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A parallel‐processor computer contains multiple CPUs that share such system resources as memory and disk storage. A parallel‐processor computer is expanded not by adding another computer, but by plugging another CPU into the computer. This technology offers expandability, compact size, high performance, high reliability, and moderate cost. The Sequent Balance Parallel‐Processor Computer is described in some detail. A fully configured Balance 21000 can execute 21 MIPS (million instructions per second). It implements the UNIX operating system, which has been widely adopted. As a result, many software packages for word processing and other applications are available from third‐party vendors. Performance tests conducted by CLSI, Inc. indicate that twenty concurrent users on a parallel‐processor system can perform CPU‐intense functions up to seven times faster than on a single‐processor system.

CLSI has recently announced a radical new development path for its LIBS‐100 library automation system. CLSI's previous intention was to migrate from the current PDP‐11 — based system to DEC VAX hardware to provide a capability for large libraries; this strategy has now been abandoned in favour of one which aims to take advantage both of state‐of‐the‐art processing capabilities and of a standard operating system environment.

With increasing pressure on firms to deliver shareholder value, there has been a renewed emphasis on devising measures of corporate financial performance and incentive compensation plans that encourage managers to increase shareholder wealth. One professedly recent innovation in the field of internal and external performance measurement is a trade‐marked variant of residual income known as economic value‐added (EVA). This paper attempts to provide a synoptic survey of EVA's conceptual underpinnings and the comparatively few empirical analyses of value‐added performance measures. Special attention is given to the GAAP‐related accounting adjustments involved in EVA‐type calculations.

This chapter assembles the key literature on value creation for consideration in relationship to stakeholder theory. The literature review identifies and explains the core topics concerning value creation and related ideas. The purpose is to stimulate research into the theory, practice, and social consequences of value creation in a stakeholder management framework. The construct of “value” lacks theoretical precision and empirical verification. The most fundamental and disputed question addressed is which value approach for the firm best contributes to overall (aggregate) social welfare. The vital issue is whether the managerial stakeholder theory is superior, at long-run value creation for multiple stakeholders including society at large, to the conventional agency theory. Business executives and directors are the ones who choose between agency and stakeholder approaches to management. Their actions influence organizational and social outcomes. Research is limited to a literature review, followed by a discussion of the likely role of value creation theory in future stakeholder research. The chapter first defines value. The basic approach is then to focus on key topics in the relevant literature. The last section addresses the role of value creation theory in future stakeholder research.

The transition from a traditional lecture style method of teaching to the flipped classroom in sophomore-level Organic Chemistry I and II courses at an Historically Black University (HBCU) is described. The process of implementation was explained and the students’ performance was analyzed. The flipped teaching method made a much bigger positive impact to Organic I than Organic II Chemistry course. A higher percentage of A, B or better, and C or better were observed for Organic I Chemistry course. The DFW rate was also significantly lower for the Organic I Chemistry flipped classroom. However, Organic II results were very similar between the students from both teaching methods.

The purpose of this review paper was identifying barriers to the use of telemedicine systems in primary health-care individual level among professionals.

This study used Scopus and PubMed databases for scientific records identification. A systematic review of the literature structured by PRISMA guidelines was conducted on 37 included papers published between 2009 and 2019. A qualitative approach was used to synthesize insights into using telemedicine by primary care professionals.

Three barriers were identified and classified: system quality, data quality and service quality barriers. System complexity in terms of usability, system unreliability, security and privacy concerns, lack of integration and inflexibility of systems-in-use are related to system quality. Data quality barriers are data inaccuracy, data timeliness issues, data conciseness concerns and lack of data uniqueness. Finally, service reliability concerns, lack of technical support and lack of user training have been categorized as service quality barriers.

This review identified and mapped emerging themes of barriers to the use of telemedicine systems. This paper also through a new conceptualization of telemedicine use from perspectives of the primary care professionals contributes to informatics literature and system usage practices.

This paper seeks to present a model which connects performance measurement at the business level to the concept of public goods usage, and thus incites a linkage between the micro- and macro-economic aspects of sustainability.

The paper presents the essentials of a public goods cost perspective in order to agitate discussion between statisticians, standard-setters for business reporting and practitioners who wish to explore new approaches in the topic of building performance indicators.

The paper illustrates what has been achieved in measuring the outcomes of sustainable development efforts and what still needs to be done in order to arrive at aggregate values for national and global commons.

The viability of the concept will depend on the co-operation of businesses and national statistics which test the feasibility of the proposed micro-macro-link through numerical studies. As the paper is published, efforts are under way with a piloting group to initiate a pertinent study, but the results have yet to be attained.

For practitioners in both the statistics profession and management accounting who are concerned with measurement of socioeconomic and environmental phenomena, this attempt at integrating sustainable development indicators to the managerial control system of companies might provide a valuable proposition. It also is a helpful contribution to the ongoing debate about the value and credibility of sustainability reporting.

If businesses make no attempts to exhibit numerically how they contribute to preserve and expand the societal commons, they will be confronted with ever-growing agitation from pressure groups and they might be bypassed in the discussion on the issue of sustainability parameters that those groups are advocating.

This is the first academic paper that demonstrates a reporting model that unites business accounts and national accounts.

The purpose of this article is to synthesize the topics, conceptualizations and measurements of value-based management (VBM) and to suggest a research agenda covering its next evolution as sustainable governance.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review of 80 seminal studies published between 1979 and 2022. The authors synthesized the studies by their conceptualizations of VBM in an inductively developed framework.

The authors find that scholars explore diverse topics related to VBM with a prevailing focus on shareholder primacy. There is a paucity of studies that focus on the integration of shareholder maximization and stakeholder management practices. The authors explain which studies will form a promising foundation for advanced research on sustainable governance that will reach beyond current VBM research.

The authors' research agenda addresses new future topics on conflicting goals within and between shareholder groups, offers specific suggestions for using new research methods and untapped data sources for VBM and paves the way to substantially extend the boundaries of the firm in VBM research to include stakeholders, strategic alignment and new sustainability measures.

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between external environment and organisational culture, and the subsequent relationship of organisational culture with the adoption of management control systems in large Brazilian companies.

The research involves 109 of the “Best and Biggest” companies in Brazil, as designated by the Brazilian financial magazine Exame. Data are collected by a research questionnaire distributed electronically to senior managers of the sample companies. The data are analysed by multivariate structural equation modelling.

The results show that a significant relationship exists between the constructs of “external environment” and “organisational culture”, thus indicating that the environment exerts a significant influence on planning, execution, control elements, and managers' characteristics and skills. The results also show a significant relationship between the constructs of “organisational culture” and “management controls”, thus indicating that organisational culture has a strong influence on the choice of management control systems in practice in the companies.

Although isolated studies have investigated various aspects of the external business environment, organisational culture, and management control systems, few studies have explored the relationships among them.

This study seeks to empirically examine the influence of corporate governance on corporate performance in Ghana.

The study employs data from 30 listed firms spanning from 2008 to 2018 and applies the generalized method of moments technique. The authors use economic value added, shareholder value added (SVA) and economic margin (EM) as measures of corporate performance.

The findings reveal that the presence of both inside directors and outside (nonexecutive) directors significantly improves corporate performance, lending credence to both the stewardship theory and the agency theory. The inclusion of women on the corporate boards and frequent meetings of the board reduce the economic profits of firms. The authors find that CEO duality impedes corporate performance, supporting the presumption of the agency theory. The study further reveals that audit committee size and ownership concentration positively drive the performance of quoted firms in Ghana.

Prior studies on corporate governance and firm performance nexus have chiefly adopted traditional accounting-based performance measures such as return on assets and return on equity to evaluate firm performance. However, these indicators are critiqued for being historic and fail to consider firms' cost of equity. In light of the shortcomings of the accounting-based proxies, this study takes a unique direction by using value-based metrics, which are considered superior measures of performance. Besides, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study provides a first attempt to investigate the link between corporate governance and firm performance using SVA and EM as performance indicators.