The Ontario Securities Commission on Accounting and Auditing from the 1960s to 2008–Part 2: The First Four Chief Accountants, 1986–1996*

This article, Part 2 of a historical review and analysis of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), describes the role played by the first four Chief Accountants in the regulation of accounting and auditing from 1986 to 1996. Part 1 dealt with the period from the 1960s to 1985. Part 3 will treat the role played by the fifth Chief Accountant, from 1996 to 2008. As the principal Canadian stock exchange in recent times has been the Toronto Stock Exchange, the OSC has been the most important securities market regulator in Canada. Prior to this article, the academic and professional accounting literature has been largely barren on the OSC’s evolving role on accounting and auditing issues.     

Floriculture du Suroît inc.*

Floriculture du Suroît inc. is a SME in the horticulture field. It cultivates and sells geraniums, but a new subsidiary, Les Roses de Caroline, recently start the culture of roses. Floriculture has just obtained a governmental subsidy and, for the first time, the company will have to produce audited financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. Thus, the two owners will have to choose between two accounting frameworks, that is, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or Canadian Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (ASPE). Many differences exist between these two frameworks. More specifically, IFRS provide specific standards related to agricultural activity and investment properties, while ASPE do not. In addition, ASPE permit many choices between accounting treatments, which should be carefully analyzed. The owners are neophytes in accounting matter. Thus, they need help for accounting issues.     

¿Está adoptando Asia la «flexiseguridad»?

Incitados por la competencia mundial, muchos países están adaptando la reglamentación laboral al principio de la «flexiseguridad>>, que da a las empresas más flexibilidad para contratar y despedir a los trabajadores, al tiempo que ampara a éstos cuando deben pasar de un empleo a otro. El presente estudio de seis países asiáticos indica que China y República de Corea han promulgado reformas de este género; Singapur y Malasia han implantado algunos elementos de «flexiseguridad>>, pero no un seguro de desempleo, y la India y Sri Lanka han hecho pocas reformas y mantienen un modelo anticuado en el que la protección depende de la empresa. Para prestar apoyo a los trabajadores del sector informal, China, India y Sri Lanka se valen de obras públicas y de programas de fomento del trabajo por cuenta propia y de formación profesional.     

State,firms and technology. The rise of multinational telecommunications companies: ITT and the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España, 1924–1945

This article addresses a major topic in business history: the strategies used by multinational telecommunications companies to establish themselves on the world stage. It seeks to explore two interconnected issues: how a new entrant–ITT–used the immature market of Spain in its strategy for expansion, and how Spanish national institutions and government regulation influenced this process. With the backing of the US banks and government, ITT created a Spanish firm–the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España–in 1924 to keep European competitors at bay and to win a licence to modernise and operate the telephone system in a backward country. The Spanish government granted ITT a monopoly concession, which remained unaltered for 20 years in spite of political changes. This was the first step in ITT's conquest of the world market and in its conversion into a multinational. Company strategy, government institutions and technological innovation played a crucial role in ITT's implantation on a worldwide scale.     

跨国公司在华研发的原因、影响及对策探析

20世纪90年代以来,跨国公司对华投资的重要动向就是在华设立研发机构。针对这一现象,本文分析了跨国公司在华设立研发机构的原因、特点。指出了跨国公司研发机构在华产生的各种影响,最后针对跨国公司在华研发产生的机遇和挑战提出了建议。     

Desigualdad y globalización financiera,en un informe que llega justo a tiempo

Presentamos una nueva publicación anual del Instituto Internacional de Estudios Laborales de la OIT, el Informe mundial del trabajo, cuyaprimera entrega versa sobre las desigualdades de renta. Su aparición en plena tormenta financiera, a finales de octubre de 2008, no podía ser más oportuna: todo el planeta estaba pendiente de la crisis y preguntándose, con temor, cuáles serían su alcance, duración y consecuencias económicas y sociales. El estudio trata de los factores causantes de las desigualdades de renta, que no dejan de agravarse en el mundo. Sitúa el problema de la desigualdad en el marco de la globalización de las finanzas, el funcionamiento del mercado de trabajo, las características de los nuevos empleos y las políticas de redistribución de la riqueza.     

Urban Responses to Climate Change: Theories and Governance Practice in Cities of the Global South

Cities around the world have recently started to become ‘proactive’ initiators of climate strategies containing both mitigation and adaptation elements. The experience of these first movers has been studied and documented both empirically and, to a lesser extent, theoretically, primarily for cities in the global North. This symposium addresses related knowledge gaps by exploring case studies of urban regions in the global South confronting their projected climate change challenges, showcasing the experiences of Delhi, Santiago de Chile and Bogotá. Its specific aim is to explore the urban social response to nature change, the adaptation challenges faced by cities across the world and current practices of urban adaptation. Further, the symposium seeks to understand to what extent and in what respect current conceptual frameworks — which highlight urban ecological security and vulnerability — provide a useful context/framing to assist cities in confronting their challenges and to explain their actions. This introductory article examines current knowledge of the theory and practice of urban climate response. It introduces the concepts of ecological security and vulnerability and discusses the adaptive capacity of cities and how they are starting to respond to the emerging challenges of climate change. It concludes with a synthesis of the case articles and highlights some of the findings.     

Roles for geographers in the international tourist industry

International tourism is an industry that is second only to petroleum as a commodity in world trade. There are many positions available in the international tourist industry to geographers who wish to pursue them. Nearly every geographic specialization, topical or regional, can be accomodated. There are opportunities for members of the discipline with experience ranging from the undergraduate to the post-doctoral levels in research and planning, information and marketing services, and technical services. Types of activities include development research and planning, location analysis, teaching, cartography, and others.     

Bottom-up sales forecasting through scenario analysis

A simple but effective bottom-up sales forecasting system, developed for a large New Zealand printing and packaging company, is described and analyzed. A central feature of the method is a procedure called “scenario analysis,” enabling the forecaster to incorporate in a systematic manner a large number of uncertainties in his or her assessment of the future.     

Constructing a legitimate history: crisis,legitimacy, and the atlantic schools of Business Conferences

The Atlantic Schools of Business (ASB) conference is one of the longest running academic business conferences in Canada. It continued without the structure of an organizing committee for 34 years. In its 35^th year, however, a formal structure was adopted. The adoption of formal structure provides an opportunity to look critically at the change process from various perspectives. This paper takes three interrelated approaches: reviews of archival material to provide context; surveys of ASB membership to ascertain individual perceptions of the organization's purpose; and interviews with key individuals involved in the change process to examine the decision to formalize. Our analysis shows that perceived organizational crisis and a search for enhanced legitimacy can precipitate isomorphism and exclude alternative avenues for change. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.