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Valuation is a professional activity based on international and local standards. In the valuation process more than one method can be modified. In this case, a final reconciliation of different opinions of value may be required. It is a matter of fact that the final result of these different valuation methods may vary. Therefore, in the final part of the valuation process, the valuer is required to assign a weight to the different methodologies to reach an appropriate opinion of value. This process is essentially based on valuer’s expertise. This paper aims to propose an automatic procedure of calculating the weights to assist the valuer in the valuation process.

The work provides methodologies to assign the weights through simple mathematical procedures that can be used to support subjective judgement in the valuation process. The models proposed can be applied to other phases of reconciliation inside the valuation process and are based on the collection of previous property data in the same market segment.

Two different methodologies are proposed to support valuers in the valuation process and in particular in the phase of the choice of the weights for final reconciliation purposes.

The implication is the development of an information system to support the appraiser in providing these weights. The models proposed are only two but represent a future, much larger field of research.

The models may help in determining more consistent valuation reports.

Consistent valuation reports for the determination of mortgage lending value may contribute to the stability of the social and economic system, especially after the 2008 non-agency mortgage crisis.

These are original models proposed in literature for such kind of problems.

This study aims to determine whether financial statement users suffered a significant loss of information when, in November 2007, the SEC dropped the requirement for foreign private issuers using International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS firms”) to reconcile their financial statements to US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

The study investigates whether analyst forecast errors and forecast dispersion increased for IFRS firms to a greater extent than for US GAAP firms after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped the reconciliation requirement. Using a treatment group comprised of IFRS firms and a matched sample of US GAAP firms, this study uses regression analyses to compare forecast errors and dispersion for the last fiscal year the reconciliation was available and the first fiscal year during which the reconciliation was unavailable to analysts.

The study finds evidence that forecast errors for IFRS firms exhibited no systematic change after the reconciliation was no longer available for analysts covering those firms. Thus, it does not appear that dropping the reconciliation requirement was associated with a change in forecast accuracy. However, the study does find evidence of increased dispersion in the IFRS firms’ forecasts relative to their US GAAP counterparts after the reconciliation requirement was dropped.

These findings have implications for evaluating the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2007 decision to eliminate the reconciliation for IFRS firms. Specifically, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision does not appear to have significantly altered analysts’ information environments.

This paper contributes to the understanding of how a group of sophisticated financial statement users adapt to different sets of accounting standards.

This chapter outlines an audit process that led to a group of non-Aboriginal academics, and professional staff embarking on a journey to explore insights into Aboriginal knowledge and culture. It presents a compelling account of the benefits of a project devised by a creative Aboriginal teacher and community arts practitioner, The Embedding Diversity: Towards a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy.

The Embedding Diversity project allowed a reflective and process-based deep learning to occur which enabled practical and meaningful Reconciliation to transpire between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff at an Australian University. Within the Faculty of Education and Social Work, staff collaborated with, listened to, and were taught by Aboriginal people in a range of contexts. Through this partnership, training, engagement, and conversations were had that shifted perspectives and changed thinking.

The outcome of this project was a commitment to change and advocacy for cultural competence to embedding stronger and more informed Aboriginal education, Aboriginal Studies Units of Study (subjects), and perspectives in teacher education curriculum. We present this project as it is reflective of the meaningful Reconciliation and educational reform which may be possible in other learning communities.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) requires that women’s experiences, needs, and perspectives are incorporated into the political, legal, and social decisions in order to achieve transitional justice. In a post-conflict society, peace, and security should be understood in a wider context of justice encompassing accountability process and mechanisms, reparations for victims and upholding the principle of equality in all spheres of lives. Thus, the objective of the UNSCR 1325 is to increase women’s participation in decision-making in the peace process to address the wider context of women’s situation in post-conflict society and committing to protect women’s socioeconomic rights. It is obvious that women’s mere presence in decision-making process is insufficient in restoring stability in post-conflict society. Women’s participation will only be meaningful if they are empowered to be active rather than passive participants. Hence, it is argued that women’s leadership could only be built, if they are given adequate representation in decision-making process and institutions. Women’s participation in decision-making and women’s economic empowerment has a symbiotic impact on each other. When women are not stable economically and unable to freely make social choices and take responsibilities, they will not have the courage to compete in an election. Thus, this brief study argues that the economic marginalization (overt and covert discrimination) exposes women to multiple discrimination in post-conflict society in Sri Lanka. Hence, countries like Sri Lanka need to address the existing gap in this sphere of women empowerment and leadership. It concludes that the realization of women’s rights to equality in post-conflict Sri Lanka may be a slow process, but the Sri Lankan experiences provide a good case study on how to face the different challenges in post-conflict context.

In this book chapter, I focus on the epistemological, ontological and axiological practice traditions that help to reveal the taken-for-granted assumptions about the management of trust funds in First Nation communities. Informing this chapter is a qualitative research study involving 11 First Nation community members in Canada who were interviewed. Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing and the theory of practice architectures are used to identify the cultural discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements that enable and/or constrain practice. The findings reveal that Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing collide adversely with trust account decision making due to the duties and obligations guiding trust settlement agreements. The ways in which trust account practices can be transformed to ensure greater alignment with Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing are outlined.

Studies show firms reporting using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States (US GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are similarly valued in the market, however, these studies are limited due to the noise present in international studies from regulatory differences. This study aims to eliminate much of this noise by using a cleaner sample of all listings with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). This paper also looks at more detailed book value figures.

There have been previous studies on the differences in market valuation of firms reporting using IFRS vs US GAAP. Most of this research is confounded with difficulties due to different regulatory environments and volatile time periods. The study uses cleaner data following the SEC’s acceptance of IFRS financials without a 20-F Reconciliation. The authors use a large sample of non-US firms trading on US exchanges choosing to use either US GAAP or IFRS for SEC reporting purposes. The sample period starts two years after the SEC’s acceptance of IFRS financials without a 20-F reconciliation and is larger than earlier samples.

The authors show that there is no difference between IFRS and US GAAP firms’ overall value relevance, however, earnings are more value relevant when measured using IFRS and book value is more value relevant when measured using US GAAP. The authors find that the difference between US GAAP and IFRS can be explained, at least in part, by greater market multiples being placed on inventories and goodwill using US GAAP. This is offset in part by greater multiples being placed on other assets under IFRS.

The authors replicate earlier studies but also extend with a better sample and more detailed finings.

Several years ago, North Carolina State (NC State) University Libraries technical services department, Acquisitions & Discovery (A&D), merged acquisitions, cataloging, and electronic resources management functions and staff. One intended outcome for the merger included integrating and distributing electronic resources management across all staff positions whereby staff would be trained to manage a larger portion of the life cycle for print and electronic resources. The benefits of a life cycle approach for both print and electronic resources included better staff understanding of resources; staff ownership of packages; and improved staff follow-through, consistency, and ability to troubleshoot. Key positions were reimagined to support this effort. This included the creation of a staff package manager role in the serials unit to provide oversight of e-journal packages, distribute work to staff, and create and maintain an information dashboard (the Electronic Resources Hub) for staff as well as for other stakeholder departments across the libraries. The monographs unit has recently adopted a similar integrated approach to manage NC State's growing collection of e-books. This chapter will outline A&D implementation of two package management models, one for serials and one for monographs; describe the associated tools and technologies used for support; and discuss lessons learned. Benefits will be discussed to illustrate how other libraries might transform their electronic resource management operations by using a package management strategy.

This paper outlines the design of a completely new global business‐critical organisation. The design process utilised and reconciled the diverse range of experience and opinions of the people who are to work within the new organisation in order to establish full and active commitment to its success. Quality function deployment (QFD) was used to drive a series of group discussions, ensuring full participation in objectively determining the organisation's objectives, processes, strategies and priorities. The tools were adapted to ensure the continued interest and engagement of busy, pragmatic, senior executives who were subject to the typical day‐to‐day pressures of running a high‐profile business. The steps that were taken to achieve this are explained and supported with practical illustrations. The commitment, objectivity and creativity generated through QFD led to doubling and tripling of performance and cost savings of $3 million per annum. QFD provides an extremely powerful and effective tool for the planning and management of an enterprise.

This chapter analyses a range of media outputs produced to raise awareness of the campaign of forced sterilisation conducted in Peru during the period 1993–1998. Focusing in detail on the Quipu Project the authors investigate the ways in which different media configure differently witness subjects, audiences and listeners. The chapter also analyses the effectiveness of these media outputs within the contexts of human rights discourses.

The chapter is framed by narrative theories of documentary video production, new media technology and intermediality. The authors also draw on theories of witnessing that have emerged in critical studies of witness testimony in video and new media. It uses secondary data, that is, the testimonies of women already collected, selected and, in most cases, edited by documentary makers and campaigners.

The case studies compare the ways in which conventional video documentary and techniques of digital storytelling transform the content of women’s testimony.

Funding limitations have meant that progress on the site was, at the time of writing, temporarily suspended. We therefore analysed the pilot, or prototype, of the Quipu Project, which should be viewed as a work in progress. However, a more developed site for the Quipu Project went live after the chapter was completed.

This chapter represents the first attempt to analyse the effectiveness of an experimental project such as the Quipu Project. The authors were given access by the curators of the project to the site at various stages of its construction. The chapter provides insights into the potential of digital technology to create opportunities for media outputs to internationalise interventions into campaigns for justice and reparation.

A dispassionate view of the degree to which North American appraisal practice exceeds UK valuation practice in quality (if indeed it does) is hardly to be expected in a journal devoted to the latter of these two combatants. Such a venture is not attempted in this paper.