Value Chain Analysis Across Borders: The Case of Australian Red Lentils to Sri Lanka

This research examines the creation and distribution of consumer value in the most important supply chain of lentils between Australia and Sri Lanka. This adopts a value chain analysis approach applied to a case study, using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Intercept surveys of consumers in Sri Lanka revealed that quality, size, and price as the most important value-creating factors. A very strong communication and relationships triad exists among the trader, indenting agent, and processor, but the flow of information from consumer to producer is weak. Opportunities lie in improved genetics, better-informed growers, and continued production efficiencies.     

Market Orientation in a Sample of Food and Beverage Processing Firms in the Western Province,Sri Lanka

This study empirically investigates the market orientation strategy of firms operating in the food and beverage industry in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. Market orientation was conceptualized through three sets of activities: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness. Firms were grouped based on the level of market orientation and were compared. It was revealed that one group had a separate marketing division with specialized marketing personnel and a positive top management philosophy toward market orientation. Firms in this group showed a greater level of performance compared to firms in other groups.     

Accountability in Crisis: The Sponsorship Scandal and the Office of the Comptroller General in Canada

For much of the last 50 years, a key platform animating public sector reform in Canada and elsewhere has been that efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved by adapting private sector financial management methods and practices. We argue that the recent re-establishment of the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) of Canada represents a key element of a program of strengthening financial accountability that has emerged within the Canadian Federal Government. Although this program is longstanding and is associated Canada’s implementation of new public management initiatives, it has recently drawn particular sustenance from the sponsorship scandal in Canada. We demonstrate that the reincarnated OCG, re-established amid a rhetoric of “modernization” and of “strengthening” accountability, has a wide-ranging mandate to enhance financial and audit controls, create financial standards, nurture professional development, and oversee government spending. We explore some of the consequences of this development and of the broader financial accountability mechanisms introduced in response to the Sponsorship scandal within the Canadian public sector.     

Economic Governance,Accountability and Accounting Change in East Asia

The development of economic governance is now thought to require the remaking of respective accountabilities along with significant corresponding accounting change. On the basis of key discourses about a particular ‘critical’ period in East Asia's recent history, this article considers whether certain regional and individual country accountabilities were actually remade and whether the role of accounting changed accordingly. It finds that the preferred strategies governing economic recovery after the East Asian crisis were partial and incompletely realized. It concludes that ‘higher order’ governance has been unexpectedly problematic and requires more East Asian sourced research in future.     

Ethics and the Auditing Culture: Rethinking the Foundation of Accounting and Auditing

Although the foundation of financial accounting and auditing has traditionally been based upon a rule-based framework, the concept of a principle-based approach has been periodically advocated since being incorporated into the AICPA Code of Conduct in 1989. Recent high profile events indicate that the accountants and auditors involved have followed rule-based ethical perspectives and have failed to protect investors and stakeholders – resulting in a wave of scandals and charges of unethical conduct. In this paper we describe how the rule-based traditions of auditing became a convenient vehicle that perpetuated the unethical conduct of firms such as Enron and Arthur Andersen. We present a model of ten ethical perspectives and briefly describe how these ten ethical perspectives impact rule-based and principle-based ethical conduct for accountants and auditors. We conclude by identifying six specific suggestions that the accounting and auditing profession should consider to restore public trust and to improve the ethical conduct of accountants and auditors.     

浅论民间非营利组织财务管理和会计核算工作

近年来,民间非营利组织发展迅速,现已涉及到社会生活的各个领域。但是,民间非营利组织的财务管理和会计核算跟不上时代发展的步伐,影响了其信誉和公信力,因而制约了其进一步发展的空间。本文分析了民间非营利组织在财务管理及会计核算中存在的种种问题,提出了加强非营利组织财务管理和会计核算的若干措施。     

Creative Accounting: Some Ethical Issues of Macro- and Micro-Manipulation

Preparers of financial statements are in a position to manipulate the view of economic reality presented in those statements to interested parties. This paper examines two principal categories of manipulative behaviour. The term macro-manipulation is used to describe the lobbying of regulators to persuade them to produce regulation that is more favourable to the interests of preparers. Micro-manipulation describes the management of accounting figures to produce a biased view at the entity level. Both categories of manipulation can be viewed as attempts at creativity by financial statement preparers. The paper analyses two cases of manipulation. First, it describes a recent case of significant and successful lobbying against the accounting regulator in the USA. The second case examines some recent Spanish earnings manipulation to demonstrate the effects of biased reporting at the entity level. Both types of creativity are considered in an ethical context. The paper concludes that the manipulations described in it can be regarded as morally reprehensible. They are not fair to users, they involve an unjust exercise of power, and they tend to weaken the authority of accounting regulators.     

中外高校会计学专业人才培养模式的比较研究

通过对我国与英国、美国、澳大利亚高校会计学专业人才培养模式特点的比较,发现我国的教育培养模式存在着人才培养偏离市场需求,教学重理论轻实践,会计专业的课程体系不合理等方面的差距;人才培养目标、课程设置、以及教学方法上亦存在着不足。国外对我国高校会计学专业人才培养模式的启示在于：在培养目标上,应注重对学生的综合素质和能力的培养,加快完善课程体系建设,引入案例教学法;在人才培养模式上,应着力于缩短人才培养与社会需求差距,构建人才培养的双学位模式,以此满足社会需求,推动社会经济发展。     

会计师事务所开展企业财税顾问探索

随着我国经济水平的提升及整体国力不断加强,在新一轮的经济改革中,不少中小企业抓住了发展时机,实现了成长的飞跃,这也给会计师事务所的发展创造了更多机会。如今,除了整体的市场竞争环境愈发激烈,复杂多变的外部市场环境以及企业自身多元化的业务类型,都是企业在进一步发展中将会面临的问题,靠其自身解决难度较大,引入外部专业力量是必要的选择。因此,越来越多的会计师事务所迎合市场需求在审计业务之外,开展了企业财税顾问服务,这也给其未来发展创造了更多的可能和机会。     

高职会计电算化专业的职业技能培养、训练与测评

按高职会计电算化专业技能的特点和性质要求,培养和发展学生的就业与工作能力,只传授专业理论知识是远远不够的,必须把专业基本知识的教学和基本技能的训练结合起来。技能训练可采用课堂讲授法、课后作业法、摸拟训练法、课外辅导法和社会实践法等技能训练方法。并设计采用相对简化的测评方法对学生学习各项技能的正确性和熟练程度进行测评。     

An Analysis of Materiality and Reasonable Assurance: Professional Mystification and Paternalism in Auditing

Critical analyses of the audit profession have become more common in recent years. Many of these analyses focus on the entire audit profession in developing their criticisms and concerns. In this paper, the scope of analysis is narrowed to examine in depth the auditing profession's use of the concepts of reasonable assurance and materiality in audit performance and audit communications. Reasonable assurance and materiality are the terms that auditors use to describe the scope of their responsibility to the public. Similarly, reasonable assurance and materiality are the key determinants of audit effort. An overview of official guidance, practitioner reports, and academic research reveals that these two key concepts are not well specified nor are they consistently applied in audit practice. These findings are evaluated from two competing perspectives on professions – the traditional, functionalist perspective and the critical theorists' perspective. Evaluation from the latter perspective leads to a conclusion that the profession's use of these key terms to guide practice and communication leaves the profession open to charges of mystification and unjustified paternalism.     

Management Attempts to Avoid Accounting Disclosure Oversight: The Effects of Trust and Knowledge on Corporate Directors’ Governance Ability

Management has the opportunity to promote self-serving accounting practices, such as earnings management, when management can effectively avoid oversight by the audit committee. This article investigates the effects of financial knowledge and dispositional trust on the ability of audit committee members to recognize management attempts to avoid full disclosure to the board and potentially deceive board members. The results of a controlled laboratory experiment with 40 experienced audit committee member participants indicate that: (1) Audit committee members with less financial knowledge are more likely to accept insufficient client explanations for accounting judgments than are more knowledgeable audit committee members; (2) Audit committee members with less financial knowledge are more likely to reject sufficient client explanations for accounting judgments than are more knowledgeable audit committee members; and (3) Audit committee members that place higher levels of trust in others are more likely to accept insufficient client explanations for accounting judgments than are less trusting committee members.     

Timeliness of Accounting Information in Family Controlled and Managed Companies in Brazil

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of family control and management in the quality of accounting information in Brazilian companies, with a focus on timeliness. The sample consisted of 72 Brazilian companies and 1,656 observations from 2008 to 2013. The results show that family-controlled companies are quicker to recognize good news related to the price of the respective stock. On the other hand, family managed companies showed low accounting timeliness in relation to recognition of good news. The findings contribute to the agency theory and the literature on family firms and confirm that such companies experience fewer agency problems arising from conflicts between majority and minority shareholders. In addition, the agency conflicts between the management and minority shareholders can be compounded by the recognition of good news not being in family managed firms.     

包税制的均衡条件：历史形态与成本收益分析

本文对包税制的历史以古今中外的顺序进行回顾,并对包税制的成本与收益作出分析,指出包税制在历史上曾起过积极作用,并在今天的新公共管理运动中发挥着新的作用,对我国的县乡财政改革和小城镇发展具有启发意义.     

财会专业执业教育现状与对策研究——以三本院校为例

培养高水平的具有执业能力的财会应用型人才,是当今高校的重要责任与使命。通过对江苏省20家不同行业的企业进行研究总结得出:会计人员应具备业务能力、社会能力、发展能力。而目前在三本院校教育中普遍存在执业能力培养和教学效果难以考核,理论教学和会计执业资格考试相脱节,教师能力有限等问题。为了适应社会的需求,高校必须采取"理论教学与执业教育"相结合的财会专业人才培养模式,加快教师观念更新,确立明确的培养计划,着重学生实地实践能力的培养,从而为社会提供所需的应用型人才。     

Accounting research in China: commemorating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up

This study reviews the influential accounting literature on China topics published both in international and Chinese journals in the recent four decades to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up in China. We first review the literature published in the first two decades, where normative research is dominant and financial accounting and managerial accounting are the main topics. Then, looking more in-depth at the most recent literature, we separately discuss the articles published from 1998 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2018, in which many topics are covered including financial accounting, managerial accounting, financial management and corporate governance, auditing and tax. Finally, conclusions and future suggestions are raised based on the issues explored over the past four decades.     

Is There Any Change in the Public Service Values of Different Generations of Public Administrators? The Case of Turkish Governors and District Governors

In recent public administration literature, much attention is paid to changes in public service values, including ethical values, that guide public service. This paper reports on the results of an empirical survey conducted among a group of Turkish governors and district governors (including those in service and retired) who are from different generations. By focusing on the transformation of value preferences of Turkish governors and district governors, this study tries to identify variations in values, particularly about public service ethics, in accordance with the age and the length of tenure in public service. The findings of the research show a traditional and more or less consistent value pattern for Turkish governors and district governors. The most important public service values expressed by the respondents are consistent with often-mentioned crucial public service values in the literature. New or emerging values have not been present enough among the most important public service values. In brief, the results do not lend support to the often-assumed hypothesis that traditional public service values are devaluated or degraded by the emergence of businesslike values. In other words, new emerging values could not sneak into the public service culture in any convincing manner in spite of many years of NPM rhetoric and recipes.     

充分发挥财务管理在高校转型发展中的积极作用——以Y学院为例

在高校转型发展时期,高校财务工作也应随之及时转型:从核算型转为管理型财务;提高财务工作的主动性;逐步建立创新型财务;加强财务工作实践和理论有机结合;提高财会队伍综合素质。财务管理工作应为高校的转型发展重点做好资金筹措、科学化精细化预算、支持学校参与地方经济、努力提高教育资金使用效益等方面的工作,建立优良的财务运行机制,更好地服务高校事业的健康快速发展。     

Environmental Costs and Responsibilities Resulting from Oil Exploitation in Developing Countries: The Case of the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Interest shown on the environmental impact of operations of multinational enterprises in developing countries has grown significantly recently, and has fuelled a heated public policy debate. In particular, there has been interest in the environmental degradation of host communities and nations resulting from the operations of multinational oil companies in developing countries. This article examines the issue of environmental costs and responsibilities resulting from oil exploitation and production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The case study is based, in part, upon series of interviews with key stakeholders in the Nigerian oil industry. The article further examines the implications of the current practice and policies of multinational oil companies with respect to environmental impact of oil exploitation. The study’s findings illustrates that it is becoming increasingly apparent to oil companies that pollution prevention pays while pollution does not and under pressure from stakeholder groups, oil companies now routinely incorporate environmental impact assessments into their corporate strategy.Dr Gabriel Eweje is a lecturer in Management and International Business at College of Business, Massey University, Auckland Campus, New Zealand. Previously, he worked as a Research Fellow at the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU/IAS), Tokyo, Japan, and taught at Royal Holloway University of London, England. His PhD from University of London focused on Corporate Social Responsibility and Activities of Multinational Oil and Mining companies in Developing Countries. He also worked as a Research Fellow with International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London on a project on how mining and minerals can contribute to sustainable development (MMSD). His research interest lies around the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability related disciplines.