University-Business Cooperation in Education： Real and Perceived Performances

The purpose of this paper is to describe and demonstrate the validity of a methodology to distinguish, in the performances of high education institutions （HEIs）, real from perceived performances. The extension of accountability to the evaluation of educational programs involves significant topics concerning the gap between perceived and real performances. It means that, since many actors such as teachers, students, and external stakeholders are involved in the process, the research on methodologies to distinguish subjective from objective parameters is still on the floor. Debate about performance evaluation in this collaboration is still in progress particularly as it concerns the proposal of several parameters and indexes to quantify the topic and reduce the subjectivism in the assessment and the gap between real and perceived performances. After describing and discussing an evaluation model based on three interdependent typologies of indexes, this will be tested in two Tempus projects having the purpose of activating Ph.D. and masters courses. The results encourage deepening researches in this direction and disseminating this methodology and extending and enriching the validation process.     

Ethical Awareness： Do We Need to Teach Accounting Ethics？ The Case of Bahrain

Based on the premise that ethics education leads to creation of the required （acceptable level of） ethical awareness, the general streamline of accounting ethics literature is strongly in favor of teaching adequate, efficient, and effective accounting ethics. This paper takes the position that this premise must be checked in an educational setting in which accounting ethics education lacks the characteristics of being adequate, efficient, and effective. Accordingly, a questionnaire with two parts was distributed to accounting students about to graduate from the University of Bahrain （UoB）. The first part is an exploratory investigation consisting of 21 variables/questions. The second part is an experimental investigation consisting of 13 hypothetical accounting cases representing various ethics violations. The general tendency by an accounting student based on the two parts indicates that he/she holds an acceptable level of ethical awareness, despite the fact that accounting education programs lack an adequate, efficient, and effective approach to teaching accounting ethics.     

Using Project-Based Learning （PBL） in Management Accounting Course： Lesson and Reflection From Entrepreneurship Education

One of the main issues in entrepreneurship education is integrating core course to entrepreneurship course. Many educators fail to integrate core course and entrepreneurial education. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the integration of management accounting course in entrepreneurship course will accomplish the objective of entrepreneurship education. This study is derived from the experience of entrepreneurial project course at Management Department of Ciputra University, Surabaya. This study uses an explorative approach to investigate the implementation of project-based learning （PBL） in management accounting course. The result shows variation of output. There are about 91% business can be implemented by business groups and about 33% target achieved. Several management accounting techniques are used in this study, such as balanced score card （BSC）, activity-based costing （ABC）, activity-based management （ABM）, cost-volume-profit （CVP） analysis, and tactical decision making. This study found that by using management accounting techniques, student can run the business well especially when they have to make decision. This study strengthens the role of management accounting in business practices, and furthermore, this study proves that management accounting is beneficial for entrepreneurs who are still in the start-up business stage.     

Implementing Sustainability Reporting （SR）： （Neo-） Institutional Theory Insights in the Analysis of the SGR Group,Italy and CityGas,Bulgaria

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the corporate characteristics and contextual factors influence the choice of managers in initiating the sustainability report/reporting （SR） and to understand the role of organisational dynamics. The research design develops through a deductive and inductive approach. The deductive approach is based on an analysis of the Social and Environmental Accounting Research （SEAR） strands which use the theoretical framework of （neo-） institutional theory to inquire the adoption and diffusion of SR. The inductive method is based on a research case that focuses on the SGR Group. ＂How can the rico-institutional theory help explain the process of SGR＇s SR implementation in Italian and Bulgarian companies＂？ The study identifies both the internal and contextual factors associated with the SR development and the regulative, normative, and cognitive dimensions/factors that affect the implementation and institutionalisation of SR in Italy and Bulgaria, in accordance with the different institutional environments in which the social and sustainability accounting projects are developed.