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The purpose of this paper is to report undergraduate students’ learning gains in six areas of generic skills. The paper reports on students’ responses to the First Year Experience (FYE) Survey completed at the end of their first year and Graduating Student Survey (GSS) in the final semester of their final year.

In this study, a longitudinal design was applied in data collection, analysis and reporting of assessment if student learning gains. The undergraduate students who were the first cohort of four-year curriculum students in a Hong Kong university were selected as the sample. Repeated measures of reported learning gains of a longitudinal sample based on stacking of both FYE and GSS data were analysed using the Rasch model.

The results showed that the scale for measuring the six areas of generic skills had high reliability and good person separation. Comparison of repeated measures from the same group of students at the two time points were examined to explore whether there is growth in the generic skills during their university studies.

One limitation of the study was the relatively small sample size of 359 students in one higher education institution.

The findings of the study provide insight into conceptual understanding and measurement of university student learning gains.

Whilst several studies have investigated university student learning gains, there is limited research which explores the use Rasch modelling in assessment of student learning gains in multiple areas towards completion of their undergraduate studies.

This study examines whether and how a client's business strategy can affect the relationship between auditor characteristics and financial reporting quality.

In this study, auditor industry specialization and tenure were used as proxies for auditor characteristics. The client business strategy was measured using the resource allocation index method. Finally, discretionary accruals are used to assess financial reporting quality. This study includes 1,450 firm-year observations and 145 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) over a ten-year period from 2011 to 2020. The research hypotheses were analyzed using a multivariate regression model and panel data.

The results show that auditor industry specialization increases financial reporting quality. This relationship improves when the client's business strategy deviates from the industry–normal strategy. The research findings state that auditor tenure has a positive association with financial reporting quality, and this relationship is strengthened when the company's business strategy deviates from the normal industry strategy.

The findings of this study provide important evidence for investors, firm management, and auditing firms. Investors must consider the auditor characteristics when selecting companies listed on the TSE. Managers of Iranian companies are advised to consider the auditor's characteristics when choosing an audit firm to increase financial reporting quality. Audit firms should evaluate their business strategies in audit planning to increase the quality of financial reporting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to examine the relationship between auditor characteristics and the financial reporting quality in the emerging capital market by considering the clients' business strategy.

There has been growing concern worldwide regarding audit quality in Japan after the Kanebo and Olympus accounting scandals. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Japanese audit market from 2001 to 2011 to determine whether audit quality differs between Big N and Non-Big N audit firms and whether this difference, if existed, changed during 2007 when the number of big audit firms declined from four to three and the requirements of audit quality became more rigorous.

This study employs a sample of Japanese listed firms from fiscal year 2001 to 2011. Five proxy variables for audit quality are used and the data are analyzed using the propensity score matching method.

The authors show that irrespective of their size, all audit firms in Japan provide the same quality of service, when controlling for client characteristics including keiretsu, foreign sales ratio and bankruptcy risk measured in Japan. Additionally, the results suggest that although only three major audit firms remain in the Japanese audit market after the dissolution of PricewaterhouseCooper’s Chuo-Aoyama firm in 2007, the audit quality difference between Big N and Non-Big N remained unchanged before and after 2007.

The study contributes to the lack of existing empirical evidence on audit quality in Japan, a country characterized with low audit litigation risk and more emphasis on auditor reputation, given the influence of the notable change in Japanese audit market competition from Big 4 to Big 3. The study’s research design contributes to the extant literature by using multiple proxies of audit quality.

The fact that stocks going ex‐dividend decline in price by less than the dividend amount is theoretically attributed to the differential taxation of dividend and capital gains or the differential taxation of investor groups. NYSE, Amex and Toronto Stock Exchange listed stocks, and stocks interlisted on these three exchanges, are examined to infer the tax jurisdiction of the marginal investor. The stock price changes relative to the dividends are consistent with a tax clientele effect. Further, the stock price changes are plausible given the tax rates. Ex‐dividend day behavior is different for non‐interlisted stocks on all three exchanges, suggesting each exchange has a different tax clientele. Canadian firms interlisted on US exchanges exhibit ex‐dividend day behavior consistent with the appropriate US exchange’s non‐interlisted stocks, suggesting that the marginal investors in these stocks are American.

With limited intracultural ethical research in evidence this paper contributes to the theoretical discussion of expatriate ethical acculturation. Of particular interest to this study are the ethical attitudes of subcultural groups, particularly managers, who because of overseas assignment or immigration, are operating outside their usual national location. Research was undertaken to investigate whether ethical divergence or convergence, through acculturation, exists with ex patriate managers, and over what time period. Two locations, Hong Kong and Canada, were chosen for comparative study and the results indicated an interesting dichotomy. Ethical convergence, the adopting of host country ethical values, is evident with Hong Kong Chinese expatriate managers in Canada but did not occur with North American expatriates in Hong Kong. For the expatriate Chinese manager the research findings indicate that Hong Kong Chinese managers now residing in Canada develop a unique set of ethical attitudes that are significantly different from those of local managers in Hong Kong yet also significantly different from the attitudes held by local Canadian managers. A subtle form of ethical convergence is occurring. No significant relationship was found between ethical acculturation and the length of time being an expatriate Hong Kong Chinese manager in Canada except on two issues. For these issues the longer the time spent in Canada the greater the rise in ethical attitudes. A heterogeneous group of expatriate managers in Hong Kong was also evaluated and while predicate similarities existed between expatriates from China and Macau, statistically significant differences in ethical perceptions were found between the general population of expatriate managers (i.e. American, Australasian, British etc.,) and local Hong Kong Chinese managers.

Criticizes previous research on price/earnings ratios (PER) for neglecting their historical links with interest rates and analyses the causal links between interest ratres and the PERs of the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 Index (TSE300) and of seven major Canadian industries 1965‐1997. Explains the methodology and identifies three “distinct PER regimes”: 1965‐1974 (average PER 17.17), 1975‐1982 (average PER 8.92) and 1983‐1997 (average PER 17.2 with a higher standard deviation). Looks at the economic conditions for each period and suggests that current PERs “may not be too high”. Finds a negative correlation between PERs and treasury bill rates, differing between industries; and that the bill rate explains 95 per cent of PER variation for the TSE300, although it is not significant for the gold and silver industry. Adds that divided payout ratios and lower investor risk aversion are positively related to PERs, but that growth rate has a more variable influence. Summarizes the findings and their implications for PER forecasters.

The aim of this paper is to test how leader–member exchange (LMX) interacts with procedural justice climate to influence three types of employee motivation (i.e. achievement striving motivation, status striving motivation and communion striving motivation). Furthermore, this study empirically examines the indirect effects of LMX on customer loyalty through employee motivation and service orientation.

This study used a matched sample of 188 retail service employees and 376 customers from a large shopping mall in South Korea to test the empirical model. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrapping method were employed to test a series of proposed hypotheses.

The results show that LMX significantly enhances customer loyalty through two motivational dimensions and service orientation. In particular, this study shows that achievement and status striving motivation are directly related to service orientation, but communion striving motivation does not affect customer-focused service attitude. In addition, procedural justice climate serves as a critical moderator and synergistically interacts with LMX to influence achievement and status striving motivation.

This study offers new insight regarding how managers' roles in both individual (leader–member exchange) and organizational (procedural justice climate) level affect different forms of retail service employee motivation and service orientation, which in turn, result in customer loyalty.

The results suggest that when retail service employees perceive procedural fairness at retail stores, they are more motivated to work hard to complete their assignments and achieve their sales goals in conjunction with leader support. Therefore, managers must provide a clear guideline and procedure regarding salary raises and performance evaluations or engage in thorough discourse on such matters with employees prior to announcements of such decisions. Moreover, as retail service employees interact with customers in the frontline, and how they serve customers plays a key role in creating customer loyalty. Managers should encourage retail service employees to engage in service-oriented behaviors.

The results suggest that LMX facilitates more formal task-related motivation to achieve either tasks or status while it is less related to relationship-building motivation, which is a unique contribution of this study. The results offer better understating of how LMX differentially leads to specific types of employee motivation in the existing literature.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a measurement scale that captures elements of Mediterranean identity.

A scale was developed from items drawn from existing scales and from a qualitative study that examined how respondents viewed their national identity as well as the concept of a Mediterranean identity. The literature pertaining to Mediterranean identity, culture and the influence of contextual factors on its development were reviewed. The scale revealed four dimensions of Mediterranean identity: traditions, relationships, ethnocentrism and a bond with the Sea.

The scale successfully discriminated between those living by the Sea and those living inland. At the same time, it did not differentiate between respondents living in the north from those living in the south. The study suggests that context, specifically proximity to the Sea, helps shape some of the regional variation in values and beliefs.

The geographic composition of the sample limits the generalizability of the results. A sample across additional countries would provide greater confidence in the results, although much of the theoretical work on Mediterranean thinking has focused on Italy. Further, it was desirable to keep as many factors as possible constant to limit extraneous variation. Inclusion of respondents from countries with different levels of wealth, religious and political ideologies would likely uncover additional facets of Mediterranean identity.

The results have broader implications for identifying transnational segments that may exist around the Mediterranean. A key implication relates to the extent that similar values and beliefs appear to be associated with proximity to the Mediterranean Sea. It also highlights the importance of considering contextual factors when developing an understanding of consumer behavior.

Mediterranean identity has been examined conceptually, but a systematic means to measure is lacking. The essence of Mediterranean thinking embodies the importance individuals place on adhering to traditions, the value they attach to personal relationship, a certain degree of ethnocentricism, and of course the bond with the Sea. The results also suggest that differences that have been attributed to a north/south divide, needs to be reexamined.

Outlines the reasons why increasing numbers of firms list their shares on more than one stock exchange, previous research on the effects of cross‐listing and inter‐ and intra‐day liquidity patterns. Describes the market making system of the stock exchange of Hong Kong and compares 1996‐1997 data on a sample of 33 Hong Kong firms cross‐listed in London with a control sample. Finds the cross‐listed firms have lower trading volumes, higher absolute bid‐ask spreads but lower relative ones and higher average dollar depth. Uses regression techniques to investigate liquidity and presents the results which confirm that cross‐listed firms are more liquid with lower relative spreads and higher depths even after controlling for differences in price, volume, return variance and intertemporal patterns.