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This case is used to study cost-based decision analysis. It has incremental, variable, semi variable, and sunk costs in a classic cost-price-volume situation, set in a service business.

This case pertains to one of the most important topics in financial accounting and reporting: revenue recognition. It is intended for use in a required MBA financial accounting course or in an MBA elective course in Financial Reporting and Analysis. The company, Better Buy, Inc., is an electronics retailer selling TVs and other electronic products. The company is a bit unique, however, in that it not only sells major brand TVs, but it also sells TVs under its own brand that carry a one-year warranty for which the retailer—not the manufacturer—is responsible. The company also offers an additional two-year warranty on its TVs that also is the sole responsibility of the retailer. The case asks students to address a number of revenue recognition situations along with the associated expenses. These situations include a product sale where the sales price also includes a warranty provision, a “bundle” of a product sale and an extended warranty sale, and a bundle of a product sale and an extended warranty sale where the company has an agreement to outsource the servicing of its extended warranty service

Data Services provides flexible, scalable data processing and information storage to the fast-food industry. Sales have grown steadily, but the company has operated at a loss since its founding five years ago. Data Services management is enthusiastic about the company's prospects. The chief executive of Armistead, the insurance company that owns Data Services, is under pressure from corporate officers to slough off the subsidiary. A business analysis is done not only to help the CEO decide whether to continue investment in Data Services, but also to determine if the company is well managed. Information includes the day-to-day operations of Data Services, its sales process, profit and loss statement, revenue and expense analysis, and cost allocations.

Many universities run Writing Centers to provide support for students wishing to improve their academic literacy. These centers are ideal venues for peer tutoring, which may benefit both student-tutors (through tutoring skills development), and those tutored (through opportunities to discuss writing with a supportive peer). In the context of a university in the GCC region, peer tutors, prior to working, must complete required Communication courses. The syllabuses reflect student-centered and collaborative post-process writing approaches, where scaffolding is emphasized over direction, and word-by-word instructor correction of student writing is de-emphasized. Peer tutors also undergo preparation aimed at equipping them with an understanding of the rationale for these approaches and the skills needed to adapt them to tutoring. Given these experiences, the researchers set out to determine whether tutors are able to articulate such understandings and apply them to tutoring. Interconnected interpretative methods were deployed, including tutoring observation, consultation-conversation analysis and semi-structured interviews with tutors. Results indicate that tutors have significant recent experience of non-directive writing classes and may be aware of the rationale and benefits of such approaches. However, in their tutoring, content appears to be transferred from their most recent experiences but their style relies on instruction predominated by telling, explaining, demonstrating and directing, reflecting formative experience at school. The relationship between tutors’ experience, preparation, articulation and practice is explored, and recommendations are made to enhance Writing Center practices, in line with the concept of a constructively-aligned instruction system where all components address the same agenda and support each other.

Trust is an important element for healthy human relationships, and it has notable implications for organizations and stakeholder groups. This chapter explains how trust can promote effective communication and cooperation. It highlights the role of trust in human relationships as a solution to modern-day socioecological challenges especially as they relate to corporate interactions. Building genuine human connections within the context of changing social landscapes and busier life schedules are essential to counteract the rising loneliness epidemic. The absence of trust may be a barrier to genuine human communication and connection. The absence of trust may be a barrier to genuine human communication and connection, however the presence of pro- social norms can contribute to building and maintaining trust between people. Cooperation and social trust increases subjective well-being and happiness. In an organizational context, trust-based cooperation between stakeholders can create strong relationships.

This chapter argues that trust nurtures face-to-face social interactions and can be strengthened through social and emotional competencies and the creation of policies that support the notions of community and belongingness in the corporate landscape.

The overall goal of science is to build a valid and reliable body of knowledge about the functioning of the world and how applying that knowledge can change it. As personnel and human resources management researchers, we aim to contribute to the respective bodies of knowledge to provide both employers and employees with a workable foundation to help with those problems they are confronted with. However, what research on research has consistently demonstrated is that the scientific endeavor possesses existential issues including a substantial lack of (a) solid theory, (b) replicability, (c) reproducibility, (d) proper and generalizable samples, (e) sufficient quality control (i.e., peer review), (f) robust and trustworthy statistical results, (g) availability of research, and (h) sufficient practical implications. In this chapter, we first sing a song of sorrow regarding the current state of the social sciences in general and personnel and human resources management specifically. Then, we investigate potential grievances that might have led to it (i.e., questionable research practices, misplaced incentives), only to end with a verse of hope by outlining an avenue for betterment (i.e., open science and policy changes at multiple levels).

Das Feld Die Feldforschung als Teil der empirischen Sozial‐forschung geht vom Begriff des “Feldes” aus, einem abgegrenzten Datenreservoir, zu dem sich der Forscher direkten oder indirekten Zugang verschaffen kann (NOWOTNY und KNORR 1975). Wesentlich für die Feldforschung ist die Tatsache, dass die empirischen Untersuchungen nicht in einer Laborsituation sondern in situ durchgeführt werden (WEIDMANN 1971) und eine Kontrolle über die Variablen nicht oder nur in beschränktem Umfang (beim Feldexperiment) möglich ist. Da selbst bei einem äusserst eingeschränkten Forschungsgegen‐stand die Fülle aller erfassbaren Daten unüberseh‐bar würde, ist es notwendig, das Feld vor Untersuchungsbeginn abzugrenzen, d.h. Hypothesen über die geographische, ethnographische, zeitliche und soziologische Begrenzung und eventuell auch über vorhandene Strukturen und ihre Dynamik zu bilden, die mit den Methoden der Feldforschung bestätigt oder falsifiziert werden. Feldforschung unterliegt damit auch den Regeln der Hypothesenbildung in den induktiv vorgehenden empirischen Wissenschaften, wogegen nicht spricht, dass Feldforschung, welche überwiegend qualitative Ergebnisse liefert, selbst wiederum für die Hypothesenbildung und die Formulierung von Fragestellungen auf einer nächsten Stufe der Feldforschung verwendet wird, die unter Umständen eher quantifizierbare Ergebnisse bringt. Das Feld ist die komplexe Wirklichkeit der sozialen Verhaltensweisen und Prozesse, die in ihre natürlichen Umweltbedingungen eingebettet sind und in zum Teil höchst komplizierten Interaktionsverhältnissen stehen. Den Feldbegriff gibt es in anderer Form in den verschiedensten Wissenschaftsbereichen, insbe‐sondere in der auf LEWIN zurückgehenden Gestalt Psychologie, nach der das Verhalten eines Lebewesens durch die Bedingungen des Feldes oder Lebensraumes, in dem es erfolgt, bestimmt wird. Das Verhalten ist somit die Funktion eines Feldes, das diese Person umschliesst und miteinbezieht (LEWIN 1951). Auch in den Sprachwissenschaften wird der Begriff des Feldes als ein System definiert, in dem ein Wort oder eine grössere sprachliche Einheit einen bestimmten Platz hat und aus dem heraus die Bedeutung des Wortes oder dieser sprachlichen Einheit erarbeitet werden kann (GECKELER 1971). Allen wissenschaftlichen Feldbegriffen ist gleich, dass es sich um einen Bereich von Daten und ihre dynamische Verknüpfung untereinander handelt, deren Struktur mit wissenschaftlichen Methoden herausge‐arbeitet und nach Möglichkeit sogar operational gemacht werden kann.