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Scholars and practitioners agree that governance practices are at the core of what differentiates family firms from other forms of business. Yet, there is a lack of consensus in the extant literature about how and the extent to which family governance affects firm performance. This study aims to address the matter by taking a more comprehensive unified systems perspective to explore the pathways through which variations in family governance mechanisms simultaneously affect both the business and the family system.

This study utilises a global dataset sourced from a survey and structural equation modelling to empirically measure several intermediate and final outcomes of family governance.

This study finds that the use of family protocols, as well as formal and informal meetings, have positive effects on the functioning of the family, whereas family involvement in the top management team diminishes the firm's competitive advantage. In turn, this study demonstrates that both family functioning and competitive advantage are positively related to firm performance.

By taking into consideration the complexity of the family and business systems, and measuring their interlinkages, this study advances knowledge by providing a more complete picture of the family governance/firm performance relationship.

This paper presents an approach for developing critical skills necessary for competition in the future. The study combines the methodology of designing scenarios with the methodology of defining competencies by a transition from future scenarios to skills, based on product scenarios. Product scenarios indicate concrete alternative future products that are key sources for identifying future skills. The approach has been applied to the security equipment sector in Turkey. The product, closed circuit television (CCTV) system is chosen to illustrate the process.

The selection of the optimal process target for a manufacturing process is critically important as it directly affects the defect rate, rejection and rework costs, and the loss to customers. A recent review of process target literature suggests that future work should incorporate models using multiple quality characteristics. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to create a more flexible and realistic approach to solving the multi‐response process target problem.

A design of experiments methodology is proposed to provide estimates of process parameters and a nonlinear constrained optimization scheme is employed to identify optimal settings.

The approximation of cost savings undoubtedly has a higher degree of accuracy than in the case where the engineer assumes values for the process parameters. Furthermore, greater flexibility is obtained in finding solutions that support both the manufacturer and the customer.

This methodology relies on controlled experimentation and the replication of observations made on multiple nominal‐the‐best quality characteristics. Future research may include examining the effects of using smaller‐the‐better or larger‐the‐better type characteristics.

Unlike traditional attempts at solving the process target problem where the process mean, variance, and covariance between characteristics are assumed known in advance, this paper uses an approach that removes these assumptions, thereby providing a more practical depiction of the overall system. Furthermore, this methodology broadens the scope of process target problem research by seeking the simultaneous optimization of process parameters and considering a loss in quality attributed to deviation from a target value.

The application of massive open online courses (MOOCs) helps integrate sustainable development goals (SDGs) into architectural curricula. The essence of MOOC development is building an education platform that promotes the sharing and continuing of global education resources.

This study establishes a four-dimensional evaluation model based on the four characteristics of MOOCs. The quadrilateral area evaluation method is used to create an evaluation radar chart to comprehensively evaluate satisfaction and demand in the traditional teaching model of architectural technology. This study discusses whether the curriculum is suitable for the development of MOOCs and how to optimize the sustainable pedagogical mode according to its characteristics to meet future teaching needs and realize the sustainable development of education.

Satisfaction evaluation found that current education is not open enough from the students' perspective; therefore, MOOCs enhance students' participation and significantly reduce future learning costs. Through demand evaluation, it was found that both teachers and students believed that the lack of direct and effective communication between them and the difficulty in ensuring the learning effect were problems that must be addressed in MOOCs.

This study focused on the sustainability of MOOCs in curriculum development. It emphasizes the combination of MOOCs' teaching modes and the course itself and provides specific guidance and suggestions for improving the course. It uses an evaluation method for objective analysis and visualization.

This paper aims to demonstrate that virtual project management can be based on a common spirit and mutual trust to achieve project objectives, rather than the use of modern electronic devices to lower communication costs.

Evidence from the eighteenth-century files of Academies of Science and from astronomical literature is used to characterize the projects and to show how major elements of project management (such as identification of benefits to stakeholders, management of uncertainties, communication and data aggregation across related projects) were applied.

The analysis shows how the initiative to better measure the Astronomical Unit defined a megaproject, and how this was broken down at local Academies of Science into major projects or programs. This, in turn, resulted in individual expeditions. It demonstrates that innovations arose from the projects, and that learning from earlier expeditions resulted in the final success of the megaproject.

The literature used was not written to demonstrate project management. In this respect, both the original sources and the later reports may lack information with respect to the present topic. Today’s project management might learn from the study that coordination and communication can greatly benefit from a joint vision of the project if based on a common spirit and mutual trust.

Present day project management might benefit from the finding that common values reduce communication costs in a similar way as recent electronic communication devices.

The author believes that this is the first paper to analyze the Venus transit projects from the project management perspective. This was a complex and global megaproject. The approaches taken to achieve the objectives relevant to different stakeholders provide lessons for today’s management of megaprojects.

To achieve long-term customer retention a comprehensive and individual performance is increasingly important for companies from the manufacturing industry. A possibility to meet this challenge is given by Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of a current study on quality management for IPS².

After a short introduction to the topic of IPS² the paper takes the study design as its structure. It gives an overview of the demography and results of the study and ends with a conclusion.

Concerning the choice of products and services the results show that customer individual performances prevail. Closely related to that is the tender of services, which are meanwhile a part of the performance offer in all industries. All in all there are already first types of IPS². The quality perception exceeds the conformance of specific requirements. Reliability and perceived quality are becoming increasingly important. An integration of customers into the quality management is the exception. Regarding the quality management in value creation chains it can be outlined that quality goals are mostly company-wide but not for the entire value creation chain. Cross-company standardized processes exist in least cases. This also applies to cross-linked CAQ-systems. Communication of quality problems is handled mainly via e-mail. Quality management in value creation chains needs a common buildup of competencies by joint trainings. In practice it is barely there. Even if the potential is seen, partners and suppliers mostly will not be considered.

The paper considers the study results from different angles and shows the potentials of the IPS² approach. Thereby it investigates different approaches to offer a combined product-service system.

This paper discusses the institutionalists' economic thought and how they saw the role of property rights in economic development. It points out that the role of various institutions in the economic performance of many developing countries cannot be ignored. One of the important institutional factors in many developing countries and transitional economies is the nature and definition of property rights. This paper therefore addresses the impact of property rights on overall economic performance of a country and more specifically on agricultural production and on the conservation and management of the environment. It is generally agreed that property rights are a claim to a benefit stream where the state provides protection from others who may interfere with the benefit stream. Well‐defined property rights are considered vital for transitional economies which are undertaking major structural changes. The recent literature on property rights in transitional economies is largely concentrated on the former socialist and communist economies of Eastern Europe, which are embracing the market economy. However, this also has significant implications for many developing countries like Fiji which can also be considered as transitional economies. For Fiji the transition is from a highly protected, inward‐looking economy towards an export‐oriented economy. Getting the property rights “right” seems to be one of the major obstacles to economic reform agendas for many of the South Pacific countries including Fiji.

Organizations have become increasingly interested in developing their human resources. One tool that has been explored in this quest is mentoring. This has led to a surge in mentoring research and an increase in the number of formal mentoring programs implemented in organizations. This review provides a survey of the empirical work on mentoring that is organized around the major questions that have been investigated. Then a conceptual model, focused on formal mentoring relationships, is developed to help understand the mentoring process. The model draws upon research from a diverse body of literature, including interpersonal relationships, career success, training and development, and informal mentoring. Finally, a discussion of critical next steps for research in the mentoring domain is presented.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether audit committee characteristics influence the cost of equity capital.

Drawing on signalling theory, this study hypothesises that the presence of an AC with adequate characteristics serves as a market “signal” of the credibility of the effective monitoring process and hence affects the perception of capital providers on the cost of equity capital. The study uses a multiple regression analysis on data collected from a sample of top Australian listed firms.

The study finds that audit committee characteristics such as size, meeting frequency and independence are significantly and negatively associated with the cost of equity capital. However, there is no significant evidence that the financial qualifications of audit committee directors are associated with the cost of equity capital.

While there have been several studies examining the cost of equity capital, there is very limited research on the cost of capital in Australian firms. The study aims to fill this gap, in part, and contribute to the literature on corporate governance and signalling theory.

Conflicts between managers and outside auditors may exist in choosing alternative accounting procedures. Since auditors are appointed by the firm, they are subject to dismissal if divergent opinions cannot be resolved. To a lesser extent, financial reports are often negotiated. In order to produce unbiased financial reports, audit committee members are appointed to act independently in order to resolve conflicts between the managers and outside auditors. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of some audit committee characteristics, i.e. the independence of members, size, frequency of meeting and knowledge of the members, to monitor management behavior with respect to their incentives to manage earnings.

This paper uses discretionary accruals obtained from the established model as a signal of the presence of earnings management.

The evidence shows that the presence of a fully independent audit committee reduces earnings management practices. It was also found that firms which had more knowledgeable audit committee members and held more audit committee meetings recorded fewer earnings management practices compared with other firms.

This paper is different from prior studies, in that it makes a significant contribution towards enhancing one's knowledge in the interacting role of audit committee characteristics.