Study on the degree of satisfaction on the functions of the financial system used in E-commerce enterprises based on Fuzzy AHP

In this paper, a comparison analysis is made on the functions of three generally used financial software, R/3 by SAP, a German company, U8 by Ufida Software Co. Ltd and K/3 by Kingdee. Then, a questionnaire survey has been conducted to financial staffs in the E-commerce enterprises to find out the degree of satisfaction on the functions of the above systems. The result indicates that most financial staffs are moderately satisfied. Furthermore, to judge the correction of the above questionnaire conclusion, Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process is employed to firstly establish an integral financial appraisal index system and then put forward a comprehensive evaluation model for the functions of financial system used in E-commerce enterprises.     

Regionalism in the nineties: what effect on trade?

We apply a gravity model to 1980–1996 annual nonfuel imports data for 58 countries to quantify the effects of recently created or revamped PTAs on trade. We modify the gravity equation to identify separate effects of PTAs on intrabloc trade, members’ total imports and their total exports and to test for significant changes in trade patterns following the creation of trade blocs. We find no indication that ‘new regionalism’ boosted intrabloc trade significantly and we find trade diversion only for the EU and EFTA. The latter also exhibit ‘export diversion’, which could indicate their imposing welfare costs on other countries. Latin American trade liberalization in the 1990s had a positive impact on bloc members’ imports and, usually, exports.     

Research on the government＇s audit regulation behavior based on game theory in China

Audit information quality is important for capital market to develop healthily. The efficiency is limited, and in a long time, it just depends on market to govern audit behavior. In order to improve the audit quality, the government has to govern independent audit behavior. It is difficult to observe CPA＇s behavior directly, however, the government has to game with multiple agencies. This paper analyzes the game behaviors among the government, the accounting institutions and the CPA based on welfare economics theory and game theory. The paper＇s aim is to provide advice for government to choose the appropriate governing behaviors.     

Employers’ Perspectives on the Canadian National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace

Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in Canada, with costs estimated at 51 billion dollars annually in addition to significant social costs. The Canadian National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard), recently released by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, aims to promote psychological health and safety in Canadian workplaces. The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of Canadian employers on the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. Ten employers from large, medium, and small workplaces participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was used to identify themes. Employers are concerned with workplace mental health and see value in the Standard, but are relatively uninformed about it. Employers identified leadership as a critical ingredient for effective Standard implementation, and believed that benefits of the Standard can be far reaching. Roger’s (2003) Diffusion of Innovations model is applied to conceptualize the uptake of this important social change. Employers’ perspectives and foundational knowledge about the Standard provides a starting point for collaborations between human resource professionals, workplace consultants, and workplace leaders to move the implementation of the Standard forward and create psychologically healthy work environments.     

Family-friendly policies in the workplace and their effect on work–life conflicts in Hong Kong

As in many other big cities, employees in Hong Kong face competing demands from their work and family and are under a tremendous conflict between work and life. Recently, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has put a lot of effort into promoting family-friendly policies, but the availability and effectiveness of these policies are largely unknown. The social distribution of work–life conflicts across social status and the dimensions of stratification in Hong Kong have already been documented. This paper examines these issues by way of a telephone survey of over 1000 employees in Hong Kong. We argue that certain groups of workers are particularly vulnerable to work–life conflicts, and target interventions must be devised to address their needs. Moreover, we also suggest that a regulatory approach to implementing family-friendly policies must be undertaken once implementation on a voluntary basis has failed, owing to the low availability of family-friendly policies in the Hong Kong workplace. Lastly, we show the effectiveness of three measures – namely flexible work time, a five-day work week and career breaks – in reducing both work–life conflicts and their negative consequences. We argue that more rigorous randomized intervention must be undertaken to provide more conclusive evidence so as to convince employers to implement these policies in their enterprises.     

‘Surfing on the ironing board’ – the representation of women's entrepreneurship in German newspapers

Despite extensive attempts to enhance women's entrepreneurship in Germany, a gender gap continues to exist. This article sets out to analyse the representation of women's entrepreneurship in German media, by analysing how it is depicted in newspapers and how this changes over time. Images transported in media might regulate the nature of women's entrepreneurship, as they contain information about ‘typical’ and ‘socially desirable’ behaviour of women as well as of entrepreneurs. This article contributes to developing an understanding of the relevance of media representation of the entrepreneurship phenomenon for influencing the propensity towards entrepreneurial activity.     

Positive Research on the Financial Statement Fraud Factors of Listed Companies in China

This paper studied the ＂pressure＂ and ＂opportunity＂ factors that caused financial statement fraud on the basis of the data of 41 A-share listed companies （1999-2004） in China which had been forfeited by China Securities Regulatory Commission （SRC） because of accounting irregularities. The author found that avoiding ＂ST＂ and ＂PT＂ was the primary pressure, and the opportunities mainly came from the higher top 10 shareholders＇ ownership concentration, the lower proportion of independent directors, the fewer number of directorate meetings and shares owned by the directorate members, board chairman and CEO held by one person and the ineffective supervisor boards. We also found that the companies involved financial statement fraud had the lower first majority shareholder＇s share proportion and they changed CPA firm more frequently.     

Positive study on the construction of consumption online platforms in colleges ＆ universities

Currently, online shopping has become an option in people＇s daily consumption, especially for large groups of college students. Based on the practical research of consumers groups of college students, this paper analyzes the affecting factors on consumers＇ satisfaction among groups of college students, and also tests the affecting factors. Thus, the authors give their proposals on how to build the consumer online platforms in colleges and universities, and the prospects forecast on the campus online market.     

The Impact of the Environment Management Act （EMA） on the Accountability of Companies in Fiji

This study seeks to explore the impact of the Environment Management Act （EMA） （2005） on the accountability of three companies in Fiji. The study uses a multi-case study approach based on three subsidiaries of a conglomerate. Data collection methods include semi-structured interviews with accountants, internal auditors, and environmental officers, document reviews, and content analysis of annual reports and websites of the respective companies. The findings suggest that the EMA （2005） had some effects in terms of engendering accountability on the companies studied. Further evidence suggests that while this increased accountability has led to disclosures in annual reports and websites, these disclosures are minimal at best; furthermore, they primarily address that the stakeholder group comprised government regulatory authorities. The study provides policy implications on how environmental legislations could be designed to improve the accountability of commercial entities in developing economies. The experience and issues highlighted are also useful to other developing economies who are contemplating in developing their own environmental legislations. This paper is one of the few papers that explore the impact of environmental legislations on accountability in a developing economy context.     

Investor Relations （IR） in Business Communication on the Example of Poland

This paper focuses on investor relations （IR） as an element of companies＇ communication with the external environment. It shows the place and role of IR in communication with the general market, and the stock exchange market in particular. The study is illustrated with an example of IR in Poland, a relatively new European Union （EU） member state and an emerging market. As can be seen, IR goes beyond the traditionally understood maintenance of communication with the capital market. It is also shown that the main role of IR ought to be the reduction of investment risk and enhancement of the companies＇ value, which is of particular significance in light of the current globalization of capital markets. It has been found that Polish companies, especially those listed on the Warsaw Securities Exchange （WSE）, commonly rely on IR as a means of communication with the environment. And yet, as the results of the analysis show, the quality of that communication is still far from satisfactory, despite efforts undertaken by various external entities to encourage more focus on the development of IR, or understanding of the company＇s relevant staff of its important role.     

Measuring the Measurable: Why can’t we Agree on the Number of Telecommuters in the U.S.?

Using telecommuting as a case study, we demonstrate that definitions, measurement instruments, sampling and sometimes vested interests affect the quality and utility even of seemingly objective and “measurable” data. Little consensus exists with respect to the definition of telecommuting, or to possible distinctions from related terms such as teleworking. Such a consensus is unlikely, since the “best” definition of telecommuting depends on one’s point of reference and purpose. However, differing definitions confound efforts to measure the amount of telecommuting and how it is changing over time. This paper evaluates estimates of the amounts of telecommuting occurring in the U.S. obtained from several different sources: the U.S. Census, the American Housing Survey, several Work at Home supplements to the Current Population Survey, a series of market research surveys, and the trade association-sponsored Telework America surveys. Many of the issues raised here are transferable to other contexts, and indirectly serve as suggestions for improving data collection in the future.     

Research on the CPA Audit Independence Risk Assessment Based on the Rough Set Theory

The assessment mode of the CPA audit independence risk based on the Rough Set Theory is a risk assessment method and using the Analytical Hierarchy Process, whose aim is to solve the bid management in the process of the Financial Statement Insurance. Firstly, according to the general instance of the accountant office, the experts grade the risk elements to establish the decision-making table; secondly, construct the judgment matrix using the attribution dependence degree of Variable Precision Rough Set to obtain relative importance, and further get the general importance for all of risk elements; Finally, establish the general assessment mode of the audit independence risk.     

Keeping the “T” in the WTO: where to next on environment and labor standards?

Agreement on a new trade Round depends partly on reassuring voters that it will contribute to better environmental protection and more social justice. That argument should be won comfortably. Increased international trade is a powerful tool for tackling poverty—the single biggest cause of environmental degradation and social misery world-wide—and many individual trade restrictions have direct, negative, environmental and social effects. Proposals to punish irresponsible environmental and social behavior through the WTO are a much more doubtful prospect. Without the underpinning of universally accepted environmental and social standards, trade restrictions are the wrong policy tool to use.     

Committed to the organization or the job? Effects of perceived HRM practices on employees' behavioral outcomes in the Japanese healthcare industry

This paper attempts to document how employees' perceptions of organizations' human resource management (HRM) practices influence their work behavior and outcomes, including the level of turnover intentions and job quality improvement, in a Japanese organizational and management context. In particular, an examination was made to clarify the mediating role of person–environment (P–E) fit and multiple aspects of work commitment to reach possible explanations of the relationships between perceived HRM practices and employees' behavioral outcomes, following recent work that studied the above linkages. The results of structural equation modeling using a sample of 1052 healthcare service employees in Japan provided basic support for the idea that the effects of HRM practices and employees' behavioral outcomes are neither direct nor unconditional. Moreover, employees' evaluations of their fit and commitment to their organizations were found to be the important mediators of the relationships between perceived HRM practices, while their evaluations of their fit to and involvement in their jobs were not. The findings are used to discuss why the specific forms of P–E fit and work commitment appear salient in Japanese organizations. The generalizability of the findings and the limitations of the study are discussed.     

What is the joint effect of employee satisfaction and customer orientation on the organizational culture in metalworking manufacturing?

It is a known fact that culture is an important element for the organizations. In this context, a research has been carried out in which the main subject is about to investigate the organizational culture depending on the factors of employee satisfaction and customer orientation in metalworking manufacturing firms. To perform the study, we constructed an original model and conducted research with 578 employees of metalworking organizations. After the data analysis, we determined that organizational culture has positive-significant correlation with employee satisfaction and customer orientation (at the 0.000 level). Additionally, the total explained variance of organizational culture – depending on employee satisfaction and customer orientation – has come out as a satisfying value (0.53). According to the results of our research, we are able to conclude that employee satisfaction and customer orientation has a mid-level effect on creating a substantial organizational culture.     

Economics Thought on the Accountant-appointed System

As one of the effective measures to reduce distorted accounting information, the accountant-appointed system has played its due role in preventing the state-owned assets from running off and strengthening the financial affairs of state-owned enterprises. But as a kind of new try, the accountant-appointed system still has a lot of defects in the course of its implementation. This paper explains the reason that inherent defects produce with the principal-agent theory in economics. Then it puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions to perfect the accountant-appointed system constantly.     

What's in it for us? Or: the impact of environmental legislation on competitiveness

The dispute on the impact of environmental legislation on international trade, national competitiveness, technological innovativeness and companies' profitability is as yet undecided. The predominant positions will be illustrated in the following meso/micro‐study detailing the impact (European) environmental legislation has on the competitiveness of a large chemical company. This study draws important conclusions and outlines remarkable implications by employing an instrumental distinction between short‐term costs/benefits and longer‐term innovativeness. It can be argued persuasively that environmental legislation has created a rat race among the major players at the (longer‐term) cost of smaller companies. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Are not-for-profits different? Theory and evidence on the pricing of health services in Uganda

Public provision of health and education in developing countries is often insufficient and inefficient. There is thus a call for a greater involvement of private providers to supply affordable and high-quality services to the population. In particular, it is often suggested that not-for-profit institutions should play a larger role, given their social mission. But do not-for-profits really behave differently from for-profit institutions? The literature does not provide a clear answer to this question. The present contribution offers evidence based on a simple theoretical model and price data from health care providers in Uganda with different governance structures. Using differences in market structure as source of variation, we find that not-for-profits indeed behave differently from for-profit institutions, with a pricing behavior that is consistent with an emphasis on health impact and not just profit maximization. Our results thus provide an argument for a policy trying to attract not-for-profit health clinics to fill the gap of an inefficient public health provision.