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The paper aims to recommend legal and regulatory reforms to better prevent child abuse in childcare institutions in Hong Kong.

A summary of investigation report and news reports are referred to in describing the abuse incidents which occurred in a children’s residential home. Routine Activity Theory (RAT) is used as the framework for identifying the causes. Local and overseas legislation, regulations, case law, and policies are analysed to provide recommendations for reforms.

There are systematic failures such as workload issues, inadequate supervision, and the absence of continuing professional development (CPD) that contributed to the incidents. The regulations governing the operation of childcare centres and criminal laws against child abuse are long overdue for an update in Hong Kong. On the institutional side, this paper recommends enacting regulations that mandate CPD, lower the staff-to-child ratio, and strengthen the Social Welfare Department’s (SWD) supervisory powers over childcare centres. From the criminal law perspective, it is recommended that “reasonable chastisement” be abolished as a defence of corporal punishment, and that there be new offences for failure to report suspected child abuse incidents and causing or allowing the death/serious harm of a child.

The child abuse incidents, occurring in a childcare institution, have drawn wide public concern. Reform is required to protect vulnerable children and regain public confidence.

Comic genius and cosmic insight merged when Mel Brooks and Buck Henry pitted Kaos against Control in the 1960s spy send‐up Get Smart. Pardon me, is that your shoe ringing?

Examines individuals′ psychological responses towards paramilitary discipline. Reports on a study which followed 145 recruit firemen (RFn) throughout their six‐month initial training in Hong Kong Fire Services Training School. California Psychological Inventory (CPI) was administered to the subjects on their very first and final days of stay in the academy. The findings support the theoretical assumption that paramilitary fire services training changes one′s personality. Post‐paramilitary training personality (PPMTP) was identified. CPI dimensions typifying PPMTP are decreasing levels in sense of well‐being, responsibility, socialization, self‐achievement via conformance, self‐control, good impression, communality and increasing levels in the dimensions of capacity for status and flexibility. Except capacity for status, all PPMTP dimensions are negatively related to RFns′ satisfaction and work stress in the academy. It is believed that the dysfunctional nature of PPMTP is due to the deleterious effects of strict military‐like discipline on the psychology of subjects.

This study aims to examine an important, yet understudied, relationship between board leadership structure and earning management. With conflicting theoretical and empirical evidence underpinning the debate the practice has fluctuated, investor perception of board leadership structure has altered, international regulation has reacted, scholarly conceptualizations of duality have become overly complex and the need to understand duality and conclude the debate has increased.

This study examines the relationship between board leadership structure, firm financial performance and financial reporting quality of Australian, Malaysian and Pakistani publicly listed companies by using a sample of three years from 2011 to 2013.

Results based on data collected from Australia, Malaysia and Pakistan indicate that the board leadership structure is not associated with firm performance and financial reporting quality. However, the female chief executive impacts negatively on firm performance in Malaysia and Pakistan. Further analyses reveal that the firm size is negatively related, while the grown firms in Australia having strong financial reporting quality.

The study is based on Australian Stock Exchange-20, Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange-30 and Karachi Stock Exchange-30 companies from 2011 to 2013; however, a large sample from other emerging economies is required.

The paper provides empirical evidence that unitary or dual leadership structure has no impact on public listed companies and would be of interest to regulatory bodies, business practitioners and academic researchers.

This paper contributes to the literature on corporate governance and firm performance by introducing a framework for identifying and analyzing moderating variables that affect the relationship between board leadership structure and firm financial reporting quality.

This study aims to review the growing research area of behavioral corporate governance; it explores the relationship between CEO duality attributes and earning management in the context of Asia-Pacific countries. Over time, the use by boards of chief executive officer (CEO) duality has fluctuated, and the scholarly conceptualizations of the phenomenon have become more complex.

This paper uses panel data from 330 firm years from Australia, Malaysia, The Philippines and Pakistan by taking a sample of three years from 2011 to 2013.

The results of the analysis reveal that the board leadership structure was not associated with firm performance and financial reporting quality. However, female CEOs impacted negatively on firm performance in Malaysia, The Philippines and Pakistan. Further analyses expose that the firm size was negatively related with performance, whereas established firms in Australia had strong reporting quality. However, large boards assured healthier reporting quality in Australia and Malaysia.

This paper provides empirical evidence that a unitary leadership pattern has no significant impact on companies in the Asia-Pacific, and it would be of interest to regulatory bodies, business practitioners and academic researchers.

This paper contributes to the literature on corporate governance and earnings management by introducing a framework for identifying and analyzing moderating variables that affect the relationship between the leadership structure and a firm’s financial reporting quality.

The present study aims to understand context and dynamics of cognitive learning of students as an outcome of the usage of popular movies as a learning tool in the management classroom and specifically in the context of a course on cross‐cultural management issues.

This is an exploratory study based on qualitative analysis of reflection notes of 14 students who participated in an elective course on “managing cross‐cultural issues (MCCI)” in the second year of their MBA programme. Students were asked to submit reflection notes focused on classroom learning as an outcome of the course MCCI with specific reference to used movies Outsourced and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Students' reactions in their reflection notes were analyzed through qualitative content analysis.

The findings of this study reveal that students found selected movies very relevant and effective in learning cross‐cultural theories, issues and developing cross‐cultural competence. They also enjoyed movies as learning experience in the classroom. Both instructor's observations and students' reactions regarding the effectiveness of movies as classroom learning tool are very positive.

Popular movies, if appropriately selected and included in cross‐cultural training programmes for expatriate managers, immigrant workers and managers who travel to different countries, could be very useful as a learning tool for developing multicultural perspective and cross‐cultural competence.

This paper could be very useful to academicians and researchers who want to use popular movies as an instructional or research tool for exploring the psychodynamics of classroom learning in management and social sciences courses or professional training programmes focused on cross‐cultural management skills, global leadership skills, diversity management.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the resource-based view (RBV) with organisational learning theory by investigating the role of the RBV mechanism in the preceding performance-current performance linkage. The authors further examine the role of the decision-making approach on the RBV-prior-current performance paradigm. Using China as the research setting, they empirically test the theoretical model based on 229 firms selected from a nation-wide survey.

This study has used China as the research setting. The authors empirically test the theoretical model based on 229 firms selected from a nation-wide survey.

This study reveals that prior export performance is a key determinant of current export performance, and this effect is enhanced by product certification (an internal RBV mechanism) and the intention to make an initial public offering (and external RBV mechanism). Moreover, the internal RBV-prior-current performance paradigm is positively moderated by the delegated decision-making approach, while the external RBV-prior-current performance paradigm is negatively moderated by this decision-making approach.

The results related to RBV and prior organisational learning also extends the extant literature and offer implications in two important ways. One, this research advances existing research that has only considered the direct effect of organisational learning on current performance (Lages et al., 2008). In addition to its direct effect, this study suggests that the interplay of organisational learning and resource commitment also provides important determinants of export performance. These new results imply that future research should not only explore the effect of organisational learning theory but also that of firm resource in the research on the prior-current performance dyad (Lages et al., 2008). Two, this study also advances the theoretical development of the export venture resource and management commitment research by revealing two new factors (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994). As a result, when conducting exporting activity from an emerging economy, exporting firms should consider committing their resources on acquiring international certification and seeking external funding. These new findings provide new guidance on the choice of the type of resource commitments and their roles in the prior-current performance conceptualisation when operating in the emerging markets.

The results also contribute to the conceptualisation of the decision-making literature in the context of emerging economies (Garnier, 1982; Kao, 1993; Redding, 1993; Solberg, 2000), where an owner decision-making approach is associated with a number of negative effects (Kao, 1993; Redding, 1993). This study suggests that an owner decision-making approach can actually help firms to implement the effect of external RBV’s influence in the prior-current performance framework. As a result, the findings imply that researchers and managers of EMEFs should now consider including the effect of decision-making governance when exploring the interactive effect of RBV and organisational learning in export performance research (Lages et al., 2008).

This three-way interaction results have implications for the development of organisational learning theory, the RBV, decision-making, export performance and emerging market literature.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate around conceptualising competence in sport organisations by analysing club leadership and management in the Australian Football League (AFL) at a time of professionalisation. The paper asks: what were considered appropriate activities for newly professionalised AFL clubs, and how was the role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as a competent leader in delivering these activities conceptualised in the clubs?

Semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 38 senior club managers in the AFL. A thematic analysis was undertaken.

The paper finds that perceptions of core activities of clubs expanded with professionalisation, and that the role of the CEO emerged as the outcome of internal organisational contests. CEO competence is not only a set of technical skills, but is social, relational and “essentially contested” (Good, 1998, p. 205).

The qualitative methodology adopted means findings cannot be generalised to other sporting leagues, however, because all clubs participated they do reflect conceptualisations in the AFL at the time. The findings are suggestive of issues that may be relevant to other sporting competitions.

The paper provides evidence that CEOs in sporting organisations should not be appointed only on the basis of technical skills. Social and relational skills are critical to organisational success.

This paper enriches understandings of AFL clubs and of CEOs as leaders in sport organisations, and contributes to theoretical debates around the organisational construction of competence.