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This study aims to explore how small and medium-sized accounting practices (SMPs) make sense of and position themselves against the changing demand for services. It is argued that changing demand for services from pure compliance to advisory acts as a trigger for sensemaking among SMP owners.

A qualitative multiple case study research approach is adopted, including semistructured interviews with key informants from seven Norwegian SMPs as well as document analysis.

The findings suggest that there is heterogeneity in the small practitioner segment of the accounting profession in making sense of changing demand for the nature of services. Three different situations emerged due to sensemaking, thus, the three distinct positions. Metaphors, namely, chameleons, turtles and bulls, are used to represent the positioning of SMPs. The sensemaking of actors as an adaptation led them to act as chameleons while distancing and resistance resulted in their positioning as turtles, and bulls, respectively.

Despite the richness of data indicating a clear variation in interpretation among actors, the study is case based, with a limited number of SMPs, and caution should be exercised when generalising its conclusions.

The centrality of people as a driving force for positioning among SMPs and diversity among SMPs in value creation provide insights for both SMPs and their customers.

This study highlights the meaning and patterns of value creation and the positioning of accounting firms according to their sensemaking within an under-studied segment of the accounting profession.

The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

Poor access to healthcare and increasing demand for services represent a management dilemma how to balance between needs and costs. Scrutinising the concept of demand management and using a case study from Finnish primary care, the purpose of this paper is to examine the complexities of managing demand for health services.

Convenience has explained the popularity of walk-in clinics (WIC), making it an attractive demand management tool. By analysing the quantitative service utilisation data of frequent attenders at WIC, the paper exemplifies what enhanced access to care means for demand management of public welfare services.

High user rates and satisfaction indicate demand for this type of service; however, the establishment of WIC provided supplementary care for the high users of health services, most suffering chronic diseases.

Better understanding of the structure of service demand is needed in order to develop a more coordinated service system and to manage demand for public welfare services.

The study demonstrates the importance of identifying service utilisation patterns in managing demand. Instead of single solutions, a wider system-level perspective is essential.

Managing demand and facilitating access are core primary care attributes but there is little evidence about the impact of demand management strategies. The paper ties together important healthcare management issues: how to control demand and improve the access? Moreover, few studies have examined the frequent attendance at WIC. This paper presents a practical illustration of demand management tool and indicates some demand management problems to be considered in healthcare management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate household financial choice and the determinants of financial services in rural and urban households in Ghana.

Data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey 5 (GLSS 5) are used to estimate the participation of a household in a particular financial sector and what determines this choice.

The results from Tobit and conditional logit models account for households' demographic characteristics and their financial decisions. The Tobit estimates show that household size, age, sex, marital status, occupation, income, remittances and shocks determine households' participation in the financial markets. Conditional logit model results suggest that locational characteristics are important in obtaining financial services from particular sectors of the financial market. The results also suggest that when the alternatives of financial services are available, rural households are more likely than urban households to obtain their financial services from the informal financial sector.

This current study contributes to the existing literature from the Ghanaian perspective.

Technological developments and new customer expectations of immediacy have driven businesses to adopt on-demand service models. The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of a range of on-demand services in order to better understand the meaning of “on-demand” and its implications for service management. This enables the on-demand service logic to be applied to other service contexts, where it may add value for customers.

The study starts with a focused literature review and continues with a multiple case study methodology, as the on-demand service concept is in the early stages of theory development. Seven cases were studied, based on a maximum variation sampling strategy.

The results show that on-demand services are characterized by three interrelated characteristics: being highly available, responsive and scalable. Analysis further reveals that on-demand services display differences within the conceptual boundaries of these characteristics, i.e. they vary in terms of their availability, responsiveness and scalability.

Drawing on these findings, the study contributes to the service literature by being the first to specifically conceptualize and define the on-demand services concept and reveal three key characteristics that clarify the distinctive nature of this service type. Accordingly, on-demand services are clearly differentiated from other services. Additionally, the paper discusses the variety within on-demand services and develops an on-demand service continuum that gives detailed insights into the conceptual variations within such services.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate Nigeria's audiovisual services import demand using foreign football transmitted through digital satellite television (DSTV) as a case study. The major focus is on whether such imports effectively replace local recreation in watching domestic football.

The authors examined descriptive statistics. The methodology employed is a combination of descriptive analysis and cross‐sectional regression.

The paper's analytical framework establishes a link between the conventional import demand and demand for football functions, while the estimated empirical counterpart found that the demand for foreign football via cross‐border satellite transmission is a statistically significant function of taste for foreign football, quality, and entertainment. While descriptive statistics indicate respondents’ preference for foreign football, the test of significance rejected the hypothesis that the demand for foreign football broadcast service imports has replaced demand for domestic football as an entertaining sport. In addition, the demand for foreign football broadcast is fairly inelastic, as a greater percentage of the respondents will watch foreign football even if the cost of subscription or cost of paying per view in the viewing centers increase.

The paper describes the first of this type of research to be conducted in Nigeria.

Many governments around the world have strategically privatized their ports. The privatized ports try to maximize profits by setting higher charges for port services and attracting transship cargos. This paper shows that such privatization of ports can be complemented by adjusting the number of ports. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to derive the optimal number of ports in cases in which ports serve transship and domestic cargos.

This paper constructs a theoretical model in which ports compete with each other for transship and domestic cargos. In the first stage, the government determines the number of ports. In the second stage, the ports compete with each other in quantity to maximize profits. The authors have derived the optimal number of ports that maximizes national welfare.

The optimal number of ports is expressed as a function of the slope of the demand curve, the slope of the supply curve, and the share of domestic demand relative to total demand for port services. It is shown that the optimal number of ports tends to increase as the share of domestic cargo increases. The optimal number of ports, n*, is given as n*=1/(1−θ), where θ denotes the share of domestic demand in total demand for port services, when the unit cost of port services is constant.

The analysis in the present paper is confined to the case of unilateral intervention by the government of the domestic country. Analyzing interaction among governments via competition policy would offer valuable policy implications.

The results of the current research offer important implications for Korean port policy in the context of maritime industrial changes, in particular, China’s New Silk Road initiative. In particular, the findings of this study suggest that Korea’s investment in ports should be concentrated on ports with competitive advantages.

Relatively scant attention has been paid to the possibility, or need, of strategic privatization being complemented by governmental competition policy. Filling this knowledge gap, the authors have shown that the government can mitigate the negative effects of privatization on domestic consumer surplus by introducing competition in the supply of port services.

Overview All organisations are, in one sense or another, involved in operations; an activity implying transformation or transfer. The major portion of the body of knowledge concerning operations relates to production in manufacturing industry but, increasingly, similar problems are to be found confronting managers in service industry. It is only in the last decade or so that new technology, involving, in particular, the computer, has encouraged an integrated view to be taken of the total business. This has led to greater recognition being given to the strategic potential of the operations function. In order to provide greater insight into operations a number of classifications have been proposed. One of these, which places operations into categories termed factory, job shop, mass service and professional service, is examined. The elements of operations management are introduced under the headings of product, plant, process, procedures and people.