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In order to shed light on the implications of the business intelligence (BI) for management accounting (MA) and decision making, this study investigates as to how the use of the BI affects the production, transmission, and reception of performance measures (PM).

To investigate the issue at hand, a case study of an Italian company is carried out. The case study method is deemed suitable to explore the complex, penetrating, and unpredictable relationship between BI and PM.

The case analysis shows that the use of the BI can affect the production of PM by leading the organization to frame PM into an indicator setting. Moreover, the BI can affect the transmission by introducing a new, “visual” approach for presenting PM to decision makers, which is also relevant in the reception as a mobilizing factor.

This study contributes to improving the understanding of BI implications for MA and decision making, which is still limited in the accounting academia. Additionally, this research adds to extant knowledge about the relationship between measurement and management; more specifically, it contributes to understanding the “fate” of PM.

Furthermore, the findings illustrated in this chapter can be relevant from a practical point of view: by showing the role that BI solutions can play in producing and transmitting PM, the study shows the potential contribution of the use of the BI in managing and overcoming problems arising in these phases, favoring the use of these measures.

This paper aims to explore how the socio-ecological model can be expanded to address wicked problems that are perpetuated by marketing systems through examining the ways the external environment can be targeted.

The authors used an extended socio-ecological model to provide a framework for social marketers to combat climate change through the food system in the external environment.

The socio-ecological model is extended to examine how social marketers can influence the micro and macro environment through targeting the physical structure, economic, political and socio-cultural environment of desirable (sustainable) and undesirable (unsustainable) food products.

The authors highlight that social marketers should focus on the various ways the external environment at multiple levels can be targeted to produce systemic change.

This paper broadens the current macro-social marketing knowledge by providing a framework to analyse where and how change can be affected at the various levels of society.

Points out that the topic of performance measurement (PM) has received a lot of attention in recent years, with many competing PM models vying for management attention, and recently much of the literature on PM has been summarized in a taxonomic framework by Ballantine and Brignall (1995). Drawing on this taxonomy, describes research which updates the original model for PM in services developed by Fitzgerald et al. (1991), as summarized by Brignall et al. in the November 1991 issue of Management Accounting (UK). Shows that the new model considers PM at all levels of a business, not just at the strategic business unit (SBU) level, and makes propositions relevant to PM system design including information technology (IT) aspects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore accounting students' perceived usefulness of case studies in Malaysia, which has a more passive learning environment, and if gender, prior academic performance and prior exposure to case studies influenced students' perceptions.

A questionnaire survey on students' perceived usefulness of case studies based on Weil et al. was used with final-year students enrolled in an advanced management accounting course. The data were gathered over two semesters in 2006/2007.

Findings reveal that generally students felt that the case method was very useful and gave them numerous benefits. However, there were no significant differences in the perceived usefulness of case studies across gender and prior academic performance. Some differences were observed between students with prior exposure to case studies and students without such exposure, in that students without prior exposure perceived higher benefits of case studies.

The study showed that students in a passive learning environment generally find case studies to be very beneficial.

The case approach should be used more extensively and introduced earlier in accounting undergraduate programmes.

This study is one of very few studies which have investigated students' perceived usefulness of case studies, in a developing country, Malaysia, where a more passive learning environment exists – addressing an important gap in the accounting education literature.

The aim of this paper is to report on the development and implementation of two student-centred teaching approaches, not usually thought to be appropriate for large group situations. These projects involved adapting teaching methods to facilitate a move away from the conventional lecturer-centred approach (the “chalk-and-talk” of earlier generations) and to respond to an environment challenged by the perpetually changing requirements of professional bodies, increasingly large classes and high student-staff ratios.

Two student-centred projects were implemented at a South African residential university in the discipline of auditing, and the topic of general controls in the information technology (IT) environment was addressed. This study reports on two cycles of the development and implementation of the projects following an action research methodology.

It was found that “non-standard” teaching practices can be implemented successfully and that active student involvement, even in a large class environment, is achievable and is therefore recommended, not least because this could positively impact on students’ overall skills development. The action research methodology was successfully used to incorporate changes, enforced by the challenges accounting academics are faced with.

Limitations associated with this study are that it was conducted at only one South African university, and that it was in a specific and technical topic within the single field of auditing. The study also did not measure whether deep or surface learning had taken place. As various factors contribute to learning, it was also not possible to report on whether positive changes to students’ normal learning processes have been achieved as a result of the initiatives.

The contribution this study makes is twofold. First, it adds to the field of accounting education research by indicating that student-centred projects can successfully address the abovementioned challenges faced by accounting academics. Second, it demonstrates that action research, as a methodology for examining and developing accounting education, can be used effectively by academics to improve their teaching practices.

The purpose of this paper is to design and test an online team intervention for university students, focusing on communication, leadership and team processes, to influence team cohesion and subsequently team assignment performance. It was administered twice as a formative feedback measure and once as a summative evaluation measure across a semester.

Survey data were collected from 154 university students across four management modules in a large Australian university. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses and open-ended questions were used to understand why the team intervention was effective.

The results showed that the implementation of an effective team intervention leads to higher levels of team cohesion and subsequently team performance. Open-ended responses revealed that the team intervention caused students to develop team-based sills and increase regular contributions.

In order to develop positive team behaviours amongst students in group assignments and increase the effectiveness of team-based learning activities, educators should implement a regular and process focused team contribution intervention, like the one proposed in this study.

This research contributes to the team intervention literature by drawing on the social information processing perspective, to demonstrate how an intervention that is based on the students’ social processing, task focused, regular implementation and formative feedback has a salient effect over team cohesion.

This paper provides a review and synthesis of past research regarding financial disclosure management by nongovernmental nonprofit organizations and suggests directions for future study. The primary purpose of this review is to summarize the evidence on financial disclosure management to help regulators and other stakeholders understand why, how, and to what extent nonprofits engage in this behavior. The paper begins by defining disclosure management in nonprofit organizations and exploring the motivations for why it might occur. Next is a survey of the nongovernmental nonprofit financial reporting environment: objectives, common practices, and the informational needs of users of nonprofit financial reports. Research exploring the motives, methods, and consequences of disclosure management is summarized. The evidence suggests that nongovernmental nonprofit managers have a variety of incentives to manage reported numbers and that they do in fact alter spending decisions, choose accounting methods, and design cost allocations to achieve certain performance benchmarks. Furthermore, this review sheds light on the consequences of disclosure management and what can or should be done to limit it.

The idea that education should be made relevant to students is long-standing and pervasive in American society. Recently, motivation scientists have clarified important characteristics of students’ relevance beliefs, ways to intervene, and individual characteristics moderating intervention effects. Yet, there has been little consideration of the role of situational constraints and sociocultural influences on students’ relevance appraisal processes. We describe how societal changes and broader educational purposes affect the issues that students consider to be relevant to their educational experiences and the values they subsequently attribute to their studies. After differentiating components of relevance and highlighting ways in which particular components may be influenced by changing sociocultural milieus, we consider the implications of these processes for the development of subjective task value beliefs. Specifically, we show how the proposed model of relevance helps to parse out aspects of relevance appraisals that can be used to differentiate between components of subjective task value and argue that there is need to expand current models proposed in expectancy-value theory (EVT). Finally, we explore how recent global events may impact the social construction of educational relevance and constrain students’ developing beliefs about the value of their educational opportunities and implications for future research and educators.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the extent to which a case study developed by a financial institution and completed within a collaborative learning environment can be used to develop soft skills.

A questionnaire research instrument comprising open and closed response questions was used to collect the data.

The case study developed by the external stakeholder was found to be useful in developing soft skills. The primary skills identified by respondents were decision-making, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication and research ability. However, the respondents believed that the collaborative learning element had the greatest impact on the development of skills, particularly ethical behaviour, professionalism and personal attributes.

The results are not generalisable beyond the scope of the particular higher education institution in which the study was conducted and the country in which the study was situated. Additionally, this paper measured soft skills development through perceptions of participating students. An objective measurement of students’ immediate soft skills improvement is not considered. Nonetheless, the findings provide guidance to educators on how a case study developed by a financial institution and completed within a collaborative learning environment can be used to develop soft skills.

The paper makes three contributions. The first is to detail how a real-world case study with a substantial technical component can be used to develop soft skills. Second, the paper contributes to the real-world case study and collaborative learning elements literature and ascertains the effectiveness of both methods in developing various soft skills. Finally, the paper contributes to the limited literature on how external stakeholders can become involved in the development of accounting curriculum content.