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Using some experiences in the USA, the United Kingdom and Australia, this paper illustrates the nature of some contractual challenges that can be expected to transform the sophistication of the procurement role in government to ensure the demands of public accountability continue to be met.

Compares managerial values, in terms of loyalty, boss, money, big companies, profit, work, job freedom, and company rules, across different sectors of enterprise by questionnaire survey: 232. Iraqi managers participated in the study. MANOVA and ANOVA tests revealed some differences among managers in public, mixed and private organizations, with regard to manipulative and sociocentric values. Results, however, indicate that managers, regardless of their sector of enterprise, score high on sociocentric values.

The Chief Financial Officers Act and subsequent legislation require federal agencies to produce corporate-style financial statements. Arguments for financial statements drew on private sector analogies and suggested policy makers and managers would use the information to make better public policy and management decisions and improve accountability for financial management and program performance. Nearly all major government agencies have unqualified audit opinions and improvements in financial management are claimed. But benefits for policy making and management are not yet well understood. This paper examines the question by comparison with the private sector and by examining what agencies say about the uses and users of financial statement information. The emerging challenge in the evolution of federal financial reporting is to develop better government-specific analytical tools and other financial information for policy makers and managers.

The Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) was established in 1917 at a time when polarisation of the main British political parties and of their attitudes towards industry risked leading the country to economic ruin. Its raison d'≖tre was that, regardless of party or ideology, governments and business enterprises need each other. Two decades on, the IPT has established a model for enabling Parliament and industry in their widest sense to gain mutual benefit from understanding each other better through exchanges in a safe, neutral and non‐partisan environment. The model has been adopted internationally and is expected be incorporated into the workings of the new devolved Parliament of Scotland and Assemblies of Wales and Northern Ireland.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of equity ownership of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for over 2,000 listed firms in China. The paper examines both the pattern of state ownership and the dynamics of stock returns and volatility. Firms under the control of SOEs dominate the Chinese stock markets and currently account for over three-quarters of total market capitalisation. Central SOEs are focused in strategic industries, while Local SOEs concentrate on pillar industries relating to consumer goods and services.

The authors obtain firm-level data from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets and using panel estimation techniques examine the dynamics of returns, volatility and their relationship.

The authors report an increase in state control among listed firms compared to earlier reported figures. This is contradictory to the expectation of a lower state influence following China joining of the World Trade Organisation in 2001. In examining the behaviour of stock returns the authors find evidence of daily and monthly autocorrelations that are larger and of a different sign to that reported for western markets. The authors also report evidence of volatility persistence but little evidence of volatility asymmetry, again in contrast to that often reported for other markets. Finally, the authors find evidence of either no or a negative relationship between returns and volatility (risk) that differs from our usual view of risk aversion.

It is hoped, knowledge of these dynamics will increase the understanding of the Chinese equity market, which in turn is important for those engaged in international portfolio management and micro-structure modelling.

The disclosure of information on organisational knowledge resources and related knowledge management (KM) activities in annual reports has become a much debated issue within the intellectual capital (IC) discourse. This paper discusses the disclosure of IC information, and in particularly human capital information, in an Australian public sector organisation's annual reports. It contrasts and compares the case study organisation's internal IC management issues and practices with its external IC reporting practices. The empirical analysis demonstrates inconsistency between the organisation's internal IC management issues and practices and its external IC reporting practices. It shows that strategically important information about the organisation's management challenges, knowledge resources, KM activities and IC indicators was not disclosed to external stakeholders in the organisation's annual reports. The study exemplifies to external stakeholders the significance of the provision of information on IC and, in particular human capital, and highlights to public policy makers the relevance of extending existing reporting policies to incorporate disclosure requirements for organisations to include information on IC in annual reports.

Recent spectacular collapses globally have sparked renewed public interest in corporate governance and the pursuit of a new global model. The prevailing dominance of an American model has overshadowed constructive attempts to derive a model that is more appropriate for ‘non-western’ and developing countries. In this paper, I examine the discourse of corporate governance in China. I argue that rather than being a mere captive of the American model, it could have crafted and developed an alternate and more appropriate model that takes into account the economic and social needs of China instead of a corporate governance model developed for other countries.

Principal‐agent problems are largely responsible for poor corporate governance. Much work on private sector corporate governance reform seeks to address transparency, accountability and responsiveness to stakeholder interests under the new category of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Yet, these issues are not new. The public sector has been working on these issues for many years – especially in looking at ways of reducing malfeasance and also optimizing use of resources for the benefit of principals. Some lessons from public sector reform include promoting information dissemination, participation, and balancing powers between a corporation’s executive and supervisory entities. While firms should not necessarily be administered like governmental bodies, there are many lessons from public sector organizational reform and institutional governance that may be applicable to large‐scale public corporations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key motivators triggering tour operators to practise responsible tourism in Kinabalu Park.

Inductive and phenomenological research data were collected via in-depth interviews with 25 tour operators guiding tours in Kinabalu Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

The paper uses push and pull motivation theory to explain motivation in practising responsible tourism. The findings show that push factors are more significant to tour operators as compared to pull factors. The key motivation of tour operators to practise responsible tourism is organisational benefits and own initiative (intrinsic) and response demand and market trends (extrinsic). However, the findings show that although tour operators have a positive attitude towards responsible tourism, it does not show in their tour operations of Kinabalu Park. This is because the challenges like lack stakeholders participation and low responsible tourism awareness were negatively affecting to what tour operators would like to do and what actually gets done.

Identified motives, practices, issues and challenges are valuable information and to enhance the practices of responsible tourism in Kinabalu Park, Sabah.

The paper provides in-depth insight of the motivation to practise responsible tourism from tour operators’ perspectives in Kinabalu Park. The finding is benefiting the implementation of responsible tourism in Kinabalu Park.

Only 3–8 per cent of those eligible to vote in Britain have a direct shareholding in British industry. Britain's capital owners are so few that they are continually at risk of “source punishment”. The Law of Social Punishment says: “Small‐minority groups are at risk of social punishment regardless of whether they appear to be privileged or under‐privileged”. History contains many examples of both privileged and under‐privileged minorities being victimised. The vendetta against capital in Britain is harmful to the whole economy and it promotes the continuation of an out‐of‐date ideological battle between the supporters of Adam Smith and those of Karl Marx. Yet neither Smith's description of how capital is accumulated nor Marx's description is an acceptable explanation of how capital is accumulated today inside the successful joint stock company. An up‐to‐date description of how capital is accumulated leads logically on to a policy of employee participation in capital growth. Britain needs such a policy, as effected in the United States and France, to create shareholders out of employees in the more successful companies and thereby promote a greater sense of employee participation in the economic system.