Offering a globally-linked international accounting course in real time: a sharing of experiences and lessons learned

This article reports the experiences from offering an online international accounting course that involved students from Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA participating in real time via both audio and video links. In addition to interacting among themselves, students also interacted with accounting practitioners and standard setters from these countries. The latter attended class either in person or “virtually” via audio and video links. The paper also discusses the major benefits from the course, as identified by student feedback and direct faculty observations. A number of challenges in offering a course of this type also are identified. These insights can assist accounting educators interested in implementing a similar international accounting course at their institutions. They also have implications for applying distance-learning approaches in courses with a domestic focus.     

Is the hotel classification system a good indicator of hotel quality?: An application in Spain

This paper analyses whether the hotel classification system is a good indicator of hotel quality, where quality is defined to be satisfying the expectations and needs of the client. We conducted our research in Spain, where a five-category system using stars is employed. To be exact, the hotel sector of one autonomous community (Cantabria, located in northern Spain) was studied, given that it is these autonomous regions that have exclusive authority to regulate and promote tourism. The results of the study confirm that even though significant quality differences are seen between the different categories, the ranking by quality does not correspond to that by categories. This supports the idea that quality is associated with the delivery of a service according to client expectations, more than it is with establishment category.     

The effectiveness of interactive professional learning experiences as a pedagogical tool: Evidence from an audit setting

This paper describes an interactive professional learning experience (IPLE) and provides guidance for implementing an IPLE in an audit classroom. The IPLE described in this paper exposes students to a realistic practice environment within the classroom by bringing practitioners together with students in a professional supervisory setting. Practitioners review students’ work and then meet with students one-on-one to provide feedback on their work. We also document evidence of the pedagogical value of an IPLE by using a between-subjects experimental design in which learning outcomes for participants are compared to a control group that received the same instructions and completed the same written assignment, but did not participate in the professional interaction. In addition, pre- and posttests of students’ audit knowledge allowed for a within-subjects self-assessment of knowledge acquisition. The results strongly suggest that participation in the IPLE improves students’ performance on a skills test of relevant audit material and increases their self-perceptions of knowledge gained. In addition, results indicate that both students and audit professionals consider the IPLE a positive professional learning experience.     

高职商务英语专业建设探讨

国际间贸易的频繁交往使得商务英语备受重视,商务英语专业成为热门专业。调查结果表明,高职商务英语专业在其建设过程中存在着专业定位不明确、课程设置不合理、师资建设薄弱等问题。笔者拟以ESP需求分析为理论依托,结合高职教育特色和商务英语特点,从人才培养目标、课程设置、教学团队建设等方面入手提出高职商务英语专业建设策略,以期为高职商务英语专业建设抛砖引玉。     

土地管理视角下的法定地役权研究

研究目的:证明法定地役权独立存在的必要性,并对其设定条件和适用范围进行研究。研究方法:采用文献研究、比较研究和理论联系实际的方法,对法定地役权存在的基础、基本功能、存在形态及其与相邻权的关系进行了研究。研究结果:(1)法定地役权的存在有其客观必要性,难以用相邻权代替之;(2)用相邻权制度调整土地利用中的地役关系,具有较大的局限性;(3)用法定地役权制度调整地役关系,更符合土地利用实践发展的客观要求。研究结论:法定地役权应成为我国地役权制度的重要内容,建议进一步完善中国的地役权制度。     

The ‘Neighbourhood Effect’: A multidisciplinary assessment of the case for farmer co-ordination in agri-environmental programmes

In this paper we present a multi-disciplinary analysis of the potential impacts of undertaking similar environmental actions on multiple farms in a small geographic area, using organic farming as a proxy for a co-ordinated approach. Recent papers have called for more co-ordinated efforts between farmers in terms of their environmental actions, but there has been limited applied research demonstrating the environmental benefits or the economic and social implications to farmers of this approach. Comparative analysis of biodiversity, soil and water, and farm profitability were undertaken in England on 32 matched farms in areas of low and high organic farming concentration; qualitative interviews were also conducted with 48 farmers living in two of the eight areas. Findings demonstrate higher overall levels of biodiversity on organic farms (particularly in “hotspot” areas) but this was not universal across the species groups investigated. Higher water infiltration rates were found in organic grasslands, which could prove to be a useful measure to combat flooding. In terms of the technical efficiency of producing these environmental gains, conventional and organic farms in hotspot areas demonstrated equivalent efficiency from a financial perspective. Socio-cultural research identified the different amounts of trust farmers have in their neighbours, based in part on their performance as ‘good farmers’. We discuss the neighbourhood effect with a multi-disciplinary approach and conclude that encouraging local farmer co-ordination can have clear environmental benefits without high economic cost, but must be undertaken with caution - specifically regarding the trade-offs between benefits, local geophysical and social characteristics, and assumptions made about inter-farmer trust.     

Target‐Setting,Pay for Performance,and Quality Improvement: A Case Study of Ontario Hospitals’ Quality‐Improvement Plans

This study examines whether difficult targets and quality indicators in executives' pay‐for‐performance (P4P) plans affect performance. The impact of target‐setting and P4P plans on quality improvement in the public sector is unclear. The Ontario government initiated the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP), which requires hospitals to set targets for quality indicators annually and link executive pay to target achievement since 2011. Analyzing Health Quality Ontario's database and hospitals' 2012–2013 QIPs, this study shows greater quality improvement in hospitals with difficult targets than hospitals with easy targets or without assigned targets; however, the positive impact disappears for high‐performance hospitals relative to their peers. We find no significant effect of the use of quality indicators in executives' P4P plans on quality improvement. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unraveling determinants of inferred and stated attribute nonattendance: Effects on farmers’ willingness to accept to join agri-environmental schemes

Attribute nonattendance (ANA) has received very little attention in the context of willingness to accept (WTA), although an increasing number of studies analyze the preferences of ecosystem service providers toward incentive-based schemes. We add to the understanding of ANA behavior by analyzing stated and inferred ANA in a choice experiment investigating farmers’ WTA for participating in agri-environmental schemes (AES) in southern Spain. We use mixed logit models, following Hess and Hensher for the inferred ANA approach. Evidence is found of ANA behavior for both stated and inferred approaches, with models accounting for ANA clearly outperforming those that do not account for it; however, we produce no conclusive results as to which ANA approach is best. WTA estimates are only moderately affected, which to some extent is consistent with the low level of non-attendance found for the monetary attribute. Stated and inferred approaches show very similar WTA estimates. Additionally, we investigate sources of observed heterogeneity related to ANA behavior by using a sequence of bivariate probit models for each attribute. Overall, our results hint at a positive relationship between ease of scheme adoption and nonattendance to attributes. However, further research is still needed in this field.