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1 – 10 of over 2000The purpose of this paper is to consider the activities of tax havens in the global financial markets and explore their role in providing a supply‐side stimulant for corrupt…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the activities of tax havens in the global financial markets and explore their role in providing a supply‐side stimulant for corrupt practices. It aims to argue that the corruption debate needs to shift to a second phase in which the role of tax havens as supply‐side stimulants features more prominently.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the author's original research into the practices and activities of tax havens, the paper explores the operational features of tax havens, with particular focus on their role in providing opaque and complex offshore structures through which illicit financial flows can be routed to disguise their origins, method of transfer and true beneficial ownership. The paper explores how bankers, lawyers and accountants create complex and opaque offshore structures to facilitate economic crime and impede investigation.
Findings
Despite severe limitations imposed by the absence of rigorously researched statistical data on capital flows into and out of tax havens, the paper argues that the available data support the view that tax havens have become prominent features of the globalised capital markets, and their activities create a criminogenic environment in which illicit financial flows are easily disguised and hidden amongst legitimate commercial transactions. The paper notes that effective remedies are available to reduce financial market opacity, but political will is lacking to take effective action.
Originality/value
This paper tackles a new and under‐researched subject. Drawing on the author's experiences of working on a prominent tax haven for a total of 14 years, the paper brings attention to the impact of tax havens on international development.
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The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions:
Contemporary literature has paid scholarly attention to corruption from a variety of competing perspectives. However, broader accounts of the impact of corruption on development…
Abstract
Purpose
Contemporary literature has paid scholarly attention to corruption from a variety of competing perspectives. However, broader accounts of the impact of corruption on development in developing countries are relatively scarce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of corruption as a social impediment to development, which has a devastating effect on developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the relevant literature and the different perspectives that have been developed and conducted for investigating corruption in developing countries. The paper uses publicly available evidence to show that political, economic elite engaged in corrupt practices.
Findings
The evidence shows that socio‐political and economic development, politics, power, history and globalisation have continued to reproduce and transform the institutional structures and actors which have facilitated corrupt practices in developing countries. The review shows that large sums of government revenue have been undermined by the corrupt practices of the political and economic elite (both local and international), which have enriched a few, but impoverished most.
Practical implications
The paper seeks to bring the anti‐social activities of political, economic and professionals under scrutiny and offers some suggestions for reforms.
Social implications
Corruption has played a major role in causing serious damage to the economic and social landscape in developing countries. This in turn, has undermined social welfare and also investment in the public services, thereby eroding the quality of life and producing a decline in average life expectancy.
Originality/value
The paper is a general review of literature and evidence on contemporary issues.
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The purpose of this paper is to broaden discussions about the role of the public sphere in broadening social choices, with particular focus on accountancy magazines and national…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to broaden discussions about the role of the public sphere in broadening social choices, with particular focus on accountancy magazines and national press in particular.
Design/methodology/approach
In replying to the commentary appearing in this edition, the paper shifts the debate to a political economy of media. In action research traditions, it also shows how academic interventions can lead to unexpected outcomes that can enrich research, teaching and social choice debates.
Findings
Public debates can be galvanised through academic interventions.
Practical implications
The paper suggests possible strategies for fermenting public debates and engaging with the institutions of accountancy.
Social implications
Through engagement social choices can be broadened.
Originality/value
The paper is based on personal interventions and this offers first‐hand account of some of the public interventions and how these led to new alliances and arrangements to problematise conventional views about accounting and accounting firms.
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Unlike previous studies which emphasize market oriented performance from the perspective of firms or customers, but mainly internally, the paper proposes that firms should…
Abstract
Unlike previous studies which emphasize market oriented performance from the perspective of firms or customers, but mainly internally, the paper proposes that firms should prioritize customer‐focused performance defined totally externally from the perspective of targeted customers, which are the fundamental drivers of purchasing or repurchasing behaviors of customers and consequently the key to successful competition in the customer‐centered era. Then, the role of customer‐focused performance in the overall business performance system is examined. After the components and dynamics of customer‐focused performance are analyzed, much attention is given to its key determinants in perspective of a resource‐based view, which aims mainly at bridging the current gaps between strategic management and service management. In addition, important propositions are presented and future implications are discussed.
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The following annotated bibliography of materials on orienting users to the library and on instructing them in the use of reference and other resources covers publications from…
Abstract
The following annotated bibliography of materials on orienting users to the library and on instructing them in the use of reference and other resources covers publications from 1980. Several items from 1979 were included because information about them had not been available in time for the 1980 listing. Some entries were not annotated because the compiler was unable to secure a copy of the item.
Nina K. Stephenson and Linda St. Clair
Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages, the…
Abstract
Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages, the challenge of adding new services, the explosion of information, and the electronic revolution have complicated (and sometimes compromised) the delivery of quality services. In response to many universities' growing commitment to offer nontraditional degree programs, reference staff are also assuming more responsibility for night and weekend instruction.
This introductory paper aims to serve a dual purpose. First, it seeks to trace some of the key elements of this emerging agenda in critical corruption studies and the major…
Abstract
Purpose
This introductory paper aims to serve a dual purpose. First, it seeks to trace some of the key elements of this emerging agenda in critical corruption studies and the major directions in which the field has moved since 2006, exploring some of the connections between dominant discourses of corruption and anti‐corruption and the upheavals which have occurred in the global economy during this period along the way. Second, this discussion also aims to serve as a contextual introduction to this special issue by embracing some of the common themes elaborated in the other papers collected here.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a brief personal reflection on developments in the field of critical corruption studies.
Findings
The paper reveals some of the limitations of the mainstream approach towards corruption.
Originality/value
The paper summarises recent developments in the field and provides a context‐setting narrative within which the other papers that comprise this special issue can be situated.
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Ronald Benard and Monica Samwel Chipungahelo
The aim of this study is to examine accessibility of health information to women in Tanzania with reference to the Morogoro region. The specific objectives of the study were…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to examine accessibility of health information to women in Tanzania with reference to the Morogoro region. The specific objectives of the study were: first, to identify the health information needs of women; second, to determine the accessibility of the needed health information to women in the study area; and third, to determine the preferred sources of information used by women in accessing health information in the study area.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive survey method – cross-sectional design – was used. Semi-structured questionnaires with both open- and close-ended questions were used to collect data from four wards of Morogoro Municipal Council, Tanzania. Key informant interviews were conducted with 12 women from four wards, 3 women were selected from each ward.
Findings
The findings also indicated that there was a significant relationship between wards and accessibility to certain types of information which were concerning hypertension, family planning, malaria and typhoid. Although information on diabetes and hypertension had lower percentages of accessibility in all four wards, the study findings revealed that medical doctors, pharmacy shops and family were the main sources of information used by women to access health information. Radio and television were rated as preferred sources of information required by women, whereas internet, local herb hawkers and mobile phones were rated as non-preferable. It is therefore recommended that the government through health-care providers and medical librarians should be proactive in creating awareness and disseminate health information on non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes to women.
Practical implications
This paper provides practical recommendations on how to improve accessibility of health information in the communities.
Social implications
The paper has an implication of improving accessibility of health information to women in the communities.
Originality/value
The paper provides appropriate knowledge that is needed in improving access to health information in Tanzanian communities and in other developing countries communities.
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This paper applies Bhabha’s concept of the third space to frame an understanding of Prem Sikka’s use of digital media to bridge the academic–activist binary. In doing this, the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper applies Bhabha’s concept of the third space to frame an understanding of Prem Sikka’s use of digital media to bridge the academic–activist binary. In doing this, the paper makes two contributions. First, it conceptualises Sikka’s engagement, and second, through the lens of the third space, it analyses it to establish whether, in the era of the neoliberal corporatised university, public intervention has the potential to generate new perspectives and new knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
Sikka’s articles and blogs for the period 20 February 2002 to 15 April 2020 were analysed using Leximancer, a textual analysis software programme that displays the output visually. A discriminant analysis was used to identify where each year of the study is situated in the overall semantic analysis. Netnography, the examination of archived published texts, was then used to analyse the responses by members of the public, academics, accountants and auditors, tax experts, policy makers and regulators to Sikka’s digital media engagement.
Findings
As a third space practitioner, Sikka has overcome some of the shortcomings associated with academic research to challenge the activities of professional accounting firms, regulatory bodies and multinational corporations. Through extending the boundaries of accounting and accountability, he has facilitated new radical alliances aiming to create a just and equitable society. The paper also finds that by opening up a third space of engagement, academic activists’ work can play an essential part in social transformation and emancipatory change framed in terms of social justice and equity.
Originality/value
This is one of the few papers to provide an in-depth examination of the activities of an accounting activist over twenty years.
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