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Based on univariate dimension-reduction model, this study aims to propose an adaptive anisotropic response surface method (ARSM) and its high-order revision (HARSM) to balance the accuracy and efficiency for response surface method (RSM).

First, judgment criteria for the constitution of a univariate function are derived mathematically, together with the practical implementation. Second, by combining separate polynomial approximation of each component function of univariate dimension-reduction model with its constitution analysis, the anisotropic ARSM is proposed. Third, the high-order revision for component functions is introduced to improve the accuracy of ARSM, namely, HARSM, in which the revision is also anisotropic. Finally, several examples are investigated to verify the accuracy, efficiency and convergence of the proposed methods, and the influence of parameters on the proposed methods is also performed.

The criteria for constitution analysis are appropriate and practical. Obtaining the undetermined coefficients for every component functions is easier than the existing RSMs. The existence of special component functions is useful to improve the efficiency of the ARSM. HARSM is helpful for improving accuracy significantly and it is more robust than ARSM and the existing quadratic polynomial RSMs and linear RSM. ARSM and HARSM can achieve appropriate balance between precision and efficiency.

The constitution of univariate function can be determined adaptively and the nonlinearity of different variables in the response surface can be treated in an anisotropic way.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is charged with maintaining the relevance of the Uniform CPA exam to ensure that those who pass the exam and become certified have the skills and abilities to keep pace with the ever-changing accounting profession. For students pursuing the CPA designation, passing the Uniform CPA exam, and meeting the 150-hour requirement are key factors. With the launch of the latest version of the Uniform CPA exam in 2017, the question about whether educators should adapt their existing courses to meet the new CPA exam structure and focus is up for debate. This chapter contains a review of the proposed changes to the Uniform CPA exam by the AICPA and various statistics regarding historical pass rates. Further, the chapter includes the results of a survey about whether accounting faculty plan to adjust their courses to reflect the changes to the exam and whether they feel pressure from various stakeholders to improve CPA exam pass rates for their respective institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of case studies in teaching an undergraduate course of Internet for Business in class, based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The study provides the empirical evidence about the effect of case-based teaching method integrated the revised Bloom’s taxonomy on students’ incremental learning, measured by the four constructs: knowledge application, higher-order thinking, practice evaluation knowledge and knowledge improvement.

In this study, learning activities associated with the revised taxonomy-based learning strategy were proposed to support the development of higher-level cognitive skills. Revised application scale, higher-order thinking scale, practice evaluation knowledge scale and knowledge improvement scale were used to measure students’ perception of skills corresponding to their level of application, analysis, evaluation and creation, respectively. After completing each task pertinent to case studies, students were encouraged to complete the survey questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to examine the relationships between constructs. Students participate in a course where case studies are employed as the main learning activities to promote higher-order thinking. Upon completing the course, they fill in a survey to evaluate the four constructs of incremental learning: level of knowledge application, higher-order thinking, practice evaluation knowledge and knowledge improvement. The relationships between the four constructs are then examined using SEM.

Analysis reveals that with the use of case-based learning activities, knowledge application creates a positive impact on higher-order thinking. Higher-order thinking has positive influence on practice evaluation knowledge. Eventually, practice evaluation knowledge produces a positive effect on knowledge improvement. The results show the desired effects of incremental learning.

The case studies designed for teaching the Internet for Business course might not be suitable in terms of content for other courses, which limit the implication of the findings.

The key implication is that cognitive process is enhanced by using case studies where learning activities are designed, based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy.

The paper offers a comprehensive perspective on incremental learning where students’ knowledge of Internet for Business moves developmentally towards the higher-order cognitive process dimension of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy.

It was the purpose of this study to identify areas of teacher motivation by determining teacher needs and their relationship to job satisfaction. This objective was pursued by applying the concept of higher and lower order need strength to secondary public school teachers. This concept was first developed and applied in business administration as a means of measuring worker motivation. It is based on the assumption that a match between the needs experienced by the individual and the needs fulfilled by the job bring greater job satisfaction and thus an increase in job productivity. While a predominance of higher order needs in secondary school teachers was found, the correlation of need strength and job satisfaction varied by school district. Apparently teaching in some schools is more satisfying to teachers with lower order needs while teaching in other schools is more satisfying to teachers with higher order needs.

Although small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) account for a significant portion of international trade, little is known about the role of strategic orientation culture in improving their foreign launch success. Three orientations – market, entrepreneurial, and learning are all related to organizational learning priorities and reflect a higher order dynamic capability (DC), proactive learning culture (PLC). The authors assert that PLC is particularly important to SMEs whose lack of market power and resources render them vulnerable in risky foreign market launch. Marketing program adaptation and local integration are examined as behavioral mediators of the impact of PLC on foreign market launch success. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The DC framework guides the study. The authors employ a model with a higher order PLC, two mediating behaviors, and firm foreign market launch success to report on an empirical study of US SMEs that operate in foreign markets. The authors used hierarchical regression analysis and extensive post hoc analyses/robustness checks.

Consistent with the DC framework, SMEs’ foreign launch success is driven by higher and lower order behaviors. The impact of the higher order PLC construct was mediated by two lower order behaviors, marketing program adaptation and local integration. Notably, PLC's influence is stronger than the influence of any subset of its one/two/three first order components.

SMEs need to pay attention to an array of organizational learning processes that combine to engender a PLC, which help optimize the deployment of more tangible, lower order behaviors required for foreign launch success.

Introducing PLC as a DC that enables firms to proactively develop market-oriented, innovative capabilities using a knowledge-based approach. The elements of PLC reflect a more complete view of the role of learning in driving the assembly of lower order behaviors in foreign market launch, which requires both a market-oriented approach and the ability to innovate under conditions of uncertainty. While each element of PLC is valuable, the higher level impact of all three facilitates a more effective culture for those firms, which choose to enter new markets.

The purpose of this paper is to consider changing perceptions of audit quality in the UK during a period of significant environmental change. The views of three audit stakeholder groups of auditors (n=109 and 183), auditees (n=75 and 121), and investors (n=74 and 111) are considered.

The paper uses survey data collected in February 2005, comparing results to a dataset gathered in February 2002, coincident with the Enron/Andersen debacle. Three issues are addressed. First, the construct validity of scale scores is assessed. Second, the measurement equivalence between the three groups is considered. Third, an assessment of group differences and differences attributable to time of administration is undertaken.

Results identify that audit quality is defined by four higher‐order factors labeled competence, independence, relationship, and service qualities. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated measurement equivalence across groups drawn from the three samples and two time periods. Contrary to expectations, mean scores on the “technical” audit factors (competence, relationship, and independence) fell from 2002 to 2005. However, as expected, no change in service qualities mean scores was identified across the period.

The paper assesses stakeholder attitudes at a time when the UK audit environment has undergone significant change between the 2002 and 2005 administrations of the instrument.

There is a tacit understanding among social studies teachers and educators that incorporating primary source documents in planning and teaching is desirable for many reasons, most prominent among them the ways in which it challenges students to think at higher levels. This study is a descriptive study of public school teachers’ uses of primary source documents in social studies planning, in which we review lesson activities of various grade level teachers to evaluate their use of primary documents for higher order cognitive purposes. Given the salient theme of critical thinking in the literature, we established a baseline continuum of uses that served as our framework for evaluating these activities. We asked the following questions: When history teachers incorporate the use of primary source documents in their planning, to what degree do they promote development of higher level critical thinking? What might a planned activity look like when they do? We found that the majority of the activities examined here employ primary source documents for lower order purposes but held the promise of easy transition to higher order uses.

More studies have investigated the relation between option measures and stock returns during scheduled corporate events. This study adds to the literature and investigates the informational role of options concerning stock returns following unscheduled corporate news events. The authors focus on individual analysts' recommendation changes rather than consensus revisions, as the recommendation consensus might discard a large amount of potentially valuable information in the aggregation process.

Based on the econometric model, the authors follow Bakshi et al. (2003) to construct the model-free option implied measures. The authors further decompose the implied option variance into upside and downside components. In such a way, the different informational roles of call and put options can be distinguished. A variety of regression analyses are conducted to examine the predictive power of option implied measures, and the ordered probit model is used to test the tipping hypothesis of analyst recommendations.

This study’s results show that the option market impounds the “valuable” firm-specific news; thus, the pre-event option market is strongly related to stock returns around recommendations even though recommendation changes are largely “unscheduled”. At the same time, these results suggest that upside (good) and downside (bad) implied volatilities contain distinctive information on subsequent stock returns.

This study provides new evidence that an increase in upside (downside) volatility around analyst recommendation changes would increase the probability that analysts upgrade (downgrade) the stock. The findings provide implications for investors and risk managers in making investment decisions.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

This paper aims to formulate an Austrian model of the governmental process and to apply the theory of human agency to discuss the problems in transforming government into a digital organization.

The paper applies the Schutzian theory of human agency to analyse public agents' behaviour and the decision‐making process involved in adopting information technology (IT) in the public sector. The study incorporates cognitive elements such as opportunity discovery, learning, experimentation, trial and error, and revision of plans to understand problems in adopting new technology in government.

From an Austrian perspective, the government is viewed as an institution for coordinating economic affairs. Advances in IT will facilitate the coordination. However, public agents will face structural uncertainty when they consider adopting new technology. During the process of making an adoption decision, public officials perceive new incoming events and formulate plans according to their experience and knowledge. The subjective interpretation of a problematic situation by public officials yields provisional judgements to be confirmed by subsequent experience. With new information and experience, they subsequently revise their plans in order to eliminate errors. A new problem situation requires the public planner to produce new trial solutions which are then subjected to further testing in daily operation. The revision of plans by public officials is thus seen as a continuous process and results in administrative and coordination changes.

Unlike neoclassical public economists who act as omnipotent advisers on how the e‐government should behave, the theory of human agency analyses the operation of digital government from the “first person perspective”. It suggests that public officials, equipped with better IT, act or make decisions under uncertainty and constraints. Hence, the impact of a government action on an economic issue is not deterministic. Instead, many government policies take society by surprise and result in institutional change. It is concluded that agents in both the private and the public sectors are journeying into an unknown future.