On the Distribution of Signal Phase in Body Area Networks

In this letter, we investigate the distribution of the phase component of the complex received signal observed in practical experiments using body area networks. Two phase distributions, the recently proposed kappa-mu and eta-mu probability densities, which together encompass the most widely used fading models, namely Semi-Gaussian, Rayleigh, Hoyt, Rice, and Nakagami-m, have been compared with measurement data. The kappa-mu distribution has been found to provide the best fit over a range of on-body links, while the user was mobile. The experiments were carried out in two dissimilar indoor environments at opposite ends of the multipath spectrum. It has also been found that the uniform phase distribution has not arisen in anyone of the experiments.

Taking pluralism seriously:Embedded moralities in management accounting and control systems

Professor Norman Macintosh has long been a leading, and at times a dissonant, voice in critical accounting studies, exhibiting an intellectual dexterity seldom encountered in the accounting academy. His work ranges from the application of traditional organizational theories within work organizations to poststructural renderings of capital market exigencies. Here, we consider and extend Professor Macintosh's work contemplating the morality embedded within, and propagated by, management accounting and control systems (macs). We begin with Macintosh (1995) employing structuration theory in investigating the ethics of profit manipulation within large, decentralized corporations. The work highlights the fundamental dialectical contradictions within these work organizations, demonstrates the indeterminacy of traditional ethical reasoning, and shows the extent to which macs provide legitimating underpinnings for management action. We propose to extend the conversation using the tools provided in Macintosh's subsequent work: a Levinasian ethic (Macintosh et al., 2009), and heteroglossic accounting (Macintosh, 2002)—both emerging from his poststructuralist predilections. A Levinasian perspective provides an ontologically grounded ethic, and heteroglossic accounting calls for multiple accountings representing alternative moral voices. A critical dialogic framework is proposed as a theoretic for imagining heteroglossic accounting that takes pluralism seriously by recognizing the reality of irresolvable differences and asymmetric power relationships associated with assorted moral perspectives.

Values based supply chain management and emergent organizational structure

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an emergent supply chain management system that supports a sustainable values based organization (VBO) using a structuration theory-based framework.

Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a sustainable beef cooperative employing a structuration theory framework provides insights into sustainable supply chain management models.

Findings – The supply chain design and management afford the key to the VBO’s success. In order to attain the necessary price premium, the unique product attributes acquired through the natural beef production process must be sustained along the entire supply chain and communicated to the end customer. Structuration theory is useful in understanding supply chain management in VBOs.
Research limitations/implications – The paper has implications for studying VBOs, particularly those prioritizing sustainability values. The descriptive model presented is useful in settings where organizational structure and the supply chain are needed to support sustainable products and processes and whose success is facilitated by establishing strategic partners, especially those that make possible economies of scale. The study is limited to one, privately owned firm, operating in a specialty industry sector.

Practical implications – The paper has implications for those entities with an identified values set that endows the product with unique characteristics that must be conveyed to their end consumer in order to command a price premium and/or differentiate the product from a commodity. The case study provides an example of how a unique product as well as a facilitating organizational structure and supply chain emerge out of the application of a set of core values.

Originality/value – Little previous research focuses on implications of supply chain management in VBOs. In addition, the paper contributes to both the supply chain management and sustainability literature by relating supply chain management to a more comprehensive sustainability agenda including social, environmental, and long-term economic sustainability and by a theoretically based structuring.

Keywords Sustainable development, Supply chain management, Food industry, Organizational culture, Animal husbandry

Veblen's Placebo: A historical perspective on administrative evil

Thorstein Veblen was a turn of the 20th century American economist concerned with the implications of financial capitalists directing the means of production. Veblen proposed that the rationality of "material science" as practiced by the "production engineers" is fundamentally different from the rationality of market capitalism. If this claim is valid, our previous contentions regarding accounting, as a facilitating technology, for administrative evil warrant reconsideration. Veblen's position provides a historical perspective on one dimension of administrative evil that is generally unquestionably accepted, especially within accounting. That is, technology, such as accounting and the related information systems, is amoral, and it is only through ideologically instigated applications that any moral value accrues. We discuss administrative evil and the role of instrumental rationality generally, and accounting specifically, in creating it. Veblen's characterization of financial capitalism and production engineers and his arguments for the primacy of economic efficiency versus "pecuniary gain" provide a basis for evaluating the legitimating action. We consider how Veblen's work relates to notions of instrumental rationality and then undertake a critical assessment of the ideas. Some of Veblen's ideas, while utopian, might be seen as an elixir for the detrimental influences of financial capital; however, at best, they provide a placebo for the ills of administrative evil and, as such, do not provide an amoral basis for legitimating the associated accounting systems.

Green Owl and the Corn Maiden

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to engage a different notion of feminism in accounting by addressing the issues of feminism, balance, and integration as a means of understanding differently the world for which one accounts. The ideas are communicated by the sharing of experiences through myth and storytelling.

Design/methodology/approach: An alternative lens for understanding the giving of accounts is proposed, drawing on earlier feminist accounting literature as well as storytelling and myth.

Findings: Including the subjective and intersubjective approaches to experiencing and understanding the world recommends an approach whereby both the feminine-intuitive and the masculine-rational processes are integrated in constructing decision models and accounts.

Research limitations/implications: Through an expanded view of values that can be included in reporting or recounting a different model is seen, and different decisions are enabled. The primary limitation is having to use words to convey one’s subjective and intersubjective understandings. The written medium is not the most natural language for such an undertaking.

Practical implications: By enabling the inclusion of more feminine values, a way is opened to engage more holistically with the society in which decisions are embedded.

Originality/value: Drawing on the storytelling tradition, a holistic model is suggested that can lead to emergence of a more balanced societal reporting.

Keywords: Feminism, Integration, Accounting, Storytelling, Myths

Paper type: Research paper

Re-Stor(y)ing social change

New understandings arise as we encounter the emergent integration of both rational and emotional, physical and spiritual, masculine and feminine through imagination, myth, and storytelling. This expanded space fosters an iterative spiraling process whereby new personal and collective futures emerge from transformative possibilities. Contemplating love and the situatedness of our being creates a space for seeing differently, more inclusively. Thought Woman tells a story of encounters arising from contemplation, framing an emancipatory path toward wholeness and unity, being shaped through becoming, recognizing the interrelated web of life wherein humankind can flourish. Flourishing represents the central focus of the critical accounting project.