LA POLITIQUE BUDGÉTAIRE ÉVINCE‐T‐ELLE L’INVESTISSEMENT PRIVÉ AU BÉNIN?

RESUME : Cet article analyse les effets de la politique budgétaire sur l’investissement privé au Bénin à l’aide de deux modèles économétriques (l’approche par le flux d’investissement public et l’approche par le capital public), estimés en utilisant les outils d’économétrie avancée tels que les tests de racine unitaire et de cointégration et en appliquant la procédure en deux étapes suggérée par Engle et Granger (1987) . Nos résultats indiquent que la politique fiscale mais aussi le stock permanent de capital privé et le crédit au secteur privé favorise l’investissement privé. Cependant, la formation de capital public et les dépenses de consommation publique évincent l’investissement privé.     

Current Trends within Social and Environmental Accounting Research: A Literature Review

Given the recent rise in the evolution and maturity of social and environmental accounting (SEA) research and scholarship, we provide a literature review of the current trends within this area in a concise and harmonized manner for a wider audience in academia and practice. More specifically, we visit the current state of scholarly work, which can be useful in facilitating future research questions and further development of SEA research associated with relations between corporate social performance (CSP), corporate social disclosure (CSD), and corporate financial performance (CFP). Our goal is to offer insights to the current state of SEA research that is informative to both novice and expert SEA scholars, with the hope to promote and stimulate further advancement of research in this particular area. Drawing knowledge from relevant disciplines such as accounting, management, finance, and economics, this article visits the current trends within SEA research in terms of definition, research topics, theoretical viewpoints, methodological approaches, as well as suggestions for future research.     

Budget Development and Use in Small‐ and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: A Field Investigation

We examine the process by which operating budgets are developed and how they are used for control, evaluation, and reward purposes in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs (i.e., fewer than 500 employees) represent the dominant organizational form in North America but surprisingly little research has examined how these companies develop and use management controls. Our study focuses on a key element of the management control system, operating budgets, because prior research on SMEs indicates this as an important and commonly used control tool in such companies. Prior research on budgeting practices, while extensive, has almost exclusively examined larger companies. We conduct in‐depth field interviews at 12 participating SMEs to address four theory‐based research questions intended to provide insights regarding the development and use of budgets by SMEs. Our first question examines how budgets are developed, top‐down versus collaborative. Our second, third, and fourth research questions examine, respectively, whether budgets are used tightly or loosely for results control, performance evaluation, and reward purposes. As a first step in providing a deeper understanding of budget development and use in SMEs, our results have implications for practice, theory development, and management accounting education.     

The Use of Governance Indexes in the Governance‐Performance Relationship Literature: International Evidence

The objective of this study is threefold. First, we present a review of the international studies that have investigated the link between firm‐level governance scores and performance. To our knowledge, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive review of this recent and growing literature. Second, we discuss potential methodological shortcomings of using governance indexes. Third, we propose directions for future research. Overall, a clear positive relation is found between governance ratings and performance in Europe and in emerging economies, whereas studies conducted in the US and Canada have generated mixed evidence. The empirical problems related to measurement, substitution between governance arrangements, endogeneity, and optimization across governance choices are discussed. Solutions are proposed to alleviate these concerns. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wind power planning in France (Aveyron), from state regulation to local planning

The development of wind energy in France presents an exemplary case of contrast between the policy instrument and its effectiveness in terms of installed wind power capacity. After 7 years of one of the highest feed-in tariffs in the world, the installed capacity in France is still very low. This is notably due to a diffuse pattern of administrative landscape protection which impacts on the construction of wind power potential. In turn, the pace of wind power development can be understood only by looking in more detail at the way in which landscape is dealt with in local planning processes. This paper examines the question using the case of Aveyron in southern France. We follow the shifting ways in which landscape is enrolled in wind power planning, in a context where new planning instruments favor an incipient decentralization in wind power policy. The case points to a change in both the networks and the concepts involved in the design of landscape representations that underlie the construction of wind power potential. We show that this change has been forced by the far-reaching and decentralized visual impacts of wind power technology, suggesting that technology is recomposing the social as part of its development process and questioning the very meaning and perception that is given to landscape.     

构建社会主义和谐社会是邓小平理论的逻辑指向

邓小平虽然没有直接提出“和谐社会”的概念，但其理论体系包含了建立社会主义和谐社会的思想，为社会主义和谐社会的提出奠定了理论基础和实践基础。构建社会主义和谐社会必须以邓小平理论为指导。     

R&D activity in Canada: does corporate ownership structure matter?

This study examines the link between ownership structures and R&D activities in Canada. We hypothesize that highly concentrated ownership structures or the presence of controlling minority shareholders negatively affects R&D intensity of Canadian manufacturing firms. Our results show that the concentration of voting rights is negatively related to the level of R&D expenditure and R&D outcomes. Furthermore, we show that the level of separation between the voting and cash flow rights held by dominant shareholders of “Controlling Minority Structure” firms has a positive effect on R&D intensity but a negative effect on R&D outcomes. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Knowledge engineering for modelling reasoning in a diagnosis task: application to search and rescue

This paper pertains to the application of knowledge engineering methods to aeronautical search and rescue in Canada. We modelled at the knowledge level the reasoning process of a search mission coordinator when conducting a diagnosis task to determine the routes likely followed by an aircraft missing overland. Knowledge engineering allowed us to develop a reasoning model based on documents and on interviews with domain experts. Our study was conducted in the CommonKADS knowledge modelling framework. The proposed model was validated by domain experts and implemented in a rule‐based prototype. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrated strategy for tourism education/training

Tourism is in need of a comprehensive framework within which to design and deliver education and training programs in a more effective manner. This paper reports the efforts of two provincial governments in Canada to formulate an integrated strategy on which to base the planning and development of a tourism education and training system. The goal of such integration is to ensure a greater degree of interdependence among different levels of the total education system so as to provide well-defined alternative career paths for present and future students. Initial results of the strategy on the development of the education infrastructure are reviewed.     

Viasystems Group,inc.

Viasystems Group, Inc. (Viasystems) is an international supplier of electromechanical assemblies and components. It specializes in manufacturing printed circuits and assembling electric cables and industrial metal cabinets. The case concerns the Printed Circuit Division at Viasystems and its need to adapt its costing system to the relocation of its manufacturing activities to China under its strategic planning, begun in 2001. Planning and controlling operating costs and the presentation of the financial statements have therefore become major issues. The case is set in 2006, six years after the start of progressive offshoring of manufacturing to China. It describes: 1) how external environmental pressures and the need for profitability have led to a critical strategic decision; and 2) how this new business model has changed upper management's informational needs, leading them to rethink their costing system, particularly at the Chinese plants. Setting the case in 2006, when all the plants have been relocated to China, enables discussions of the challenges that management will have to cope with in the future, after the operations transfer has been completed and the consequences on the management control system.