Management accounting texts in New Zealand: the need for a paradigm shift

This paper questions the dominance in textbooks of a management accounting grounded largely in neo-classical economics and scientific management. In New Zealand the most popular textbook used in introductory management accounting courses is Horngren and Foster's Cost Accounting - a Managerial Emphasis.The current seventh edition of the text, although extensively used, is not regarded as adequate for the purpose by many New Zealand educators. The text is seen as being rootd firmly in the traditional understandings of the role of management accounting which are subject to increasing challenge. Other popular texts which are influencing the content of management accounting courses also are reviewed. We conclude that, despite much criticism over many years, modern textbooks have failed to evolve; change is overdue.     

Does Tourism Really Lead to Peace? A Global View

There has been much rhetoric about tourism's role in promoting world peace. This research takes a global perspective examining the relationship between peace and tourism across 111 different countries using a panel data model using two indicators, international tourist arrivals and the Institute for Economics and Peace's Global Peace Index. The results indicate that tourism is the beneficiary of peace rather than grounds for peace. Peace is most important to tourism in medium income destinations but still important for high income nations. No relationship exists between peace and tourism arrivals for low income nations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public relations: The empirical research on practitioner ethics

An examination of the empirical literature on public relations ethics indicates serious doubts and concerns about the ethics of the public relations practice. Practitioners tend to perceive the ethics of their top management as higher than their own ethics, suggesting that top management (of which practitioners are a part) should be in the forefront of improving organizational and practitioner ethics.This article also discusses public relations practitioners' suggestions on how ethics in public relations can be improved. Sample members of the Public Relations Society of America most frequently suggest having ethics education, taking disciplinary action against violators of codes of ethics, and emphasizing professionalism of practitioners as strategies for improving practitioner ethics. This article also concludes that, because ethics education leads the list of suggestions, professional-development seminars and college-level courses might explore in further detail those ethics issues most common in the practice and might examine in group settings how the ethics of such issues are perceived by practitioners.Cornelius B. Pratt is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he teaches international communication and public relations. His current research interests are mass media ethics in Third World development and ethics in public relations. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America.     

The efficiency of used vehicle markets: the case of technological obsolescence and differential repair records

This paper examines the effect of technological oboslescence, differential maintanance expenditures, and differential fuel efficiencies on the depreciated value of automobiles. Our results support the widely held belief that used vehicle markets are efficient. We show that the significant decline in the depreciated values of used automobiles is predominantly due to age. We also conclude that technological obsolescence causes a once-and-for-all decrease in the depreciated value of used automobiles, that for imported vehicle lines, differential maintanance expenditures affect depreciated value and, that for domestic vehicle lines, differential fuel efficiencies impact depreciated value.     

Short reviews

Charlie Mason, 1988: Government Restructuring of Vocational Education and Training 1981-1987. School for Advanced Urban Studies. £6.50

Confederation of British Industry, September 1988: Building a stronger partnership between business and secondary education: Report of the CBI Business/Education Task Force.

CBI member's price £25, non-member's price £50.

Amin Rajan with Julie Frayatt, 1988: Create or Abdicate: The City's Human Resource Choice for the 90's. Brighton: Institute of Manpower Studies, £25.

Jim Brown and Lydia Baker, 1989: Co-operative Training & Development: Measuring Success. London Co-operative Training, £2.95.

OECD, 1988: Measures to assist the long-term unemployed; recent experiences in some OECD countries, £7.50.