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The purpose of this article is to investigate the effectiveness of an International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)-aligned business ethics course in relation to its ability to positively influence the ethical sensitivity of accounting students.

Using a quantitative, quasi-experimental design, senior accounting students were subjected to a pre- and post-test, measuring ethical sensitivity, with an IFAC-aligned business ethics course as the intervention. Multivariate analysis also focused on the interrelation of demographic characteristics with ethical sensitivity.

The results indicate that the business ethics course was indeed effective in increasing the ethical sensitivity of accounting students. Students' demographic characteristics, in terms of accounting specialisation area and years of work experience, did play a role in the extent of their changes in ethical sensitivity. However, gender and previous ethics education as influencing factor in ethical sensitivity was negated.

The study focused on the first component (ethical sensitivity) of Rest's four-component model that predicts ethical behaviour. Additional research is therefore needed into the other components in Rest's model and their respective interrelations. The current study also used a small convenience sample rather than one that was randomly selected. The findings in this study do, however, add to the limited body of evidence on ethical sensitivity in accounting education world-wide.

The results can assist accounting professional bodies, associated higher education institutions and accounting firms in implementing specific educational interventions to develop greater ethical sensitivity in prospective and current accountants.

The audit failures at the start of this century placed a renewed focus on the ethical behaviour of accountants. Consequently, ethics training was included in the curriculum of aspiring accountants. The research that informed this article attempted to gauge the effectiveness of this response, given the current knowledge gap, specifically in the South African context. Professional accounting bodies, associated higher education institutions and accounting firms could use the curriculum design presented in this study to implement a similar intervention. Such interventions could enhance the ethical behaviour of both prospective and current accountants, and this, in turn, should aid in lessening ethical crises, thus protecting the social stature of the accounting profession.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the issue of research relevance from the frame of reference of university leaders. Its specific aim is to gain insights into how “relevance” is conceptualised, and the underlying assumptions upon which such conceptualizations are based.

Adopting an inductive approach, the study collects and analyses data from semi-structured interviews with 31 senior research-related university leaders, and archival sources in five Australian universities.

Research relevance is primarily viewed as a means of responding to government and political imperatives, as a pathway to ensuring university legitimacy, and as a means of generating further resources. The authors apply this understanding to develop a framework that adopts a nuanced view of relevance, reflecting what is driving research, and to whom research is principally targeted.

The evidence-base upon which the study is based represents a relatively small number of university leaders of Australian universities. Moreover, restricting the investigation to a few senior hierarchical levels nonetheless offers insights into high level organisational drivers hitherto neglected in the accounting research literature on university strategy, governance and accountability. While not addressing perceptions across the university population, this study focusses on and unpacks the social construction of relevance of this select group as research policy makers.

As one of the few empirically informed investigations exploring the issue of research relevance from the perspective of university leaders, this study provides insights rather than “answers”. Its findings therefore serve as a foundational basis for further empirical and theoretical enquiry.

The purpose of this article is to address and gain a more complete understanding of the effects on performance attributable to the gender composition of teams.

The authors examined gender as a team composition variable that influences performance on a computer‐based task, and we investigated task framing (masculine/feminine) and competition (isolated/dyad) as explanatory factors in the gender composition‐performance relationship. Whereas previous research combines matched gender dyads in analyses, we distinguished male/male from female/female dyads to isolate the effects on performance and examine competition effects.

Distinguishing between male/male and female/female dyads revealed only male/male dyads had superior performance. Task framing was not supported as an explanation for the observed performance differences, but competition was. Contrasting the gender effect in competitive conditions relative to isolated conditions revealed a gender difference in performance between competitive conditions only.

Given competition's clear role in the gender composition‐performance relationship, a more rigorous examination and manipulation of competition is needed beyond the comparison of isolated and dyadic conditions.

Previous research suggests to organizations/practitioners that matching teams by gender will result in optimal performance. Based on our findings, such an implementation would be to the detriment of female teams in the organization, and associated legal issues could arise.

The authors found the superior performance of matched teams to be attributable to the matching of male/male teams and the associated competitive context, and not attributable to matched teams in general. The results should be considered as a caution for both the academic and applied domain alike.

Among the gold standards in human resource development (HRD) research are studies that test theoretically developed hypotheses and use experimental designs. A somewhat typical experimental design would involve collecting pretest and posttest data on individuals assigned to a control or experimental group. Data from such a design that considered if training made a difference in knowledge, skills or attitudes, for example, could help advance practice. Using simulated datasets, situated in the example of a scenario-planning intervention, this paper aims to show that choosing a data analysis path that does not consider the associated assumptions can misrepresent findings and resulting conclusions. A review of HRD articles in a select set of journals indicated that some researchers reporting on pretest-posttest designs with two groups were not reporting associated statistical assumptions and reported results from repeated-measures analysis of variance that are considered of minimal utility.

Using heuristic datasets, situated in the example of a scenario-planning intervention, this paper will show that choosing a data analysis path that does not consider the associated assumptions can misrepresent findings and resulting conclusions. Journals in the HRD field that conducted pretest-posttest control group designs were coded.

The authors' illustrations provide evidence for the importance of testing assumptions and the need for researchers to consider alternate analyses when assumptions fail, particularly the homogeneity of regression slopes assumption.

This paper provides guidance to researchers faced with analyzing data from a pretest-posttest control group experimental design, so that they may select the most parsimonious solution that honors the ecological validity of the data.

The purpose of this paper is to test empirically the relationship between the strategic involvement and the devolvement of human resource functions with organisational performance.

This paper is based on the primary data collected from the population of financial firms based in Jordan. The methodology adopted for the purpose of data analysis includes the use of basic statistics, zero‐order correlations, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regressions.

The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that the involvement of human resource functions into the business and corporate strategy reduces employee turnover rate and enhances financial performance. The analysis does not support the second hypothesis that empowering day‐to‐day human resource functions to line managers impacts negatively on employee turnover and positively on financial performance.

Our results imply that financial performance can be enhanced and employee turnover rate decreased by involving human resource directors in the overall strategic decision‐making process of companies. However, our results also imply that the devolvement of routine human resource issues to line managers is neither positively related to the financial performance of the companies nor negatively related to employee turnover. This raises doubts as to whether, after having involved human resource functions into the strategic affairs of the company, they are empowered enough to make a positive impact.

This is one of few papers conducted on this topic in a non‐western environment, and the first of its kind for the country of Jordan. This paper contributes to the field through its approach to measuring and testing strategic human resource management theory. The paper also successfully links the core aspects of strategic human resource management with objective indicators of financial performance of the companies.

Information asymmetry and poor solvency caused by uncertainties in supply chains are the root causes of supply chain financing risks (SCFR). The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of supply chain integration on reducing SCFR by incorporating the mechanisms of information sharing and controlling supply chain risks (SCR).

This paper proposes hypothesis to discuss the impact of integration on SCFR and the mediating roles of alleviating information asymmetry and mitigating SCR, aiming at discovering factors and mechanisms to reduce SCFR. The research model was validated by applying structural equation modeling on survey data from 321 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Integration significantly reduces SCFR by dual approaches of information sharing and mitigating SCR, confirming that alleviating information asymmetry to reach information transparency and controlling SCR to reduce uncertainties facilitate less SCFR.

SMEs should enhance integration capability to reduce SCFR as it greatly influences the evaluation of financial service providers on SMEs and the sustainable financing capacity of SMEs. Additionally, any other methods that can improve information sharing and reduce SCR should be attached if possible.

This study represents a pioneering attempt to analyze the impact of integration on reducing SCFR by exploring the specific mechanisms of alleviating information asymmetry and mitigating SCR. Meanwhile, few prior empirical studies have highlighted the importance of SCFR.

3D printing has been warmly welcomed by clothing enterprises for its customization capacity in recent years. However, such clothing enterprises have to face the digital transformation challenges brought by 3D printing. Since the business model is a competitive weapon for modern enterprises, there is a research gap between business model innovation and digital transformation challenges for 3D-printing garment enterprises. The aim of the paper is to innovate a new business model for 3D-printing garment enterprises in digital transformation.

A business model innovation canvas (BMIC), a new method for business model innovation, is used to innovate a new 3D-printing clothing enterprises business model in the context of digital transformation. The business model canvas (BMC) method is adopted to illustrate the new business model. The business model ecosystem is used to design the operating architecture and mechanism of the new business model.

First, 3D-printing clothing enterprises are facing digital transformation, and they urgently need to innovate new business models. Second, mass customization and distributed manufacturing are important ways of solving the business model problems faced by 3D-printing clothing enterprises in the process of digital transformation. Third, BMIC has proven to be an effective tool for business model innovation.

The new mass deep customization-distributed manufacturing (MDC-DM) business model is universal. As such, it can provide an important theoretical reference for other scholars to study similar problems. The digital transformation background is taken into account in the process of business model innovation. Therefore, this is the first hybrid research that has been focused on 3D printing, garment enterprises, digital transformation and business model innovation. On the other hand, business model innovation is a type of exploratory research, which means that the MDC-DM business model’s application effect cannot be immediately observed and requires further verification in the future.

The new business model MDC-DM is not only applicable to 3D-printing garment enterprises but also to some other enterprises that are either using or will use 3D printing to enhance their core competitiveness.

A new business model, MDC-DM, is created through BMIC, which allows 3D-printing garment enterprises to meet the challenges of digital transformation. In addition, the original canvas of the MDC-DM business model is designed using BMC. Moreover, the ecosystem of the MDC-DM business model is constructed, and its operation mechanisms are comprehensively designed.

In his article “Geld” of 1909 Menger introduces a principal distinction between “outer exchange value of money” (purchasing power as measured by index numbers) and “inner exchange value of money,” which is affected solely “by influences originating on the side of money,” not on the side of the other goods. Menger chooses constancy of the inner value as policy goal to be achieved by appropriately regulating the quantity of money. In a growing economy, the general price level would have a declining tendency if the money supply were kept constant – a consequence which Menger does not make explicit, and even appears not to have been aware of. There is a fundamental inconsistency in his writings, since in his essays on the currency reform of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy of 1892 Menger warned against undesired consequences of deflation and inflation. Menger’s extensive discussion on how effects on purchasing power on the side of goods could be separated from those attributable to the side of money is referred in the light of then available monetary and price statistics. The inconsistency remains enigmatic. The last part of the present contribution gives a brief overview on how authors of later generations of the Austrian School (Wieser, Mises, Schumpeter, and Hayek), who coined the term “neutrality of money” for Menger’s constancy postulate followed or deviated from Menger’s concepts of the value of money.

This study aims to minimize the transportation-related cost in distribution while utilizing a heterogeneous fixed fleet to deliver distinct demand at different geographical locations with a proper workload balancing approach. An increased cost in distribution is a major problem for many companies due to the absence of efficient planning methods to overcome operational challenges in distinct distribution networks. The problem addressed in this study is to minimize the transportation-related cost in distribution while using a heterogeneous fixed fleet to deliver distinct demand at different geographical locations with a proper workload balancing approach which has not gained the adequate attention in the literature.

This study formulated the transportation problem as a vehicle routing problem with a heterogeneous fixed fleet and workload balancing, which is a combinatorial optimization problem of the NP-hard category. The model was solved using both the simulated annealing and a genetic algorithm (GA) adopting distinct local search operators. A greedy approach has been used in generating an initial solution for both algorithms. The paired t-test has been used in selecting the best algorithm. Through a number of scenarios, the baseline conditions of the problem were further tested investigating the alternative fleet compositions of the heterogeneous fleet. Results were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Hsu’s MCB methods to identify the best scenario.

The solutions generated by both algorithms were subjected to the t-test, and the results revealed that the GA outperformed in solution quality in planning a heterogeneous fleet for distribution with load balancing. Through a number of scenarios, the baseline conditions of the problem were further tested investigating the alternative fleet utilization with different compositions of the heterogeneous fleet. Results were analyzed using ANOVA and Hsu’s MCB method and found that removing the lowest capacities trucks enhances the average vehicle utilization with reduced travel distance.

The developed model has considered both planning of heterogeneous fleet and the requirement of work load balancing which are very common industry needs, however, have not been addressed adequately either individually or collectively in the literature. The adopted solution methodologies to solve the NP-hard distribution problem consist of metaheuristics, statistical analysis and scenario analysis are another significant contribution. The planning of distribution operations not only addresses operational-level decision, through a scenario analysis, but also strategic-level decision has also been considered.

The planning of distribution operations not only addresses operational-level decisions, but also strategic-level decisions conducting a scenario analysis.