This research seeks to examine the issue of lack of staff resources within the office of the Auditor-General of NSW, with reference to the Australian Audit Office (AAO). In particular, the lack of staff resources and the implications given the changes which have occurred sine the 1970Ís, when efficiency audit responsibilities were introduced into the public accounting sector auditing, are examined. The present responsibilities to conduct not only regularity/compliance audits but also efficiency audits, coupled with the increasing complexities within the public sector, have placed significant pressure upon the staff resources within the offices of the Auditor's-General. The intention of the research is to provide empirical evidence of these changes on the utilization of staff resources. ...

What do Plato and the Bible tell us about bribery? Does it even matter? When it comes to ethical guidance on bribery should we look less to traditional wisdom and instead be seeking understanding and guidance primarily from modern sources? From economists with their talk of efficient markets, and from the critical theorists who focus on inequities in power relations? This book explores such questions in depth.Taking the form of a Platonic dialogue, the book contains a discussion of claims made for recognition of the positive aspects of bribery. This goes beyond the well-known "harmless" bribe - the facilitating or “grease” payment which encourages an official to speed up the performance of his or her existing duties, without additional favors. This type of baksheesh may be unattractive...

What can we do to preserve a future for the next generation to cherish? A potent answer is to exercise good stewardship in realizing more sustainable living and development. This volume brings together experts from around the world to disseminate the latest knowledge and research toward this end, i.e., engineering for more sustainable development and living. Let us learn from a living cell that utilizes inherited biological intelligence to organize its resources for current needs and future existence. We also have the responsibility to ensure universal access to electricity and increase the share of renewable energies. Cost effective hybrid renewable energy systems should also be considered and furthered. Advancing energy storage is a necessary striving for managing a future "toilet paper ...

Semi-strong form efficiency is generally supported by event studies, especially these on daily returns testing the market's reaction to accounting earnings. Nevertheless, the Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift (PEAD) anomaly, being inconsistent with semi-strong form efficiency, seems to have survived robustness tests through the years. This paper examines the reaction of ATHEX in response to fiscal year 2006 annual earnings announcements of 20 high capitalisation companies. The common event study methodology is being used in order to define expected returns and trace the abnormal performance of these stocks. Three portfolios are constructed based on the unexpected component of the reported earnings per share (EPS). The abnormal performance of each portfolio over time is identified by the dai...

(Complete work in Spanish) The doctoral thesis contributes to some related Management Control areas such us Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and the informal components of Control Systems. The objective of the research was to analyse how this process of business concentration may impact on the Management Control System of the acquired firm. For this purpose an alternative theoretical model have been developed from the review of Management Control literature and M&A in Management Accounting. This model builds on contingency theoretical insights and extends it with elements of informal control. To test the prepositions a single ethnographic in-depth case study was carried out. It was conducted in a Spanish subsidiary of an English chemical group during 31 months. The main findings of this res...

The Fuller School is one of the six elementary schools in Gloucester, Massachusetts, a small urban community known for shipbuilding and fishing. Fuller students come from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds (from public housing facilities to affluent families) and a variety of ethnic groups (including Italian, Hispanic and Vietnamese). With its diverse population, the Fuller School represented an excellent environment to test the use of Multiple Intelligences (MI) as a foundation for its curriculum. This study aimed to examine one of the ten objectives of the FIRST Schools and Teacher Program Grant: "To improve student achievement on standardized tests" by using "multiple intelligences instruction." The results of the California Achievement Test/5 (CAT/5) given at grade 5 tended...

The purpose of business is to employ capital factors in such a manner as to generate value for its customers and profits for its owners. To achieve these ends, management must make at least three distinct decisions – the operating, investment, and financing decisions. The purpose of this study is to formulate a modeling methodology that harmonically analyzes and explains how the investment decision and capital elasticity influence competitive advantage. The research explores the descriptive literature for the current states of computational modeling, accounting theory and practice, managerial finance, macroeconomics, capital theory, and harmonic analysis in order to provide evidence supporting the content validity of a proposed modeling framework, which encodes, m...

The introduction of fair value accounting for stock options has required private companies to apply stock option valuation methodologies that were designed to be applied to their public counterparts. The two recommended methodologies, the Black-Scholes formula and the Binomial Lattice model, require the valuator to provide an input for estimated volatility; for private companies that do not have a trading history there is limited guidance regarding the determination of volatility, which results in diverging and incorrect estimates. Based on a sample representing 178 companies who filed and completed an IPO in 2006, this study analyzed the accuracy of the recommended valuation methodologies when applied to closely held US corporations. The study outlines the importance of volatility to the ...

How to invest like the Very Rich illustrates the author's experience, knowledge and familiarity with the financial markets. It is skillfully written, clear and jargon-free. The historic references are timeless. Nelson W. Diebel, Jr., PhD Professor of History (retired) How to invest Like the Very Rich is an excellent, easy to understand, overview of financial investments written in an elegant style. Larry Bridwell, PhD Professor of Management Accounting Pace University This book puts a human face of the ghostly specter of money and finance. His historical references to the evolution of our system of financial markets demystify a rather complex international structure. Use his book as a compass to navigate your portfolio through the new millennium. Michael Servodidio, JD, CPA, ...

Theory and Practice of Modern Islamic Finance seeks to contribute to the existing body of work in the area of Islamic finance through examining the extent of divergence in practice of Islamic financing from the traditional Shari`ah in the Australian context. The author makes a discursive analysis of the regulation of Islamic finance in Australia in terms of (a) the financing instruments used, (b) certainty of transactions between participants in the system, and (c) institutional risk management of Islamic financial institutions. The work's objectives are two-fold: (a) to analytically study the extent to which Islamic Financial Services Providers (IFSPs) of Australia differ from the traditional Shari`ah in their current practices of Islamic legal financial system by their use of different f...

This research of corporate strategy analysis implements comparative analysis and benchmarking to analyse and examine the corporate strategy of the pharmaceutical sectors of 4 international pharmaceutical companies. Most existing studies of pharmaceutical industry have been limited to some specific fields such as the R&D ability, new products launch time, acquisitions, and alliances. Little has been known about the analysis of corporate strategy and comparison of pharmaceutical industry by both internal and external factors. On the other hand, the comparative strategy and benchmarking have been frequently applied in analysing the corporate strategy mostly in public service industries, ...

Current and future managers are regularly confronted with decisions that create risk in the legal environment of business. This book provides a framework for qualifying legal risk and then determining if the legal risk is worth taking. This framework begins by looking at the relationship between the firm, its suppliers, customers, owners, agents, and others in society as a whole to understand specific risks in personal injury, agreements, products, borrowing money, employees, independent contractors, and business entity selection. When the manager is aware of the magnitude of the risk and the likelihood of the risk, the manager is in a strong position to determine if the risk is worth taking. This book uses numerous applications from Game Theory to determine how risks of the firm compare t...

Before the seismic events of Northridge (Los Angeles, 17 January 1994) and Hyogoken-Nanbu (Kobe, 17 January 1995), MRFs were supposed to be the most reliable seismic resistant systems due to the high number of dissipative zones that are able to develop. Before these earthquakes, especially in the United States, MRFs were realized, generally, by adopting fully welded connections, which, at the time, were retained to perform better compared to other joint typologies. In addition, the economic advantages deriving from the adoption of field fully welded connections strongly influenced choices of building owners and, as a result, led to the adoption of this joint typology in almost all pre-Northridge steel MRFs. After the Northridge earthquake, even though the loss of life was limited, the unex...