Search results
1 – 10 of 35David E. Bowen, Raymond P. Fisk, John E.G. Bateson, Leonard L. Berry, Mary Jo Bitner, Stephen W. Brown, Richard B. Chase, Bo Edvardsson, Christian Grönroos, A. Parasuraman, Benjamin Schneider and Valarie A. Zeithaml
A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of…
Abstract
Purpose
A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of those pioneering founders.
Design/methodology/approach
Bowen and Fisk specified three criteria by which to identify a pioneering founder. In total, 11 founders met the criteria (Bateson, Berry, Bitner, Brown, Chase, Edvardsson, Grönroos, Gummesson, Parasuraman, Schneider and Zeithaml) and were invited to join Bowen and Fisk – founders that also met the criteria as coauthors. Ten founders then answered a set of questions regarding their careers as service scholars and the state of the field.
Findings
Insightful reflections were provided by each of the ten pioneering founders. In addition, based on their synthesis of the reflections, Bowen and Fisk developed nine wisdom themes for service researchers to consider and to possibly act upon.
Originality/value
The service research field is in its fifth decade. This article offers a unique way to learn directly from the pioneering founders about the still-relevant history of the field, the founders' lives and contributions as service scholars and the founders' hopes and concerns for the service research field.
Details
Keywords
Dasmen Richards, Amber Lawson, Jaime Nicol, Benjamin K. Woodcock, Taria Pritchett and David Julien
This essay is for the Community Voices feature of the special issue titled “The Role of English Teaching and Teachers in Supporting Youths’ University Futures and Literacies.”…
Abstract
Purpose
This essay is for the Community Voices feature of the special issue titled “The Role of English Teaching and Teachers in Supporting Youths’ University Futures and Literacies.” This paper aims to provide various recommendations for English teachers and teacher educators who are invested in fostering the college aspirations of students.
Design/methodology/approach
This essay is for the Community Voices feature of the special issue titled “The Role of English Teaching and Teachers in Supporting Youths' University Futures and Literacies.” A group of six educators convene to develop recommendations for English teachers and teachers educators that can be helpful when engaging with students regarding their college aspirations.
Findings
This essay is for the Community Voices feature of the special issue titled “The Role of English Teaching and Teachers in Supporting Youths’ University Futures and Literacies.” We provide nine recommendations for English teachers and teachers educators to support students' college access and readiness.
Originality/value
This essay is for the Community Voices feature of the special issue titled “The Role of English Teaching and Teachers in Supporting Youths’ University Futures and Literacies.” This paper generates new insights to further develop college readiness and access within English classrooms.
Details
Keywords
Ishmael Nanaba Acquah, Caleb Amankwaa Kumi, David Asamoah, Benjamin Agyei-Owusu, Mavis Agbodza and Yaw Agyabeng-Mensah
This paper examines the nexus between supply chain social capital (relational social capital and structural social capital), supply chain responsiveness (operations system…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the nexus between supply chain social capital (relational social capital and structural social capital), supply chain responsiveness (operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness) and firm performance. Additionally, the study examines the mediating role of supply chain responsiveness on the relationship between supply chain social capital and firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test their hypotheses on a sample of 120 firms operating in Ghana. The measurement model and hypothesized paths were assessed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.
Findings
The findings revealed that structural social capital had a significant direct effect on firm performance, but relational social capital did not. It was also revealed that both relational and structural social capital have significant effects on operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness. Additionally, operations system responsiveness fully mediated the effect of relational social capital on firm performance and partially mediated the effect of structural social capital on firm performance. Supplier network responsiveness, on the other hand, partially mediated the effect of both relational and structural social capital on firm performance.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the limited literature on supply chain social capital by unearthing the mechanisms through which supply chain social capital enhances firm performance. Specifically, the study demonstrates the intervening role of operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness in the supply chain social capital–firm performance link.
Details
Keywords
Nishaal Prasad, David Hay and Li Chen
The purpose of this study is to examine which factors explain the use of an in-house internal audit function (IAF) in a voluntary setting.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine which factors explain the use of an in-house internal audit function (IAF) in a voluntary setting.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the foundations of agency and resource-based theory, this study examines a unique data set from the New Zealand setting, which combines information obtained from The Institute of Internal Auditors of New Zealand with empirical firm data collected from publicly available sources. Multivariate analysis is performed to test the prediction that in-house IAF use is associated with factors such as strong corporate governance, firm size, risk, complexity and firm ownership structure.
Findings
There is strong evidence that larger organisations are more likely to use an in-house IAF. The authors also find that listed firms and organisations that use a Big Four auditor are less likely to use in-house-based IAF. The authors learn that the IAF investment decision is dominantly influenced by a firm’s ability to fund an in-house IAF as compared to the IAF being used as a resource to improve firm performance to achieve sustained competitive advantage. This implies that IAFs need to ensure cost efficiency and eliminate unnecessary overheads and demonstrate and make visible the benefits the function offers to the host organisation.
Originality/value
The unique New Zealand setting, where the establishment and use of an IAF are voluntary, provides an environment to study factors that promote demand for internal audit services. Research implications are applicable to most parts of the world, including the UK, EU nations and the Asia-Pacific region, where IAF use is voluntary.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to explore how accounting is fostering neoliberal citizenship through the participants of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). More…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how accounting is fostering neoliberal citizenship through the participants of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). More specifically, this paper aims to understand how accounting discourse and the management accounting technique of budgeting, when intertwined with automated administrative processes of the NDIS, are giving rise to a pastoral form of power that directs people’s behaviour toward certain ends.
Design/methodology/approach
Publicly available data has been crafted into an autoethnographic case study of one fictitious person’s experiences with the NDIS – Mina. Mina is an amalgam created from material submitted to the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on the NDIS. Mina’s experiences are then analysed through the lens of Foucault’s concept of pastoral power to explore how accounting has contributed to marketising and digitising public disability services.
Findings
Accounting rhetoric appears to be a central part of rationalising the decision to shift to individualised disability funding. Those receiving payments are treated as self-governable, financially responsible subjects and are therefore expected to have knowledge of management accounting techniques and budgeting. However, NDIS’s strong reliance on the accounting concepts of funds, budgets, cost and price is limiting people’s autonomy and subjecting them to intervention and control.
Originality/value
This paper addresses calls to explore the interplay between accounting and current disability policies. The analysis shows that incorporating accounting into the NDIS’s algorithms serves to conceal the underlying ideology of the programs, subtly driving behaviours towards neoliberal objectives. Further, this research extends the Foucauldian accounting literature by revealing the contribution of accounting to reinforcing the authority of digital pastors in contemporary times.
Details
Keywords
David C. Hay, Michael Kend, Laura Sierra-García and Nava Subramaniam
This paper aims to assess the cumulative evidence on the determinants of sustainability assurance (SA) reports and the choice of assurance provider quality. It addresses the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the cumulative evidence on the determinants of sustainability assurance (SA) reports and the choice of assurance provider quality. It addresses the contradictory and inconsistent findings of past studies conducted over the past two decades.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors undertake a meta-regression analysis that enables systematic, comparative assessment of the variables associated with the choice of SA and the type of assurance provider. The authors undertake a chronological analysis with the aim of identifying systematic differences in the empirical evidence across distinct time periods.
Findings
The results indicate that there is very little evidence to support many of the expected associations between commonly studied predictor variables (namely, measures based on agency and corporate governance conceptions) and the choice of SA and the assurance provider type. As a result, research on this topic does not make as effective a contribution as might be expected. There is, however, a time period difference. The authors find results from studies using company data prior to 2010 are significantly different from those using post-2010 data. The results indicate the decision to publish SA to be significantly associated with companies in the oil industry and utilities, and larger organisations where agency costs tend to be higher. Obtaining assurance from a higher-quality provider is found to be associated with companies in environmentally sensitive industries and in stakeholder-oriented countries.
Practical implications
The study shows that as yet there is not sufficient evidence to support expected results. Users of the research should be aware of this, and researchers should know that more work is needed. The authors suggest researchers take greater care in the choice and comparability of variable measurement and expand the conceptual base when selecting predictor variables.
Social implications
Companies need to be more transparent and accountable to critical stakeholders such as report users and regulators, and the latter should be more aware that the organisational practice of SA and choice of service provider have changed over time and are increasingly open to agency and other cultural biases.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply meta-regression techniques for understanding the body of literature on SA and provider choice.
Details
Keywords
Amon Bagonza, Chen Yan and Frederik Rech
This paper aims to examine whether the audit committee moderates the relationship between audit quality and market reactions.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine whether the audit committee moderates the relationship between audit quality and market reactions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using fixed effects and the GMM model for robustness, the study used 472 publicly listed firms on South Africa’s Johannesburg stock exchange spanning a period of six years from 2014 to 2019.
Findings
Results obtained show that audit quality impacts market reactions through share price and adjusted market returns. And, that the audit committee moderates the relationship between audit quality and market reactions in South Africa’s publicly listed firms. An effective audit committee is expected to play a crucial role in overseeing the audit process, ensuring the independence of auditors and promoting transparency and accountability which in turn impacts asset prices.
Research limitations/implications
The study implies that governments and regulatory bodies in other developing economies could strengthen regulations about companies’ Acts, how firms regulate themselves and more so audit committees. Firms can also strive to make sure that audit committees are staffed with experts to promote higher audit quality and investor attention to get access to the much-alluded capital.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study adds value by being the first to explore the subject matter of the importance of audit committees in defining audit quality and market reactions in publicly listed firms. The research adds to the body of knowledge on corporate governance and audit quality. It provides a case study specific to the South African context, contributing to the global literature on these topics.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to examine why an attempt at suicide does not always indicate the beginning of a life with poor mental health.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine why an attempt at suicide does not always indicate the beginning of a life with poor mental health.
Design/methodology/approach
Case studies, supplemented by follow-up studies of attempted suicides.
Findings
One of the strongest predictors of a healthy life after the suicide attempt was found to be improvement in the appropriateness of behavior toward others and improved adult functioning.
Originality/value
The results suggest that behavioral coaching, in addition to traditional psychiatric treatment, could help attempted suicides move on with their lives productively.
Details
Keywords
DeOnte Brown, Rose-May Frazier, David H. Kenton and Derrick Pollock
This chapter explores the concept of identity-conscious advising and coaching to support the development of First-Generation Black Male College Students during their undergraduate…
Abstract
This chapter explores the concept of identity-conscious advising and coaching to support the development of First-Generation Black Male College Students during their undergraduate experience. Advising and coaching represent foundational practices colleges and universities use to support student success. Much like other aspects of education, institutions implement advising and coaching practices without consideration for how the identity of the student or the professional delivering the service influences student outcomes. First-Generation Black Male College Students' interactions within the college context are often framed by their visible, racial, and gender identities as opposed to their first-generation experience. First-Generation Black Male College Students experience microaggressions, discrimination, deficit perspectives, or negative stereotypes. By exploring an identity-conscious approach to relevant advising theories and coaching approaches, the chapter highlights the importance of building trusting, affirming relationships that lean into the lived experiences of First-Generation Black Male College Students without subjecting them to false, harmful stereotypes. This approach requires self-awareness on the part of educators and an understanding of the racialized dynamics that are inherent in the experience. Without addressing anti-Blackness, the impact of advising and coaching on First-Generation Black Male College Students is likely to have diminished or limited effects for this vital student population.
Details