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Finance, accountancy, auditing.

Supports information systems audit (ISA), auditing practises and controls, corporate governance and internal controls and financial management modules, business administration and MBA programmes.

The case study focuses on the implementation of ISA and information technology in the highly responsible task of executing financial audits The case emphasises on the fact that the advantages of ISA can only be reaped when they are amalgamated with an auditor's scrutiny, sharp eye, extensive knowledge of auditing systems and accounting principles and a rich experience of the auditing function. The suggested synergy also facilitates a reduction of around 60 per cent, in the cost of executing the audits and the man-hours required to complete the audit, as in the case of Jain Chowdhary & Company.

The case helps students to comprehend the relevance of audit trail. It emphasises on the importance of identifying the source of information and tracking raw data backward. It familiarises the students with the complexities involved in a real audit and emphasises on the role of logic, intelligence, diligence, patience and farsightedness while performing the auditing function. It is important for them to understand how White collar crimes take place in real business economy. This case, hence exposes students to these nuances and can make a student, from a non-commerce background, understand the key elements of efficient auditing. (Elaborate teaching objectives are appended in the teaching note.)

Teaching note.

Strategic marketing is linked to marketing management. The process is presented by a model, the framework of which can be used for understanding the interrelationships between strategic and practice/implementation considerations within marketing. An attempt is made to synthesise existing knowledge on strategic and practice/implementation linkages with a view to identifying fruitful areas for additional research.

This article presents the results of a survey of 202 male Taiwanese consumers. In this study, consumer judgements of two technological products varying in their level of complexity made in highly, moderately, and newly industrialised countries were obtained in a multi‐attribute context. The results show that the country‐of‐origin image of moderately and newly industrialised countries was less negative for technologically simpler products (i.e. a television) than they were for technologically complex products (i.e. a computer). It appears that the negative image of moderately and newly industrialised countries can be attenuated by making Taiwanese consumers more familiar with products made in these countries and/or by providing them with other product‐related information such as brand name and warranty. Newly industrialised countries were perceived more negatively as countries of design than as countries of assembly, especially in the context of making technologically complex products. The image of foreign countries as producers of consumer goods was positively correlated with education. The more familiar consumers were with the products of a country, the more favourable was their evaluation of that country. Consumer involvement with purchasing a technologically complex product such as a computer was positively associated with the appreciation of products made in moderately industrialised countries. Managerial and research implications are derived from these results.

Stagflation and persistent balance of trade deficits during the 1970's encouraged government policy makers in many countries to seek improvements in export market performance. Another significant development during the 1970's was the empirical verification provided by the PIMS project of the positive relationship between a firm's market share and its profit ability, or other measures of performance in a particular market. The authors propose that the PIMS findings may also apply for an aggregation of firms — namely, world traders. A market share analysis of the export trade performance of the U.S., the E.E.C., and for Japan is presented, the implications of this research are discussed, and some directions for future research are provided.

In order to understand why consumers choose certain products over others, marketers study consumer behavior. This concept of involvement is significant in understanding and explaining consumer behavior (Bloch 1981; Bloch, 1982; Zaichkowsky, 1985; Celsi and Olson, 1988; Engel, et al., 1990; Assael, 1995). The term became popular in marketing circles through Krugman's research in television advertising and low‐involvement learning in 1965 (Krugman, 1965).

Although cannibalism is seldom desirable, it can be tolerated under certain conditions. This paper illustrates those conditions and shows that cannibalism may not be so bad after all.

Considers the response of US firms to the recent decline in productivity, growth etc and the subsequent adoption of just in time manufacturing pioneered by Japanese industry. Examines the concentration on the reduction in time and costs of the early stages of the product life cycle and the flexibility this allows the subsequent pricing strategies. Highlights the emphasis placed on distribution scheduling and the consolidation of transportation services. Concludes that US firms have accepted that JIT and cost and time reduction programs have been necessary in order to compete in the 1990s.

Summary This paper presents the case for a geocentric approach to global strategy formation. It describes the geographic adjustments that are the embodiment of both attack and defence under global competition, and the geographic units that multinationals adopt as their primary organizational units to identify and carry out these adjustments. In addition to actions with local effects, global competitive performance demands actions from these primary units which will have payoffs accruing to other units. The geocentric approach to global strategy endeavours to identify and stimulate these cross‐unit opportunities through collaboration among units and the centre. The consequent needs at unit level for information on the global competitive situation are examined, as well as some common impediments to geocentric collaboration imposed by the design of planning, accounting and reporting systems.

The modern company is having to become increasingly international, to look to overseas markets or even to set up operations within them. This internationalisation of the company means that some method must be found which lays down guidelines for formulating an overall international marketing strategy. If different international markets are seen as basic units of investment, the company should seek to obtain a balanced portfolio of markets, to enable it to allocate its scarce resources with maximum efficiency achieving stable growth in the long term.