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21 – 30 of 673Johari Hussein Nassor Amar and Tanja Tyvimaa
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of beneficial externality generated by the World Heritage List (WHL) on residential property values in order to offer new…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of beneficial externality generated by the World Heritage List (WHL) on residential property values in order to offer new insights into heritage discourses.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses the hedonic price model to estimate empirically the difference in prices for residential properties located in the Old Rauma World Heritage. The study uses residential sales transaction data from the City of Rauma from January 2005 to September 2012 drawn from an online database called KVKL Hintaseurantapalvelu managed by the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies.
Findings
The research results indicate a positive, but insignificant, relationship between the property sale prices (euros/sqm) and heritage designation. However, the total sale prices are higher in Old Rauma as the properties are significantly larger in Old Rauma compared to other properties in Rauma.
Originality/value
Studies in heritage economics have assessed the influence of the property market on heritage listing and designation at either the national level, the local level or a mix of national/local levels. This paper contributes to the literature by analysing the impact of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) world heritage designation on residential property values. UNESCO is the leading global institution which deals with the protection of heritage sites that transcend national and local boundaries.
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Anthropology was a late‐comer to the Caribbean and only after World War II did the study of Caribbean culture and societies become less exceptional. Early in this century when…
Abstract
Anthropology was a late‐comer to the Caribbean and only after World War II did the study of Caribbean culture and societies become less exceptional. Early in this century when anthropology was first making itself over as an ethnographic science, anthropologists concentrated on tribal peoples. For most of the post‐Columbian era, the Caribbean region, with a few minor exceptions, was without indigenous tribal societies. Even after anthropology turned its attention to the study of peasantries, Caribbean peasantries were ignored in favor of more stable and tradition‐oriented peasant societies in other parts of Latin America. When anthropologists began to study Caribbean peoples in a more serious and systematic fashion, they found that they had to develop new concepts to explain the variation, flexibility, and heterogeneity that characterized regional culture. These concepts have had a significant impact on social and cultural theory and on the broader contemporary dialogue about cultural diversity and multiculturalism.
Austin Eggers and Jeffrey Hobbs
This study aims to make the reader aware of recent changes in the white supremacist movement and how such changes have altered the ways in which the movement can be combatted.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to make the reader aware of recent changes in the white supremacist movement and how such changes have altered the ways in which the movement can be combatted.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors study the movement in two periods: from 1970 to 2005 and from 2006 onward. The authors contrast the two periods and discuss the legal and financial issues within each.
Findings
The authors find that while legal concepts such as vicarious liability and respondeat superior apply today just as they did before, new tools are needed to fight the new means of financing the movement.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this study is the lack of quantitative data. Because the “alt-right” became popular around 2015, there has not been enough time for the construction of detailed data sets.
Practical implications
While many law papers have explored the white supremacist movement, the financing side has gone under-analyzed in scholarly research. This is important in light of the rise of the internet, online payment processors, cryptocurrencies and remote organizing and fundraising.
Social implications
The 2017 Charlottesville rally was organized and financed via podcasts, online forums, encrypted chats and anonymous payments. Since then, the movement has mostly gone underground and has become more violent and radical as many members have come to believe that marches and politics do not help them.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no papers in finance that deal extensively with this topic. The authors believe that the severity of the issue and the importance of its funding make this study a valuable source of information. The recent changes occurring within the movement are likely to become even more critical to its success or failure in the future.
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Harina Ndaba, Michael Harber and Warren Maroun
This paper explores how technical constructions of audit practice are influenced by mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR) regulations. The paper responds to calls for additional…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores how technical constructions of audit practice are influenced by mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR) regulations. The paper responds to calls for additional research on how external regulation influences audit quality and supplements the predominately quantitative research dealing specifically with firm rotation and its relevance for audit quality.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are collected from South Africa which is the latest jurisdiction to adopt MAFR (from 2017). Detailed interviews with 49 participants comprising 24 audit partners and 25 non-auditors are conducted to explore how MAFR can impact audit quality. For this purpose, audit quality is defined according to a schematic developed interpretively and based on professional auditing standards and the prior research on audit quality.
Findings
There is no guarantee that MAFR will bolster auditors' independence or contribute to a more thorough audit approach. On the contrary, the effort required by incoming audit firms to gain an understanding of new clients coupled with material tendering costs is expected to decrease the profitability of audit engagements with adverse implications for audit quality. A loss of client experience and staff retention challenges may contribute further to a decline in audit quality. There may be some improvements to audit practice when an incumbent firm's work is going to be scrutinised by a new auditor but audit methodologies, including the nature and extent of testing performed, are not expected to change significantly because of MAFR. In this way, the regulation may be a symbolic response to a perceived decline in audit quality and auditor independence rather than part of an effective strategy to encourage more rigorous audit practice for the benefit of the users of financial statements.
Originality/value
The current paper provides one of the first exploratory accountants of how MAFR is expected to impact audit practice and, in turn, audit quality. The research responds to the call for more field-work studies on the mechanics of the audit process by engaging directly with practitioners instead of relying on inferential testing of broad audit quality surrogates. The study also makes an important empirical contribution by providing primary evidence on how external regulation influences audit practice from a seldom studied African perspective.
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Michael Harber and Warren Maroun
This study aims to address an acknowledged gap in the literature for the analysis of experienced practitioner views on the effects and implications of mandatory audit firm…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to address an acknowledged gap in the literature for the analysis of experienced practitioner views on the effects and implications of mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR).
Design/methodology/approach
Using an exploratory and sequential design, data was collected from South African regulatory policy documents, organisational comment letters and semi-structured interviews of practitioners. These findings informed a field survey, administered to auditors, investors, chief financial officers (CFOs) and audit committee members of Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed companies.
Findings
Practitioners expressed considerable pushback against the potential efficacy of MAFR to improve audit quality due to various “switching costs”, notably the loss of client-specific knowledge and expertise upon rotation. In addition, the cost and disruption to both the client and audit firm are considered significant and unnecessary, compared to audit partner rotation. The audit industry may suffer reduced profitability and increased strain on partners, leading to a decline in the appeal of the profession as a career of choice. This is likely to have negative implications for audit industry diversity objectives. Furthermore, the industry may become more supplier-concentrated amongst the Big 4 firms.
Practical implications
The findings have policy implications for regulators deciding whether to adopt the regulation, as well as guiding the design of policies and procedures to mitigate the negative effects of adoption.
Originality/value
The participants are experienced with diverse roles concerning the use, preparation and audit of financial statements of large exchange-listed multinational companies, as well as engagement in the auditor appointment process. The extant literature presents mixed results on the link between MAFR and audit quality, with most studies relying on archival and experimental designs. These have a limited ability to identify and critique the potential’s witching costs and unintended consequences of the regulation. Experienced participants responsible for decision-making within the audit, audit oversight and auditor appointment process, are best suited to provide perspective on these effects, contrasted against the audit regulator’s position.
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Nicholas C. Williamson and Daniel C. Bello
The instability of the relationships which Export Management Companies have with their Manufacturer‐Suppliers is, perhaps, the most pressing problem which the EMCs have in their…
Abstract
The instability of the relationships which Export Management Companies have with their Manufacturer‐Suppliers is, perhaps, the most pressing problem which the EMCs have in their long‐term development as viable export marketing channel entities. Three different variables were empirically tested as possibly affecting the stability of EMC/M‐S relationships: (1) the “operating arrangement” which the EMC has with the M‐S; (2) whether or not the EMC “takes title” to products which it markets abroad; and (3) the size of a given M‐S's export sales generated by the EMC. All three variables were shown to affect the stability of the EMC/M‐S dyadic relationship.
Timur Uman, Daniela Argento, Giorgia Mattei and Giuseppe Grossi
This paper explores how public audit institutions establish themselves as distinct actors on the public stage through communication practices. By focussing on the journey of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores how public audit institutions establish themselves as distinct actors on the public stage through communication practices. By focussing on the journey of the European Court of Auditors (ECA), this paper addresses the following research question: how does a transnational audit institution construct its actorhood through visual communication practices?
Design/methodology/approach
Using the theoretical framework of actorhood theory and inspired by the visual accounting methodology, this study explores the ECA actorhood journey through the visual analysis of front pages of its official journal (ECA Journal) from its inception in 2009 up to 2019. The visual analysis is conducted through content analysis and a two-step cluster analysis.
Findings
By showing how combinations of different visual artefacts have evolved over time, this study highlights the ways transnational public audit institutions, such as the ECA, construct their actorhood and position themselves on the public stage. It further reveals the underlying legitimacy mechanisms through which organisations such as the ECA position themselves in the public eye.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the depiction of individuals and their contexts in interaction with each other and how this interaction reveals the development of the actorhood journey of the ECA over time.
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Recent years have seen a movement toward using active learning to ground professional development in classroom practice. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Abstract
Purpose
Recent years have seen a movement toward using active learning to ground professional development in classroom practice. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The present case study describes how a group of middle school mathematics teachers improved classroom instruction through the use of lesson study.
Findings
This case study suggests the success of the lesson study in supporting teachers’ active learning.
Originality/value
For the lesson study, teachers’ active learning is assessed across four dimensions.
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Najib Mahfuz is the first Arab‐language author to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Born in 1911 the son of a middle‐class Jamaliyah merchant, he became the most popular novelist…
Abstract
Najib Mahfuz is the first Arab‐language author to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Born in 1911 the son of a middle‐class Jamaliyah merchant, he became the most popular novelist in Egypt and the Arab countries.
Michael R. Edelstein and Maria Tysiachniouk
The Ural Mountain region is a remarkably beautiful landscape of forests and lakes. Here is the continental divide between Europe and Asia. One of the rivers originating here to…
Abstract
The Ural Mountain region is a remarkably beautiful landscape of forests and lakes. Here is the continental divide between Europe and Asia. One of the rivers originating here to eventually feed feeding the Artic Sea is the Techa river. But the verdant greenery that characterizes the region does not disclose the hidden dangers of plutonium and other radioactive materials either downstream or downwind of the Mayak Nuclear Complex. Major areas of the Techa river corridor and downwind areas were permanently evacuated after radioactive releases from the Mayak Nuclear Complex from the 1950s through the 1970s. Although acute and chronic water releases encompass this period, the so-called Kyshtim 57 accident, an air release from Mayak in 1957, was the word's worst nuclear accident until surpassed by Chernobyl (see Mironova et al. and Kutepova and Tsepilova, this volume). But what of the inhabitants who remain? In this chapter, we explore some of the psycho-social impacts of living in contaminated areas, drawing primarily upon interviews with residents of the region. In doing this, we give voice to their perspective and views on each other and life in this contaminated region.1