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This chapter presents findings from a recently conducted process for obtaining Accounting Advisory Board (AAB) input related to Master of Accountancy curriculum of one university. Board members represent both large and small public accounting firms as well as corporate offices of Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations. AAB input includes perceptions of the relative importance of over 160 candidate topics for the courses making up the program’s infrastructure, as well as written comments noting other potential topics and pedagogical approaches to consider. Comparisons of topic rankings reveal a strong level of consistency among Board member types for the traditional accounting courses with structured content, as opposed to those courses involving more systems-related topics or having a wider range of specialized topics. Furthermore, the authors compare Board perceptions regarding topic necessity to those of faculty and note faculty reactions. Specifically, the authors find that faculty ranking consistency with the Board is weak, illustrating the importance of seeking curricular Board input on an ongoing basis. To “close the loop,” faculty incorporated many curriculum changes, involving both the topics to be covered and the overall approach to the course.

To help address the problem of imperfections in the performance of cowpea markets in Ghana, the study sought to understand the costs and benefits associated with different market outlets and factors influencing farmers' choice of these outlets.

A two-stage sampling technique was adopted to collect data from 300 cowpea farmers through purposive sampling of communities and simple random selection at the farmer level in Ejura Sekyedumasi municipality of Ghana. Analytical methods including profitability measures such as gross margin, net margin, return on investment and multinomial logistic (MNL) regression model were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that production and marketing of cowpea is profitable with farmers who trade in wholesale markets recording the highest gross margin (Gh₵1245.85 (US$227.76)), net margin (Gh₵1029.37 (US$188.18)) and return on investment (ROI) of 63%. Important nonfarm-related factors including household size, farming experience, membership of farmer-based organization and extension contact were found to significantly influence the choice of marketing outlets in the study area. In addition, market attributes such as produce selling price, volume of cowpea sold and post-harvest value addition were also key determinants of cowpea market outlet choices.

The results of the study are vital to agricultural administrators in devising efficient cowpea market systems for smallholder farmers in Ghana. Likewise, the study provides important information to smallholder farmers in the choice of market outlets that maximizes their returns.

Previous studies on marketing of cowpea in Ghana emphasized on direct retail or consumer marketing to maximize farmers' returns. Meanwhile, there are claims to suggest that the sale of cowpea grains in the country are carried out through varied market outlets which come with differing costs and benefits implications for smallholder farmers. Therefore, the present study comprehensively compared associated costs and benefits in all available cowpea market outlets so as to settle the confusion surrounding most profitable and efficient marketing channel for smallholder farmers toward poverty reduction.

Stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationships are increasingly common as a result of relatively high rates of divorce and remarriage and increased longevity. When relationships are close, stepgrandparents may be valuable resources for stepgrandchildren, but the relational processes salient to the development of these ties remain largely unknown. The purposes of our research were: (1) to explore the complexity of stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationships, and (2) to examine processes that affected stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationship development.

We present results from four grounded theory projects, which were based on semistructured interviews with 58 stepgrandchildren who provided data about 165 relationships with stepgrandparents. Collectively, these studies highlighted key processes of stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationship development operating within four distinct pathways to stepgrandparenthood – long-term, later life, skip-generation, and inherited pathways.

Stepgrandchildren’s closeness to stepgrandparents was influenced by factors such as timing (the child’s age and when in their life courses intergenerational relationships began), stepgrandparents’ roles in the life of the middle-generation parent and the quality of those relationships, whether or not the stepfamily defined the stepgrandparent as kin (e.g., through the use of claiming language), intergenerational contact frequency, and stepgrandparents’ affinity-building.

Our study furthers understanding of stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild by attending to the importance of context in examining the processes that affect intergenerational steprelationship development. Exploring processes related to intergenerational steprelationships strengthens our understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with steprelationship development. Our study also sheds light on the “new look at kinship” and the processes that inform the social construction of family in a changing familial landscape.

Money laundering is the only way of getting the proceeds of criminal activity into the economy. Without it the criminal cannot profit from his endeavour. So, governments worldwide are trying to find new ways of preventing criminals profiting from their crimes. They are using hard law, they are using outreach provisions. They are creating new areas of risk for those engaged in all manner of trade both domestically and with any international aspect. This paper shows why.

For well over three decades, the concepts of equity and efficiency have been used by policy analysts and elected officials to frame the debate about the formulation and evaluation of public policies and programs. In this paper we use these ideas to organize an historical analysis of policies and research strategies in K‐12 education finance from the 1960s through the 1990s. In each decade we stress the dominant themes, major events, and research strategies regarding equity and efficiency, knowing that themes and research strategies span many decades but are sometimes in the foreground and other times in the background. We conclude with an assessment of how these two concepts can be compatible and how current policies are increasingly “win‐win” ones that are proposed to make progress on both goals.

Takes an in‐depth look at the meaning of trust in customer relationships by drawing from the economics and communications literatures, where researchers distinguish between concepts of trustworthiness and trusting behaviour. Develops a typology of trust based on whether a marketing entity is considered trustworthy and whether a behaviour can be considered trusting, and offers the managerial implications of ideas presented, along with six propositions for future research. The perspective presented here suggests that marketing researchers must first come to terms with the meaning of trust in customer relationships before they can begin to understand its role in more comprehensive, explanatory models of customer behaviour.