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The successful implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) depends on the adoption and subsequent maintenance of accrual accounting policies. Moreover, Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS) are important drivers of reforms, and their replacement might disrupt the execution of accrual accounting policies. This paper aims to analyze the effects of FMIS replacement (or maintenance) on the retention of accrual accounting policies in Brazilian local governments.

The research adopts a sequential mixed-methods approach, starting with a quantitative analysis of the presence of accrual accounting policies in local governments and the effects of FMIS replacement. Next, a qualitative analysis is conducted with a survey, documents and interviews to observe the FMIS replacement process. Our analysis focuses on local governments from one state in Brazil, but the context is highly transferable to other states, as the same procurement law and accounting regulations apply.

FMIS replacement may reduce accounting policies retention; consequently, public procurement regulation may induce a public procurement context in which the IPSAS project would find more difficulties to prosper.

This research contributes to the IPSAS literature by examining the phenomenon of accounting policies retention or persistence, as one should not take it for granted that an adopted accounting procedure will be sustained over time. The analysis argues that FMIS replacement due to compulsory rebidding should be carefully considered.

Promoters of accounting reforms may consider the regulation of contracting out for FMIS a relevant issue to the institutionalization of accounting policies.

The analysis innovates by linking IPSAS accounting reform to the contracting out of FMIS.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of brand preference and type of shopping trip on the relationship between replacing a delisted national brand (NB) with a retailer’s private label (PL) brand (premium vs standard) and private label switching (PLS), that is switching from NB to PL.

Inside a major French retail chain store, an experiment with 1,392 NB buyers tested the impact of replacing NB with PL on PLS.

Results stress the positive contribution of PL replacements after NB delisting on buyers’ switching behaviour at different brand preference levels and shopping trip types. A main-choice NB for a major trip shopping benefits a PLS to premium PL. However, when a fill-in shopper looks for a secondary brand, competition between PL standard and NB may not be as weak as suggested in earlier studies.

The limitation of this study is that respondents reported their purchases instead of actually buying.

This study highlights that the retailers that delist some NB brands in the category should adopt a strategy either to develop premium or standard PLs, depending on consumers’ brand preference and shopping trip type.

Delisting is an opportunity to question the NB product competitiveness towards PL.

The study is based on actual delisting and replacement, combined with a large sample, unlike previous studies. Moreover, it bridges two important areas of research: conflict in marketing channels and PL introduction in retailers’ assortment decisions.

It is just over fifty years since the British government instigated the scheme that was to lead to the setting up of Government Training Centres (GTCs) shortly afterwards.

Information on job openings by occupation is important for those looking for jobs, for those contemplating education and training options and for policy makers in education and training. Job openings in an occupation are a result of employment growth and the replacement of workers who leave the occupation. In this paper, three concepts of replacement demand are outlined and net replacement demand is estimated and projected for 81 occupational groups, covering the whole of employment in Australia. The results show the net replacement demand rate to vary substantially across occupations, with an average annual rate of 2 per cent.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of a waste marine sea shell product incorporated into a concrete mix as an aggregate replacement. Utilising shells reduces the storage of shell waste, also reducing the need for quarried aggregate and has potential benefits of adding a different material to a design mix concrete mix design for improved performance.

The test methods used to evaluate the concrete were, British Standard tests for compressive strength (BS EN 12390-3:2002) and porosity (BS EN 12390-8:2009). A paired comparison test was carried out examining two different partial replacement shell aggregate mixes against a plain concrete control sample.

The results showed a reduction in compressive strength when 50 per cent of sea shells were used as an aggregate replacement, for both sand and gravel, compared to the control sample. Crushed and graded sea shells used in concrete displayed a lower porosity/permeability than plain concrete.

Whilst there is existing work relating to the compressive strength of concrete using sea shells, the porosity of concrete using sea shells has not been widely addressed and the paper investigates this aspect of sustainable concrete research.

A recent paper by James Hughes in this journal arguing that in the recent past the regional distribution of Government Training Centre (GTC) capacity has been sub‐optimal, stirred me to write an article both criticising the criteria he used in reaching this judgement and, more positively, offering results from a cost benefit study addressed to the same issue. Hughes' more recent, discursive paper is a reply to this. Whilst his paper is replete with minor points of detail, I shall concentrate here on his major points only. These are:

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to incorporate knowledge concepts into analytical models of strategy formulation and the strategic theory of the firm.

The paper examines four different perspectives of the elusive concept of “knowledge”, namely, “knowledge as assets”, “knowledge through innovation”, “knowledge embedded in routines” and “knowledge through learning”. The study attempts to specify and interrelate the concepts of a knowledge‐based strategic theory of the firm.

The “knowledge web” is seen as a partial framework, capturing from a strategic perspective how both specific and organisational knowledge build the competences necessary for the value‐creating activities of the firm.

The paper provides frameworks for understanding how knowledge can reinforce the strategic core competences of the firm.

The paper addresses knowledge as a key element in the development of an enhanced strategic theory of the firm, incorporating the knowledge‐based viewpoint.

As automation spreads around the world, there is a broad spectrum of scenarios regarding the changes it brings in the productive forces and relations of an economy. Some of these scenarios are driven by the futurists' imagination while others are tugged behind the pragmatists' reasoning of real world difficulties; in either case further theoretical and empirical research is needed before any scenario is taken for granted.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether or not a preventive replacement model always gives a solution with a specified preventive effect and looks at the relationship between the preventive effect and cost saving.

The age and block replacement policies with the Weibull failure distribution are considered. Measures of the preventive effect associated with specific maintenance policies are derived.

The sufficient condition to achieve a given preventive effect is represented graphically as a function of the system's aging intensity and the cost ratio of failure and preventive replacements.

The models developed in the paper will help maintenance engineers to know whether a system is aged or not and then they can make a decision on replacement.

The optimal replacement models considered in this paper give a solution with a good preventive effect only if the maintained system is sufficiently aged. The criterion whether or not the system is sufficiently aged is set by the decision‐maker based on specific maintenance situations or maintenance objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate age replacement policies for two-component parallel system with stochastic dependence. The stochastic dependence considered, is modeled by a one-sided domino effect. The failure of component 1 at instant t may induce the failure of component 2 at instant t+τ with probability p _1→2. The time delay τ is a random variable with known probability density function h _{p 1→2} (.). The system is considered in a failed state when both components are failed. The proposed replacement policies suggest to replace the system upon failure or at age T whichever occurs first.

In the first policy, costs and durations associated with maintenance activities are supposed to be constant. In the second replacement policy, the preventive replacement cost depends on the system’s state and age. The expected cost per unit of time over an infinite span is derived and numerical examples are presented.

In this paper and especially in the second policy, the authors find that the authors can get a more economical policy if the authors consider that the preventive replacement cost is not constant but depends on T.

In this paper, the authors take into account of the stochastic dependence between system components. This dependence affects the global reliability of the system and replacement’s periodicity. It can be used to measure the performance of the system et introduced into design phase of the system.