All for Nothing? Accounting for Land under Roads by Australian Local Governments

Accounting for land under roads by local governments has been one of the most controversial and protracted episodes in the setting of Australian accounting standards. However, after more than two decades of exposure drafts, regulation, transitional provisions and re‐regulation, most land under roads has not been recognised in local government balance sheets. Australian Accounting Standard AAS 27 Financial Reporting by Local Governments was first issued in 1991 and, among other significant reforms, proposed that local governments report land under roads as an asset in their financial reports. However, persistent opposition to this requirement and practical difficulties associated with its implementation gave rise to a succession of transitional provisions deferring its mandatory application. Finally, in 2007 – 16 years after AAS 27 was first promulgated – the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) sought to bring closure to this issue with the release of AASB 1051 Land Under Roads. However, in the interim some state governments had pursued their own resolutions, forbidding the recognition of land under roads. This research reports the results of a survey of the impact of land under roads on local government financial reports. After two decades of debate and regulation, diversity is found to persist in the extent and manner of recognition of this ‘asset’. However, recognition remains the exception rather than the norm and is typically confined to recent acquisitions that comprise only a very small portion of total assets. These circumstances are suggestive of an episode of regulatory failure.     

Creating an Innovative Culture

Four types of mutually exclusive cultures are described in Cameron and Quinn's (2011) Competing Values Framework, but only one is described as innovative. Each culture requires a certain type of leadership approach, values, concept of effectiveness, and quality improvement strategy. Brief interviews were conducted with leaders of four types of organizations to help determine the type of industries that align with these cultures and to consider how to create innovation in each.     

Migrants and their overseas travels: A psychographic segmentation of Australia's Vietnamese community

This study profiled the travel patterns of Australia's Vietnamese community, with particular reference to travel back to Vietnam. Using a variety of analytical techniques including analysis of variance, factor analysis and regression analysis, the study identified four discrete psychographic groups. These were the ‘home‐sick,’ the ‘suspicious,’ the ‘culture seekers’ and the ‘price sensitive.’ Major contrasts were evident between the various segments. The ‘home‐sick’ appeared to be experiencing difficulties in adapting to their adopted country. In the case of the segment referred to as the ‘suspicious’ we cannot assume that they were experiencing more actual difficulties, but they expressed greater reluctance to consider return trips to their former homeland. The ‘culture seekers’ and ‘price sensitives’ exhibited more of the characteristics of regular leisure travellers and their travel attitudes were less obviously distinguishable as migrant attitudes. The study concluded that psychographic analyzes can lead to a better understanding of the travel behavior and attitudes of migrants and may assist destinations such as Vietnam to target the visiting friends and relatives market more effectively.     

Adoption of Biometric Authentication Systems: Implications for Research and Practice in the Deployment of End-User Security Systems

Recent security lapses have demonstrated the importance of augmenting authentication protocols in sensitive areas of the economy, such as financial services and banking. In addition, new legislative requirements for secondary authentication mechanisms have highlighted the use of biometric technology as a reliable, but not required, means of authentication. The focus of this study examines the factors that influence the adoption of biometric authentication in organizations. The research model measures the relative contribution that variables in three categories (External Pressure, Readiness, and Perceived Benefits) have in the intent to adopt biometric authentication in financial services institutions. Managers of these institutions were surveyed, and the resulting model indicates that, as expected, the intent to adopt is driven by competitive factors, an organization's financial resources, and the perceived benefits associated with the technology. An important unanticipated finding from this research is that managerial support was not shown to be significantly related to adoption intent, which may be attributed to the context of biometric systems adoption. This research advances our understanding of the adoption literature by demonstrating how structural factors can influence the decisions made by organizational actors and by applying theories of adoption to a new technology—biometrics.     

Core Import Price Inflation in the United States

The cross-section distribution of U.S. import prices exhibits some of the fat-tailed characteristics that are well documented for the cross-section distribution of U.S. consumer prices. This suggests that limited-influence estimators of core import price inflation might outperform headline or traditional measures of core import price inflation. We examine whether limited influence estimators of core import price inflation help forecast overall import price inflation. They do not. However, limited influence estimators of core import price inflation do seem to have some predictive power for headline consumer price inflation in the medium term.     

Editorial: ‘. . . the most lightly regulated labour market . . .’ The UK’s third statutory recognition procedure 1

This editorial, which is followed by a second contribution from a perceptive North American observer, discusses the problems of workability and perceived fairness of the new procedure, the alternatives to it, and some of its wider implications for the relationship between the trade unions and the Labour Party.     

Novelty in Theme Park Physical Surroundings: An Application of the Stimulus–Organism–Response Paradigm

Many theme parks and other “facility-driven” leisure services seek to market and differentiate themselves through the creation and recreation of their physical surroundings. This study examines the extent to which the physical surroundings are perceived as novel influences the shopping values and revisitation behaviours of theme park visitors. This empirical investigation explored two types of theme park. The findings indicate that the more theme park visitors perceive physical surroundings as novel, the higher the level of shopping values (utilitarian and hedonic value) and the stronger their intention to revisit. The researchers propose a number of theoretical and managerial implications.     

Determining Meaningful Sales Relational (Mix) Variances

Further separation of the volume variance component of a multi-product firm's revenue variance into mix and quantity variances is regularly advocated by management accounting educators. Techniques used to achieve this separation are generally an extension of the analytical techniques used in the traditional flexible budget step-down? approach to variance determination. The analysis in this paper suggests that such an extension in most multi-product situations is inappropriate and generates useless and misleading results. Specific situations in which relational (in lieu of mix) variances may be appropriate do exist and applicable techniques are developed.