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Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.

Knight's Industrial Law Reports goes into a new style and format as Managerial Law This issue of KILR is restyled Managerial Law and it now appears on a continuous updating basis rather than as a monthly routine affair.

In crafting Auditing Standard No.3 (AS3), a primary objective of the PCAOB was to reduce auditors' exposure to litigation by raising the standard of care for audit documentation. We examine whether the increased documentation requirements of AS3 affect legal professionals' perceptions of audit quality and auditor responsibility in the event of an audit failure. Our experiment consists of a 3 × 2 between-participants design with law students serving as proxies for legal professionals. The results of our experiment indicate that when an audit procedure, namely the investigation of inconsistent evidence, is not required to be documented, legal professionals perceive the performance of the work itself but not its documentation to significantly increase audit quality and reduce the auditor's responsibility for an audit failure. When documentation of the procedure is required, as per AS3, legal professionals perceive enhanced audit quality and reduced auditor responsibility only if the performance of the work is documented.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of a dual‐audit/joint‐audit process and the level of compliance with IFRS in listed Kuwaiti financial institutions.

An OLS‐regression model was used to test the relationship among dual‐audit/joint‐audit process and the level of compliance with IFRS‐disclosure. The sample was based on 33 firm observations in 2006.

The main results reveal that financial institutions audited by dual‐auditors were more compliant with IFRS‐required disclosure than financial institutions audited by joint‐auditors.

The authors have assumed that the work done by both auditors is as per the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) circular which obligates both auditors to do their fieldwork independently and then consolidate their work before issuing the final audit report. In the authors’ opinion, it is less likely that both auditors will not comply with CBK regulation, especially because CBK has the right to ban a non‐compliant audit firm from auditing banks. The authors did not ask audit firms whether they are complying with this circular because it was believed that audit firms would not disclose a non‐compliance issue with regulators to outsiders.

This paper provides empirical evidence about the effectiveness of using dual‐auditors in promoting compliance with IFRS‐disclosure.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the association between the levels of compliance with IFRS‐disclosure and the dual/joint audit process in the financial institutions listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.

Utilising data from 18 in‐depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call centres operate. Call centres operate as open systems and training, development and HRD practices are influenced by environmental, strategic, organisational and temporal conditions.

The study utilised a range of research methods, including in‐depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, documentary analysis and observation. The study was conducted over a two‐year period.

The results indicate that normative models of HRD are not particularly valuable and that training, development and HRD in call centres is emergent and highly complex.

This study represents one of the first studies to investigate training and development and HRD practices and systems in European call centres.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze standard setting and how a critical mass of users emerged in an industry in which multiple interface standards co‐exist and a critical mass of users was created multiple times.

This paper is based on research conducted for almost ten years using the case study approach. Data were gathered through more than 100 interviews with Japanese firms and through analyses of published sources.

The paper finds that growth in mobile internet services required agreements on multiple interface standards where some of these interface standards exhibited interdependencies and thus required integral design, while others have been built on top of these “basic” interface standards. Agreements on the former interface standards enable basic data connections between phones, services, and content and this required integral design. The latter interface standards connect the mobile phone with content and applications from other industries (e.g. music, video, publishing, broadcasting, and payment) and each critical mass of phones, services, and content for them partly builds from previously created critical masses.

The research focused on a single industry in a single country.

This paper helps scholars and practitioners better understand how interface standards and critical masses for them emerge.

This is the first paper to analyze multiple interface standards in a single industry and the emergence of a critical mass of users or complementary products for these standards.

Recent studies indicated that the level of adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations remains frustratingly low worldwide although health data standards have been perceived to be an essential tool for interoperability barriers within health information systems. The relevant literature still lacks significant studies concerning the issues of the adoption process of health data standards in healthcare organisations, and in particular those in developing nation. In addressing this gap in knowledge, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption decision of health data standards in tertiary healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia, and to develop a technology-organisation-environment list that contains the critical factors influencing their adoption.

A multiple-case study methodology was conducted in Saudi Arabia and different data collection methods were used included semi-structured interviews with different decision makers at various levels and departments of the subject organisations, and documents analysis to identify critical factors to the adoption decision of health data standards.

The findings demonstrated a list of key factors from different aspects impacting the adoption decision of health data standards in the subject organisations. The technological factors are complexity and compatibility of health data standards, IT infrastructure, switching costs, market uncertainties, systems integration and enhancing the use of advanced systems. The main organisational factors are the lack of adequate policies and procedures and information management plan, resistance to change, data analysis and accreditation. The core environmental factors are the lack of national regulator and data exchange plan, national healthcare system and the shortage of professionals.

The results from the qualitative data were difficult to generalise to other populations. For example, the structure of the health sector varies from country to country as each health sector has its own characteristics that affect and are affected by national circumstances. In order to provide a more grounded theory resulting from a qualitative study, further examination by conducting quantitative studies is required. In addition, the TOE approach does not take into account the sociotechnical issues and further research is required in this area.

The investigation into the adoption decision of health data standards in tertiary healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia has led to the development of a technology-organisation-environment list that contains the critical factors influencing their adoption. The research outcome has addressed the gap in knowledge of the adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations. It also provides the decision maker, and in particular those in developing nations, with better understanding of the adoption process of those standards to better judge and to develop suitable strategy of adoption interventions.

Although recent studies indicated that the level of adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations remains frustratingly low, the prior studies related to health data standards missed out on the exploration of the adoption decision of different types of health data standards in healthcare organisations and the critical factors influencing their adoption. Research on health data standards adoption based out of a developing country such as Saudi Arabia can also potentially provide several new insights on standards practices.

The purpose of this research is to highlight the differences, and implications of any differences, between two approaches to measuring compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mandatory disclosure requirements: the commonly used “dichotomous” approach; and the alternative, but rarely used, partial compliance unweighted approach. The former gives equal weight to the individual items required to be disclosed by all standards. The latter assumes that each standard is of equal importance and consequently gives equal weight to each standard.

The paper employs both methods on a sample of companies. We then compare the results deriving from the application of the two methods and statistically test their differences.

It is found that the two methods produce significantly different overall and relative (i.e. ranking order) compliance scores.

This paper should alert researchers to the implications of using either method. Additionally, it highlights the need for academics and/or practitioners to be cautious when interpreting the findings of prior studies on compliance with IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements. Since the two methods produce significantly different compliance scores, findings regarding the variables associated with compliance may differ, depending on the disclosure index method followed. The paper suggests that simultaneous application of both methods would result in more robust findings in future research.

This is the first study to compare the results produced by applying both methods and statistically test their differences. The research methods explored are in particular relevant for policy‐oriented, international accounting research.

This paper examines the role of professional associations, governmental agencies, and international accounting and auditing bodies in promulgating standards to deter and detect fraud, domestically and abroad. Specifically, it focuses on the role played by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), and other national and foreign professional associations, in promulgating auditing standards and procedures to prevent fraud in financial statements and other white‐collar crimes. It also examines several fraud cases and the impact of management and employee fraud on the various business sectors such as insurance, banking, health care, and manufacturing, as well as the role of management, the boards of directors, the audit committees, auditors, and fraud examiners and their liability in the fraud prevention and investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into quality management for business education. The paper provides business schools and Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) with information about two different quality standards and suggests how the AACSB accreditation process might be strengthened – thereby improving the quality of the education process and product.

The authors compare two prevalent but different approaches to quality management: the AACSB accreditation standards and ISO 9001, a set of quality requirements developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). For this comparison, the authors review the literature in the field, including published quality standards, organization examples documenting implementation of AACSB or ISO 9001 standards, and existing empirical research results on the two approaches.

Both quality approaches have their merits and followers. It seems feasible that AACSB might be able to borrow some elements from the ISO 9001 components and process to improve their accreditation process. For example, they might wish to consider more standardized auditor training, the use of a third party auditing body, incorporation of a process orientation and a system of continuous improvement, as well as more overall reliance on the quality principles in ISO 9001.

This paper is a conceptual one without empirical data. As such, it has limitations. Further research is needed to gather empirical data to continue the investigation between these two approaches to quality management in education.

It is hoped that, with awareness and integration of some of the ISO 9001 components, AACSB and educational administrators are able to improve the accreditation process for business schools, thereby improving the overall education process and product.

The paper provides a comparison of two different but prevalent approaches to quality management within educational organizations. It presents insight for business schools seeking to adopt either of these approaches and provides suggestions for improvement of the AACSB standards. This discussion is valuable as it seeks to improve the quality of business education while it operates in an environment with increasingly limited resources.