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The paper examines the relationship between board effectiveness and audit fees for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Furthermore, given the unique nature of SOEs, the paper assesses country-level influences, such as economic freedom, political democracy and protection of minority shareholders, which can impact board effectiveness and audit fees.

A combination of two-stage and ordinary least squares regression is used to examine the board characteristics-audit fee relationship for SOEs in a multinational setting during the period from 2016 to 2018.

The results indicate that board characteristics that represent a high level of effectiveness are associated with higher audit fees in SOEs. Furthermore, the findings suggest SOE's operating in countries evidencing medium levels of democracy and economic freedom and medium to high levels of protection of minority shareholders may be motivated to reduce agency conflicts by promoting accountability and transparency, thereby demanding increasing levels of corporate governance, monitoring and audit quality, thereby increasing audit fees.

The results provide further support for the OECD (2015) guidelines promoting the use of high-quality external audits in SOEs.

As a result of the scarceness of research in this area, the current study extends the literature by examining the role of corporate governance and audit fees in SOEs, while examining the influence of economic freedom, political democracy and protection of minority shareholders.

Notable Social Studies Trade Book (NSSTB) lists include books selected annually by the Book Review Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies in conjunction with the Children’s Book Council. These lists are excellent resources for teachers who use children’s literature to support social studies instruction in their classrooms. We report our analysis of award-winning titles for primary grades published from 2001-2011. Biographies and books that address topics about families are featured as a starting place for primary grades teachers to begin incorporating NSSTB into their social studies instruction. We conclude by suggesting ways for primary grade teachers to utilize the book lists each year.

MOST of us sometimes, I suppose, observe some small boy engrossed upon his youthful affairs and wonder what he'll become, what he'll make of himself or what life will make of him, and what sort of man he will be to look upon, after forty years. W. E. Henley has left us a self‐portrait of himself when young, topped by a broad‐ribanded leghorn, “antic in girlish broideries” and wearing “silly little shoes with straps,” carrying home a great treasure, a book—a Book with “agitating cuts of ghouls and genies;” and, for back‐ground to that picture from memory of the boy he was, are the docks of Gloucester thronged with galliots and luggers, brigantines and barques that came in those days “to her very doorsteps and geraniums.”

This article explores how digital exclusion measured by citizens' occasional social media use and their skeptical social media attitude may affect their satisfaction with democracy (SWD), which is critical for public engagement and democratic stability in Europe.

This study employs multilevel regression to test the hypotheses proposed in the context of Europe and uses cross-level data sources. Individual-level data, including social media use frequency and attitude and SWD, come from the 2012, 2014 and 2016 Eurobarometer surveys. Country-level data are derived from multiple pre-existing datasets.

The empirical results suggest that digital exclusion measured by occasional use and skeptical attitude are negatively associated with the likelihood of SWD. Additionally, the negative effect of a skeptical attitude increases in importance over time. Finally, although government transparency can mitigate the negative effect of a skeptical attitude, its role in mitigating the negative effect of occasional use is effective only in countries with moderate or low transparency levels.

This study preliminarily explores the direct, changing and conditional impacts of digital exclusion in social media on SWD. It also deepens our understanding of digital exclusion by differentiating between its physical and motivational aspects, which relate to public engagement and equity and then comparing their relative importance.

This paper aims to present a description of the development and implementation of a combined school- and community-based intervention for the prevention of overweight among children, using the combined methods of social marketing (SMk) and intervention mapping (IM).

The SMk total process planning (TPP) framework was used, a simple but robust framework that consists of five stages: scoping, development, implementation, evaluation and follow-up. In addition, IM tools were embedded in the development stage to strengthen the development element of the campaign.

The use of the SMk TPP framework led to the selection of one specific target segment and behaviour. IM tools helped to select the most important and modifiable determinants and behaviours in the target segment, as well as to select and appropriately apply theoretical methods for influencing determinant and behaviour change. The resulting “Water Campaign” was aimed at Turkish and Moroccan mothers and their 6-12-year-old-children (target segment). This intervention addresses the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages through the promotion of tap water drinking (target behaviour). The systematic involvement of key stakeholders resulted in capacity-building and co-creation.

A key finding of the present work is that the SMk TPP framework and IM tools can be successfully combined in intervention development, helping to develop enhanced interventions. Combining these methods led to a theory-based and client-oriented intervention, which was directed at multiple ecological levels and which systematically involved key stakeholders. With this detailed description of the intervention development, this paper aims to assist other researchers and practitioners in their quest to develop better interventions.