Critical accounting as an epistemic community: Hegemony,resistance and identity

In this paper I discuss the School of Accounting and Finance's epistemic community, which has been a result of the vision of Professor Michael Gaffikin. The distinguishing feature of this epistemic community is the critique of accounting which rejects positivist ideologies and its claims to objective knowledge. As a member of this epistemic community, I present a critical reflexive ethnography and question the role of identity of the self and of the epistemic community. I consider the importance of resistance, particularly in the light of national research evaluation ‘initiatives’. I conclude that hegemony, or the potential of hegemony, is a necessary condition for the epistemic community to sustain its identity.     

Customer positivity and participation in services: an empirical test in a health care context

Many service interactions require customers to actively participate, yet customers often do not participate at levels that optimize their outcomes, particularly in health care. To gain insight into how customers shape a service experience with highly uncertain outcomes, we construct a model on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. The model is used to empirically assess how situation-specific emotions and customer participation during a health care service experience affect perceptions of the service provider. The model is tested using data from 190 medical clinic customers. Consistent with theory, results reveal that as customers’ relative affect levels become more positive, levels of participation increase as well. In turn, higher levels of positivity and participation improve customer perceptions of the quality of the service provider and satisfaction with the co-produced service experience. Implications of this research focus managers on designing services to help clients manage their emotions in ways that facilitate positivity and participation and thus improve service perceptions.     

Whose business is it anyway? Closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article examines how gender may account for productivity gaps across enterprises. First, using data from six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the article demonstrates that the extent and significance of any productivity gap by gender depends critically on the criteria used to classify an enterprise. Using a definition of ‘female participation in ownership,’ there are few differences in average performance measures. However, a 12% productivity gap emerges when a tighter definition, based on decision-making control, is used. Second, the article examines which entrepreneurial characteristics (education, management skills, experience and the motivation for being an entrepreneur) are most associated with higher productivity. The findings reveal that there are some gender gaps in the prevalence of these characteristics, but that these do not account for the overall gender productivity gap. Rather, while women benefit as much as men from education and management skills, there are non-linear impacts by gender in the benefits of having a family background in entrepreneurship; sons rather than daughters benefit from having a father that was an entrepreneur or from joining a family enterprise.     

Do Economists Recognize an Opportunity Cost When They See One? A Dismal Performance or an Arbitrary Concept?

2005 asked 199 professional economists a multiple‐choice question about opportunity cost. Given that only 21.6% answered “correctly,” they conclude that professional understanding of the concept is “dismal.” We challenge this critique of the profession. Specifically, we allow for alternative opportunity cost accounting methodologies—one of which is derived from the term's definition as found in Ferraro and Taylor— and rely on the conventional relationship between willingness to pay and substitute goods to demonstrate that every answer to the multiple‐choice question is defensible. The Ferraro and Taylor survey question suggests difficulties in framing an opportunity cost accounting question, as well as a lack of coordination in opportunity cost accounting methodology. In scope and logic, we conclude that the survey question does not, however, succeed in measuring professional understanding of opportunity cost. A discussion follows as to the concept's appropriate role in the classroom.     

为什么鼓励更多人创业是一项拙劣的公共政策？

政策制定者们常常认为，创建更多新公司将改变经济萧条的地区，促进创新，创造就业。这种看法令人质疑，因为新建公司不具创新能力，创造不了多少就业机会，也生产不了多少财富。通过创业获得经济增长和创造就业机会不是一种数字游戏，它是要鼓励高品质、高增长公司的形成。政策制定者应停止资助典型新公司的创建，把重点放在有增长潜力的公司上。虽然政府官员不能“挑选赢家”，他们还是能够甄别出无力创造就业和拉动经济增长的新建公司。通过减少对这些低能力公司的创建激励，政策制定者们能够改善新生企业的平均绩效。     

'We are nurses, we are supposed to care for people': professional values among nurses in NHS Direct call centres

This paper explores the interpretive negotiation of professional values by nurses working in a large public-sector organisation in the UK, namely the NHS Direct (NHSD). Reported are findings from a number of case studies of NHSD, undertaken in response to calls for more research into so-called professional call centre settings.     

Text Services and Universal Service Obligations

NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking -