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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of voluntary disclosures in UK higher education institutions’ (HEIs) annual reports and examine whether internal governance structures influence disclosure in the period following major reform and funding constraints.

The authors adopt a modified version of Coy and Dixon’s (2004) public accountability index, referred to in this paper as a public accountability and transparency index (PATI), to measure the extent of voluntary disclosures in 130 UK HEIs’ annual reports. Informed by a multi-theoretical framework drawn from public accountability, legitimacy, resource dependence and stakeholder perspectives, the authors propose that the characteristics of governing and executive structures in UK universities influence the extent of their voluntary disclosures.

The authors find a large degree of variability in the level of voluntary disclosures by universities and an overall relatively low level of PATI (44 per cent), particularly with regards to the disclosure of teaching/research outcomes. The authors also find that audit committee quality, governing board diversity, governor independence and the presence of a governance committee are associated with the level of disclosure. Finally, the authors find that the interaction between executive team characteristics and governance variables enhances the level of voluntary disclosures, thereby providing support for the continued relevance of a “shared” leadership in the HEIs’ sector towards enhancing accountability and transparency in HEIs.

In spite of significant funding cuts, regulatory reforms and competitive challenges, the level of voluntary disclosure by UK HEIs remains low. Whilst the role of selected governance mechanisms and “shared leadership” in improving disclosure, is asserted, the varying level and selective basis of the disclosures across the surveyed HEIs suggest that the public accountability motive is weaker relative to the other motives underpinned by stakeholder, legitimacy and resource dependence perspectives.

This is the first study which explores the association between HEI governance structures, managerial characteristics and the level of disclosure in UK HEIs.

The purpose of this paper is to present an interview with professor and noted author Roger Martin discussing three major topics— the future of capitalism, better executive decision making and innovations that boost customer value – all at the heart of current executive concerns.

The paper presents Martin's view, – that modern capitalism has come through two major eras over the last century, managerial capitalism (1930s to 1970s) and shareholder capitalism (1980s to 2000s). He argues that the time has come to embark on a new era, the era of “customer capitalism” and explains why.

In answer to another set of questions, Martin provides his own insight into one of the management field's most elusive and intriguing questions: what is the essence of outstanding leadership, particularly at the CEO level? His research has led him to the finding that exceptional leaders are distinguished most by the way they think, by their capacity for what he calls “integrative thinking.”

To a third set of questions, Martin offers his own solution to one of the major challenges facing senior executives today, how to become more innovative, not only in products and process, but also in the area of business management itself. His answer – executives should look to the concept of “design thinking” and learn how to apply it more widely to processes like strategy development and business model innovation.

Roger Martin believes that the shareholder value system has been rigged to the detriment of stockholders, that great managers are distinguished by how they think before they decide what to do and that design thinking is a key competitive competency. Martin offers groundbreaking ways to think about leading and management.

Cultural criminologists have long been interested in the politics of crime and deviance, whether that be in relation to youth subculture resistance or the social reaction to transgression evident in the media construction of folk devils and moral panics. While contemporary ‘new’ cultural criminology continues to be focused on the situated experience of deviant ‘edgeworkers’, this chapter argues cultural criminology’s concern with the crime-media nexus provides particularly fertile ground for exploring insights provided by activists, academics, professional journalists and citizen journalists around informal interventions on formal criminal justice processes using social media and digital technologies. Drawing on examples from a burgeoning body of crime-media research, the chapter makes a case for ‘cultural criminology activism’, which, like activist criminology, is consciously disengaged from mainstream criminology’s alignment with the neoliberal-carceral state and its reformist agenda.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the degree of maturity in performance measurement in a national group of universities.

A model for identifying the level of performance measurement maturity in an organisation was identified; this model consisted of seven constructs. A survey consisting of Likert-scale items derived from the maturity model was then administered to academic and administrative staff at New Zealand’s eight universities.

The survey showed a relatively high use of performance measurement (usage index 3.47/5), and strong alignment of strategy and performance measurement (strategy index 3.95/5). Research output measures were the most commonly used by academics, whereas measures relating to community service and third role activities were used least. Multiple significant differences between academics and administrators were identified, with the degree of support for performance measurement a particular area of contrast. The overall degree of performance measurement maturity identified was higher than found in similar studies utilising documentary methods.

Performance measurement in higher education is a controversial subject and there has been relatively little research into the basics of how, and how well, universities utilise the approach. This exploratory study helps fill the gap and provides a basis for more detailed research.

It is commonly acknowledged that history matters in strategy. However, the strategy literature mainly discusses history in terms of path dependency, leaving little room for managerial agency, despite growing anecdotal evidence that managers can actively draw on corporate history to improve decision-making. An emerging literature on how managers use the past to give sense to internal and external stakeholders has given rise to a more agent-based approach to history, but while sense-giving is commonly connected to sense-making as a driver of strategic change, the role of history in sense-making remains unexplored. Drawing on the concept of analogical reasoning, this chapter theorizes the connection between corporate archives and managerial sense-making, arguing that analogies drawn from past experience can reduce uncertainty and foster learning. This theory leads to the suggestion that consulting the corporate archive can promote strategic renewal and thus boost performance.

The purpose of this paper is to extend conceptually the context of service beyond service encounters and servicescapes by applying a service-ecosystem approach to context and experiential view on value.

We develop a conceptual framework of an extended service context that is based on an S-D logic, service-ecosystems view.

The service ecosystem approach proposed here contributes to the advancement of “services” marketing research by extending the context of service in two ways: its emphasis on service as the basis of all exchange allows the consideration of all instances of value-in-use, in-context, to be considered as a service experience; its conceptualization of context broadens the time/place dimensions that conventionally restrain research in service encounters and servicescapes beyond physical, social, symbolic and relational dimensions to consider the multiplicity of institutions across a wider socio-historic space.

This paper offers a broad conceptual framework for considering an extended view of service context. Future research is needed, both conceptual and empirical, to identify more specific components of service context and how they influence evaluations of experience.

Extending the scope of service context draws attention to the participation of customers and other actors in the co-creation of the service context, as well as the experience. This points toward the need to consider the competences and skills of customers as well as their socio-historic perspective in the design and development of a servicescape or more specific service encounter.

We offer a dynamic perspective of service context to help further the reach of services marketing research by extending the context of service across a variety of exchange encounters and pointing toward institutions as a central influence on phenomenological views of experience.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the internal performance management of UK universities.

Semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with numerous staff within each university, attendance at key meetings and reviews of documentation. Grounded Theory was adopted to analyse the information obtained to understand how the strategy and accounting interacted with performance systems in the universities studied.

An amorphous, decoupled system was identified with poor feedback loops resulting in a lack of accountability and ownership of the system.

The research reported on the experiences of two universities through case study analysis. Further research is required to understand the extent to which the issues reported here are more widespread and the implications of such.

The paper suggests that the challenge for policy makers/university management is to facilitate a change in the managerial weltanshauung to one where the environment is more conducive to performance management in a constructive manner

The notion of managerial weltanshauung in universities is developed and discussed in relation to nurturing performance management. The paper will be of interest to university managers and policy makers.

Martins and Terblanche developed a theoretical framework of the organisational factors that support creativity and innovation, and the current study aims to provide an empirical test of this framework.

Based on a review of existing literature on national culture and previous research into Polish organisations, we developed hypotheses as to the likely position of Polish organisations on these four dimensions. These predictions were tested via a survey of Polish managers from a diverse range of companies.

The key findings related to ownership – partly or fully foreign‐owned companies operating in Poland appeared to be much more enabling of creativity and innovation than their wholly Polish‐owned counterparts.

Nicholson suggested that Polish businesses would benefit greatly from the adoption of at least some western methods, but that there would be significant constraints to their adoption. This research strongly supports this, but being based solely on a Polish sample, requires further research in order to be able to make direct comparison between firms in Poland and firms elsewhere.

One conclusion of this study is that Polish organisations can draw significant benefits from further effective assimilation of western management philosophy and methods.

This paper contributes to the growing literature on organisational determinants of innovation, and on the transfer of western methods to the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. It offers insights of interest to managers in Polish businesses and to potential investors in Poland.

The Internet is becoming more widely used by academic institutions to support the learning and teaching activities of students and academic staff. Whilst this is a very efficient mechanism, it is, arguably, important that there are adequate controls in place to ensure that the information is not libellous, defamatory, inaccurate, illegal or inappropriate. The interactivity of the Internet, the immediacy of access to its contents and the public accessibility to much of its information, however, do provide a different operating environment and therefore different audit and control issues arise. This paper discusses the roles and concerns of a range of stakeholders and suggests that the control mechanisms might be failing, or might not be adequately policed in practice. A number of examples are provided where the manner in which controls are put in place do not operate effectively, or where there may be control loops that are open‐ended. For each of the stakeholder groups that are identified, an account is given of the use to which the Internet is put and where regulation currently exists or may be desirable.

The technique of ABC has been widely adopted by universities in the UK, with the assumption that the more accurate identification of costs makes them more manageable. It is the purpose of this paper to consider this question of manageability through identification and allocation in the university sector and to question this as a basis for decision making and resource allocation. The type of costing systems in place in an organisation must meet the needs of the organisation as a whole and there are a number of factors that will affect the type of costing system that is required and there are a number of costing systems that can be used. This paper considers the use of ABC within a university and whether school costing and course costing can meet the requirements of a university facing a challenging business environment where a significant amount of pressure is being exerted on the financial stability of some universities. In doing so the ability of ABC to satisfy the informational requirements of a university is called into question.