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This research aims to examine and understand the rationales and modalities behind the use of disclosure before, during and after a corporate governance scandal involving CPA Australia (CPAA).

Data beyond CPAA's annual reports were collected, such as news articles, media releases, an independent review panel (IRP) report, and the Chief Operating Officer's letter to members. These disclosures were manually coded and analysed through the word counts and word trees in NVivo. This study also relied on Norbert Elias' conceptual tool of power games among networks of actors – figurations – to model the scandal as a power game between the old Board, the press, concerned members, the IRP and the new Board. This study analysed the data to reveal a collective and in fieri power balance that changed with the phases of the scandal.

A mix of voluntary, involuntary, requested and absent disclosures was important in triggering, managing and ending the CPAA scandal. Moreover, communication and disclosure fulfilled a constitutive role since both: mobilised actors, enabled coordination among actors, contributed to pursuing shared goals and influenced power balances. Such a constitutive role was at the heart of the ability of coalitions of figurations to challenge and restore the powerful status quo.

This research introduces to accounting studies the collective and in fieri dimensions of power from figurational theory. Moreover, the research sheds new light on using voluntary, involuntary, requested and absent disclosures before, during and after a corporate crisis.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that synergy between firms and local institutions may lead to success even in an economic environment which cannot offer competitive advantages to high tech industrial clustering. However, the condition for such a complex result is convergence between cluster‐based regional development policy, the related industry national strategy and the central government preferential policy for less developed areas.

The experiences selected as case studies are the Xi'an National Civil Aerospace Base in Shaanxi Province (China) and CampaniAerospace in Campania region (Italy). As information was gathered both through policy documents (China and Italy) and direct interviews to cluster's stakeholders (Italy), the outcome is, according to the criteria suggested by Eisenhardt and Yin, a qualitative research. Comparing economic data provided by the respective countries' Statistical Offices, the authors assessed that Shaanxi Province and the Campania region share a “peripheral” position within their respective national context. Starting from this, the authors analyzed the formal documents which reported the experience of the two clusters.

The finding is that the outcome (the status of cluster which is assumed as “a value in itself”) of the convergence between firms' will to gain agglomeration advantages and the policymakers' plan to redress interregional economic disparities is definitely not an efficiency‐driven process. In the high tech sectors which are very sensitive to the increasing competition for technology on the international market, the pursuit of efficiency may, on the contrary, be dissipated.

As attested by the comparative literature, aims and performance of industrial clusters differ in accordance with the stage of economic development as well as the institutional and regulatory framework. The paper demonstrates, however, that in the take‐off stage, it is the position occupied by the host region within the national context which determines the behaviour of the actors concerned as well as the outcome of their commitment.

Standard treatments of the field emission problem typically rely on approximations to the evaluation of the Transmission Coefficient (TC). Recently, the Wigner Distribution Function (WDF) has been applied to this problem. In this paper, fast, accurate, and efficient numerical algorithms for each are presented and compared to each other and to traditional WKB and Fowler Nordheim approaches for silicon field emission. As each approach admits a trajectory interpretation, the methods for incorporating each into a larger Ensemble Particle Monte Carlo (EPMC) simulation of quantum transport are briefly discussed.

With an objective to measure the quality of service provided at Indian railway stations, the purpose of this paper is to propose a method that indicates the level of importance and satisfaction which other known methods of service quality assessment do not clearly provide. In total, six attributes related to passenger services of an Indian railway station are considered. Prioritization of the attributes for improvement of service quality can be decided based on the proposed method.

The Law of Categorical Judgment is used to determine levels of importance and levels of satisfaction of disaggregated passenger groups and passengers as a whole. The law is applied to the responses obtained, using a Likert scale, to the six attributes through random passenger survey of different groups at Howrah Railway Station, a major railway terminal in eastern India. The objective is to check the difference in importance levels and satisfaction levels and then prioritize for improvement accordingly.

The findings are based on the responses of passengers to the questions designed for the purpose of assessing the service quality based on six different attributes. Analysis of results shows that both the levels of importance, as well as satisfaction, can be assessed by the Law of Categorical Judgment. The results indicate that passengers are mostly dissatisfied with “extent of waiting”; thereafter, there is a desire for further improvement of the “security” system. The “travel associated facilities” such as Automated Teller Machine and use of cashless facilities at ticket counters; and “passenger amenities” such as station furniture and refreshment room have also been ranked higher in terms of need for improvements.

The work excludes some of the intangible service aspects such as behaviour, friendliness, managerial skills, etc.

The designed methodology helps in making decisions on levels of service, which is a better indicator of the service quality, particularly for public services such as railway stations.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the influences of the animal fat and fatty acid type on the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and to propose a formation mechanism of PAHs in fat during electric roasting, which is a method of non-direct-contact-flame heating.

The effects of animal fats and model fat on the formation of PAHs were valued on the basis of the ultra high-performance liquid chromatography data. The corresponding products of the FAME pyrolysis were detected by TG-FTIR. The proposal formation mechanism of PAHs was based on the summary of the literature.

Contrary to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, DF had higher risk with 280.53 ng/g of concentration after being roasted than the others animal fats of red meat in terms of PAHs formation. This research also ensured the importance of fat on PAHs formation, the concentration of PAHs in pure fats was higher after being electric roasted than that in meat patties and juice which made from corresponding animal fat. What is more, during pure animal fats and meat products being processed, less PAHs formed in the fat with lower extent of unsaturation and lower content of linolenate. In the same way, methyl linolenate demonstrated the significant increasement to PAHs formation compared to the other fatty acids. And, the number of carbon atom and the extent of unsaturation in fatty acid affects the formation of PAHs during roasting. The detection of alkene and alkane allows to propose a formation mechanism of PAHs during model fat being heated. Further study is required to elucidate the confirm moleculars during the formation of PAHs.

This work studied the effect of the carbon atom number and the unsaturation extent of fats and model fats on the formation of PAHs. This work also assure the important of alkene and alkane on the pyrolysis of model fats. This study also researched the formation and distribution of PAHs in pure fats and meat products after being heated.

Public reports of provider-specific patient outcomes aim to help consumers select suppliers of medical services. Yet, in an environment of rapidly changing medical technology and increasingly heterogeneous patient populations, and because they necessarily reflect the experience of other patients who received care in the past, such reports may be of limited value in helping patients forecast the probability of an adverse outcome for each provider they are considering. I propose that providers underwrite insurance policies that promptly pay patients a predetermined sum after an adverse outcome. Patients can use such outcome warranties to infer quality differences among providers easily and reliably. In addition, outcome warranties efficiently reward both providers and patients for reducing the risk of adverse outcomes and thereby improve the safety and affordability of health care. As such, outcome warranties help advance four important goals of health care management: reduction of financial risk, recruitment and retention of physicians, remediation of adverse outcomes, and raising the provider's reputation.

Leadership.

The case is suitable for MBA, Executive level courses.

Yongye Group is a biotechnological enterprise in Inner Mongolia, China. In China, people lack trust in economic transactions due to the transitional state of the economy, especially regarding food safety. To respond to this situation, Wu Zishen, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Yongye Group, was determined to build trust among employees, distributors, farmers, and consumers towards the company. To this end, he started using a creative incentive system with employees and stakeholders: the pay-before-performance incentive system. According to this system, the reward is delivered in advance, contrary to be paid after the fulfillment of the task. This practice is meant to transform employees' work attitude from a passive “being told to work” to a more proactive “I want to work” mentality. When such an incentive system is practiced with customers and external distributors, it sends a message that the company is “treating customers as company employees”, which means that they are trusted as if they were part of the company itself. Wu Zishen also introduced a coherent series of leadership practices that generate a truly proactive culture in the organization.

From this case, students will learn how to create a proactive culture in business organizations and the effect of pay-before-performance on employees' work motivation.

Teaching notes and an exercise for class-based discussion are available.

Working collaboratively with local business is vitally important in the delivery of higher education (HE) in further education (FE). The purpose of this paper is to explore an effective way of engaging local employers to enhance the employability skills of students through a closely monitored and supported mentoring relationship. The project was developed in order to address the employability needs of final year business students at a HE facility offered by a college situated in the North West of England.

Qualitative data were collected through the use of reflective journals and a series of focus groups with mentors and mentees.

Overall both mentors and mentees reported positive responses to the mentoring scheme. From the mentees point of view self-confidence, employability skills and networks were enhanced. Mentors reported satisfaction in contributing to the local community. Challenges were found in matching mentors with appropriate mentees. A perceived poor match negatively affected the relationship. Mentors reported that mentees lacked career direction and seemed to have limited understanding of what was expected in the mentoring process.

The scope of this study is one mentoring scheme in one institution and therefore has limited generalisability. However, there are implications for the development of further mentoring schemes in other institutions in the UK and beyond.

This mentoring scheme was carried out in FE that offers HE courses in a northern town with above average levels of unemployment and with a diverse ethnic population. The scheme involves senior managers volunteering to support business undergraduates.

Enhancing student opportunity and providing an outstanding learning experience within an increasingly competitive market requires a multifaceted approach to learning. This paper aims to show how a social enterprise initiative can help students differentiate their offering to the workplace and in doing so develop skills that promote elegant self-management.

The research is a continuous project to gather data to evaluate on the effectiveness of enterprise activities and will incorporate both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, through what is largely an action research study.

This paper presents one approach to the challenge of student engagement, by encouraging choice and being proactive in adding value to CV's, through student led practical initiatives. Lecturers assist in managing student expectation and embedding realism; the realism of the need for transferable employability skills, and the challenges and opportunities faced during times of change. By enthusing students (and feedback suggests this is happening in our current project) a virtuous circle is created, manifested in increased graduate student employment and a competitive edge.

This is an experiential project of creating an enterprise committee which enhances the learning experience, teaches students how to take theory and apply it in real situations, and builds their confidence. By linking vocational and reflective modules’ to entrepreneurial skills, a balance is struck not just between academia and employability but also work and life, addressing the contemporary challenge of not just teaching students business theory or employability skills but of practical self-management.