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The purpose of this paper is to propose a national framework for promoting business excellence (NFPBE) using a quality management assessment framework (QMAF) with information knowledge communication (IKC) as an enabler.

The NFPBE using the plan–do–check–act (PDCA) cycle is developed, re-enforcing key quality management aspects/areas including national quality awards, QMAF summary and national innovation programmes using a meta-analysis.

The operationalising of the NFPBE is enabled and supported by an auditing tool to assess the degree of mentoring provided by universities/research institutions/consulting firms to participating firms whose progress will be assessed by the QMAF. It was emphasised that the success of the framework requires the buy-in of national governments to support the programme through stimulus incentives such as government assistance with the costs of research and development, and cooperative research ventures between universities and companies.

The framework is conceptualised into a process flowchart, which is a blueprint to advancing business excellence in organisations at a national scale. The study is limited to only the conceptualisation of the framework. Therefore, an extended study of the framework implementation/application is required for revealing implementation guidelines.

The national framework has a propensity to enhancing the business excellence of organisations at a national level. Therefore, quality managers and policy makers could use the framework to understand the quality management shortfalls and consider strategies to achieving business excellence.

This research study proposed a blueprint to advancing quality excellence in organisations at a national level, guided by several quality frameworks.

This study aims to examine whether accountability and culture have an impact on auditors’ professional scepticism. It also examines whether culture moderates the effect of accountability on auditors’ professional scepticism.

Three of the Big 4 firms in Australia and Egypt participated in an audit judgement experiment, which required them to indicate their beliefs about the risk of fraud and error at the planning stage of a hypothetical audit and evaluate the truthfulness of explanations provided by the client management. The authors examined whether their professional scepticism was influenced by accountability.

The results indicate professional scepticism differs significantly between cultures in some situations. The fact that culture influences scepticism suggests that even when auditors use the same standards (such as ISA 240 and ISA 600), they are likely to be applied inconsistently, even within the same firm. The authors, therefore, recommend that international bodies issue additional guidance on cultural values and consider these cultural differences when designing or adopting auditing standards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines whether culture moderates the impact of accountability on auditors’ professional scepticism using Egyptian and Australian (Middle Eastern and Western) auditors. Prior literature suggests that individuals subject to accountability pressure increase their cognitive effort and vigilance to detect fraud and error. As the authors find evidence that culture moderates accountability pressure and as accountability affects scepticism, they add to the literature suggesting that culture can influence professional scepticism.

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems surrounding the operational performance of health care foodservice systems and provide a comprehensive comparison and analysis of the performance of all the different types of foodservice systems. The paper seeks to show that research addressing the operational performance of health care foodservice systems is subjective and outdated.

Discussion with foodservice managers, coupled with a review of the literature, was undertaken to determine the variables of operational performance in the different types of foodservice systems. Statistical analysis was then used to determine the areas of difference between the systems based on a sample of 90 hospital foodservice operations.

Results showed significant differences between the systems with regard to critical variables such as labor, skill level of employees and size of the production area. However, no significant differences were found for other variables such as food and energy costs.

Hospital foodservice managers are under increased pressure to reduce the operational costs of their departments while maintaining high productivity. Findings from this study should allow foodservice directors to distinguish between the operational performance of the different foodservice systems and as result introduce the system that best suits their individual hospital.

The determination of critical variables and comparison of foodservice systems using all the operational variables address significant gaps in the literature. These findings should also reduce the subjectivity in the systems' comparison, and contribute to better decisions in the selection of a particular system.