanding, developing, and harnessing transformational leadership behaviors within an organization. Leadership at the top of an organization is complemented with a discussion of the importance of middle leadership throughout the organization including a model to understand and develop those behaviors. The chapter ends with seven different approaches to structuring and managing change that organizations can adopt to improve the probability of driving successful change in their organizations.

For organizations seeking to develop or improve their safety culture, these tools provide a roadmap for harnessing the needed leadership behaviors and organizational tools to effectively make change. By understanding and applying these tools, organizations can find success in their culture change initiatives faster and with fewer problems.

This review article focuses on the factors that affect the selection and implementation of three principles of distributive justice (i.e., equity, equality, and need) to reward systems in group and organizational settings. After presenting an overview of the assumptions, goals, and possible consequences associated with each of the three perspectives, the article then describes the moderating factors influencing distribution rule preferences across four levels of analysis: (1) the interorganizational, (2) the intraorganizational, (3) the work group, and (4) the individual. Some of the variables discussed include cross‐cultural differences, reward system implementation, task interdependency, work group climate, and individual characteristics. This material is then summarized through the use of a new conceptual model for describing allocation rule preferences. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.