1,721,074 research outputs found
Accounting education research: A critical examination and social semiotic case study
No full textTo date, there has been no comprehensive study which evaluates research efforts in accounting education in terms of topics, research methods, whether (to what extent and in what manner) major calls for accounting education reform are being addressed and whether issues deemed important in the accounting education literature (emphasis on empirical research methods, consideration of learning theories, review of the non accounting and in particular education literature) are being considered by accounting education researchers.
This study addresses this gap in the literature by critically examining research output in the light of major issues identified in the accounting education literature over a ten year period (1989 to 1998) as published in the leading accounting education and accounting journals. A total of 1000 articles formed the data set initially used in the evaluation.
The results of the examination of research output indicates that two major sub topics dominated accounting education research efforts: teaching methods and curriculum-related issues (eg courses and content). A range of sub topics and research projects were also found to have been the focus of comparatively few studies. Research which dealt the topic of ‘education process’ was largely descriptive or prescriptive.
Educators had failed however to consider the potential contribution that qualitative research methods could make to accounting education and to the development of accounting education research. Learning theories (when considered) were largely drawn from the field of cognitive psychology and many educators (despite calls in the accounting education literature) had failed to consider the non accounting literature and in particular, the literature from other subject areas/disciplines. In this sense, it was argued that accounting education research was narrowly focused and that there was a need for additional research which considered these issues.
The second phase of the thesis addresses the need for such research by placing accounting education within a wider context of social theory to provide understandings concerning the complexity of the ‘textual’ or ‘discursive’ nature of social construction of accounting meaning in both the lecture and tutorial. In this sense, the study supports the need for educators to consider qualitative approaches to research, alternative learning theories, and the need to consider the education literature from other disciplines and subject areas.
Adopting a social semiotic conceptual framework and using the techniques of discourse analysis, evidence is generated which demonstrates the importance of social interaction, the significance of accounting education as representing a social practice, the relationship between language and the learning of accounting and the significance of recognising accounting as ‘discourse’. The case study represents a broader linguistic and social perspective to accounting education and in this sense, offers a different way of looking at accounting and accounting instruction - one in which learning is located in regular patterns of discourse and social practices. Recognising the importance of language as discourse and learning as inherently social challenges previously held notions of learning environments in accounting education
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Financial accounting communication practices of Pacific Island Countries' entities
No full textThrough the lens of stakeholder, legitimacy theories, and developing country literature, this thesis generates empirical evidence of reporting and accounting communication disclosure practices of entities of Pacific Island Countries (PIC) with an additional emphasis on natural environment and human resource issues. Evidence is gathered through a positivist-objectivist research process through the medium of annual report analysis and extensive mail survey of user and preparer views.
The evidence obtained by 86 PIC reporting entities over a three year period finds support for the Traditional model of reporting with some aspects of the Western-narrow model present. Entity type, industry type, ethnic background are strong explanatory factors for both core statement accounting (CSA) practices and aggregated accounting disclosures (AAD). Size was also a significant predictor of both CSA and AAD.
Reporting model and moral perspective classification taxonomies are used to assess PIC user and preparer perceptions of the importance of a wide range of stakeholder groups. Both user and preparer respondents rate Interest-based financial stakeholders highest in importance and Traditional duty-based groups least important. A new classification taxonomy of stakeholders (based on financial focus) is developed from the theoretical and empirical considerations of the original two taxonomies. Financial focus is found to be the key predictor of user, preparer, and combined user and preparer ratings of stakeholder importance.
Results of PIC respondents rankings of mode of communication show over 40% of respondents rank oral communication ahead of either financial statements and comprehensive annual reports. Statistical analysis shows that respondent by financial focus is a highly significant predictor.
The level of reporting of Human Resource Disclosure is low (38%) but is considerably higher than Natural Environment Disclosure (8%). Multiple regression testing for significance between the level of Human Resource Disclosures (HRD) and Natural Environment Disclosures (NED), and ethnic, industry, entity and size attributes is conducted. In the annual report stage for NED, industry is a significant predictor. In the survey analysis stage, results show a highly significant difference between users and preparers rating of the importance of components of NED issues. An expectation gap exists between users' perceptions of HRD and NED and extant annual reporting of these issues.
This thesis adds to the growing accounting literature on the developing world, generating empirical evidence of a broad sweep of stakeholder groups, evolving and testing a financially-focused model, and finding that oral communication may prove a powerful medium of communication in the Pacific Island region. The development of a composite financial focus model, fusing the similar viewpoints of users and preparers, provides important insights for international and national organisations seeking to understand and influence the accounting communication practices of the PIC region.
This thesis has generalisable consequences for accounting and financial reporting in developing economies where non-western social, cultural and institutional arrangements have been developed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Voluntary environmental and social accounting disclosure practices in the Asia-Pacific region
Full text linkThrough the juxtaposition of political economy theory and an in-depth empirical analysis, this study provides hrther insights into the understanding of variables that explain variations in voluntary environmental and social accounting disclosures (VESAD) across national and regional boundaries. Factors from three classes of Thomas (1991) classification schema, the organizational attribute (organizational size and economic performance), business environment (industry type) and societal variable (culture, political and civil, system, legal system, level of economic development and equity market) categories, were included in this project.
Listed companies' annual reports were surveyed using content analysis and disclosure index from seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. The dependent variable, the extent of VESAD information, was measured by four different measurement bases; these were number pages, sentences and words and disclosure index score. Different measurement bases were used to compare and contrast findings from statistical tests to examine if this lead to conflicting or comparable conclusions.
Descriptive and univariate analysis indicated that under all four measurement bases the country of origin was an important determinant of VESAD practices in the Asia-Pacific region. Multiple regression and path analysis showed that organizational size, industry type, culture, political and civil, and legal systems were statistically significant in explaining variations both directly and indirectly. The level of economic development was also found to be of important but only indirectly. It is concluded from these findings that social and political pressures placed on companies by the interaction of these significant variables compel firms to provide VESAD information to meet social expectations and to avoid possible government regulation to preserve their own self interests and survival. Economic performance and equity market factors were of no significant statistical influence.
Empirical results using data measured by the three units of measurement for content analysis were minimal. Differences were . noted however when contrasted against disclosure index scores. It was concluded from these results that content analysis and disclosure indices measured different concepts, the latter measuring largely a subset of the former. The consequence of this finding, is that researchers, when deciding on whether to measure the dependent variable by content analysis or a disclosure index, will need to define more the relevance of the measurement to be adopted to the research question underlying the study. Determination of the unit of analysis to utilize when adopting content analysis is less complicated as each technique provides essentially the same results
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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