Social and environmental accounting research : major contributions and future directions for developing countries

A review is provided of major contributions in social and environmental accounting literature focussing on the issues of developing countries. The review of prior research shows that the major contributions have been related to the motivations for social and environmental disclosure. However, other important research areas such ethical/accountability issues and how to cost externalities which have already been considered within the context of developed countries are yet to emerge within the
developing country context. Contemporary social and environmental issues such as climate change and greenhouse gas emissions affecting the global community also appear to be key issues of research to scholars in both developed and developing countries. Finally, some future research directions are identified.

Shifting constructs of global education : the role of travel in meeting new challenges for teachers

Globalisation is driving the impetus for change by teachers, and in classrooms, schools and education in countries across the world. This phenomenon has bought global education from the fringes to prominence in the curriculum. Although global education is a fixture in education discourse today, it has not always occupied such a position. This paper reviews global education from its early beginnings to the present in the United Kingdom, USA and Australia and reports on research that focuses on how teachers' travel experiences further their confidence to teach global education.
Approaches to global education have moved from primarily content approaches to include an emphasis on teachers as agents of implementation. With global education positioned centrally within schools and curriculum policy, teachers' knowledge and skills to implement global education are called into question. This paper reports on research that focuscs on how teachers' travel experiences further their confidence to
teach global education. The implications from this research suggest that teachers should emphasise their lived travel experience in global education.

Play and cultural transition

In many countries, early childhood educators have to confront the issue of how to assist immigrant children adapt to life in a new context. For example, in 2007-08, 44 771 children aged 0- 14 years old came to Australia with their familes to start life afresh (Australian Government 2009). Countries need to put into place policies and Practices that minimise the dislocation that immigrant families and their children face. Knowledge of what other countries are doing to educationally support immigrant children can assist professionals to better understand what is sound practice and what should be avoided. This chapter discusses some of the identified immigration issues of a small sample of Chinese children who have PMR parents/caregivers in Hong Kong. This chapter also examines how the
role of play in early childhood settings can help immigrant children adjust to their new teaching and learning context. Seven early childhood teachers and the principal of a local childcare centre were invited to participate in a small scalc study that is reported on in this chapter. Using convenience sampling, interviews were conducted for qualitative data collection.

Aligning anti-money laundering, combating of financing of terror and financial inclusion : Questions to consider when FATF standards are clarified

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify key questions that should be addressed to enable the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to provide guidance regarding the alignment of anti-money laundering, combating of financing of terror and financial inclusion objectives.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on relevant research and documents of the FATF to identify questions that are relevant to consider when it formulates guidance regarding the alignment between financial integrity and financial inclusion objectives.
Findings – The FATF advises that its risk-based approach enables countries and institutions to further financial inclusion. It is, however, not clear what the FATF means when its uses the terms “risk” and “low risk”. It is also unclear whether current proposals for financial inclusion regulatory models will necessarily limit money laundering (ML) aswell as terror financing risks to levels that can be described as “low”. The FATF will need to clarify its own thinking regarding low money laundering and low terror financing risk before it will be able to provide clear guidance to national regulators and financial institutions.
Originality/value – This paper was drafted to inform current FATF discussions regarding guidance on financial inclusion. The questions are relevant to all stakeholders in financial regulation.

Are shocks to national income persistent? New global evidence

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the integrational properties of real GDP for 125 countries
.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the Kwiatkowski et al. univariate test and a KPSS-type univariate test that accounts for multiple structural breaks – a test procedure proposed by Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. The panel versions of the KPSS-type test, proposed by Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. with and without structural breaks, are also applied.

Findings – The paper finds that, while univariate tests with and without structural breaks provide mixed results on persistence, the panel test suggests that shocks to national output are persistent.

Originality/value – This is a multi-country study that focuses on both developed and developing countries and uses more recent data to provide new and comparable evidence on the persistence of output.

Learning to engage with human rights in heritage

Cultural heritage should not be seen merely as a technical matter or from a narrow visitor management point of view but rather as cultural practice—a form of cultural politics dominated by ruling regimes and social groups in which decisions are made about the future of and access to scarce resources. Several scholars have sought to push this approach further by arguing that heritage studies should take on the protection of human rights as a core consideration in the processes of identifying, inscribing, conserving and interpreting cultural heritage. This paper builds on these previous works to explore what the shift to a rights-based management approach in the World Heritage system might mean for various stakeholders in the heritage protection enterprise as they learn to meet this challenge and to find ways to support people’s right to access, enjoy and maintain cultural heritage. Reaffirming the need to maintain a strong relationship between theory and praxis, the paper draws into the discussion heritage practitioners, decision makers in governments and government agencies, scholars and educators. Of these, the principal emphasis in this paper is on educators who are seen to have a fundamentally important role in developing a critical understanding of the cultural heritage concept, how heritage is created, used and misused and how conservation approaches and programs sit within the broader context of community attitudes and aspirations and governmental responsibilities. A distinction is made between teachers in universities and trainers offering short courses more focused on specific employer needs. The paper focuses on World Heritage but refers to both tangible and intangible aspects. It shows how current moves to establish a rights-based approach to the management of World Heritage sites connects with moves elsewhere in global governance, most notably in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Forgotten histories: ephemeral culture for children and the digital archive

The history of children’s popular culture in Australia is still to be written. This article examines Australian print publication for children from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, together with radio and children’s television programming from the 1950s to the 1970s. It presents new scholarship on the history of children’s magazines and newspapers, sourced from digital archives such as Trove, and documents new sources for early works by Australian children’s writers. The discussion covers early television production for children, mobilising digital resources that have hitherto not informed scholarship in the field.

Using birthing kits to promote clean birth practices in Ethiopia

This article explores three NGO projects that assemble and distribute clean birthing kits in Ethiopia. It contrasts the government's health strategy that aims to increase skilled birth attendance, with local realities as most women in rural and remote settings give birth at home, often in unhygienic conditions, and without skilled assistance. Many health facilities are also unable to provide hygienic conditions for birthing women. The findings indicate that clean birth kits have assisted the NGOs to effectively promote clean delivery at home or in health facilities, and to encourage antenatal care, and early referral to emergency obstetric and new-born care.

Early adoption of mobile devices : a social network perspective

As mobile devices have become the personal information-processing interface of choice, many individuals seem to swiftly follow fashion. Yet, the literature is silent on how early adopters of mobile devices overcome uncertainties related to shifts in technology. Based on purposive sampling, this paper presents detailed insights into why and how five closely related individuals made the decision to adopt the iPhone before it was available through traditional supply chains. Focusing on the role played by social networks, we analyze how adoption threshold, opinion leaders, social contagion, and social learning shaped adoption behaviors and outcomes. The analyses confirm that network structures impact the early decision to accept the iPhone; they show that when facing uncertainty, adoption decisions emerged as a combined result of individual adoption reflections and major influences from the social network as well as behaviors observed within the network, and, they reveal interesting behaviors that differed from expectations. In conclusion, we discuss implications for both theory and practice.

Early adoption of mobile devices : a social network perspective

As mobile devices have become the personal information-processing interface of choice, many individuals seem to swiftly follow fashion. Yet, the literature is silent on how early adopters of mobile devices overcome uncertainties related to shifts in technology. Based on purposive sampling, this paper presents detailed insights into why and how five closely related individuals made the decision to adopt the iPhone before it was available through traditional supply chains. Focusing on the role played by social networks, we analyze how adoption threshold, opinion leaders, social contagion, and social learning shaped adoption behaviors and outcomes. The analyses confirm that network structures impacted the early decision to accept the iPhone; they show that when facing uncertainty, adoption decisions emerged as a combined result of individual adoption reflections and major influences from the social network as well as behaviors observed within the network; and, they reveal interesting behaviors that differed from expectations. In conclusion, we discuss implications for both theory and practice.

International ‘benchmarking’ studies and the identification of ‘education best practice’: a focus on classroom teachers and their practices

 Abstract:The disproportionate focus on classroom teachers and their instruction—teacher effectiveness—in order to confront and address under-achievement and disadvantage appears as a contemporary education policy theme in Australia. Phrases such as ‘high performing schooling systems’, ‘the best teachers’, ‘high performing countries’, ‘quality teaching’, ‘under-performing schools’, ‘the right change’, ‘operationally feasible’, ‘targeting of reforms’, ‘degrees of under-performance’, ‘educational drivers’, ‘teacher quality and improved teaching’ and ‘external standards and governance’ are constantly mentioned and given continual attention and prominence by policy-makers. The paper questions and critiques a policy-making direction that uses teacher effectiveness research to force and steer reform in education. The distinctive and narrow concern with teacher effectiveness works to the specific exclusion of breadth and scope concerning debate about broader education related issues and questions, for example, matters of student achievement, exclusion and disadvantage. This article uses a qualitative research approach informed by critical theory to examine three influential private sector reports on education and schooling: The McKinsey Report ( 2007 )—How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top, The Nous Group ( 2011 )—Schooling Challenges and Opportunities and The Grattan Institute ( 2012 )—Catching up: Learning from the best school systems in East Asia. The article subjects the reports to close critical scrutiny and examination and finds that classroom teachers are positioned so that their specific and explicit instruction becomes the differentiating ‘variable’ in matters of student achievement and success.

Late maturers at a performance disadvantage to their more mature peers in junior Australian football

Children and adolescents mature at different rates such that individuals competing in the same competition may differ in physical and biological maturity despite being of similar chronological age. Whether or not differences translate into on-field performance in competition is relatively unknown. This study investigated the influence of biological maturity on fitness and match running performance in junior Australian football. Eighty-seven under-15 years players were categorised into early (n = 20), average (n = 45) and late (n = 22) maturity groups based on self-reported and anthropometric assessment of biological maturity. Running movements during competition were collected using GPS (5 Hz) technology. Early maturers were heavier and taller than all other boys (P < 0.05), while biological maturity was significantly correlated to 20 m sprint (r = 0.53, P < 0.01). Total distance, high-intensity (>14.4 km · h−1) running distance and number of high-intensity efforts were significantly greater (20.8%, 53.6%, 31.7%, respectively; P < 0.01) in early compared to late maturers. Number of sprints and peak speed in competition were not different. Pubertal development and maturity status partially explained the differences between players in physical size, functional running fitness and match running performance. Late maturing players in this Australian football under-15 age group were at a physical and performance disadvantage to their earlier maturing peers.

Early-developmental stress, repeatability, and canalization in a suite of physiological and behavioral traits in female zebra finches

Adaptive developmental plasticity allows individuals experiencing poor environmental conditions in early life to adjust their life-history strategy in order to prioritize short-term fitness benefits and maximize reproductive output in challenging environments. Much research has been conducted to test whether such adoption of a "faster" life-history strategy is accompanied by concordant changes in behavior and physiology, with mixed results. As research in this field has focused on comparison of mean-level responses of treatment groups, few studies include repeated measures of response variables and the effect that developmental stress may have on repeatability per se. We investigated how early-developmental stress affects the mean expression of (and repeatability in) a variety of behavioral and physiological traits in female zebra finches. We predicted that: (1) individuals subjected to nutritional restriction in the nestling phase would have higher feeding and activity rates, with associated increases in hematocrit and basal metabolic rates (BMRs), (2) nutritional restriction in early life would alter adults' stress-induced corticosterone level, and (3) developmental stress would, respectively, influence the amount of among-individual and within-individual variation in behavioral and physiological traits, hence affecting the repeatability of these traits. In comparison to control females, stressed females did not differ in activity rate or stress-induced corticosterone level, but they did have higher levels of feeding, hematocrit, and BMR. Among-individual variance and repeatability were generally higher in stressed females than in controls. Finally, we found that developmental dietary restriction significantly reduced the amount of within-individual variance both in activity rate in the novel environment and in stress-induced corticosterone level. Our results not only confirm previous findings on the effect of early-developmental stress on BMR, but also extend its effect to feeding rate and hematocrit, suggesting that developmental plasticity in these traits is ontogenetically linked. Early-developmental stress may disable particular genetic canalizing processes, which would release cryptic genetic variation and explain why repeatability and among-individual variance were generally higher in the stressed groups than in controls. For activity rate in the novel environment and with stress-induced corticosterone level, however, early-developmental stress significantly reduced within-individual variance, which may be a consequence of increased canalization of these traits at the micro-environmental level.

An empirical study of the antecedents and consequences of brand engagement

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a model of brand engagement. More specifically, the aim is to evaluate both antecedents and consequences of brand engagement, from a management perspective. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative survey of 403 firms is undertaken to test the model. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to estimate the parameters of the model. Findings – A reliable and valid measure of brand engagement is established. The SEM model works well, in terms of goodness of fit indices. The results demonstrate that there are major brand performance benefits (consequences) of brand engagement. Additionally, and important for the practical implications, the results show that brand orientation is a major antecedent to brand engagement. Research limitations/implications – The study needs to be replicated in other countries, with scope to add other explanatory variables for influencing brand engagement. The results have considerable practical benefits for guiding the introduction of measures to enhance brand engagement. Originality/value – The study builds on earlier (mainly consumer) conceptual approaches to brand engagement, but goes further in that it provides empirical evidence about the nature, antecedents and consequences of brand engagement and further, offers a management rather than consumer perspective. Essentially, the study reveals a new perspective of factors that encourage firms to connect/engage their brands with consumers. Brand engagement is a dual concept, reflecting both a consumer and a firm perspective.

Associations between early adrenarche, affective brain function and mental health in children

Early timing of adrenarche, associated with relatively high levels of Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in children, has been associated with mental health and behavioral problems. However, little is known about effects of adreneracheal timing on brain function. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of early adrenarche (defined by high DHEA levels independent of age) on affective brain function and symptoms of psychopathology in late childhood (N = 83, 43 females, M age 9.53 years, s.d. 0.34 years). Results showed that higher DHEA levels were associated with decreased affect-related brain activity (i) in the mid-cingulate cortex in the whole sample, and (ii) in a number of cortical and subcortical regions in female but not male children. Higher DHEA levels were also associated with increased externalizing symptoms in females, an association that was partly mediated by posterior insula activation to happy facial expressions. These results suggest that timing of adrenarche is an important moderator of affect-related brain function, and that this may be one mechanism linking early adrenarche to psychopathology.