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The theory of economic regulation is used to ascertain how and why the failure of regulatory governance in New Zealand contributed to investor losses of $8.5bn following the collapse of more than 60 public finance companies since 2006.

Relevant documents in the public domain, including government documents, government agency reports, newspaper articles, business journals, academic journals and trade publications were examined to gather evidence for this study.

This study found that the regulatory and supervisory framework failed to provide the trustee companies with the necessary enforcement powers and/or responsibilities and ensure effective auditor performance.

The findings suggest that, segmenting the market with different regulations for each market segment may discourage competition and may protect private interests rather than the public interest. It was also found that the control mechanisms for monitoring auditor performance are detective rather than preventive in nature which means investor losses from poor auditor performance can only be mitigated and not prevented.

This study analyses the contributing factors to the investor losses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct linkage between professional scepticism and auditor independence.

The study reviews the extant literature on professional scepticism, auditor independence, conflict of interest and unconscious bias.

Auditor independence is a fundamental antecedent to professional scepticism. However, auditor independence is impossible due to the auditor–client structure and conscious and unconscious personal bias. The threats to auditor independence are powerful incentives that reduce professional scepticism, making it difficult to exercise professional scepticism while making professional judgement.

An understanding of the direct link between professional scepticism and auditor independence is necessary to appreciate the context and meaning of professional scepticism in relation to the greater body of literature and ongoing concerns of audit regulators. This paper, which conceptualises the linkage between professional scepticism and auditor independence, provides a platform for future research to be conducted to examine the validity of the discussions and how a discourse in a moral framework embedded within accounting education may assist in improving auditor independence and professional scepticism.

It is insufficient for audit regulators to assess professional scepticism by audit outputs. Threats to independence should be brought into the assessment. To ensure auditor independence is not compromised, auditors should be made aware of the ethical dimensions of their decisions and reminded constantly to monitor virtue ethics behaviours.

This paper brings into mainstream accounting and auditing literature and research a psychological perspective of auditor independence in the discussion of professional scepticism that is seldom examined.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how New Zealand financial auditors could be motivated to improve current practices in regards to auditing the effects of environmental matters in financial reports.

This is a qualitative study. The views of 27 New Zealand private and public sector auditors were solicited via semi‐structured interviews. Concepts from new institutional theory, and in particular institutional isomorphism, are used to interpret the research findings.

The interview evidence indicates that a combination of normative, coercive and mimetic forces would be necessary to advance current practices in auditing environmental matters. A crucial driver of change would be a mindset shift within the profession about the importance of environmental accountability, reporting and auditing – i.e. increased normative pressures for change. Coercive forces of negative media publicity, the “fear factor” and government intervention can serve to reinforce the audit profession's normative obligations. Since public sector auditors have already developed effective audit practices around environmental matters, emulating their approach within the private sector would drive improvements in practice.

By identifying the potential drivers for improving auditors' practices, this paper can inform the discussions and strategies of professional bodies, regulators and government on improving the audit of environmental matters in financial reports.

Few prior studies have solicited financial auditors' views on the factors they perceive as motivating change in their professional practice, and none have done so in regard to the important and emerging area of environmental matters. This New Zealand study offers a timely contribution, as well as geographical diversity, to the international literature on audit theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate insights into current practices in auditing “environmental matters” in accordance with Audit Guidance Statement 1010: The Consideration of Environmental Matters in the Audit of Financial Reports, which was introduced by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2001.

The approach to gathering evidence for this study is qualitative semi‐structured in‐depth personal interviews with 27 auditors: 18 financial auditors (FAs) in chartered accounting practice and nine public sector auditors (PSAs) from the office of the Auditor‐General.

The interview findings confirmed that the auditors respond to isomorphic pressures that affect them, either by employing acquiesce or compromise strategies and that institutional theory fits best as an appropriate theory to frame the research. Environmental matters are only considered in the planning of a company audit when it is significant and relevant to financial reporting. However, evidence showed that FAs are influenced by mimetic isomorphism by adopting the perspective of company management. On the other hand, PSAs are driven by the legislative mandate imposed by the Local Government Act 2002 to search out and verify the validity, accuracy and completeness of information on environmental matters. FAs auditing both companies in the private sector and public sector organisations are able to maintain two dissimilar approaches and attitudes, depending on the type of entities they are auditing.

As with all qualitative interviews, there are some limitations associated with individuals' responses to the semi‐structured open‐ended interview questions.

To prioritise the consideration of environmental matters in the audit practices of FAs for company audits will require both coercive and normative pressures in their organizational sphere.

This study assists in understanding an audit phenomenon not widely known. It would also add a geographical variation to existing literature.

Despite the many international claims that accountants and auditors are positioned to play a pivotal role in the design and conduct of environmental audits, empirical studies have indicated that in the early 1990s few, if any, accounting professionals in New Zealand were actively involved in the conduct of independent external environmental audits. As the extent of environmental management practices adopted by organisations can be expected to have increased substantially since this time, there is reason to anticipate that the engagement of financial auditors with environmental audits may also have changed over the last decade. In order to examine the nature and extent of such potential changes, this article reviews the involvement of financial auditors in the conduct of environmental audits in New Zealand in 2001.

This paper seeks to examine the responses of New Zealand auditors to the promulgation of Audit Guidance Statement (AGS) 1010: The Consideration of Environmental Matters in the Audit of Financial Statements and the consequent impact on audit practice.

This study adopts an interpretive methodology. It draws on dual research methods – interviews with 27 senior auditors, and a critical analysis of AGS‐1010. Legitimacy theory informs the interpretation of the findings.

The findings point to significant gaps in the guidance AGS‐1010 provides and reveal its limited impact on practice, which seems to reflect “business as usual” in regard to the audit of environmental matters. However, AGS‐1010 does appear to serve a ceremonial, legitimating role by supporting practising auditors' efforts to appear responsive to concerns about this emergent accountability issue.

The findings highlight the practical challenges that exist in the audit of environmental matters, and point to the need to scrutinise the role of auditors in providing opinions on the financial reports of firms whose activities give rise to material environmental matters.

The findings suggest points for reflection for a profession that relies on maintaining its societal legitimacy, but which is failing to pursue or achieve best practice in the audit of environmental matters.

This paper presents a novel critique of AGS‐1010 and a first examination of how New Zealand auditors are dealing with environmental matters in light of this professional promulgation. The findings contribute to the international literature by exploring the relatively neglected role of the auditor in advancing the “greening of accounting”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between product‐ and store‐related attributes of eco‐fashion and fashion consumers’ eco‐fashion consumption decisions; and if such relationships are subject to the price premium level of eco‐fashion.

A survey was conducted with consumers in Hong Kong: in total, 216 consumers participated in the survey. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to check the validity and reliability of the scales. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis.

The findings showed that only store‐related attributes of eco‐fashion positively influence consumers’ eco‐fashion consumption decision, yet, such relationship can be weakened by the price premium level of eco‐fashion.

Fashion consumers’ response to product‐ and store‐related attributes of eco‐fashion is still important in predicting fashion consumers’ eco‐fashion consumption decision. Fashion consumer environmental attitudes can predict fashion consumers’ eco‐fashion consumption decision better than fashion consumers’ attitude towards eco‐fashion.

It is not enough for fashion companies to manufacture fashion clothing in an ethical production system and develop and design fashion clothing with sustainable and recyclable materials. They must also improve store‐related attributes of eco‐fashion to better satisfy fashion consumer needs, and should be cautious in the direct and moderating effect of price premium level of eco‐fashion when determining the price premium level of eco‐fashion.

The paper contributes to research by advancing understanding on how consumers make ethical consumption decisions in purchasing fashion, and provides retailers with managerial insights into devising marketing plans to promote eco‐fashion consumption, which facilitate fashion companies’ development of a sustainable fashion supply chain. Limitations and directions for future research are also presented in the paper.

The purpose of the present study is to understand the diversity management concept in Taiwan setting by providing a closer look into local companies’ practices. Rational and focus for this research exploration is based on three areas related to diversity management in organizations: external and internal pressures for diversity in Taiwanese companies; companies’ approaches and senior leadership attitude toward diversity; companies’ diversity management practices.

The authors have collected secondary and primary data, including 15 interviews with management, at three large Taiwan semiconductor companies and build a case study of diversity management in Taiwan.

Taiwan companies’ diversity management is motivated mainly by business case and social responsibility goals. They experience a need for diversity management and proactively introduce diversity management policies.

Further studies should look into diversity management practices of smaller private/family-owned companies in Taiwan to get a deeper understanding of the concept in the country using quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Taiwan is historically culturally homogeneous society, which undergoes massive demographic changes under the influence of low birth rate and high rate of immigration. Taiwan situation creates specific economic, cultural, and political context for diversity management that differs from other Asian, European or Western societies.

The purpose of this study is to present a holistic literature review on crime research in the hospitality and tourism field.

This literature review included 109 crime-related academic papers in seven primary sources, namely, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost’s hospitality and tourism complete, Emerald Management eJournals, Sage Journals, Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science.

From the exploration and synthesis of 109 articles, the following categories of crime research in the hospitality and tourism field emerged as follows: classification of crime research in the hospitality and tourism field; diversity of tourists, crime and risk perceptions; the impacts of crime on the hospitality and tourism industry; and crime control from stakeholders’ papers. In addition, this study advances crime research by proposing six research priorities for future investigation.

Tourism stakeholders are advised to achieve better cooperation in crime control under the guidance of the crime prevention model. High-technology tools are encouraged to be applied to detect and track criminal activities. Meanwhile, diverse applications of the media should be used as useful tools to control criminal activities in the hospitality and tourism industry.

This paper fills a gap by presenting the first comprehensive overview of crime research in the hospitality and tourism field in the past few decades and proposing six priorities for this research stream.