Audit pricing and product differentiation in small private firms : evidence from Thailand

Purpose – There is limited evidence on how differences in economic environments affect the demand for and supply of auditing. Research on audit pricing has mainly focused on large client markets in developed economies; in contrast, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the small client segment in the emerging economy of Thailand which offers a choice between auditors of two different qualities. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a random stratified sample of small clients in Thailand qualifying for audit exemption. The final sample consists of 1,950 firm-year observations for 2002-2006. Findings – The authors find evidence of product differentiation in the small client market, suggesting that small firms view certified public accountants as superior and pay a premium for their services. The authors also find that audit fees have a positive significant association with leverage, metropolitan location and client size. Audit risk and audit opinion are not, however, significantly associated with audit fees. Furthermore, the authors find no evidence that clients whose financial year ends in the auditors’ busy period pay significantly higher audit fees, and auditors engage in low-balling on initial engagements to attract audit clients. Research limitations/implications – The research shows the importance of exploring actual decisions regarding audit practice and audit pricing in different institutional and organizational settings. Originality/value – The paper extends the literature from developed economies and large/listed market setting to the emerging economy and small client market setting. As far as the authors are aware, this is the first paper to examine audit pricing in the small client market in an emerging economy.

Towards the design of a scalable and commercially viable technique for plasmid purification using a methacrylate monolithic stationary phase

A monolithic stationary phase was prepared via free radical co-polymerization of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) with pore diameter tailored specifically for plasmid binding, retention and elution. The polymer was functionalized. with 2-chloro-N,N-diethylethylamine hydrochloride (DEAE-Cl) for anion-exchange purification of plasmid DNA (pDNA) from clarified lysate obtained from E. coli DH5α-pUC19 culture in a ribonuclease/ protease-free environment. Characterization of the monolithic resin showed a porous material, with 68% of the pores existing in the matrix having diameters above 300 nm. The final product isolated from a single-stage 5 min anion-exchange purification was a pure and homogeneous supercoiled (SC) pDNA with no gDNA, RNA and protein contamination as confirmed by ethidium bromide agarose gel electrophoresis (EtBr-AGE), enzyme restriction analysis and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This non-toxic technique is cGMP compatible and highly scalable for production of pDNA on a commercial level.

Understanding, utilizing and valuing design tools in business

This chapter examines the tools and activities (referred to as approaches) used by a catalyst while facilitating a design-led transformation within an Australian manufacturing small to medium enterprise (SME). Design-led innovation (DLI) aids the use of design at a higher strategic level; however few existing studies investigate the relative influence of approaches used by a catalyst while helping a firm to make a transition in the utilisation of design, specifically from a styling tool to a strategic process. This paper identifies the triggers to encouraging a shift toward understanding, utilising and valuing the business level outcomes of design through a range of design tools and activities within the participating company. Through a 12 month action research program, staff interviews and a reflective journal were utilised as data collection techniques to assess the successfulness of the approaches used during this project. It was found that, through the use of both successful and unsuccessful approaches, the catalyst achieved two key outcomes within the firm: 1) Improvements in the firm’s ability to challenge internal assumptions and standard practices; and 2) the creation of an informed and accurate awareness of company and industry issues. Approaches that made a higher impact of the firm were deemed successful, and were generally relatable to the task at hand, as perceived by employees. Additionally, the sequence in which the approaches were utilised was found to have a direct influence on their successfulness. Learnings from this research will assist future catalysts to facilitate a design-led transformation within a manufacturing SME through the use of design tools and activities with greater effectiveness.

XD: Experience Design Magazine (Issue One)

XD: Experience Design Magazine is an interdisciplinary publication that focuses on the concept and practice of ‘experience design’, as a holistic concept separate from the well known concept of ‘user experience’. The magazine aims to present a mixture of interrelated perspectives from industry and academic researchers with practicing designers and managers. The informal, journalistic style of the publication aims to simultaneously provide a platform for researchers and other writers to promote their work in an applied way for global impact, and for industry designers to present practical perspectives to inspire a global research audience. Each issue will feature a series of projects, interviews, visuals, reviews and creative inspiration – all of which help everyone understand why experience design is important, who does it and where, how experience design is done in practice and how experience design research can enhance practice. Contents Issue 1 Miller, F. Developing Principles for Designing Optimal Experiences Lavallee, P. Design for Emotions Khan, H. The Entropii XD Framework Bowe, M. & Silvers, A. First Steps in Experience Design Leaper, N. Learning by Design Forrest, R. & Roberts, T. Interpretive Design: Think, Do, Feel Tavakkoli, P. Working Hard at Play Stow, C. Designing Engaging Learning Experiences Wood, M. Enhance Your Travel Experience Using Apps Miller, F. Humanizing It Wood, M. Designing the White Night Experience Newberry, P. & Farnham, K. Experience Design Book Excerpt

An empirical study of capability development within product innovation projects

The objective of this paper is to develop insights into firms’ strategic capability development processes within product innovation projects. In particular, the research aims at investigating the interactions among product innovation, knowledge processes, and capability development within firms. Building on qualitative data from the auto-industry, our analysis reveals that across four product innovation projects, the case company developed architectural knowledge and capability. Findings reveal that, along with changes at each level of product architecture, “design knowledge” and “design capability” have been developed at the same level of product architecture, leading to capability development at that level. Furthermore, findings suggest that such capability transformation resulting from knowledge and capability creation over the course of case projects leads to modularization of product architecture. Overall, the research contributes to identifying and emphasizing the role of micro processes in capability development and renewal, which in turn enhances our understanding of strategic capability development processes.

A determinism and desire: Some neurological processes in perceiving the design object

The environment moderates behaviour using a subtle language of ‘affordances’ and ‘behaviour-settings’. Affordances are environmental offerings. They are objects that demand action; a cliff demands a leap and binoculars demand a peek. Behaviour-settings are ‘places;’ spaces encoded with expectations and meanings. Behaviour-settings work the opposite way to affordances; they demand inhibition; an introspective demeanour in a church or when under surveillance. Most affordances and behaviour-settings are designed, and as such, designers are effectively predicting brain reactions. • Affordances are nested within, and moderated by behaviour-settings. Both trigger automatic neural responses (excitation and inhibition). These, for the best part cancel each other out. This balancing enables object recognition and allows choice about what action should be taken (if any). But when excitation exceeds inhibition, instinctive action will automatically commence. In positive circumstances this may mean laughter or a smile. In negative circumstances, fleeing, screaming or other panic responses are likely. People with poor frontal function, due to immaturity (childhood or developmental disorders) or due to hypofrontality (schizophrenia, brain damage or dementia) have a reduced capacity to balance excitatory and inhibitory impulses. For these people, environmental behavioural demands increase with the decline of frontal brain function. • The world around us is not only encoded with symbols and sensory information. Opportunities and restrictions work on a much more primal level. Person/space interactions constantly take place at a molecular scale. Every space we enter has its own special dynamic, where individualism vies for supremacy between the opposing forces of affordance-related excitation and the inhibition intrinsic to behaviour-settings. And in this context, even a small change–the installation of a CCTV camera can turn a circus to a prison. • This paper draws on cutting-edge neurological theory to understand the psychological determinates of the everyday experience of the designed environment.

Design intersection: The growth of community-led technology enabled companies

The sharing economy or collaborative consumption based firms have the potential to disrupt long-standing traditional industries. However, little is known on the topic, specifically the role of design in these successful community-led, technology enable firms. It is the proposition of this research that the intrinsic innovation of collaborative consumption firms is not merely a technological one. With successful firms being identified by being able to marry both technological advancement and human insight on product meaning. Therefore, the authors suggest the use of design as an effective way to capitalise and build on product meaning, not only technological advancements in order to foster the growth of a community. To explore this further, the research team decided to investigate two fast growing examples of industry disrupting, sharing economy businesses; Airbnb and Uber. Of the two cases, the use of design was found to be more evident within, Airbnb, due to wide profession of using design techniques. Each case study has been mapped on Guenther’s (2012) framework of techno-economic innovation to help illustrate this marriage of innovation agendas. This paper explored the role of design in community-led companies by presenting an argument for why they have succeeded due to an understanding of human need and key market trends, instead of only technological innovation alone. Findings and implication of these case studies suggest the future role of design as a method to achieve this success. Built on the core tenants of design thinking, these techniques rationalise technology, human needs and business viability to product innovative solutions. Upon these findings, the research team has created a new framework for understanding community-led technology enabled companies, one that builds upon the work of Guenther’s (2012) model of enterprise design innovation. This paper is the first step in a new research agenda.

A novel approach to increasing inventory with the current panel: Increasing donation frequency by asking for a different blood product

BACKGROUND Ongoing shortages of blood products may be addressed through additional donations. However, donation frequency rates are typically lower than medically possible. This preliminary study aims to determine voluntary nonremunerated whole blood (WB) and plasmapheresis donors' willingness, and subsequent facilitators and barriers, to make additional donations of a different type. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS Forty individual telephone interviews were conducted posing two additional donation pattern scenarios: first, making a single and, second, making multiple plasmapheresis donations between WB donations. Stratified purposive sampling was conducted for four samples varying in donation experience: no-plasma, new-to-both-WB-and-plasma, new-to-plasma, and plasma donors. Interviews were analyzed yielding excellent (κ values > 0.81) inter-rater reliability. RESULTS Facilitators were more endorsed than barriers for a single but not multiple plasmapheresis donation. More new-to-both donors (n = 5) were willing to make multiple plasma donations between WB donations than others (n = 1 each) and identified fewer barriers (n = 3) than those more experienced in donation (n = 8 no plasma, n = 10 new to both, n = 11 plasma). Donors in the plasma sample were concerned about the subsequent reduced time between plasma donations by adding WB donations (n = 3). The no-plasma and new-to-plasma donors were concerned about the time commitment required (n = 3). CONCLUSION Current donors are willing to add different product donations but donation history influences their willingness to change. Early introduction of multiple donation types, variation in inventory levels, and addressing barriers will provide blood collection agencies with a novel and cost-effective inventory management strategy.

Creativity and design

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Creating New Value covers all of the major aspects of innovation strategy and capabilities, including leadership of innovation, creativity, design led innovation, open innovation, management of the innovation portfolio and new product development processes. Ultimately, innovation is accomplished by people, and this book recognises the critical contribution of leadership and organisational culture to developing and promoting innovation behaviours. For startups and entrepreneurs, the book covers the practical, powerful tests that a new idea should be subjected to, as well as providing an overview of the entrepreneurship process. Another feature of the book is the detailed presentation of the practices common to highly innovative organisations that distinguishes them from low innovating organisations. Underpinned by research, this information is translated into an innovation audit tool that can be used by managers or students alike.

Emotional food design: From designing food products to designing food systems

Contemporary food systems promote the consumption of highly processed foods of limited nutrition, contributing to overweight and obesity, diet-related disease and significant financial burden on healthcare systems. In part, this has resulted from highly successful design, development and marketing strategies for processed foods. The successful application of such strategies to healthy food options, and the services and business plans that accompany them, could assist in enhancing health and alleviating burden on health care systems. Product designers have long been aware of the importance of intertwining emotional experiences with new products. However, a lack of theoretical precision exists for applying emotional design beyond food products, to the food systems, services and business models that drive them. This article explores emotional design within the context of food and food systems and proposes a new concept – Emotional Food Design (EFD), through which emotional design is integrated across levels of a food system. EFD complements the dominating deductive view of food systems research with an abductive iterative design approach contextualized within the creation of new food products, services and business models and their associated emotional attachments. This paper concludes by outlining what EFD can offer to reorient food systems to successfully promote healthy eating.

Predictive models for water sources with high susceptibility for bromine-containing disinfection by-product formation: Implications for water treatment

This study examines a matrix of synthetic water samples designed to include conditions that favour brominated disinfection by-product (Br-DBP) formation, in order to provide predictive models suitable for high Br-DBP forming waters such as salinity-impacted waters. Br-DBPs are known to be more toxic than their chlorinated analogues, in general, and their formation may be favoured by routine water treatment practices such as coagulation/flocculation under specific conditions; therefore, circumstances surrounding their formation must be understood. The chosen factors were bromide concentration, mineral alkalinity, bromide to dissolved organic carbon (Br/DOC) ratio and Suwannee River natural organic matter concentration. The relationships between these parameters and DBP formation were evaluated by response surface modelling of data generated using a face-centred central composite experimental design. Predictive models for ten brominated and/or chlorinated DBPs are presented, as well as models for total trihalomethanes (tTHMs) and total dihaloacetonitriles (tDHANs), and bromide substitution factors for the THMs and DHANs classes. The relationships described revealed that increasing alkalinity and increasing Br/DOC ratio were associated with increasing bromination of THMs and DHANs, suggesting that DOC lowering treatment methods that do not also remove bromide such as enhanced coagulation may create optimal conditions for Br-DBP formation in waters in which bromide is present.

A methodological survey of future mobility literature: Opportunities for design research

This research establishes that the study of mobility and transportation is multi-disciplinary and highly complex, involving the diverse interplay between infrastructural and psychological factors. Coincidently, a new paradigm in personal mobility is developing. A new generation of mobility solutions is becoming widely available in the form of car and ride sharing services. These services build on the assumption that customers no longer need ownership of a product in order to benefit from it. With the emergence of this new paradigm, this paper presents a methodological review of current practises used by the wider research community. Therefore, this research piece aims to explore methodological approaches involved in the study the effect of community on an individual’s attitudes, perceptions and behaviours of future mobility solutions. The results of this review indicate that the majority of published literature uses quantitative methods as opposed to qualitative and even fewer studies have sought to understand the human factors in these new mobility solutions. This gap in knowledge is a valuable opportunity for design. Inherently qualitative and human focused, design research can fill this gap in knowledge by applying distinctly user-centred methods such as persona design, narrative storytelling, and in-depth observations to discover deeper human insights.

Using the evolution of consumer products to inform design

The development of a new consumer product and its release to market is typically an expensive and risky process. It is estimated that up to 80% of all new products fail in the marketplace (Savoia, 2014). The consequences of failure can be ruinous for a manufacturer both financially and in terms of brand reputation. So even small improvements in success prediction have the potential to save money, effort and brand reputation. This paper proposes an approach where the history and evolution of a product is mapped and analyzed. The results of the analysis can then be used to inform design decisions. This paper will also demonstrate the similarities between biological evolution and the evolution of consumer products. Using the existing structure and terminology of biological evolution allows us to focus on the aspects of innovations that have led to success and those that have led to failure. This paper uses the case study of the wristwatch and its development over 100 years. The analysis of this leads to recommendations for contemporary “smartwatches.”

Climbing the design ladder: Step by step

This research presents findings of a research project where the first author worked with a small to medium sized enterprise (SME) manufacturing company in order to integrate design at a strategic level within the company. This study aims to identify the changes experienced in the participating company while shifting the perspective of design from a product focus towards a strategic focus. Staff interviews at two points in time and a reflective journal were used as data sources within an action research methodology. A shift in the perspective of design was noted in three cultural changes within the firm over time: a focus on long term as well as short term outcomes, on indirect as well as direct value and on intangible as well as tangible benefits. These three components are proposed as ‘cultural stepping stones’ that describe how a company transitions from an exclusively product- focused utilisation of design, to a process-level application of design. Implications of this research are provided as considerations for businesses that are attempting to facilitate a similar transformation in the future.

Design thinking using a collaborative model for skin cancer prevention

Physical activity is well recognised as a means to reduce cancer risk; however, outdoor activity can increase sun exposure and consequential skin cancer risk. It is proposed, one of the key potential solutions to promote active lifestyles whilst enhancing protection against skin cancer is design resolution for active apparel that considers Australia’s sub-tropical climate whilst maintaining comfort, aesthetic appeal and performance. Using a design thinking approach, facilitated through collaboration between an NGO and a university, student designers were tasked with developing apparel prototypes to explore this challenge. Through practical ideation of problems, potential design solutions were developed within a modest NGO budget and adherence to specific brand guidelines. This project is novel as it demonstrates a low cost yet effective way of collaboratively creating a product to meet multiple needs, rather than reactively assessing already manufactured sun protection products for endorsement. It is a nimble and unique stepping stone in integrating sun safety considerations into clothing that is appealing to the population and creating cross-industry understandings of how design can better contribute to human health and wellbeing. Outcomes to be shared include empirical insights for updating sun safe clothing guidelines, issues around the aesthetic nature of sun safe apparel, and the role of design education for sun safety.