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This paper investigates the impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger in Australia on existing and potential clients of the new merged firm. From prior theory it is expected that some existing clients may have an incentive to switch away from a newly merged firm as the same larger firm now audits close competitors once audited by separate firms. Prior theory also suggests that another group of potential clients should be attracted to the newly merged firm where the merger enhances or creates industry specializations. The expectation is that in both of these instances there will be increased switching activity associated with the newly merged audit firm. Contrary to expectations, a significantly lower level of switching behaviour was observed for the newly merged firm compared with that of the other Big 5 firms, suggesting that an advantage of enhanced specialization may not be the attraction of new clients but the retention of existing clients. When comparing the nature of the switches, some support was found for the view that the switches to the new firm were likely to be in enhanced areas of specialization, but no evidence was found to suggest that close competitors would switch away from this firm. The greater rate of retention of clients compared with other Big 5 firms was not associated with a more competitive audit pricing policy.

This study examines forecast accuracy associated with the forecast of 55 revenue data series of 18 local governments. The last 18 months (6 quarters; or 2 years) of the data are held-out for accuracy evaluation. Results show that forecast software, damped trend methods, and simple exponential smoothing methods perform best with monthly and quarterly data; and use of monthly or quarterly data is marginally better than annualized data. For monthly data, there is no advantage to converting dollar values to real dollars before forecasting and reconverting using a forecasted index. With annual data, naïve methods can outperform exponential smoothing methods for some types of data; and real dollar conversion generally outperforms nominal dollars. The study suggests benchmark forecast errors and recommends a process for selecting a forecast method.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

The purpose of this paper is to share best practices for diversity and inclusion from six global companies and to make the business case for its importance.

In-depth interviews were conducted with diversity and inclusion leaders in the USA from Volkswagen, Sodexo Health Care and Government Services, Sanofi, L'Oreal, BASF North America, and China Merchants Bank New York.

Key findings related to the importance of tailoring global diversity and inclusion strategies and programs to local needs; embedding practices throughout the organization; multiplying impact through external partnerships and leveraging this as a source of innovation.

The article provides a range of diversity and inclusion best practices that can be adapted by different organizations, as multiple industries (including pharmaceuticals, banking, automotive, etc.) are included. However, the findings do not represent a comprehensive picture of all global diversity and inclusion best practices.

The article provides a range of diversity and inclusion best practices that can be used to benchmark other organizational practices and to add new programs and initiatives for better D&I impact.

This is a fully original paper which combines secondary research with illustrative quotes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the mobile shopping (m-shopping) acceptance literature to bring international marketing and consumer research attention to m-shopping acceptance factors and limitations in current understandings to propose recommendations for further academic and retailing attention.

Keyword searches identified the consumer-focused literature across mobile commerce, m-shopping, mobile browsing and mobile purchasing, published in English language journals. A classification framework is created and a time frame is established to provide a more focused direction for research.

Despite the growing popularity of consumers adopting m-shopping activities and the increasing academic attention, consumer m-shopping utilisation remains low and research into its causes remains in its infancy. This paper has subsequently identified a variety of recommendations for further research, including further insights into perceived risk, user vs non-user behaviours, the multi-stage shopping process, incorporation of time considerations and theoretical development.

There has yet been a review of the m-shopping literature collaborating literary findings and limitations in the consumer m-shopping environment. Three major themes arise in this paper. First, there are a variety of factors affecting consumer willingness to accept m-shopping which are often incorporated in existing theory in a sporadic manner. Second, factors can create positive and/or negative consumer perceptions, requiring further insight. Finally, research limitations predominantly surround theoretical and methodological constraints, prompting for wider geographical and more longitudinal approaches to research.

With regard to all mammals it may safely be assumed that, unless in very exceptional cases, the best food for the young animal is the natural milk secreted during lactation by the healthy adult female of the same species, and that any other food, however similar in chemical composition, is likely to yield less satisfactory results as regards the health and power of resistance to disease of the suckling.

This paper presents analytical and computational models of adhesive joints constructed from anisotropic conducting materials. Such materials are becoming increasingly important in the construction of fine pitch interconnection, for example the assembly of surface mounted components to printed circuit boards, and are likely to find considerable application in silicon die attach as alternatives to current ‘flip chip’ technologies. The paper presents design models of the mechanical and low frequency electrical behaviour of typical materials and relates these models to manufacturing process parameters.

While a return to work following trauma exposure can be therapeutic, this is not always so. As with many topics related to traumatic stress in organizations, several contingency factors complicate the effort to draw an overarching conclusion about whether returning to work is therapeutic. The purpose of this paper is to present important determinants of whether work is therapeutic or triggering for those with traumatic stress conditions. The need for contingency approaches in the study of traumatic stress in organizations is illustrated.

Literature on traumatic stress in organizations is reviewed.

Three of the key determinants of whether a return to work is therapeutic or triggering for traumatic stress sufferers are trauma-type contingencies, condition-type contingencies and work-setting contingencies. For instance, human-caused and task-related traumas are more likely than natural disasters to make a return-to-work triggering. Additionally, the time since developing a traumatic stress condition is inversely related to the degree of improvement in that condition through the experience of working. Moreover, managerial actions can affect how therapeutic an employee’s return to work is.

These findings suggest the challenges of reintegrating a traumatized employee to the workplace can be highly situation-specific. Careful consideration of the traumatic event suffered by each traumatic stress victim, their traumatic stress condition, and the work setting to which they would return are recommended.

Promoting mental health in organizations can contribute to employers’ social performance.

Examination of the factors that complicate predicting whether work is therapeutic posttrauma demonstrates how contingency approaches can advance research on trauma in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a theoretical framework for understanding information literacy (IL) within the context of a small business workplace environment. The theoretical framework developed related IL competencies to competencies for success as described by the psychologist Howard Gardner in his book “Five Minds for the Future”.

A theoretical framework was developed using the CILIP Seven Pillars for IL and Howard Gardner’s Five Minds theory. Indicative connections between the Seven Pillars and Five Minds were identified by the researchers. The framework was tested through analysis of transcripts from qualitative interviews conducted with four small business owners.

Connections were found between the Seven Pillars and the Five Minds; some which had been projected by the researchers and others which had not. The theoretical framework aided description of and understanding of IL within small business workplace environments.

A small sample size limits the generalizability of the findings, and further testing of the framework is required. The findings do, however, suggest that the context in which IL manifests remains significant and should be further examined in wider and divergent contexts.

Using theory from psychology paired with a well-known theory of IL to develop a new theoretical framework is novel. The framework developed offers a new way of understanding the role of IL within the context of small business workplaces.

THE article which we publish from the pen of Mr. L. Stanley Jast is the first of many which we hope will come from his pen, now that he has release from regular library duties. Anything that Mr. Jast has to say is said with originality even if the subject is not original; his quality has always been to give an independent and novel twist to almost everything he touches. We think our readers will find this to be so when he touches the important question of “The Library and Leisure.”