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- PublicationAcademic Skills Development and the Enhancement of the Learning ExperienceMaking the transition to higher education can present considerable challenges to learners, and these challenges are evident in the development of effective study, learning and meta-cognitive competencies. The development of such competencies represents an integral element of a more satisfying and effective learning experience for both learners and tutors. In 2005, UCD School of Business introduced two accredited academic skills modules that are embedded in the programme of study being undertaken. These programme-specific modules aim to help learners identify and develop the key study skills, habits and practices that contribute to a more effective learning experience. Through workshops, exercises, coursework and formative feedback, learners put into practice academic skills, such as note-taking, essay writing and reflective writing. While this paper is based upon the experience at UCD School of Business, the case is located within the broader discussion of academic skills development. Little has been written about such provision in the Irish context but the paper acknowledges an increase in evidence of such developments. Thus, the literature base regarding skills development and provision in the UK has been useful.
82 - PublicationAccountability Processes in Boardrooms: A Conceptual Model of Manager-Non-Executive Director Information AsymmetryPurpose: Understanding the influence of information and knowledge exchange and sharing between managers and non-executive directors is important in assessing the dynamic processes of accountability in boardrooms. By analysing information/knowledge at multiple levels, invoking the literature on implicit/tacit and explicit information/knowledge, we show that information asymmetry is a necessary condition for effective boards. We introduce a conceptual model of manager-non-executive director information asymmetry as an outcome of our interpretation of information/knowledge sharing processes amongst board members. Our model provides a more nuanced agenda of the management-board information asymmetry problem to enable a better understanding of the role of different types of information in practice. Design/methodology/approach – Our analysis of information/knowledge exchange, sharing and creation and the resultant conceptual model are based on the following elements: (i) manager-non-executive director information/knowledge, (ii) management-board information/knowledge and (iii) board dynamics and reciprocal processes converting implicit/tacit into explicit information/knowledge. Findings – Our paper provides new insights into the dynamics of information/knowledge exchange, sharing and creation between managers and non-executive directors (individual level)/between management and boards (group level). We characterise this as a two-way process, back-and-forth between managers/executive directors and non-executive directors. The importance of relative/experienced "ignorance" of non-executive directors is revealed, which we term the "information asymmetry paradox". Research implications – We set out key opportunities for developing a research agenda from our model based on prior research of knowledge conversion processes and how these may be applied in a boardroom setting. Practical implications – Our model may assist directors in better understanding their roles and the division of labour between managers and non-executive directors from an information/knowledge perspective. Originality/value – We apply Ikujiro Nonaka’s knowledge conversion framework to consider the transitioning from individual implicit personal to explicit shared information/knowledge, to understand the subtle processes at play in boardrooms influencing information/knowledge exchange, sharing and creation between managers and non-executive directors.
1243Scopus© Citations 31 - PublicationAccountants' reports on profit forecasts : regulation and practiceProfit forecasts are rarely disclosed in the UK except in prospectuses, circulars and during takeover bids. There are few regulations governing the content of profit forecasts. Under stock exchange rules these forecasts must be reported on by both reporting accountants and the merchant bankers advising on the deal. The format of the forecasts is at the discretion of individual companies. This paper summarises the regulations, including professional pronouncements, governing accountants’ reports on profit forecasts. Practical examples of such accountants’ reports extracted from 250 profit forecasts published during 701 UK takeover bids in the period 1988 to 1992 are reproduced and discussed. These examples provide useful precedent material for practitioners involved in reporting on a profit forecast. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy issues and suggestions for policy makers.
1654 - PublicationAccounting expertise in litigation and dispute resolutionThis paper looks at the role of experts from both a United Kingdom and North America perspective. The paper starts by pointing out the important role of expert evidence in assisting the tier of fact. The distinction between accountants as fact witnesses and as expert witnesses is identified. The expert’s primary obligation is to the court not the hiring party. Expert evidence is not a substitute for the exercise of the court’s own judgement. The qualities of expert evidence are discussed, as are the significance of the necessary qualities of such expert evidence. A lack of these qualities increases the likelihood that civil liability will be imposed on expert witnesses. The paper outlines the steps to be taken in engaging expert accountants.
990 - PublicationAccounting in crisis : a story of auditing, accounting, corporate governance and market failuresRecent accounting scandals are the product of multiple failings of auditing, accounting, corporate governance and of the market. In discussing the many factors that led to failure, this paper attempts to provide insights on regulatory inadequacies that contributed to these problems. At the centre is human failure – in particular greed and weakness. Reforms in progress are briefly examined, with the caveat that no reforms will ever fully cater for human weakness.
4426 - PublicationAccounting Narratives and Impression ManagementThis chapter focuses on impression management in accounting communication. Impression management entails the construction of an impression by organisations with the intention to appeal to their audiences, including shareholders, stakeholders, the general public, and the media. If successful, it undermines the quality of financial reporting and capital misallocations may result. What is more, wider social and political consequences include unwarranted support by non-financial stakeholders or by society at large. Impression management is examined by reference to four perspectives: the economic, psychological, sociological, and critical. These variously conceptualise impression management as reporting bias, self-serving bias, symbolic management, and ideological bias.
12675 - PublicationAddendum to Eleftheriou and Michelacakis (2016)(Elsevier, 2016-11)
; ; Following the publication of Eleftheriou and Michelacakis (2016a), it was brought to our attention that the problem identified and corrected in Eleftheriou and Michelacakis (2016a) affects more papers than just the Beladi et al. (2008). Two such instances of published papers that we know of are the Beladi et al. (2010a) and Beladi et al. (2010b). The aim of this short addendum is to warn the reader against the validity of the results in these two papers and perhaps others using the same basic duopoly model as in Beladi et al. (2008). We look into the origins of the fallacy and make an announcement of corrected versions of some of the affected conclusions referring elsewhere for precise details.268 - PublicationAdding Value to International Business Education: An Irish-American Road Map to Service LearningThis article summarises the experience of two undergraduate schools of business, one in Ireland and one in the United States, in developing an international service learning programme for study-abroad students. Working from an already existing partnership, the schools established an academically-based programme with a support structure for students administered by both institutions. Practical considerations required the Irish partner institution establish its own service learning programme and that the United States partner institution assist in that through a visiting professorship. In the process of this collaborative effort the actors were reminded of the importance of academic and strategic compatibility; senior administrative support; making room for cultural differences; and listening to the student voice. This case is presented as an example of the lessons learned along the road of achieving the combined benefits of study abroad and service learning.
315 - PublicationAdvancing a typology of open innovationInterest in the concept of open innovation (OI) has increased during recent years; yet, this line of inquiry remains limited due to the lack of a more comprehensive conceptual framework. As a first step toward a unifying framework, we provide a critical review of previous research on the conceptualization, antecedents, and consequences of OI. We then offer a typology describing four OI strategies: (i) innovation seeker, (ii) innovation provider, (iii) intermediary, and (iv) open innovator, which emerge through unique combinations of sources of innovation, firm attributes, and mechanisms of inter-organizational exchange, and produce varying outcomes. Finally, we discuss our typology's implications for theory and practice, and advance potential research avenues.
891Scopus© Citations 75 - PublicationAdvancing ISD Education Research with Bioecological Systems Theory(International Conference on Information Systems Development, 2018-08-24)
; The Information Systems (IS) community designs and delivers IS curricula in higher education and faces pedagogical challenges in teaching some complex and technical material. Many of us are involved in the design, implementation, evaluation, adoption, and use of IS to support education and training in academia and in industry. Yet IS research on education is often based on technologically deterministic assumptions about the impact of technology on education outcomes and involves narrowly focused studies on the use and impact of technology in education. In this paper, we introduce IS to Bioecological Theory (BET), whose insights have had a transformative effect in the field of developmental psychology but not well known in IS. We use BET to map existing literature on IS and Higher Education and also outline how this theory can be used in IS to inform the design of technological artifacts to support students’ learning processes.307 - PublicationAdvertising and the Organizational Production of HumourThis chapter discusses humour as it is deliberately produced by organizations through advertising. Using beer advertisements as an example, our aim is to explain the increasing prevalence of advertising-based organizational humour during the period that has come to be known as late capitalism. Drawing on the literature on humour in advertising, the chapter explores the irony of how such advertisements provide a comedic critique of the code that acts to control and construct consumers, while also being a constitutive part of that process.
577 - PublicationAffect and Spirituality at Work: Guest Editors' IntroductionWe argue that it is essential to differentiate between individual preferences for having spiritual and religious practices at the workplace and studies that, using well-established tools drawn from the social-sciences, research the role of spirituality in organizations and work. The present JMSR Special Issue (SI) is the first to bring together several papers that address the confluence of affect and spirituality in the context of work, management and organizations. One of the aims of this SI is to showcase five different approaches to systematically investigating spirituality and affect in organizational context.
200 - PublicationAffective resonance and durability in political organizing: The case of patients who hackWe explore the role of affect in fuelling and sustaining political organizing in the case of an online Type-1 Diabetes community. Analysing this community’s interactions, we show that the drive towards political transformation is triggered by affective dissonance, but that this dissonance needs to be recurrently enacted through the balanced circulation of objects of pain and hope. We propose the notion of affective resonance to illuminate the dynamic interplay that collectively moderates and fosters this circulation and that keeps bodies invested and reverberating together around shared political goals. Affective resonance points researchers toward the fragile and complex accomplishment that affective politics represents. Focussing particularly on the community’s interactions on Twitter, we also reflect on the role of (digital) resonance spaces in how affects circulate. By adopting and transposing concepts from affect theories into the context of patient communities, we further add important insights into the unique embodied challenges that chronic illness patients face. Highlighting the hope induced by techno-bodily emancipation that intertwine into a particular form of political organizing in such healthcare movements, we give emphasis to patient communities’ deeply embodied affects as important engines for political, social, and economic change.
10 - PublicationAn Agent-based Modeling Approach to Study Price ImpactPrice impact models are important for devising trade execution strategies. However, a proper characterization of price impacts is still lacking. This study models the price impact using an agent-based modeling approach. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether agent intelligence is a necessary condition when seeking to construct realistic price impact with an artificial market simulation. We build a zero- intelligence based artificial limit order market model. Our model distinguishes limit orders according to their order aggressiveness and takes into account some observed facts including log-normal distributed order sizes and power-law distributed limit order placements. The model is calibrated using trades and orders data from the London Stock Exchange. The results indicate that agent intelligence is needed when simulating an artificial market where replicating price impact is a concern.
1381Scopus© Citations 14 - PublicationAlternative Perspectives on Independence of DirectorsThis paper examines the issue of independence of boards of directors and non-executive directors of companies listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. Based on information published in annual reports, the study found that most Irish listed companies were complying with the Combined Code’s recommendations for a balanced board structure, albeit with only 60 per cent having majority-independent boards. The study found a lack of consistency in interpreting the definition of “independence”, a lack of disclosure of information and, by applying criteria generally regarded as prerequisite to independence of non-executive directors, certain situations which imposed upon their independence.
1661Scopus© Citations 40 - PublicationAn American Solution to an Irish Problem: A Consideration of the Material Conditions that Shape the Architecture of Union OrganizingNew models of union organizing have become an important instrument of union growth and renewal. We examine the transfer of US-developed organizing practices to Ireland. We enquire whether the practical experiences of SIPTU can be considered successful. In particular, we focus on the question: in what way is the architecture of union organizing shaped by the material conditions that affect workers' power? We look at three campaigns across three low-wage sectors (hotels, red meat processing and contract cleaning). The campaigns share a number of common properties, but differ in respect of the power resources available to employees and the shape of their outcomes. Using a most similar systems comparative research design, we identify a variety of causes which help explain the success and shape of the different organizing campaigns. Finally, we make a number of arguments in respect of how our findings link to debates about the future of trade unionism.
371Scopus© Citations 9 - PublicationAnalysis of the institutional landscape and proliferation of proposals for global vaccine equity for COVID-19: too many cooks or too many recipes?This article outlines and compares current and proposed global institutional mechanisms to increase equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, focusing on their institutional and operational complementarities and overlaps. It specifically considers the World Health Organization's (WHO's) COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) model as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) initiative, the WHO's COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative, the proposed TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Agreement) intellectual property waiver and other proposed WHO and World Trade Organization technology transfer proposals. We argue that while various individual mechanisms each have their specific individual merits-and in some cases weaknesses-overall, many of these current and proposed mechanisms could be highly complementary if used together to deliver equitable global access to vaccines. Nonetheless, we also argue that there are risks posed by the proliferation of proposals in this context, including the potential to disperse stakeholder attention or to delay decisive action. Therefore, we argue that there is now a clear need for concerted global multilateral action to recognise the complementarities of specific models and to provide a pathway for collaboration in attaining global equitable access to vaccines. The institutional infrastructure or proposals to achieve this amply exist at this point in time-but much greater cooperation from industry and clear, decisive and coordinated action from states and international organisations are urgently needed.
79 - PublicationAnalytical Framework and Student Perceptions: Assessing the Quality of Doctoral Education in Accounting in Ireland(Irish Accounting and Finance Association, 2020-04-03)
; ; To examine the quality of doctoral education in accounting in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland, we develop an analytical framework from the relevant literature and the principles of quality doctoral education included in the Higher Education Authority’s (HEA) National Framework for Doctoral Education (NFDE). Our analytical framework identifies 16 measurable indicators of quality doctoral education classified into four dimensions: context, inputs, processes and outcomes. We verify compliance with the quality indicators by coding HEI websites and prospectuses. Deeper insights on the indicators of quality doctoral education are obtained from semi-structured interviews with accounting doctoral students. Our findings shed valuable insights on the quality of doctoral education in accounting in an Irish context. Currently, doctoral education in accounting in Ireland is widely available, standardised and consistent with the principles of the NFDE. This suggests a quality doctoral education system in accounting in Ireland. However, our investigation of the individual components of quality identifies areas for improvement.165