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The academic library is an important component of any university and is responsible for providing academic and research support to all members of the university community. At present, higher education institutions in Thailand are trying to evaluate and improve their quality by implementing quality assurance models/mechanisms. Libraries, as critical supporting organizations in these institutions, also need to improve their quality. As a service organization, academic libraries are faced with the need to satisfy their clientele and to measure and evaluate their services. There is a need, therefore, for librarians to take positive steps to insure that their clients receive quality services.

Introduction: In the context of globalisation processes, the necessity to create appropriate information support for management decisions at various levels becomes increasingly important: at the international, national and enterprise levels. The source of such data is financial reporting. The last leads to increase attention from key users (investors, lenders, other users) to the reliability and quality of financial reporting data. The study of scientific literature and best foreign practices made it possible to identify problems of the theoretical, organisational and methodological background of preparing high-quality financial statements and their assessment, particularly the lack of a unified interpretation of the financial reporting quality concept. The necessity to identify a theoretical basis for assessing financial reporting quality has led to the relevance of this study.

Aim: Scientific substantiation and improvement of theoretical provisions of methodology development for financial reporting quality assessment.

Methods used within the study are the following: Analysis, synthesis, operational approach, bibliographic analysis, generalisation.

Findings: The application of an operational approach to the formulation of the definition of financial reporting quality has made it possible to create the basis for its assessment. This approach involves descriptions of the principles of clarity and uniformity. The authors define the concept of ‘financial reporting quality’, formulating the theoretical principles for financial reporting assessment as the process of establishing compliance of financial statements with a specific list of qualitative characteristics.

This study examines associations between accrual earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM), and earnings quality between countries considered under insider economics and outsider economics clusters. Countries included in the outsider economics cluster are Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, countries included in the insider economics cluster are Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea. Earnings management practices have changed from AEM to REM since the publication of the Sarbanes Oxley Act and DFA 954 implementation of the Claws back provision policy in the United States.

Research data were obtained from the Bloomberg database, 2010–2016. Regression analysis and t-test were utilized. This study compared AEM and REM to determine which is stronger based on country clusters, as well as the association between AEM or REM and earnings quality.

The results of this study indicate that AEM and REM are associated with the quality of earnings in the insider economics cluster. However, AEM and REM are not associated with earnings quality in the outsider economics cluster. Furthermore, associations between AEM and earnings quality are stronger than associations between REM and earnings quality in insider economics cluster.

Hotel classification systems are used to convey information about facilities and services. Yet, they have been prone to criticism for overemphasizing facilities at the expense of other matters of importance to service quality. In contrast, online travel agents (OTAs) use innovative methods to evaluate satisfaction with hotels. Conventional systems will lose relevance if they do not step up to consider service aspects associated with customer satisfaction. This chapter probes five hotel classification systems along with one OTA and leverages the literature to propose an improved framework classification. This is based on nine critical areas that include service quality, infrastructure, facilities and services, human resources, sustainability, safety and security, accessibility, quality systems, and online hotel ratings.

The Romanian quality legislation is based on ISO 9001 family definition and considers the quality of education as mixed characteristics of a study programme and its supplier through which the expectations of the beneficiaries are met, as well as the quality standards. In 2006, the Education Quality Assurance Law was adopted (L87/2006). The law defined the main quality of education concepts, stating a methodology related to the internal and external assurance of quality, establishing the responsibilities for quality assurance through two national agencies (ARACIS for higher studies and the other – ARACIP for pre-university studies). Also, within the same law the structures which are responsible for quality assurance at a pre-university and university institutions are mentioned – The Evaluation and Quality Assurance Committee.

A downside for national specific standards, augmented by the lack of domain politics is the limited consulting of the interested groups. The authors are sharing the opinion based on which the study of education quality requires the recognition (and taking of the responsibility) of the complex and questionable nature of the cultural, economic, political and even historical implications which are executed on this reality. From this perspective, the school is not only a place where authors are teaching the child to write, read and other knowledge, but also develops his autonomy and forms his personality. Sometimes the school becomes favourable for discrimination and inequality, raising significant barriers in becoming its beneficiary when they present vulnerability. That’s why the school should have the necessary resources to remove economic, social, cultural inequity in order to offer equal chances in learning and development. The education as well as disability are strongly contextualised in the social map of the community. The authors consider the quality in education as being defined by the educational politics which are met with the school practices in the specific context of a community.

The quality as the expression of a politics should become intrinsic to education giving the system processes new connotations. It influences the school processes just as those are developed both strategically, as well as at an educational practices level. At the school institution level it gets redefined, needs to be assumed and supported by all the interested strategic groups involved (institutional and personal accountability). That is why the authors are proposing in this chapter a model of intervention with improving value for the quality management, experienced in 10 schools (five special and five mainstream schools) in an analysis of multiple cases based on quality process deployment.

Globally, higher education institutions have become reliant on a quality assurance (QA) system over the past four decades. QA is considered to be one of the most important drivers of continuous improvement and an essential tool for promoting excellence in teaching, learning, and research. It provides a framework for establishing and maintaining standards, and for assuring stakeholders that programs and services meet or exceed these standards. Despite the wide range of quality assurance models available to higher education institutions, there remains considerable debate over which model is the most effective, as well as what criteria should be used for evaluating the effectiveness of these models. Universities in the Middle East have tried to adopt different models of QA that can meet their needs and expectations and provide a framework for continuous improvement. A major objective of this book is to provide an overview account of the QA process as implemented in the higher education systems of a number of Middle East countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This book lays out essential theoretical and practical insights into the role of QA policies and practices in higher education in the Middle East countries and builds upon this idea to provide a blueprint for future academic leaders in these countries and other Middle Eastern countries to enhance their QA policies and practices and drive higher education in those countries forward.

This chapter covers four main concepts: service quality, quality assurance for measurement, quality assurance for management, and service failure and recovery. The first section mainly discusses the fundamentals of service quality. The service quality gap model is also highlighted to identify the gaps between customer expectations and the actual perceptions of service at different stages of service delivery. In the second section, different measurement methods for quality assurance are demonstrated. Examples of qualitative and quantitative methods are included. In the third section, the important management objectives of quality assurance, improvement, and control are covered. By using a combination of the quality assurance methods from the second section, hospitality operators can accomplish internal accountability, external accountability, performance improvement, and innovation. In the fourth and final section, causes and consequences of service failures are covered together with the service recovery paradox to express the implications of poor quality.

Hospitals are complex organisations accounting for most of total health expenditure. They play a critical role in providing care to patients with high levels of need. A key policy concern is that patients receive high quality care. Policymakers have attempted to influence hospital quality in different ways. This chapter focuses on three key policy levers: the extent to which hospital competition and higher hospital tariffs (of the DRG type) can stimulate quality, and whether non-profit hospitals provide higher or lower quality than for-profit ones. The chapter outlines key methodological challenges and selectively reviews the main findings from the literature. While several studies suggest that hospital competition reduces mortality rates for heart attack cases when hospital tariffs are fixed (under a DRG system), at this stage is unclear whether the effect holds across a range of quality indicators. Moreover, the limited literature on hospital mergers tends to suggest that hospital quality does not change following a merger. Finally, whether non-profit hospitals provide higher or lower quality varies across regions and institutional arrangements. The economic theory suggests several mechanisms with opposite effects on quality. To guide policy, future work needs to further unpack the various mechanisms through which these three key policy issues affect hospitals incentives.

The purpose of the study was to explore in literature what different leadership styles and behaviors of head nurses have a positive influence on the outcomes of patient safety or quality of care.

We reviewed the literature from January 2000 until September 2011. We searched Pubmed, Embase, Cinahl, Psychlit, and Econlit.

We found 10 studies addressing the relationship between head nurse leadership and safety and quality. A wide array of styles and practices were associated with different patient outcomes. Transformational leadership was the most used concept in the studies. A trend can be observed over these studies suggesting that a trustful relationship between the head nurse and subordinates is an important driving force for the achievement of positive patient outcomes. Furthermore, the effects of these trustful relationships seem to be amplified by supporting mechanisms, often objective conditions like clinical pathways and, especially, staffing level.

This study offers an up-to-date review of the limited number of studies on the relationship between nurse leadership and patient outcomes. Although mostly transformational leadership was found to be responsible for positive associations with outcomes, also contingent reward had positive influence on outcomes. We formulated some comments on the predominance of the transformational leadership concept and suggested the application of complexity theory and political leadership for the current context of care. We formulated some implications for practice and further research, mainly the need for more systematic empirical and cross cultural studies and the urgent need for the development of a validated set of nurse-sensitive patient outcome indicators.

In light of Egypt’s expanding flow of online learning (OL), quality assurance (QA) has undoubtedly become a strategic priority. In the near future, QA strategy is anticipated to be a major topic of discussion in educational policy talks. Critical policy concerns must be addressed, like sustaining globally acceptable QA standards and responding to the government’s and other stakeholders’ goals and objectives for OL. Our chapter aspires to offer a contribution to current literature in this regard. This chapter aims to investigate the aspects of QA in maintaining OL, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, we analyze internal QA of OL in the Egyptian higher education (HE) sector through quality assurance and accreditation project (QAAP) and program of continuous improvement and qualifying for accreditation (PCIQA). We discuss the external quality assurance and accreditation of Egyptian HE institutions with a special focus on the national authority for quality assurance and accreditation of education (NAQAAE). We investigate the policies, practices, and quality standards that are employed by HE institutions to ensure the quality of online courses and programs through document analysis.