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Considerable international attention is now focused on management accounting to deliver value‐adding services that facilitate effective decision making against the backdrop of complex and often unpredictable global structural changes. A review is made of a number of potential opportunities for accounting to contribute to organisational performance, together with a discussion of some possible shortcomings. One conclusion arising from this analysis is that management accounting must become organisationally proactive to ensure its value‐adding role.

Performance evaluation in production and marketing involves the application of a wide range of measures. These encompass the activities specific to each department type and those in which there is a common organisation‐wide interest. The results of a questionnaire survey of 134 marketing and 155 production managers suggest that accounting data have to be supplemented by non‐accounting data to satisfy managers' information requirements. Hence the utility of accounting data in the task of departmental assessment may be limited. Implications for management accounting are that management reporting must recognise these differential information needs, given the premise that performance evaluation is one of the essential tasks of managerial accounting.

Extends the investigation into the nature of the relation between participative budgeting and budgetary slack. The literature focusing on this association can be divided into two groups, the conclusions of which are inconsistent with one another. One camp argues that managers intentionally use participation to create slack, while the other argues that managers, through anticipation, reduce slack in their budgets. In attempting to reconcile these differences, it has been suggested that superiors’ evaluative styles and information asymmetry are two factors which may influence this relation. The mechanism, however, by which they may exert an influence is unclear, since the cross‐sectional evidence also conflicts regarding the nature of the impact of evaluative style and information asymmetry on the association between participation and slack. A field study was conducted to allow an in‐depth analysis to be made. The study proposes that the association between participation and slack arises from a complex process of interactions between the parties involved. Although managers were aware that participation provided them with the opportunity to build slack into their budgets, they did not necessarily attempt to do so for reasons that include moral, ethical and career advancement considerations.

Responses to environmental uncertainty have included designating marketing units to interface with the environment to enable manufacturing units to operate in conditions approximating certainty. If buffering is effective, the impact of environmental uncertainty should be lower and conditions may be more suitable for a greater reliance on budgetary control in manufacturing than in marketing departments. The objectives of this study are to first, assess if there is a difference in the level of environmental uncertainty between these functions. Second, to evaluate if the relation between reliance on budgetary control and unit performance is influenced by departmental function. Third, since function and environmental uncertainty are unlikely to be perfectly correlated, if environmental uncertainty influences that relation. The results suggest that there is no difference in the level of environmental uncertainty or reliance on budgetary control between manufacturing and marketing departments. Furthermore, the findings suggest that reliance on budgetary control is no more effective in enhancing performance in either unit category. On relaxing the presumption that function proxied for environmental uncertainty, it was found that reliance on budgetary control is more effective in enhancing performance in conditions of low rather than high environmental uncertainty.

Domestic refrigerator manufacturers have had to cease their use of CFCs following the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Two primary substitute refrigerants have been adopted; one being HFC‐134a and the other being hydrocarbons. Given the availability of hydrocarbons and pressure from both the green movement and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, there has been a marked increase in their use. The purpose of the paper is to examine the role of financial investment appraisal methods in the decision processes of refrigerator manufacturers in their responses to the phasing out of CFCs. The contribution made by financial decision tools to their decision‐making processes arising from the CFC phase‐out has not been reported. The decision choices of refrigerator manufacturers is of importance to the issue of whether their responses to the Protocol reflect a strategy designed to enhance long‐term competitiveness, or whether they were in response to immediate pressures to satisfy regulatory, cost and other short‐term interests. To address these issues, field study data were collected from refrigeration and refrigerant companies operating in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and the UK.

Quality has typically been regarded as a key strategic component of competitive advantage and, therefore, the enhancement of product quality has been a matter of prime interest to firms. Quality provides a basis for strategic advantage, and thus improvement in product quality may lead to enhanced performance. However, a frequent concern is that product quality no longer provides enduring competitive advantage; instead, it has become essentially a competitive prerequisite. Hence, an assessment of whether improvements in product quality are reflected in greater quality performance is likely to be of considerable interest to organizations. Suggestions have been made that the implementation of environmental accounting also contributes to the enhancement of quality performance. Argues that the greater the integration of environmental issues into financial decision processes, the better the performance of the firm. Investigates the extent to which product quality and the implementation of environmental accounting positively influence quality performance.

China is conducting an open market policy and Chinese firms are seeking independent audit services. As a result, the Chinese accounting profession is expanding at a tremendous speed, and has played an important role in economic reform. However, Chinese auditing operates in a very different environment from those experienced in Western countries. Consequently, there is considerable concern about auditor independence in China. The purpose of this paper is to examine some reasons for a lack of independence in the Chinese audit profession. We critically review empirical evidence regarding auditor practice in China. We then make some suggestions that might improve auditor independence.

Research into the impact of the interaction between budgetary participation and budget emphasis on managerial performance and job related attitudes has failed to provide consistent results. Researchers are in general agreement that aspects of national culture, affecting the behaviour and attitudes of individuals within organisations, have to be taken into account. Motivated by the encouraging findings of Harrison's (1992) study in Singapore, this study is a partial replication of Harrison (1992, 1993) in the context of Indonesia. It explores further whether a high budget emphasis is an effective superior evaluative style in nations categorised as high power‐distance (PD) and low individualism. Specifically it examines the effect of participation on the budget emphasis in a superior's evaluative style and dependent variables: job satisfaction and managerial performance. In addition to the structured instruments used in prior research, open ended questions captured attitudes to management control issues. The results indicate that in Indonesia a low budget emphasis improves managerial performance, while high participation increases Indonesian managers' job satisfaction. This result does not wholly support previous research findings and leads to discussion of Indonesian national characteristics which potentially contribute to the impact of a superior's evaluative style in Indonesia. This research suggests that the same performance evaluative style is unequally effective across the nations common to Hofstede's cultural dimensions.

To provide library service to users of all ages has been one of the primary missions of county libraries since 1908 when the first branch of the first county library system was born in Sacramento as a proud milestone in the history of California public library. It has been a constant challenge to local governments and library staff members alike, especially when there are economic downturns or many priority programs to balance with. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The paper introduces an innovative methodology in collection development to promote the concept that library collections, traditional or digital, can serve users of all ages as long as they can be adaptable to meet the changing needs of users, and compatible with changing information technologies.

By examining the process of an audio collection integrated as part of library collections and deeply rooted in users’ lives, the author reports the findings in the following areas: developing a robust audio collection catering to all users at Santa Cruz Public Libraries, despite technological changes and limited budget; getting involved in the whole organization’s programs and projects by collaborations; offering innovative promotion approaches; providing comprehensive subject coverage and always keeping the local community in mind; and evolving constantly to make technologies your friends, not foes.

The paper analyzes a successful collection development experience in audio collections to strive to realize the original county library’s ideal to serve users of all ages in California.

The successful collection development experience is useful not only for acquisition librarians, but a much broader audience such as library managers in charge of library material budgets.

The findings point out a number of social implications confronting library professionals worldwide. They include conflicts between users’ real needs vs our assumptions, limited budget vs expanding coverage, and library services vs the nature of technology.

The paper helps library professionals to develop, maintain, and succeed in their short- and long-term goals in collection development.

Consideration of the fast‐growing number of food hygiene prosecutions up and down the country, almost all of them of a most serious nature, shows that it is the food preparing room, the kitchen, which is indeed the hub of the matter. Most of the charges result from its condition and the practices carried on within its walls, all‐too‐often enclosing a cramped space, ill‐equipped and difficult to keep clean. Its state in many prosecutions clearly contrasts badly with the soft lights and alluring elegance of the dining rooms in hotels and catering establishments. Yet, who would say that the kitchen is not the most important room in the home, in the hotel and every food‐preparing place? It has been so from time immemorial. House design has suffered severely with the need to cut building costs and the kitchen has suffered most; in small houses, it seems little more than a cupboard, a box‐room, an alcove. Is it surprising, then, that age‐old kitchen arts have degenerated? In the farmhouse, the country homes of the affluent, the “downstairs” of the town house, the kitchen was among the largest rooms in the house, as befitted all the activity that went on there. In the USA, the modern, comfortable home even of relatively humble folk the kitchen is phenomenally large; room for everything and everyone.