Evaluating National Capacity for Direct Participation in International Accounting Harmonization: France as a Test Case

This article evaluates national capacity for direct participation in international accounting harmonization through its principal current formal institutional forum, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), with France as a test case. The objective is to derive propositions by which individual nation states, their indigenous accounting professions and other significant elements of their institutional framework might: (a) evaluate their present national capacity to contribute to international accounting harmonization; and (b) address policy issues relevant to development and deployment of capacity for effective engagement. The objective of the framework of analysis employed is to infer essential or desirable attributes for direct participation in international accounting harmonization by reference to the observed attributes of the initial IASB appointments. The likelihood and sustainability of direct French participation in the process is then assessed in relation to those attributes.     

Evaluating the use of an integrated forest land-use planning approach in addressing forest ecosystem services conflicting demands: Experience within an Irish forest landscape

There is an increasing demand for genuine public participation in Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) planning to address the various demands for forests to deliver a range of ecosystem services. However, as of yet, there are few developed and tested mechanisms to help authorities and stakeholders with diverse interests to effectively work together to reach a common goal. Integrated Forest Land-Use Planning (IFLUP) is an approach that has the potential to accommodate multi-stakeholders’ demands in the field of SFM planning. In this paper an IFLUP framework process that facilitates stakeholder participation in future-oriented SFM planning is explored. This framework combines scenario analysis and stakeholder collaborative learning. Its application in a case study area in the West of Ireland is outlined and its effectiveness in accommodating conflicting stakeholder demands on forest ecosystem services as well as its potential opportunities and challenges are evaluated.Based on the results and participants evaluation feedback of the IFLUP workshop outcomes, there was a shared view that the IFLUP approach has potential to address conflicting societal demands on forest ecosystem services within local forest landscapes. Likewise, collaborative learning process helps build trust and respect among stakeholder groups as well as improving the legitimacy and acceptance of SFM planning outcomes.     

Accountable Management Reforms: Why the Norwegian Hospital Reform Experiment Got Lost in Implementation

There is an international tendency to replace governmental funding based on fixed grants by different reforms implying accountable management methods. In this article we focus on the implementation problems of New Public Management reforms in the Norwegian hospital sector. These reforms are built on a belief that more accountable methods will improve efficiency and better resource allocation. The term New Public Management includes different cost-improvement programmes like Prospective Payment Systems, which were introduced as a new basis of funding in four Norwegian hospitals during a three year experimental period. The studies presented here support the findings from similar reforms in other countries, stating that there are very few, if any, documented efficiency gains by these reforms. The explanation may be that the reforms have disregarded the importance of internal organisational processes, like high quality management, communication and participation as parts of the implementation phases.     

社区治理中的公共参与和基层管理

社区治理是目前我国多元化社区组成与加强社会管理的必然选择。在我国,社区作为国家与社会的连结点,社区治理的实现需要基层管理与公共参与之间的良性互动。本文通过分析社区基层管理与公共参与的不可或缺以及二者之间互动存在的问题,旨在探索中国特色社区治理的改进之路。     

Why is research on management accounting change not explicitly evolutionary? Taking the next step in the conceptualisation of management accounting change

In this article we discuss the evolutionary foundation of the OIE-guided management accounting change research building on the framework of [Scapens R.W. 1994. Never mind the gap: towards an institutional perspective on management accounting practice. Management Accounting Research, 5, 301–321.] and [Burns, J. and Scapens, R.W., 2000. Conceptualizing management accounting change: an institutional framework. Management Accounting Research, 11, 3–25.]. We argue that research on management accounting change should be based on evolutionary theory, but that the full potential of evolutionary theory has not yet been described or used in management accounting research. The conceptualisation and understanding of management accounting change can be improved and expanded if the evolutionary approach is developed beyond the general belief that it describes only small and gradual, often slow, changes. In this article we show that an evolutionary perspective on management accounting change implies that management accounting’s development is explained as the interaction between the evolutionary sub processes of retention (inheritance), variation and selection. Thus, both continuity and change are seen as evolutionary outcomes. These processes follow the cumulative causality that Charles Darwin proposed and Thorstein Veblen applied to the social sciences. Such a comprehensive theory, here labelled Universal Darwinism, must, however, be given substance with supporting details.     

Institutional sustainability: ‘community’ and waste management in Zimbabwe

This article addresses sustainability as a social process. In doing so it extends beyond the Brundtland notion of present and ‘future generations’ to grapple with the divergent social worlds in which the term is constructed by different actors. It is thus concerned with how learning can take place within development interventions to enable actors to build new norms and behaviours which cut across social divides. A framework has been developed to (i) explore and make explicit the assumptions held by stakeholders; (ii) develop an awareness of the nature and practices of accountability; (iii) build an understanding of cause and effect (attribution) in relation to action. It is suggested that structured participation in these processes can help to build inter-organizational and inter-associational learning which can provide the basis for new norms and behaviours stretching beyond the formal life of any intervention (institutional sustainability). The article draws on research from Zimbabwe, however it is suggested that the framework can have applicability in many situations.     

Multilevel design of performance measurement systems: enhancing strategic dialogue throughout the organization

Strategy (re)formulation and implementation pertains to the collective ambition and responsibility of an entire organizational population. This perspective justifies an integral approach to the design of organizational controls, implying a design effort throughout the organization at multiple organizational levels. The article proposes a normative framework for multilevel design of diagnostic controls, i.e. performance measurement systems. The framework is an attempt to synthesize a design theory from systems theory and cybernetics, using a composite of the goal-oriented model, the multiple-constituency model and the natural-systems model of organization. Although the framework concerns design of diagnostic controls, these products of designing are not an end in themselves. Rather, the process of designing is a means for enhancing strategic dialogue throughout the organization, thereby interactively controlling strategy. Hence, participation in the process of designing, during which the collective attitude of mind is reset in accordance with changed or even new strategic priorities, is essential. Application of the framework is explored in the illustrative case of a service organization.pc 1999 Academic Press     

Best Value—Total Quality Management for Local Government?

This article argues that Best Value is a form of Total Quality Management (TQM). At the core of Best Value are the TQM principles of customer focus, continuous improvement and team–working. To discover if Best Value will deliver the performance improvements expected of local government, the authors examine evidence on the relationship between TQM and performance. Performance is most likely to be improved if the whole TQM approach is implemented in the Best Value framework.     

Auctions with ex post uncertainty

Uncertainty about ex post realized values is an inherent component in many auction environments. In this article, we develop a structural framework to analyze auction data subject to ex post uncertainty as a pure risk. We consider a low‐price sealed‐bid auction model with heterogeneous bidders' preferences and ex post uncertainty. The uncertainty can be common to all bidders or idiosyncratic. We derive the model restrictions and study nonparametric and semiparametric identification of the model primitives under exogenous and endogenous participation. We then develop multistep nonparametric and semiparametric estimation procedures in both cases.     

Transdisciplinary co-production: Designing and testing a transdisciplinary research framework for societal problem solving

Transdisciplinary research is often promoted as a mode of knowledge production that is effective in addressing and solving current sustainability challenges. This effectiveness stems from its closeness to practice-based/situated expertise and real-life problem contexts. This article presents and tests one approach within transdisciplinary research, which specifically focuses on increasing the participation of actors from outside of academic in knowledge production processes, called transdisciplinary (TD) co-production. The framework for TD co-production focused on five focal areas (inclusion, collaboration, integration, usability, and reflexivity) in three research phases (Formulate, Generate, Evaluate). This paper tests and evaluates the use of this framework in five research projects. The results discuss how the focal areas and research phases dealt with many crucial issues in transdisciplinary knowledge production. They stimulated a high level of stakeholder participation and commitment to the research processes, and promoted knowledge integration and reflexive learning across diverse sectors and disciplines. The approach, however, came up against a number of practical barriers stemming primarily from institutional, organizational and cognitive differences of the participating organizations. While TD co-production increased the usability of the results in terms of their relevance and accessibility, it paradoxically did not ensure their anchoring in respective institutional and political contexts where societal change occurs.     

内部控制、公司治理、风险管理:关系与整合

为了控制企业可能存在的风险,在企业的发展过程中,相继产生了内部控制、公司治理和风险管理等框架。关于三者关系理论界和实务界一直都在进行争论,但时至今日并未达成统一的认识,特别伴随COSO《企业风险管理——整体框架》的发布以及我国财政部《企业内部控制规范——基本规范》的出台,三者关系的讨论就不仅仅是理论问题,而是实践中必须要解决的问题了。本文从历史回顾和逻辑推理的角度,探讨了三者本质的相同性,以此为基础,对三者进行了整合,构建了基于风险管理的整合框架。这既避免了企业管理体系的交叉、重复,又实现了各种管理体系的一体化。     

The IASB standard-setting process: Participation and perceptions of financial statement users

The interests of users of financial statements are, in theory, paramount to accounting standard-setters. However, there is a dearth of research into users' participation in, and influence on, the process of setting accounting standards. The enhanced status now accorded to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) offers the opportunity to examine these issues in a new regulatory context. This study reports the results of a questionnaire survey of the perceptions of, and participation in, the IASB process of a sample of UK investment management firms. The findings suggest that these firms' participation is not as low as is often inferred from the public record of comment letters. In particular, a considerable number of firms participate through representative report user organisations such as the Investment Management Association. Other findings suggest that the major factor inhibiting investment firms from participating is the cost of lobbying, not complacency that the IASB is ‘on their side’ and will naturally safeguard their interests. Moreover, the respondents consider the accounting profession and the European and US accounting standard-setters to be the dominant interest groups in the IASB standard-setting process.     

The Cult of Modernity

This article examines Strategic Performance Management Systems oftenintroduced as a key component of New Public Management. In doing so, it identifies some of the common and long-standing difficulties identified with the introduction and use of performance measures. The article then questions why such management systems are consistently advocated given some of the apparently serious dysfunctions that their introduction and use can engender. It concludes that these systems reflect a deeper attachment to what has been characterised as Enlightenment thinking, and that an archaeology of this style of thought is a necessary pre-requisite for understanding models of management that are promulgated.     

Eröffnet §121 f VAG einen Run-Off-Tourismus?

This article is based on a lecture, which was given under the heading “ortfolio Transfers in the European Community and Solvent Schemes of Arrangement from the (Re)Insured’s Perspective” in the context of the event of ARIAS Europe e.V. “Arbitration in Insurance 2009” on 13 October 2009.Since the implementation of §121 f of the German Insurance Supervision Act (Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz) in 2007 a legal framework for a cross-boarder reinsurance portfolio transfer came into effect. A reinsurance undertaking is authorised to transfer all or part of its portfolios of contracts to another Insurance Company without approval of the direct insurerer (the reinsured). This article looks into the effects on the legal position of the direct insurer in particular regarding the corss-border transfer into UK jurisdiction and the possibility to conduct Solvent Schemes of Arrangement. Options of the direct insurer to gain influence on the transfer of “his” contractual basis are introduced.     

税收代位权初探

我国新《税收征管法》是在《合同法》的基础上，规定了税收代位权制度。法律规定税收代位权的目的是为了保障税务机关的税款不致流失、确保国家税收收入。鉴于新《税收征管法》中未规定税收代位权的具体法律制度，故笔拟对税收代位权的行使条件、方式、限制及效力进行探讨，以利完善该法律制度。     

A Proposal to Improve U.S. Housing Market Incentives: A Response to the Federal Reserve White Paper of January 2012

The U.S. housing finance market has not yet recovered from the housing price bubble that peaked in late 2006. Even though prices have fallen significantly, there are still problems in clearing the market. For the last few years, a group of financial economists and practitioners who are part of the Financial Management Association's Practitioner Demand Driven Academic Research Initiative (PDDARI) have been studying the collapse of the housing market and have concluded that many market participants still have insufficient (and in some cases the wrong) incentives to take actions that would help restore the market's health. In January 2012, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, released a white paper that reviewed current housing market conditions and created a framework for policy analysis designed to help reestablish the health of the U.S. housing market as part of the broader effort to foster economic recovery. Using this framework as its starting point, the PDDARI group has come up with a set of proposals whose centerpiece is an “incentive‐compatible” mortgage that encourages homeowners to rebuild their home equity as an essential step to a housing recovery. By incorporating “price appreciation rights” that would provide stronger inducements for lenders or mortgage owners to make loan modifications (particularly, forgiveness of principal), the PDDARI mortgage structure could allow more homeowners to remain in their homes and avoid foreclosures and the large associated deadweight costs (as much as 40% of a home's assessed value). Additionally, the government‐sponsored enterprises, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are also in need of radical reform, and a transition toward greater private market participation would promote the long‐term health of the mortgage market.     

Modes of regulation in advanced capitalism: Locating accountancy in four countries

The paper presents a framework for examining how accounting practices are regulated within advanced capitalist societies. Through the critical use of Streeck & Schmitter's (Private Interest Government and Public Policy, Sage, London, 1985) exploration of models of social order, regulation is theorised as an expression of the combination of the organising principles of Market, State and Community. The analytical framework is then applied to compare modes of accounting regulation in the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States of America. The paper highlights the significance of contradictions within and between the organizing principles of advanced capitalism and seeks to display the regulation of accounting as a medium and outcome of the articulation of these contradictions.     

Does the market model provide a good counterfactual for event studies in finance?

Financial Markets and Portfolio Management - We provide a common framework that relates traditional event study estimation methods in finance to a modern approach for causal event studies. The...     

聚焦“债转股” 金融资产管理公司立法的重大发展——《金融资产管理公司条例》评析

由国务院公布施行的《金融资产管理公司条例》，是我国所颁布的第一部有关金融资产管理公司和债权转化为股权的法规，这部法规的出台无疑是金融资产管理公司立法的重大发展。本文从分析《条例》促进金融资产管理公司立法的发展入手，试图对《条例》的内容作一简单评述。