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1 – 10 of 12
Article
Publication date: 1 April 1983

Edwin S. Gleaves

The question being asked is: “If you were stranded on a desert island and had to create a reference/information service with only ten sources, which ten would you choose?”…

Abstract

The question being asked is: “If you were stranded on a desert island and had to create a reference/information service with only ten sources, which ten would you choose?” Frankly, I destest the prospect of being stranded on a desert island, or even a lush one. The heat, the sand, the bugs, and who knows what other critters — this is not my idea of an atmosphere conducive to study and reflection. And I bet that those ten reference books would deteriorate from the humidity faster than I could say “Robinson Crusoe.”

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2020

Alan Lowe, Yesh Nama, Alice Bryer, Nihel Chabrak, Claire Dambrin, Ingrid Jeacle, Johnny Lind, Philippe Lorino, Keith Robson, Chiara Bottausci, Crawford Spence, Chris Carter and Ekaterina Svetlova

The purpose of this paper is to report the outcome of an interdisciplinary discussion on the concepts of profit and profitability and various ways in which we could potentially…

2007

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report the outcome of an interdisciplinary discussion on the concepts of profit and profitability and various ways in which we could potentially problematize these concepts. It is our hope that a much greater attention or reconsideration of the problematization of profit and related accounting numbers will be fostered in part by the exchanges we include here.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts an interdisciplinary discussion approach and brings into conversation ideas and views of several scholars on problematizing profit and profitability in various contexts and explores potential implications of such problematization.

Findings

Profit and profitability measures make invisible the collective endeavour of people who work hard (backstage) to achieve a desired profit level for a division and/or an organization. Profit tends to preclude the social process of debate around contradictions among the ends and means of collective activity. An inherent message that we can discern from our contributors is the typical failure of managers to appreciate the value of critical theory and interpretive research for them. Practitioners and positivist researchers seem to be so influenced by neo-liberal economic ideas that organizations are distrusted and at times reviled in their attachment to profit.

Research limitations/implications

Problematizing opens-up the potential for interesting and significant theoretical insights. A much greater pragmatic and theoretical reconsideration of profit and profitability will be fostered by the exchanges we include here.

Originality/value

In setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the research community focussing on problematizing profit and profitability in various settings. The discussion perspectives offered in this paper provides not only a basis for further research in this critical area of discourse and regulation on the role and status of profit and profitability but also emancipatory potential for practitioners (to be reflective of their practices and their undesired consequences of such practices) whose overarching focus is on these accounting numbers.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 1233 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2006

David O'Donnell, Mairead Tracey, Lars Bo Henriksen, Nick Bontis, Peter Cleary, Tom Kennedy and Philip O'Regan

Following Marx and Engels' identification of the “essential condition of capital”, the purpose of this paper is to begin an initial critical exploration of the essential condition…

3184

Abstract

Purpose

Following Marx and Engels' identification of the “essential condition of capital”, the purpose of this paper is to begin an initial critical exploration of the essential condition of intellectual capital, particularly the ownership rights of labour.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting a critically modernist stance on unitarist HR and OB discourse, and contextualised within a background on the stock option phenomenon and recent accounting regulation, the paper argues that the fundamental nature of the capital‐labour relation continues resiliently into the IC labour (intellectual capital‐labour) relation.

Findings

There is strong evidence that broad‐based employee stock options (ESOPs) have become institutionalised in certain firms and sectors – but the future of such schemes is very uncertain (post 2005 accounting regulation). Overly unitarist HR/OB arguments are challenged here with empirical evidence on capital's more latently strategic purposes such as conserving cash, reducing reported accounting expense in order to boost reported earnings, deferring taxes, and attracting, retaining and exploiting key elements of labour.

Research limitations/implications

Research supports the positive benefits of broad‐based employee stock ownership schemes. Further research on the benefits of such schemes and the reasons why they are or are not implemented is now required.

Practical implications

From the perspective of labour, nothing appears to have really changed (yet) in terms of the essential condition of intellectual capital.

Originality/value

This paper explicitly raises the issue of the ownership rights of labour to intellectual capital.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 April 2009

Barbara F.H. Allen

The purpose of this paper is to introduce librarians, faculty, and other interested individuals to contemporary German literature in English translation.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce librarians, faculty, and other interested individuals to contemporary German literature in English translation.

Design/methodology/approach

German‐language authors born in 1950 or later and listed on the Contemporary Living Authors Comprehensive List developed by the German vendor Otto Harrassowitz are searched in OCLC's WorldCat database to determine the existence of English translations. A bio‐bibliographical list is then developed featuring all contemporary German‐language authors who have achieved an English language translation of at least one of their literary works.

Findings

Of the approximately 1,400 writers on Harrassowitz's comprehensive list, a surprisingly large number of almost 80 authors of the younger generation (born in 1950 or later) have been translated into English.

Originality/value

This bio‐bibliography of contemporary German belles lettres (of the younger generation) in English translation is the first of its kind. It can be used by librarians to check their current library holdings and to expand their collections of German literature in English translation.

Details

Collection Building, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0160-4953

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1987

James Rettig

All seventeen had graciously agreed to my proposal to gather for a small conference to seek consensus. A generous grant from the Pierian Press Foundation would cover all of our…

Abstract

All seventeen had graciously agreed to my proposal to gather for a small conference to seek consensus. A generous grant from the Pierian Press Foundation would cover all of our expenses for a long weekend at a resort hotel; the only condition of the grant was that we offer our results to Reference Services Review for first publication. Over the past five years each of the seventeen had in turn accepted my challenge to answer the following question:

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 9 September 2013

Benjamin Blahnik, Steven McGillivray, Sameer Prasad and Hung-Chung Su

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the viability of using bamboo hybrid fencing fertigated with grey water as a means of providing energy to rural communities in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the viability of using bamboo hybrid fencing fertigated with grey water as a means of providing energy to rural communities in developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper establishes such returns by developing a decision support system (DSS) model populated with parameters obtained from literature and field data. The DSS allows for a sensitivity analysis that examines the robustness of the hybrid bio-fencing under varying scenarios and the interactions among species, management, and technological variables.

Findings

Critical variables identified include the technological efficiency, number of clumps per m2 planted and the influence of grey water on growth rates.

Practical implications

In the developing countries, uncertainty abounds in rural “green” interventions. Such uncertainties can be quite problematic especially for marginal communities. This research provides developmental agents with the ability to derive specific economic and environmental returns by making decisions related to species type, managerial methods, grey water treatment and energy conversion technologies. The hybrid fencing provides villagers with security without depleting scarce resources for brick and mortar (“pukka”) walls. Furthermore, the hybrid bio-fencing provides significant positive energy and financial returns.

Originality/value

The research demonstrates how green ventures can be audited across multiple dimensions of sustainability including economic, environmental and energy. The DSS developed here is a powerful tool as it not only provides an energy audit, but also simultaneously displays economic returns.

Details

International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6220

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2005

Michael Page

The paper is an exercise in “metaphoric defamiliarisation”. The metaphor of the search for a conceptual framework as “quest” is unpacked and an alternative, based on Lewis…

4109

Abstract

Purpose

The paper is an exercise in “metaphoric defamiliarisation”. The metaphor of the search for a conceptual framework as “quest” is unpacked and an alternative, based on Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, is proposed in its place.

Design/methodology/approach

Many points of correspondence between Carroll's unlikely expedition and the work of standard setting bodies are noted and developed. The possibility that a conceptual framework might turn out to be a “Boojum” is examined.

Findings

Noting that timing precludes the possibility that The Hunting of the Snark is an allegory of accounting standard setting, a possible social explanation drawing on Cornford's Microcosmographia Academica is proposed.

Originality/value

Examines the use of the quest metaphor and what it tells us about standard setters' approaches. An alternative metaphor is proposed as being more appropriate and, by contrasting the two, the content of the first is thrown into sharper relief.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1997

Jean Shaoul

The water industry was one of a number of publicly owned enterprises and assets which were privatized during the 1980s in the UK. The Government justified its privatization…

2593

Abstract

The water industry was one of a number of publicly owned enterprises and assets which were privatized during the 1980s in the UK. The Government justified its privatization programme on a number of grounds. In particular, it claimed that privatization would improve industrial performance by subjecting the nationalized industries to the discipline of the market, and so would yield benefits, via greater efficiency, to the industry, customers and the nation. Examines first the extent to which an accounting model and the financial numbers in the annual reports and accounts can be used to substantiate Government claims, and describe and explain the outcomes. Assesses whether accounting can assume a constructive and emancipatory role, by challenging existing problem diagnosis ‐ public sector inefficiency ‐ and posing alternative questions and solutions. Shows that the financial evidence does not substantiate the Government’s claims. Finds that greater efficiency, meaning lower costs relative to output, did not occur. Significant increases in efficiency had occurred prior to privatization, leaving little room to improve efficiency without jeopardizing levels of service and future service provision. The distribution of the surplus, which is publicly seen as a conflict between consumers and shareholders, is in fact much wider than this. Argues that the surplus has been so distributed that it has not only substantially benefited the shareholders at the expense of other stakeholders, but also has created the conditions whereby the other stakeholders will be disadvantaged in the future. Concludes that the real beneficiaries were largely invisible in the Government’s case for privatization.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 February 2007

Sivakumar Velayutham

This paper seeks to highlight the contribution of the Catholic practice of confession and the Protestant Reformation to the development of the modern concept of accountability.

912

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to highlight the contribution of the Catholic practice of confession and the Protestant Reformation to the development of the modern concept of accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

A historical analysis of the literature is carried out to identify the contribution of key features of the practice of confession and the reformation of the Church to the development of accountability in Protestant societies.

Findings

The study highlights that the practice of confession is similar to accountability and the Catholic Church developed the emotion of guilt necessary for accountability. The Protestant Reformation provided for the further development of accountability to its modern form, through the restructuring of the practice of confession and the extension of the principles of accountability to itself. The conditions necessary for the practice of accountability such as popular power of the people, the concept of contracts and the emotion of guilt developed within the above environment.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the historical development of accountability to provide some insights into understanding of the environment and conditions necessary for the spread of accountability, which is becoming increasingly important in the current economic environment characterized by global integration of markets.

Details

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 March 2022

Gal Yavetz, Noa Aharony and Yaen Yaacov Sofer

The aim of this study is to examine the information needs and information seeking behaviors of Israeli citizens during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2020…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is to examine the information needs and information seeking behaviors of Israeli citizens during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2020, with an emphasis on the dissemination of digital information by government agencies.

Design/methodology/approach

The research approach underlying this investigation is of the “case study” type, employing semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted with 24 Israeli citizens regarding their perceptions and experiences with government information and government services during the first months of the coronavirus.

Findings

The findings of this study reveal that most participants indicated feelings of media fatigue as a result of increased exposure to news media and social media, to the point of experiencing information overload. Second, participants described feeling a lack of clear information and poor access to accurate health and official information at the outset of the COVID-19 crisis in Israel. Third, participants in the authors’ study noted that most of the information to which they were exposed about the virus came to them through communal connections such as friends and family, via social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp. In general, the participants expressed satisfaction with the quality and availability of the data and extensive information of government ministries on social networks, together with a lack of satisfaction due to difficulties in usage and a lack of clear information on traditional government websites.

Originality/value

The findings present the information acquisition and the experience of citizens in situations of national emergencies and crises, in a new light, through a focus on the dissemination of government, health and news information.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 75 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

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