A rejoinder to the commentaries on Professor Chambers' 1999 paper the poverty of accounting discourse

The resource presented in this paper introduces and contextualises the teaching of Customer Lifetime Valuation (CLV) to management accounting students. CLV is a relatively recent innovation. It involves calculating the present value of expected net cash flows generated over the lifetime of an organisation's relationship with a particular customer/customer segment and using this information better to manage returns derived from a customer base. The Teaching Resource provides an introduction to the topic, suggested learning objectives, suitable student reading, and an innovative case (OzInsure case) facilitating students' technical competence and evaluation of CLV. Also included are suggested solutions and further background information situating the use and development of the teaching resource. Feedback received from peers and students indicates the utility of the Teaching Resource, and provides guidance as to its future development. More generally, this resource illustrates the feasibility of using instructors' research experiences to inform learning in management accounting.     

The effects of frequent testing in an income tax course: An experiment

This study provides initial empirical evidence from an introductory income tax course of the effects of exam frequency on student learning throughout a course (original learning), on retention of material covered, and on student evaluation of the learning process. An experiment was conducted during the spring and fall semesters of 1991, in which a single instructor taught four sections of an introductory, senior-level income tax course at a large, state university. The experimental group (two sections) was given six periodic exams prior to a cumulative final; the control group (two sections) was given three periodic exams before the cumulative final. Near the end of the course, both groups evaluated the instructor and the course. Results indicate that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group on the periodic exams given throughout the semester. Although the experimental group had a higher mean performance on the cumulative final exam, the difference was not statistically significant. The course and instructor evaluations by the experimental group were significantly better than those by the control group.     

The effects of group quizzes on performance and motivation to learn: Two experiments in cooperative learning

This study investigated the effect of group quizzes on accounting students’ performance and motivation to learn. While cooperative learning in accounting education has been studied in recent years, the effects on student performance have been mixed [Lancaster, K.A.S., Strand, C.A., 1999. Using the team-learning model in a managerial accounting class: an experiment in cooperative learning. Issues in Accounting Education 16(4), 549–568; Ravenscroft, S., Buckless, F., Hassall, T., 1999. Cooperative learning – A literature guide. Accounting Education 8(2) (1999) 163–176]. Thus, two experiments were conducted (one using an experimental design and the other using a quasi-experimental design) that examined student performance and motivation to learn. The first experiment used a quasi-experimental design to compare the performance and motivation to learn of students who took a series of group quizzes versus students in comparable classes in a prior semester that did not take group quizzes. Using a series of group quizzes in a mixed factorial design, the second experiment examined the performance of both: (1) long-term groups versus ad hoc groups and (2) self-selected groups versus instructor assigned groups. Findings revealed no performance differences across conditions in either the first or second experiments. However, student subjects in the first experiment (using group quizzes) reported a significantly greater motivation to learn and perception of learning than those in the second experiment (not using group quizzes).     

Conceptions of Learning and Approaches to Learning—A Phenomenographic Study of a Group of Overseas Accounting Students from Sri Lanka

This study explores conceptions of learning (SCL) and approaches to learning (SAL) of a group of Sri Lankan students studying accounting in an Australian university. The focus is on how cultural background and home country learning experiences shape SCL and SAL of these students. This research is based on the phenomenographic method, and semi-structured interviews are used for data collection. The results indicate that the interviewed students have lower-order conceptions of learning, and show characteristics of surface learning. Although the social approval motive was dominant in these students, it was not manifested in an achieving approach. Students in this study embrace the pedagogical tradition of the West, and engage in deep learning when they are exposed to research or practice-based assessments. Remnants from years of secondary education and aspects of a collectivist culture play a vital part in the ways in which these students perceive and approach learning. In addition, preconceptions of accounting as a vocation and a discipline strongly embedded in practice, drive learning conceptions and learning approaches.     

《马克思主义民族理论与党的民族政策》课教学中的一点思考

对学习意义的深刻领会是学生学好每门课程的良好开端。通过绪论的讲授使学生深刻领会学习《马克思主义民族理论与党的民族政策》课的意义,激发他们学习的紧迫感、热情和主动性,使他们发自内心地去学好本门课。     

SCAM: Design of a learning and teaching resource

University accounting students often have to assimilate technical auditing knowledge without practical audit experience. The desire to develop an appropriate experiential opportunity motivated this research - to create an audit teaching and learning resource to simulate audit experience and facilitate the development of transferable skills. Literature findings and dedicated questionnaire survey results suggested that such a resource should: (i) use a web based case-study to simulate a real-life audit scenario; (ii) require group working of the participants; (iii) facilitate the use and development of a range of transferable skills; and (iv) encourage a consideration of the wider business context. The web-based resource SCAM (www.scam-plc.co.uk) was developed to address these aims. This paper details this development process.     

高校就业困难群体的形成原因及对策

本文在介绍高校就业困难群体基本情况的基础上,从不对称信息经济学的角度对高校就业困难群体的形成原因进行分析.在此基础上,提出促进高校就业困难群体顺利就业的对策：增加职业指导和社会实践；控制就业寻租行为；建立社会援助体系；多渠道创造就业岗位；完善资金市场的建设；维持宏观经济稳定增长.     

The Development of Segment Reporting in Japan: Achieving International Harmonization Through a Process of National Consensus

The objective of this paper is to explore the process by which Japanese accounting has moved towards international harmonization in respect of its segment reporting requirements. The segment reporting issue offers an interesting case because, despite the strong opposition of companies in Japan, the new legislation came into existence relatively quickly and was sequentially developed by the regulators through a consensus building process. The most important influence in this process was the Ministry of Finance (MOF) which directed the sequence of events leading to the introduction of the segment disclosure standards, with the Business Accounting Deliberation Council (BADC) serving as a channel of communication with various non-governmental parties involved. It is also noteworthy that segment reporting appears to have been seen as an essential element in the completion of the group accounting legislation in Japan - which has been the subject of growing international pressure.     

Accounting Undergraduates' Perceptions of Cooperative Learning as a Model for Enhancing their Interpersonal and Communication Skills to Interface Successfully with Professional Accountancy Education and Training

To interface effectively with professional accountancy training, accounting educationalists should ensure that they turn out graduates who possess the interpersonal and communication skills required of today's accountant. Attainment of these skills is promoted by group work. However, little empirical evidence exists to help academics make an informed choice about which form of group learning enhances interpersonal and communication skills. This paper addresses this deficiency by comparing perceptions of skills enhancement between accounting students who experienced traditional or simple group learning and those who undertook cooperative learning. The findings reveal that the cooperative learning cohort perceived their learning experience to be significantly more effective at enhancing interpersonal and communication skills than that of the simple group learning cohort. This study provides evidence that cooperative learning is a more effective model for delivering interpersonal and communication skills than simple group learning, thereby creating a more successful interface between academic accounting and professional accountancy training.     

地方政府人才引进政策促进了区域创新吗？——来自准自然实验的证据

高技能人力资本对于我国经济转型的重要性不言而喻。本文以2009—2012年间39个城市集中出台的地方人才引进政策为准自然实验,采用多期政策的双重差分法,结合机制分析和异质性分析,探究了人才政策出台前后区域创新能力的变化及其背后的机制和深层次原因,并分析政策效应在不同的地区营商环境、科教事业投入力度、知识产权保护程度下的差异。本文主要结论包括,地方人才引进政策总体上提高了当地的专利授权总量和专利价值总量;显著增加了研发投入的规模,但创新效率没有得到明显提升;在营商环境较差的地区,政策的效应侧重于提高专利数量,营商环境较好的地区则侧重于提升专利价值;在科教投入力度本身就很大的地区,政策效果较小,在科教投入弱的地区效果会更明显;在知识产权保护程度弱的地区,政策效果更多地表现为提高专利数量,保护程度强的地区,则侧重于提升专利价值。上述结论对地方政府优化人才激励政策、实施创新驱动发展战略具有一定的政策启示。     

The impact of unstructured case studies on surface learners: a study of second-year accounting students

The empirical study described here uses the R-SPQ-2F questionnaire [Biggs, J., Kember, D., & Leung, D. Y. (2001). The revised two-factor study process questionnaire: R-SPQ-2F. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(1), 133–149] to test deep and surface approaches to learning in a university intermediate-level accounting class that uses business cases in group presentations. Statistical testing of results for learning style before and after group presentations indicates an increase in surface learning over time, with no detectable change in deep learning style. The type of business case used has no effect, in this setting. Course grades, however, are significantly less for students who did not participate in the group presentation activity at all. The results support the claim that students focus on what is required; they may adopt a strategic approach to learning. In a similar way, accounting academics and workload models may be reacting to incentives that discourage reflective and formative feedback. If deeper approaches to learning are desirable, assessments need to reward this behaviour.     

Integrated performance measurement design: insights from an application in aircraft maintenance

This paper describes the development and application over a 4-year period of a performance monitoring system based upon mathematical programming methods. The setting is the engineering services division of an international airline. An integrated performance measurement system is developed that extends the balanced scorecard into an holistic appraisal system incorporating multiple perspectives and supporting measures. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to quantify changes over time in productivity and continuous improvement. Fine-tuning of the DEA model to reflect the airline’s strategy provides a balanced view of organizational performance. Further refinement and depth of analysis is obtained through the use of Malmquist techniques to trace the sources of performance change to efficiency and organizational learning. A noteworthy feature of the project was the very positive response from within the enterprise to the introduction and use of an application that provides appropriate and incisive performance feedback.     

Lotteries, public good provision and the degree of rivalry

Under the standard summation technology, pure public goods can be provided via the direct contributions mechanism, even in an arbitrarily large group. However, if the public good exhibits any degree of rivalry, individual consumption of the public good will fall to zero as group size grows large. Thus, the direct contributions mechanism is not robust to the introduction of rivalry. By contrast, Morgan’s (Review of Economic Studies 67:761–784, 2000) lottery mechanism is robust to the introduction of rivalry when the lottery prize is proportional to group size. The lottery mechanism can provide public goods in a large group when the public good exhibits a degree of rivalry, provided that the degree of rivalry is not too high. This suggests that the lottery mechanism can provide a broader range of public goods in a large group than the direct contributions mechanism.     

Perceptions of the benefits of the A3 planner in facilitating project-based learning in accounting education

This paper evaluates ways of instilling project management skills into accounting-based learning by the use of an iterative A3 planner to plan, monitor and review assignment progress. The application of an A3 planner to facilitate a project-based learning (PBL) group assignment in undergraduate accounting education has been critically evaluated in terms of both the student and tutor experience. The study uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data assisting exploration of perceptions were collected through 100 undergraduate students. A series of focus group discussions were carried out to investigate students’ engagement and tutors’ teaching experiences regarding the adoption of the A3 planner. The results suggest that the A3 planner promotes active planning and effective management of a PBL group assignment. It makes students’ thought processes more visible thereby facilitating and enhancing the tutoring/mentoring process. Moreover a more interactive and transparent approach by doing assignment via the use of an iterative A3 planner has ensured more feedback points and action based efficiency in the doing approach for learners.     

Shamrock Shirt Co.'s non-interest bearing note

Student knowledge engineering is a new instructional technique which places students in the role of expert systems developers. This paper examines the feasibility, costs and benefits of this technique within the context of the accounting curriculum. A knowledge engineering project in the area of taxation is presented and evaluated by monitoring students' problem solving behaviour before, during and after developing their expert systems. Evidence suggests that knowledge engineering provides and environment in which students learn to (1) search, (2) read with a problem solving frame of mind, (3) communicate logically, (4) organize and structure accounting knowledge, and (5) logically problem solve, while learning accounting content material. In addition, knowledge engineering gives students a hands-on introduction to expert systems technology. Student knowledge engineering was implemented and evaluated in an Accounting Information Systems course. Student experiences were generally positive and confirmed expectations. Times required for completion of the projects were similar to those of other major course assignments.     

Selecting instructional design for introductory accounting based on the experiential learning model

Introductory accounting courses are usually taken by all business majors. The teacher is the manager of the instructional system and must select an instructional strategy from among the many combinations available. It is important for educators to recognize the diversity of learning styles of students in the introductory accounting class so the course can be a more enriching experience for both accounting and nonaccounting majors. The experiential learning model is discussed in association with the teaching modes available to accounting educators. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (1985) was used to determine the learning preferences for a large group of introductory accounting students. The results of this inventory and direction for the instructional design of introductory accounting courses are presented in this study.     

Opening and closing behavior following the introduction of call auctions in Singapore

The Singapore Exchange introduced opening and closing call auctions in August 2000. We find that the frequency of call trades is lower than on other markets. However, when auctions are used, the percentage of daily volume traded in the auction is high. Many days without call trades have quotes during the pre-call periods so that there is an opportunity for learning about equilibrium prices even when there are no call trades. Consistent with prior research, the introduction of call auctions enhances market quality at the open and the close. The call auctions also helped to address the issues that motivated their introduction in Singapore. That is, they increased the volume traded at the opening in initial public offerings and reduced the incidence of closing price manipulation.     

Grade-Risk: An Insurable Event in the Classroom

Grade-risk provides a powerful ally in establishing relevance between course content and the lives of students. As used in this article, grade-risk refers to the potential for the loss of points on examinations, quizzes, etc. This article describes the rationale and feasibility associated with the introduction of a student-centered grade insurance project that provides some measure of protection against grade-risk. The project engages students on multiple levels and in various capacities resulting in a significantly enriched learning experience. The authors include examples employed in their own classroom in demonstrating the feasibility and validity of grade insurance as a learning tool.     

Deposit Insurance,Banking Crises,and Market Discipline: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on Deposit Flows and Rates

Using evidence from Russia, we carry out what we believe to be the literature's cleanest test of the direct impact of deposit insurance on market discipline and study the combined effect of a banking crisis and deposit insurance on market discipline. We employ a difference‐in‐difference estimator to isolate the change in the behavior of a newly insured group (i.e., households) relative to an uninsured “control” group (i.e., firms). The sensitivity of households to bank capitalization diminishes markedly after the introduction of deposit insurance. The traditional wake‐up call effect of a crisis is muted by this numbing effect of deposit insurance.     

The effectiveness of interactive professional learning experiences as a pedagogical tool: Evidence from an audit setting

This paper describes an interactive professional learning experience (IPLE) and provides guidance for implementing an IPLE in an audit classroom. The IPLE described in this paper exposes students to a realistic practice environment within the classroom by bringing practitioners together with students in a professional supervisory setting. Practitioners review students’ work and then meet with students one-on-one to provide feedback on their work. We also document evidence of the pedagogical value of an IPLE by using a between-subjects experimental design in which learning outcomes for participants are compared to a control group that received the same instructions and completed the same written assignment, but did not participate in the professional interaction. In addition, pre- and posttests of students’ audit knowledge allowed for a within-subjects self-assessment of knowledge acquisition. The results strongly suggest that participation in the IPLE improves students’ performance on a skills test of relevant audit material and increases their self-perceptions of knowledge gained. In addition, results indicate that both students and audit professionals consider the IPLE a positive professional learning experience.