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The purpose of this paper is to examine the Sierra Leonean trade in “conflict diamonds” which has fuelled a rebel war in the country for more than a decade. In particular, it crucially asks whether the reform of the diamond trade by international legislative efforts to develop an international diamond certification scheme can stem the flow of “conflict diamonds.”

The paper draws upon existing work and research to provide a detailed case study of international legislative attempts to curtail the trade in illicit diamonds from Sierra Leone, specifically by implementing a Certification of Origin Scheme.

Based on existing research, the paper argues that the Certification of Origin Scheme has made a positive contribution to the illegal mining, trading and smuggling of conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone. However, peace and recovery will also depend on how extensive official and unofficial corruption is tackled.

International efforts to limit the flow of “conflict” diamonds, the dynamics of the conflict itself and relevant research are all in a state of continuous development. It is therefore significant to view this paper within this ever changing framework.

This paper will be of value to those wishing to be introduced to the nature of the illicit diamond trade and recent efforts on behalf of the international community to solve the problem.

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a process excellence has been widely adopted in both manufacturing and service organizations; however, its application in the public sector has not been widely explored. Is LSS still a myth or reality in our public sector organizations? The purpose of this paper is to make an attempt to debate about the use of LSS and its potential applications in the public sector context.

The initial approach is to critically evaluate the role of LSS in various public sector contexts, followed by showcasing four case studies from four different public sector settings: higher education, police service, public hospital and local government.

LSS methodology can be embraced by all public sector organizations to create efficient and effective processes to provide enhanced customer experience and value at reduced operational costs.

This paper seeks to contribute to and broaden the limited body of evidence of the applicability of LSS to public sector organizations and identifies areas for further research and review.

LSS will continue to grow across many public sector organizations in Europe and other parts of the world over the forthcoming years. However, what will eventually determine if LSS is viewed by public sector organizations as just a passing management fad or not largely depends on the leadership and success of its execution. If LSS is deployed in its true sense across the public sector organizations at a global level, the hard cash savings generated can reach several billions.

The paper yields an immense value to both research scholars and practitioners who are engaged in the introduction of LSS as a business process improvement strategy to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Moreover, this paper makes an attempt to dispel the myth of LSS which have been quite prevalent in many public sector organizations around us today.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

This paper proposes to explore the circumstances of the word management's entry into English usage, to deepen understanding of this neglected chapter in management history, and to urge further historical research into seminal management terms and concepts. It also aims to offer a brief explanation of John Florio's role in the introduction of management into English and of that of the Italian Renaissance's influence in England.

The paper's guiding theoretical premise is historian Daniel Rodgers' observation that concepts in government and business often pass from one country to another through “cross fertilization,” effected by the movements and offices of highly connected, cosmopolitan individuals. The sources for this exploration include Florio's World of Words, histories of Florio's circumstances and of the Italian Renaissance, and Evans' edition of La pratica della mercatura (ca 1340) by Francesco Balducci Pegolotti of the fourteenth century Florentine banking firm of Bardi.

The exploration's findings reinforce Rodgers's account of the spread of government and business concepts and rediscovers a vital link between business practice and humanistic studies.

Modern business education, e.g. in its frequent omission of a foreign language requirement in business college curricula, tends to obscure this linkage, now critical in our global economy. The implication is that this linkage should be revived.

Deeper knowledge of the Italian Renaissance roots of management and of the business practices it denoted brings new light to the interplay between humanistic studies associated with the Italian Renaissance and Renaissance business practices in an international context. Accordingly, the authors believe that this exploration turns a page, albeit the first page, of a neglected chapter in the history of management thought and practice.

The purpose of this paper, builds on previous studies that explored the research patterns over 15 years, is to consider the current status of the integration of Lean and Six Sigma. More specifically, this research addresses whether Lean and Six Sigma are stronger together and explores the reasons why Lean researchers and practitioners may be less likely to integrate Six Sigma in their work.

The research utilises a survey of 25 established and respected academics and practitioners from 16 countries. The questionnaire is analysed using a direct content approach and coded in NVivo.

The findings suggest that challenges may lie in the perception and understanding of statistics as well as short-term rather than long-term focus on improvement. The findings also suggest that academics and practitioners believe that Lean Six Sigma has developed over time and will continue to develop and improve as a methodology rather than being replaced with a new methodology.

The survey has a sample size of 25, albeit all respondents are established and very experienced practitioners and academics.

For organisations that are introducing or refreshing their continuous improvement initiatives, this research identifies some of the challenges and provides the opportunity to address them to maximise the opportunities for success and sustainability.

The value of this paper is that it further addresses the debate over the integration of Lean and Six Sigma for many organisations which still employ Lean alone, but beyond this it explores how they will continue to develop and whether they are a permanent edition to the quality management landscape or a transition to something else.

It has been generally assumed that, although there may be material costs to the entire world which result from any attempt to eliminate global poverty through development, the only costs associated with the continued existence of poverty are human ones, costs which are borne primarily by the poor themselves. This article is a review of the literature on development and resource use; its primary purpose is to investigate the extent to which analysts have tested this assumption—that is, the extent to which they have addressed the issue of the material costs engendered by the perpetuation of global poverty. Its conclusion is that no systematic analysis of this assumption has been conducted. However, there is a recognition of the resource costs of global poverty implicit in much of the literature on development and on resource use, and there is sufficient evidence to indicate that more detailed study of the relationship is warranted, since it is clear that the continued acceptance of global poverty entails significant costs for every member of the global community.

This chapter examines the impact of national membership in international organizations on female entrepreneurship. Drawing on the institution-based view from global strategy and civil society theory from international relations, we show how international organizations can promote entrepreneurship opportunities for women with respect to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). This research has both practical and social implications. From a practical perspective, it provides important insights for policy makers and entrepreneurs. Policy makers can use the findings to understand how the international organizations that countries join affect entrepreneurship, particularly the United Nation’s SDGs Entrepreneurs can also use the findings to advocate mutually beneficial conditions for host environments, particularly those dedicated to female empowerment. A sample of 44 countries, 5 years of data, and 130 country-year observations finds robust support for our assertions.

Greater parental monitoring is commonly associated with reduced delinquent behavior in adolescents, yet less is known about the extent to which parental monitoring behavior changes after a child is arrested for the first time. The present study examines the extent to which mothers’ monitoring behaviors (i.e., parental monitoring knowledge and effort) change in association with juvenile recidivism after their sons’ first arrest, operationalized through both youth-reported recidivism and official re-arrest records. Mother–son dyads (total N = 634) across three states were interviewed in two waves over 30 months following the youth’s first arrest. Mothers who reported both more monitoring knowledge and effort at Wave 1 had sons who self-reported less recidivism and were less likely to be re-arrested at Wave 2. Repeated sons’ re-arrests were associated with a change in mothers’ monitoring behavior, as both parental knowledge and parental effort significantly increased from Wave 1 to Wave 2 when youth have been re-arrested more than once, relative to youth who had never been re-arrested. No change in monitoring behaviors were observed in association with youth-reported recidivism, and mothers who stated an intention to change their monitoring habits at Wave 1 did not necessarily do so by Wave 2. The findings point to the ability of parents to modulate their monitoring behavior to respond to chronic juvenile offending. This provide an opportunity for practitioners to work with parents to improve their monitoring skills, to ensure rehabilitative gains that result from justice system intervention are maintained in the home via parental monitoring.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.