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The tension between demand for services and willingness to pay for those services, referred to here as tax-demand discontinuity, poses a dilemma for local government that will only intensify with growing fiscal constraints. This research is based on a survey of over 1800 citizens in Orange County, Florida, the county including Orlando, to develop a seven-position classification system to define the nature and extent of tax-demand discontinuity. Citizen demographic characteristics, perceptions of the economy and perceptions of government segmented by tax-demand discontinuity classifications are used to offer guidance to local government about opportunities for improving citizen-government relations.

Citizens generally do not have a good understanding of local government and consequently have difficulty assessing performance objectively. Instead, they permit a variety of indicators and sources of information to shape their perceptions of government. This research takes a first step toward an improved understanding of citizen-government relations, especially focusing on how citizens see government. The survey results from over 1800 citizens in Orange County, Florida (including the metropolitan area of Orlando) are analyzed through a series of multiple regression models employing varied assumptions and citizen populations to better understand what drives citizen perceptions of local government performance. To effectively change citizen-government relations, local government must honor citizen values and priorities by demonstrating that it listens to citizens and acts on what it hears.

This symposium focuses on the individual and the organization in resource allocation decisions. Budgeting is an information exchange function involving “relational learning,” according to John P. Forrester and Charles J. Spindler. Their framework for assessing budget participant interactions and learning can guide future research on public budget theory. As if in a direct response to Forrester and Sprindler’s call for an examination of "the role played by the executive budget office,” Kurt Thurmaier dissects the microbudgeting decision making process by budget analysts in a state budget office. He examines the rationalities adopted by budget analysts as they shape budget problems (agency requests) into solution sets for consideration by the chief executive. Adopted budgets have implications for employees, especially when allocations challenge organizational culture. Mark A. Glaser and Lee E. Parker assess the impact of a community policing strategy on police officer perceptions as resources respond to a mission-accomplishment focus. I want to thank the ad hoc reviewers for this symposium, including Wes Clark, Ed Clynch, Arie Halachmi, Ken Klase, Earle Klay and Cliff McCue. The authors and reviewers deserve the credit for the quality of the symposium, while I assume any problems that arise from this collective effort

Increasingly police departments throughout the United States are in transition between traditional and community-based law enforcement. Community policing is thought to increase effectiveness by engaging members of the community in the coproduction of public safety. At the same time, the nature of police activities naturally encourages the formation of bonds between officers. Although bonds between officers are helpful, organizationally, in many ways, these same bonds can also become barriers between police and the citizens they serve. This “bond-barrier" relationship is popularly referred to as the "thin blue line.” The effectiveness of community policing and the use of public safety dollars depends on changes in internal operations as well as the departmental interface with citizens. This paper uses the input of over 300 law enforcement officers to examine an agency in transition between traditional to community policing including the application of a systems approach to articulate transitional concerns. In addition, this paper develops a Satisfaction-Mission Expectation Classification System and uses it to examine law enforcement officers' perceptions of the organization and its environment.

Restates the case for accounting and management research from a grounded theory perspective, and advocates its informed and more frequent application. Examines the intellectual foundations and key tenets of grounded theory in the context of researchers’ theoretical assumptions and methodological characteristics, discussed in relation to Laughlin’s (1995) classification schema. Pays particular attention to grounded theory assumptions and methods in relation to other interpretive paradigms such as symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and hermeneutics. Describes the basic principles and methods of grounded theory research, and presents potential applications to the accounting and management research arenas. Argues that rigorous grounded theory research can offer the accounting and management literatures unique understandings that provide additional perspectives to those already being offered by major schools of thought, and discusses implications of grounded theory for informing contemporary professional practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal, reflective account of applying grounded theory, in particular Glaser's approach, in accounting research. It seeks to reduce barriers to adopting the grounded theory approach.

The approach taken is providing an overview of Glaser's grounded theory and discussing the authors' application of it, thus discussing their personal experiences.

The paper seeks to provide a greater insight into using the grounded theory approach, through illustrating the authors' personal experiences with its application. It seeks to highlight the merits and pitfalls, including any attempts to overcome these, as these are perceived from a subjective viewpoint.

The paper provides an individual account of how a grounded theory study was undertaken. The subjectivity of such undertaking has to be taken into consideration.

The application of the grounded theory approach is discussed retrospectively, in a bid to provide an insight to interpretive research projects in general and grounded theory in particular. It is still rarely used in accounting research, but has potential to contribute at all levels of accounting research. The paper provides an individual account of using this approach.

My initial writing and critique of grounded theory (GT) was undertaken in complete ignorance of Kathy Charmaz's work. Subsequently, I made contact with her and was delighted to receive a warm and collegial response, something I came to understand was an essential part of her nature. In our ensuing collaboration, which included the two Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) Handbooks, my understanding of the method increased, thanks to her deep insights and extensive knowledge and familiarity with those writing about the method far and wide. But far more important was the way in which our friendship and partnership helped me appreciate and understand the depth and value of her significant contributions to ideas about camaraderie, research and social justice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore black market retailing, with a focus on Colombia’s San Andresitos.

The authors use grounded theory methodology to develop a theoretical framework that explains how consumers rationalize their acceptance, rejection, or tolerance of black market retailing. The authors obtained qualitative data based on reader responses to newspaper articles on San Andresitos and used the responses as qualitative data in comparative analysis to derive a “strategy family” theoretical framework.

The framework advances rationalization techniques that consumers employ to accept, reject, or tolerate the San Andresitos.

Colombians are divided on the legality of the San Andresitos. Although half the informants note the wrongfulness of the San Andresitos, the other half offer reasons to accept or tolerate them.

Legitimate (i.e. lawful) retailers operating in Colombia, or planning to enter, need to realize that local and national government officials support the San Andresitos. Colombia’s legitimate retailers must co-exist with the black market and dissuade consumers from patronizing unauthorized vendors or purchasing illicit goods.

Colombia’s acceptance of its black markets results in consumers inadvertently supporting crime, terrorism, and even bodily harm via the San Andresitos. However, the San Andresitos enable lower-income consumers to gain access to otherwise unattainable merchandise and provide employment through lower-skilled labor.

This paper is one of the first to explore black markets. From a transformative service research perspective, this research reveals how consumers, retailers, and government officials participate in Colombia’s black market, and how their activities serve to harm consumer well-being.

Using a pre‐test‐post‐test control group experimental research design, this paper seeks to examine the effects of the 20‐week structure of intellect (SOI) training programme on the critical thinking skills of a group of participants in a manufacturing facility in Ireland as measured by both Watson‐Glaser critical thinking skills assessment (CTSA) and Raven’s standard progressive matrices (SPM). The results demonstrate no statistically significant difference in the experimental group pre‐ and post‐test scores on the Watson‐Glaser CTSA, but the results derived from the administration of Raven’s SPM were significant (p = 0.003). As expected, no statistically significant difference was found between the pre‐ and post‐test performance of the control group on either test. A number of possible reasons for the results are advanced.