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This study aims to explore the engagement between accounting and music in the social and relational construction of accountability. The authors conceive this construction as a dynamic and recursive interplay between the giving of different accounts and the responses that these accounts provoke. The authors investigate the emotional dimension of this interplay, as it is also triggered by music, feeding back into how accountability is constructed and evolves over time.

This study relies upon a historical analysis of archival and secondary sources about the main music concert organized in 1913 by the founder of “Accademia Chigiana”, one of the leading music academies in Italy. The concert celebrated the first centenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, a worldwide famous Italian music composer, and icon of Italian national sentiment.

This study shows that music and accounting were profoundly intertwined in the social and relational construction of accountability for the 1913 concert. Accountability evolved through different accounts, also linked to music, and the complex emotional reactions these accounts provoked in the audiences, citizens, media and institutions, leading to always further responses and accounts in the ongoing construction of accountability.

This study extends prior literature on the chameleonic nature of accountability, as well as on its relational and emotional dimensions. The study shows that accountability is relationally constructed and evolves over time through the giving of accounts and the emotional reaction they provoke from others, feeding into further responses and accounts of the accountable subject. The authors show how the chameleonic nature of accountability permeates not only the accounts and the relations of accountability but also the subjects giving and demanding the accounts: these subjects change as chameleons through their interactions and emotions, feeding into the dynamic construction of accountability. The authors also show how arts, like music, can participate in the chameleonic nature of accountability and of its subjects, precisely by engaging with their emotional reactions and responses.

Examines a programme of research into marketing planning in UK manufacturing companies containing results of the first stage of fieldwork. Aims to get an initial and broad understanding of the approach that firms take in the planning of their marketing function. Investigates questions and issues in the second stage of the research, which will be reported at a later date. Reports results of this first stage which, it is reported, are considered to be a useful contribution to marketing planning. States that results are reported in five sections and presents these. Uses a postal questionnaire from summer 1980, of which 80 firms sent a response, giving the structure using a table to show this. Classifies respondents by size using the criteria of both sales turnover and number of employees. Further, the sample was classified by the job function of the employee in the company who completed the questionnaire.

The main purpose of the paper is to present a framework for the development of performance‐based service strategies for the oil and gas industry in Norway. The framework considers various influencing factors and their attributes, as well as performance factors categorized as critical success factors, performance killers and cost drivers.

A case study has been conducted to map current practices, to validate the influencing factor attributes, and to suggest performance factors. Data have been collected through an e‐mail questionnaire, face‐to‐face interviews, available documents from the industry and a literature survey.

Operators of complex oil and gas production facilities are becoming increasingly dependent on service providers to support their efforts to perform according to demands. When developing a performance‐based service strategy one needs to consider influencing factors and attributes. Furthermore, one needs to measure the service delivery process performance and the gaps between required and delivered services, and to periodically reassess the service strategy influencing factors.

The research is based on a case study in the Norwegian oil and gas industry, but the results can be adapted for other industries as well.

The proposed framework can support practitioners in the oil and gas industry to develop performance‐based service strategies and can assist practitioners in reducing costs and improving performance.

The current study aims to investigate the role of strategic environmental orientation (SEO) in implementing environmental design practices (EDPs).

On the basis of survey data collected from 212 US manufacturing firms, structural equation modeling and regression analysis are used to test the proposed research model.

The findings of the present study suggest that SEO not only drives firms' design of environmental products but also moderates the relationship between EDPs and environmental performance. However, SEO turns out not to moderate the relationship between EDPs and operational performance. This study also highlights that firms' EDPs play a critical role in enhancing environmental performance as well as operational performance.

By examining the important role of SEO, this research unpacks the moderating role of SEO between EDPs and firm performance, thus shedding light on how SEO promotes EDPs and the effectiveness of EDPs.

Upward feedback surveys are a way to collect anonymous information from subordinates on management dimensions that are important to the organisation. In addition to being a source of information for development and performance appraisal, the information, when aggregated across managers, can be a needs analysis for establishing and updating a management curriculum – that is, a source of information about what development programmes managers need for improvement. Guidelines and issues in designing, administering, and evaluating a survey feedback process are focused on. Specifically, how to develop appropriate questions for a survey, administer the survey, feed back the information to managers, and evaluate the effectiveness of the process are considered.

To examine the availability and quality of clinical guidelines on perioperative diabetes care in hospital units before and after a randomised clinical trial (RCT) and international accreditation.

Interventional “before‐after” study in 51 units (38 surgical and 13 anaesthetic) in nine hospitals participating in a RCT in the greater Copenhagen area; 27 of the units also underwent international accreditation.

The proportion of units with guidelines increased from 24/51 (47 percent) units before to 38/51 (75 percent) units after the trial. Among the 27 units without guidelines before the trial, significantly more accredited units compared to non‐accredited units had a guideline after the trial (9/10 (90 percent) compared to 5/17 (29 percent). The quality of the systematic development scale and the clinical scales improved significantly after the trial in both accredited units (both p<0.001) and in non‐accredited units (both p<0.02). The improvement of the systematic development scale was significantly higher in accredited than in non‐accredited units (p<0.01).

The combination of conducting both the DIPOM Trial and international accreditation led to a significant improvement of both dissemination and quality of guidelines on perioperative diabetic care.

Examines the attitudes of Australian IS/IT managers to the concept of cyber‐vigilantism. Also, it explores the policies and procedures which have been set in place by various organisations to cope with concerted attacks on their systems. It finds that although a majority of managers do approve of the concept of “striking back”, only a minority are prepared for this eventuality. There appears to be complacency about the threats posed by organised, offensive attackers.

Human tellers are still the primary means of product delivery, despite the trend towards electronic and remote banking. In New Zealand, there exists a newly deregulated environment in the financial services industry. Therefore a “customer‐oriented” approach is needed to achieve customer satisfaction. Amongst ATM card holders the majority still used human tellers, on a regular basis. This pointed to the fact that there are a number of improvements to be made in two categories; impolite/inefficient tellers; queuing difficulties.

When modern‐day students of marketing turned from the economic explanation of consumer behavior, learning theory was one of the first resources in which they sought more useful alternative concepts. This was a logical move for two reasons: because of the abundance of research conducted in psychology and social psychology; and because learning is close to the central interest of many of those concerned with consumer behavior. However, marketing scholars have given little consideration to one of the most influential perspectives developed in psychology‐the instrumental‐learning approach stimulated by the work of B. F. Skinner. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of instrumental learning and demonstrate its application in a marketing situation.