bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Qualitative generalising in accounting research: concepts and strategies
Authors: Parker Lee D. , Northcott Deryl 
Published: August 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to identify and articulate concepts and approaches to qualitative generalisation that will offer qualitative accounting researchers avenues for enhancing and justifying the general applicability of their research findings and conclusions.Design/methodology/approach– The study and arguments draw from multidisciplinary approaches to this issue. The analysis and theorising is based on published qualitative research literatures from the fields of education, health sciences, sociology, information systems, management and marketing, as well as accounting.Findings– The paper develops two overarching generalisation concepts for application by qualitative accounting researchers. These are built upon a number of qualitative generalisation concepts that have emerged in the multidisciplinary literatures. It also articulates strategies for enhancing the generalisability of qualitative accounting research findings.Research limitations/implications– The paper provides qualitative accounting researchers with understandings, arguments and justifications for the generalisability of their research and the related potential for wider accounting and societal contributions. It also articulates the key factors that impact on the quality of research generalisation that qualitative researchers can offer.Originality/value– This paper presents the most comprehensively sourced and developed approach to the concepts, strategies and unique deliverables of qualitative generalising hitherto available in the accounting research literature.
Religion and accounting texts in eighteenth century Scotland
Authors: Mutch Alistair 
Published: August 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which Scottish pre-eminence in accounting texts in the eighteenth century was influenced by religion. By so doing, to add to the literature on the relationship between religion and accountability.Design/methodology/approach– An examination of religion as social practice is conducted by examining the relationship between formal, printed, sources and the extensive archives of the Church of Scotland. A sample of five administrative units of the church is used to explore local practice in detail.Findings– Accountability was at the heart of the theology of the Church of Scotland. It shaped local practices of accountability to give what is termed “systemic accountability”, which featured the detailed specification of roles and the recording of transactions. Lay involvement in this system was extensive amongst the “middling sort”. This system formed the backdrop to the Scottish pre-eminence in accounting texts, facilitated by widespread literacy and a propensity to publish, both in turn shaped by the broader religious context.Research limitations/implications– The research is confined to Scotland and does not consider the wider impact on areas such as British North America. The value of examining religion as a relationship between belief and social practice could be extended to other belief systems, as the paper only considers the Reformed Protestant tradition of Christianity.Originality/value– The value is in a detailed investigation of religion as a social practice, which has not been presented before in the context of accountability. It presents a new perspective on Scottish accomplishments in the field of accounting, accomplishments which have been of significance for the broader profession.
The performance of the Chinese banking system before and after the WTO entry
Authors: Nguyen Thanh 
Published: August 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 2002 on the efficiency levels, efficiency components (technological change and scale economy), and efficiency determinants of Chinese banks.

Design/methodology/approach
– This study employs a two-stage stochastic frontier analysis to estimate efficiency and its components and identify the efficiency determinants.

Findings
– Chinese banks did not benefit from technological change and scale expansion in reducing costs in the pre-WTO period, but the reverse occurred in the post-WTO period. Chinese banks benefited from technological change in increasing profits to a lower degree in the post than the pre-WTO period. Cost efficiency declined while profit efficiency improved after China’s accession. Security investments positively drove profit efficiency in both pre- and post-WTO periods. There was an efficiency gap between joint-stock banks and state-owned banks in the pre-WTO period, but this gap disappeared in the post-WTO period. Economic freedom was related negatively to cost efficiency and positively to profit efficiency in the pre-WTO period, but opposite relations occurred in the post-WTO period.

Practical implications
– These findings appear to favour gradual liberalisation in the Chinese banking system, gradual removal of restrictions on foreign banks, certain shift from non-security investments to security investments, technology investment and scale expansion.

Originality/value
– This is the first study investigating the impact of the WTO on the efficiency, technological progress, economy of scale and efficiency determinants in Chinese banks.
SAHRIS: South Africa’s integrated, web-based heritage management system
Authors: Smuts Kathryn , Mlungwana Nonyameko , Wiltshire Nicholas 
Published: August 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to introduce the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS), developed by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) in 2011. The paper aims to describe how SAHRIS facilitates online applications for heritage approval and/or permits for developments and research, fulfils SAHRA’s mandate as a repository for a national inventory of heritage sites and objects in the country, and serves as an integrated, responsive tool for reporting heritage crimes and tracking the progress of the resultant cases. The paper also aims to explain, simply, the application processes for each of these functions.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper provides an explanation of the design and functions of the system and outlines how each of the content types and applications are created.

Findings
– The system has improved the process of South African heritage resources management by decreasing the turnaround time for submissions to heritage authorities, raised the standards of good governance and increased public compliance with the heritage legislation.

Practical implications
– Poor uptake of the system by provincial heritage authorities has limited the impact of the system on heritage management as practiced in South Africa.

Social implications
– The system, when used effectively provides an efficient service to the public, while promoting good governance, transparency, public access to information and improved compliance with the heritage legislation.

Originality/value
– Through the creation of a single, unified platform for heritage management processes, geo-referencing of heritage sites and development areas, the provision of a national fossil sensitivity map, and the national heritage inventory, SAHRIS represents a world first in terms of proactive, integrated heritage management tools.
Research on customer switching behavior in the service industry
Authors: Chuang Yi-Fei , Tai Yang-Fei 
Published: August 2016

Purpose
This study aims to analyze and explain the characteristics and findings in previous studies of switching behavior and identifies the developments within this topic in order to improve its current understanding.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors construct a literature database of studies published in prominent business and management journals from 1996 to 2013 and conduct an analysis using the variables in the data fields. Furthermore, we execute meta-analysis to combine the research goals of tracing the history of customer switching behavior studies.

Findings
Satisfaction switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives are the most commonly used predictor variables to explain switching intentions. Switching costs subjective norms and interpersonal relationships moderate the relationship between switching intentions and its antecedents. Customer switching behavior in mobile telecommunication services has received a lot of attention.

Practical implications
This study assists researchers by examining the type and topic of these studies and the research tools and findings reported in theory. The authors ultimately identify the developmental trend in the literature on switching behavior and propose a direction for future studies.

Originality/value
This study clarifies the characteristics and findings of previous studies on switching intention from a literature review and improves the current understanding.
Examining the roles played by a store satisfaction-love framework in shaping the influence of store loyalty programs
Authors: S. Sreejesh , Sarkar Abhigyan , Pradhan Sudeepta 
Published: August 2016

Purpose
This study aims to investigate how the influences of store loyalty programs on store loyalty and store relations can be mediated by the store satisfaction-love framework.

Design/methodology/approach
The survey data were collected from selected retail stores using stratified random sampling. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

Findings
The results indicate that the impacts of store loyalty programs on store loyalty and store relations are mediated both by store love and store satisfaction.

Practical implications
This study’s findings help practitioners by empirically demonstrating that the combined cognitive satisfaction of consumers with store loyalty programs and affective store love mediate the influences of loyalty programs on consumer loyalty toward the store and on the consumer–store relation. Therefore, cognitive satisfaction with loyalty programs alone cannot create strong loyalty and a customer relationship. Cognitive satisfaction with various loyalty programs must be converted into affective store love for the mediation to be significant and effective.

Originality/value
This research adds value to the domain of store loyalty research by empirically establishing the mediating role played by the cognitive satisfaction-affective love framework in shaping the influences of loyalty programs designed by store management on the final store loyalty and customer–store relationship.
The effect of CRM implementation on pharmaceutical industry’s profitability
Authors: Bahri-Ammari Nedra , Soliman Khalid S. 
Published: August 2016

Purpose
The aim of this study is examine customer relationship management (CRM) effect on enhancing customer satisfaction and on improving customer retention. In this study, the impact of CRM on loyalty in the pharmaceutical sector in Tunisia is studied. Service quality perception, customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention and firm profitability have been tested as independent variables. This study highlights the importance of CRM and service quality perception in maintaining a sustainable and profitable relationship with customers.

Design/methodology/approach
A survey research design was used to collect data. In total, 221 respondents from 5 pharmaceutical companies in Tunisia were involved in the study. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were adopted to examine the effect of CRM technology on profitability. Structural equation modeling was used to validate results.

Findings
The results show that there are significant relationships between CRM and quality perception, satisfaction and loyalty. However, there are no significant relationships either between CRM and retention or between CRM and profitability.

Research limitations/implications
Fitting CRM scale with the context of the study and the number of the survey companies was the limitation of this research.

Practical implications
This study provides significant results to practitioners to understand the role of establishing a CRM strategy and to understand the selected factors affecting customer satisfaction and retention as well.

Originality/value
This study was conducted in Tunisia to contribute to enrich literature in the implementation of information technology and customer satisfaction.
Bridging ecology and conservation: from ecological networks to ecosystem function
Authors: Harvey Eric , Gounand Isabelle , Ward Colette L. , Altermatt Florian 
Published: August 2016

Summary

Current approaches to conservation may be inadequate to maintain ecosystem integrity because they are mostly based on rarity status of organisms rather than functional significance. Alternatively, approaches focusing on the protection of ecological networks lead to more appropriate conservation targets to maintain ecosystem integrity.

We propose that a shift in focus from species to interaction networks is necessary to achieve pressing conservation management and restoration ecology goals of conserving biodiversity, ecosystem processes and ultimately landscape‐scale delivery of ecosystem services.

Using topical examples from the literature, we discuss historical and conceptual advances, current challenges and ways to move forward. We also propose a road map to ecological network conservation, providing a novel ready to use approach to identify clear conservation targets with flexible data requirements.

Synthesis and applications. Integration of how environmental and spatial constraints affect the nature and strength of local interaction networks will improve our ability to predict their response to change and to conserve them. This will better protect species, ecosystem processes, and the resulting ecosystem services we depend on.
Urban warming favours C4 plants in temperate European cities
Authors: Duffy Grant A. , Chown Steven L. 
Published: August 2016

Summary

Elucidating the mechanisms responsible for the structure of urban communities is a key aim of urban ecology, but one that is often confounded by the multitude of environmental changes that are caused by urbanization. We applied trait‐based techniques to identify the specific environmental drivers that shape urban plant assemblages and predict how these drivers will further impact biotas with increasing urbanization and global environmental change.

Urbanized areas across temperate Europe have significantly higher abundance and richness of plants using the C4 photosynthetic pathway, relative to the total number and species richness of all plant records, than non‐urban areas.

Urban warming, mediated by the contrasting physiological responses of C3 and C4 plants to warming, is the main driver of observed patterns of plant assemblage structure. This mirrors broadscale and historical distribution patterns of C3 and C4 plants. The increased relative abundance of C4 plants in cities demonstrated here may be indicative of more geographically widespread assemblage changes to be expected in temperate environments under continuing global climate change.

Synthesis. Applying a combined trait‐based, ecoinformatic and remote‐sensing approach provides new insight into the landscape‐level consequences of urbanization. Specifically, we show that localized urban warming in cities across temperate Europe favours C4 plant species, which respond positively to increased temperatures. Urban plant assemblages are shaped by environmental warming and exhibit significant increases in C4 plant relative abundance compared to non‐urban assemblages.
Farm‐scale evaluation of the impact of Cry1Ab Bt maize on canopy nontarget arthropods: a 3‐year study
Authors: Arias‐Martín María , García Matías , Castañera Pedro , Ortego Félix , Farinós Gema P. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThe cultivation of Cry1Ab‐expressing genetically modified MON810 (Bt maize) has led to public concern in Europe, regarding its impact on nontarget arthropods (NTAs). We have assessed the potential effects of DKC 6451 YG (MON810) maize on canopy NTAs in a farm‐scale study performed in Central Spain during 3 years. The study focused on hemipteran herbivores (leafhoppers and planthoppers) and hymenopteran parasitic wasps (mymarids) collected by yellow sticky traps, which accounted for 72% of the total number of insects studied. The dynamics and abundance of these groups varied among years, but no significant differences were found between Bt and non‐Bt maize, indicating that Bt maize had no negative effect on these taxa. Nonetheless, the Cry1Ab toxin was detected in 2 different arthropods collected from Bt maize foliage, the cicadellids Zyginidia scutellaris and Empoasca spp. A retrospective power analysis on the arthropod abundance data for our field trials has determined that Z. scutellaris and the family Mymaridae have high capacity to detect differences between the Bt maize and its isogenic counterpart. The use of these canopy NTAs as surrogates for assessing environmental impacts of Bt maize is discussed.
Examining student's night‐time activity spaces: identities, performances, and transformations
Authors: Holton Mark 
Published: August 2016

AbstractIt has become increasingly clear that social activities play an important role for many UK undergraduate students in informing identity and place attachment through interactions with their term‐time location. While attention has been given to the ways in which students construct ‘exclusive geographies’ through self‐segregation from non‐students, thus far there has been very little discussion of how students' identities may be affected by their changing activity spaces and how this may blur the boundaries between student and non‐student spaces. Exploring these transformations over the duration of the degree is important as they highlight how identity performances may be influenced by students' transitions through university and their changing mobility patterns. This paper will address such matters by considering the following: (1) how first year activity spaces may constitute a student bubble for new undergraduates; (2) how, in subsequent years, these activity spaces adapt as students hone their social practices and explore environments less associated with student life; and (3) how ‘local’ student's activity spaces can become complex as they contemplate locating their multiple identities during term time.
Consuming energy drinks at the age of 14 predicted legal and illegal substance use at 16
Authors: Barrense‐Dias Yara , Berchtold André , Akre Christina , Surís Joan‐Carles 
Published: August 2016

AbstractAimThis study examined whether consuming energy drinks at the age of 14 predicted substance use at 16.MethodsWe followed 621 youths from an area of Switzerland who completed a longitudinal online survey in both 2012 and 2014 when they were 14 and 16 years of age. At 14, participants, who were divided into nonenergy drink users (n = 262), occasional users (n = 183) and regular users (n = 176), reported demographic, health‐related and substance use data. Substance use at 16 was assessed through logistic regression using nonusers as the reference group and controlling for significant variables at 14.ResultsAt the bivariate level, energy drink consumption was associated with substance use at both 14 and 16. Energy drink consumers were also more likely to be male, older, less academic, sleep less on schooldays and live in an urban area. In the multivariate analysis, smokers, alcohol misusers and cannabis users at the age of 16 were significantly more likely to have been regular energy drink users at the age of 14.ConclusionConsuming energy drinks at 14 years of age predicted using legal and illegal substances at 16. Health providers should screen young adolescents for energy drink use and closely monitor weekly users.
The ecological legacy of 20th century acidification carried on by ecosystem engineers
Authors: Schweiger Andreas H. , Beierkuhnlein Carl 
Published: August 2016

AbstractAimsAcidification by airborne pollution strongly degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems until the late 20th century. Although geochemical recovery has been observed since then, there has been little recovery of ecological communities, and the reasons are unclear. Positive feedbacks between anthropogenic acidification and ecosystem engineers are likely to contribute to this lag in recovery, but are under‐investigated so far. Here we hypothesize that positive feedbacks between past anthropogenic acidification and on‐going biogenic habitat modification by peat moss species (genus Sphagnum) will have long‐term effects on plant community composition of acidified spring fens.LocationSpring fens in forest landscapes of central Germany's siliceous mountain ranges impacted by anthropogenic acidification until the late 1980s, and with strong increases in abundance of Sphagnum during the last 25 yrs.MethodsVegetation surveys (vascular plants, mosses and liverworts) and hydro‐chemical water measurements of 54 spring fens over a study period of 25 yrs (1989–2013). Measurements of water pH and discharge were used, in combination with Ellenberg indicator values of the occurring plant species, to investigate the joint effects of anthropogenic acidification and biogenic habitat modification.ResultsChanging plant communities (excluding Sphagnum spp.) indicated significant increases in acidification of spring fens with high Sphagnum cover, although pH of the outpouring groundwater showed no temporal trends. Path analysis revealed significant enhancing effects of Sphagnum abundance on the community‐indicated acidity, which was independent of the abiotic acidity regime (water pH). With increasing species richness through time, community assembly became increasingly similar and shifted towards acid‐tolerant species. Characteristic plant species of non‐acidified spring fens like Chrysosplenium oppositifolium were replaced by generalist grass, sedge and tree species (e.g., Picea abies, Fagus sylvatica, Calamagrostis villosa and Carex remota).ConclusionsBased on long‐term monitoring data we show that biogenic habitat modification by ecosystem engineers can significantly change plant community composition on a decadal scale in a landscape where historic anthropogenic acidification heavily impacted ecosystem functioning. These complex functional legacies stress the importance of considering the history and memory of ecosystems in global change impact research.