A comparison of Norwegian and United States accounting students' learning style preferences

Individual differences among humans are apparent in many environments and situations. Educators should be concerned about whether such differences are systematic to such an extent that they significantly affect the effectiveness of various pedagogical methods and training approaches. This paper investigates one type of individual difference-learning style-which may vary across cultures and which may be relevant for both accounting education and audit practice. Learning style is defined as an individual orientation to learning, utilizing four basic modes of learning to various degrees.

Learning style measures were obtained from Norwegian and United States accounting students with varying experience levels. The learning styles for the US students were compared to data obtained in prior research and were found to be generally consistent with these studies. The Norwegian sample was compared to both the current United States results and prior research and was found to be significantly different from the US learning style preferences. Implications of these differences for both education and practice are explored.     

The international co-movements of Finish stocks

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the international co-movements of Finnish stocks. The vector autoregression (VAR) approach indicates that US and especially Swedish stock markets lead Finnish stock market returns by approximately one or two months. The results based on international market models indicate that the returns of individual Finnish stocks are significantly positively related to those of Sweden, while the relation between Finnish and US returns is significantly lower. The relation seems to vary clearly between industries, some industries being related to US markets as well. Significant time-series instability is reported in the results, however.     

New Labour at work: long-term unemployment and the geography of opportunity

New Labour has placed great faith in active labour market policiesto address problems of long-term unemployment and poverty. Thispaper considers the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programmesin light of persistent regional employment disparities withinthe UK. It is argued that the government has proceeded froma flawed analysis of the causes and magnitude of long-term unemployment,framing the issue in terms of ‘worklessness’ andneglecting demand-side concerns of job availability and jobquality.     

PURE JOINT PRODUCTION,INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EMPLOYMENT AND THE EXCHANGE RATE

This paper deals with an open economy with heterogeneous capital and linear processes of pure joint production from a long‐period perspective. It is shown that: (1) an effective exchange rate change has ambiguous effects on the distribution of income and the competitiveness of domestic output; (2) the matrix of super‐multipliers linking exports to gross output is not always uniquely defined; and (3) the volume of exports and the volume of total employment may be inversely related, even if prices and distribution do not change.     

Investment planning for irrigation development projects

This paper considers the problem of choosing among the technologies available for irrigation by tubewells to obtain an investment plan which maximizes the net agricultural benefits from a proposed project in a developing country. Cost and benefit relationships are derived and incorporated into a mathematical model which is solved using a modification of the dynamic programming procedure for solving the knapsack problem. The optimal schedule is seen to favor small capacity wells, drilled by indigenous methods, with supplementary water distribution systems.     

Productivity Growth and Some of Its Determinants in the Deregulated U.S. Railroad Industry

This study analyzes the effects of an important postderegulation innovation on rail freight productivity: the elimination of cabooses and related crew members. It also analyzes the overall growth of productivity in rail freight between 1983 and 1997 (using a translog rail cost function estimated over a sample of Class I railroads between 1983 and 1997). The results indicate that elimination of cabooses and associated crew members from freight trains reduced costs by 5-8% on the typical Class I railroad in 1997, equivalent to an annual cost saving of $2 billion to $3.3 billion for all Class I railroads. Moreover, if Class I railroads had no other technological advances since 1983, their 1997 costs (with 1997 factor prices) would have been 36-43% higher than they in fact were. Finally, the results show that overall productivity growth in rail freight did not decelerate between 1983 and 1997; if anything, it accelerated slightly.     

Cross‐Functional Integration: Concept Clarification and Scale Development

The centrality of cross‐functional integration (CFI) to supply chain theory and practice has long been recognized. Yet researchers continue to struggle with consistently defining or measuring the CFI construct, thus limiting the utility of CFI research. This research develops (1) a comprehensive definition of CFI that synthesizes previous supply chain research and (2) a valid set of scale items that measure the conceptual domain outlined by this definition. The goal is to build a common foundation for extending knowledge on CFI's antecedents and consequences, and ultimately to improve scholars’ ability to guide a broader practitioner community still struggling to achieve integration in their organizations.     

Ethics Control Mechanisms: A Comparative Observation of Hong Kong Companies

Managers with different cultural backgrounds and under different circumstances have different views on what is acceptable ethical behaviour. This study attempts to determine whether major companies in Hong Kong share the same views as North American academics on what management ethical standards ought to be, and if so, whether any control mechanisms have been established to instill ethical behaviour within their organizations. Notable differences between the practice in these companies and those from a similar survey conducted in North America are identified and explained. The management accountant's role in the development and implementation of such mechanisms is investigated.     

Foreign Manufacturing Multinationals and the Transformation of the Chinese Econom,

1 The argument in brief China became the world＇s largest destination for foreign direct investment （FDI）, almost all of which is FDI in manufacturing and assembly, in 2003, before falling back into a...