Accounting for gaming in the time of plague: COVID-19 in Macau

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Noronha ◽  
Jieqi Guan ◽  
Sandy Hou In Sio
Keyword(s):  
Critical Event ◽  
Gaming Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Account ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose While the COVID-19 virus has been spreading worldwide, some studies have related the pandemic with various aspects of accounting and therefore emphasized the importance of accounting research in understanding the impact of COVID-19 on society as a whole. Recent studies have looked into such an impact on various industries such as retail and agriculture. The current study aims at applying a sociological framework, sociology of worth (SOW), to the gaming industry in Macau, the largest operator of state-allowed gambling and entertainment in China, which will allow for its development during the COVID-19 pandemic to be charted. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the theory of SOW as a framework and collects data from various sources, such as the government, gaming operators and the public, to create timelines and SOW frameworks to analyze the impact of the virus on the gaming industry and the society as a whole. Findings Detailed content analysis and the creation of different SOW matrices determined that the notion of a “lonely economy” during a time of a critical event may be ameliorated in the long term through compromises of the different worlds and actors of the SOW. Practical implications Though largely theory-based, this study offers a thorough account of the COVID-19 incident for both the government and the gaming industry to reflect on and to consider new ways to fight against degrowth caused by disasters or crises. Social implications The SOW framework divides society into different worlds of different worths. The current study shows how the worths of the different worlds are congruent during normal periods, and how cracks appear between them when a sudden crisis, such as COVID-19, occurs. The article serves as a social account of how these cracks are formed and how could they be resolved through compromise and reconstruction. Originality/value This study is a first attempt to apply SOW to a controversial industry (gaming) while the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are ongoing. It offers a significant contribution to the social accounting literature through its consideration of the combination of unprecedented factors in a well-timed study that pays close attention to analyses and theoretical elaboration.

Public budgetary roles in Iran: perceptions and consequences

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Jalali Aliabadi ◽  
Graham Gal ◽  
Bita Mashyekhi
Keyword(s):  
Transition Process ◽  
Budget Process ◽  
Public Budgeting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Budgeting Process

Purpose This study aims to examine the public budgeting process in the higher education and research sectors of Iran. It focuses on the actors’ budgetary roles and uses their perspectives to identify deficiencies in the budgeting process that cause delays in the transition to a performance-based system. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an interpretive research paradigm. It applies the grounded theory methodology to analyze the interviews conducted with those responsible for budgeting at Iranian public universities and research institutes (PURI). The results are interpreted using Wildavsky’s (1964) budgetary roles paradigm. Findings Using Wildavsky’s (1964) paradigm, “spenders” and “guardians” are identified and their perceptions about the public budgeting process are described. The results suggest a decoupling between the actors’ perceptions based on their budgetary roles. Spenders consider budgeting as a negotiation-based process, while guardians’ decisions are largely based on “outputs” and “information.” This study demonstrates that the disagreement over the perceived budget process was due to different budgetary roles. This disagreement leads to delays in the transformation of the budget process in Iranian PURI. Research limitations/implications While efforts are made to obtain a sample of individuals with different roles and responsibilities, the selection is limited by subjects’ willingness and availability. Therefore, sample size and diversity are potential limitations of this study. Practical implications When organizations attempt to transition to performance-based budgeting (PBB), it is critical to understand the current budgeting process to identify potential impediments. Understanding these impediments allows for alternate approaches to be considered. This is particularly important for universities that are mostly funded by the government (such as those in Iran). The results of this study show that the contradictory perceptions among budget actors have a significant impact on budgeting transition and require attention to understand budgeting decisions. Originality/value This study contributes to the budgeting literature in three ways. First, it examines the impact of endogenized shared values among budget participants on the budgeting transition process. Second, by focusing on budgetary roles, it contributes to the literature by examining disagreement on the perceived budgeting process and its implications for transforming the process into PBB. Finally, to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the public budgeting process in a developing country – Iran.

A failed success: the Barlinnie Special Unit

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wilson ◽  
Michael Brookes
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Therapeutic Communities ◽  
Philosophical Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Special Unit ◽  
Offending Behaviour ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to explore the reasons for and the subsequent longer-term impact of the closure of the Barlinnie Special Unit (BSU). Design/methodology/approach The paper is both descriptive, providing an overview of the work of the BSU, and conceptual in that it argues that the limits of “prisoner rehabilitation” are observed in the closure of the BSU, which sounds a warning for other penal therapeutic communities and what it means to operate effectively. Findings The BSU which assisted long-term, difficult and violent prisoners moderate their prison behaviour and then to live non-offending lives, lost the confidence of government ministers and officials, as well as senior prison managers and, seemingly, the public, so closed after being in operation for 21 years. The impact of this has been that the Scottish Prison Service has not introduced, or attempted to introduce, a similar regime for managing and treating violent and disruptive prisoners. Practical implications There are important lessons to be learned from the BSU experience for all who manage and work in specialist, prison therapeutic units or within prison therapeutic regimes. This includes balancing the therapeutic elements of the regime, which may involve engaging in practices which are outside the norm for custodial establishments, with those establishments’ security and operational requirements, so as to not to create a disconnect between addressing offending behaviour and maintaining expected standards of wider prison conduct. Originality/value While there have been previous evaluations of the BSU, the longer-term impact has neither been previously considered and nor has the unit’s closure been considered from a penal philosophical perspective.

The 2016 Police and Crime Commissioner elections

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Public Awareness ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the 2016 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and to compare them with those that took place in 2012. It seeks to evaluate the background of the candidates who stood for office in 2016, the policies that they put forward, the results of the contests and the implications of the 2016 experience for future PCC elections. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based around several key themes – the profile of candidates who stood for election, preparations conducted prior to the contests taking place, the election campaign and issues raised during the contests, the results and the profile of elected candidates. The paper is based upon documentary research, making particular use of primary source material. Findings The research establishes that affiliation to a political party became the main route for successful candidates in 2016 and that local issues related to low-level criminality will dominate the future policing agenda. It establishes that although turnout was higher than in 2012, it remains low and that further consideration needs to be devoted to initiatives to address this for future PCC election contests. Research limitations/implications The research focusses on the 2016 elections and identifies a number of key issues that emerged during the campaign affecting the conduct of the contests which have a bearing on future PCC elections. It treats these elections as a bespoke topic and does not seek to place them within the broader context of the development of the office of PCC. Practical implications The research suggests that in order to boost voter participation in future PCC election contests, PCCs need to consider further means to advertise the importance of the role they perform and that the government should play a larger financial role in funding publicity for these elections and consider changing the method of election. Social implications The rationale for introducing PCCs was to empower the public in each police force area. However, issues that include the enhanced importance of political affiliation as a criteria for election in 2016 and the social unrepresentative nature of those who stood for election and those who secured election to this office in these contests coupled with shortcomings related to public awareness of both the role of PCCs and the timing of election contests threaten to undermine this objective. Originality/value The extensive use of primary source material ensures that the subject matter is original and its interpretation is informed by an academic perspective.

scholarly journals The allure of celebrities: unpacking their polysemic consumer appeal

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 2025-2053
Author(s):  
Markus Wohlfeil ◽  
Anthony Patterson ◽  
Stephen J. Gould
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Total Period ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Link ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to explain a celebrity’s deep resonance with consumers by unpacking the individual constituents of a celebrity’s polysemic appeal. While celebrities are traditionally theorised as unidimensional semiotic receptacles of cultural meaning, the authors conceptualise them here instead as human beings/performers with a multi-constitutional, polysemic consumer appeal. Design/methodology/approach Supporting evidence is drawn from autoethnographic data collected over a total period of 25 months and structured through a hermeneutic analysis. Findings In rehumanising the celebrity, the study finds that each celebrity offers the individual consumer a unique and very personal parasocial appeal as the performer, the private person behind the public performer, the tangible manifestation of either through products and the social link to other consumers. The stronger these constituents, individually or symbiotically, appeal to the consumer’s personal desires, the more s/he feels emotionally attached to this particular celebrity. Research limitations/implications Although using autoethnography means that the breadth of collected data is limited, the depth of insight this approach garners sufficiently unpacks the polysemic appeal of celebrities to consumers. Practical implications The findings encourage talent agents, publicists and marketing managers to reconsider underlying assumptions in their talent management and/or celebrity endorsement practices. Originality/value While prior research on celebrity appeal has tended to enshrine celebrities in a “dehumanised” structuralist semiosis, which erases the very idea of individualised consumer meanings, this paper reveals the multi-constitutional polysemy of any particular celebrity’s personal appeal as a performer and human being to any particular consumer.

Saudi subsidy reforms unlikely to spark major protests

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Oil ◽  
Basic Part ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Crown Prince ◽  
Economic Outlook

Subject Political impact of subsidy reform. Significance Saudi Arabia introduced its first major cut to energy subsidies in January, leading to a rise in petrol, diesel, fuel oil, natural gas and electricity prices. Further cuts will be necessary to avert a fiscal crisis -- but with cheap energy seen as a basic part of the social contract between the government and the population, such measures are expected to have wide-reaching political repercussions. Impacts A decision to reverse subsidy cuts in the face of protest would undercut government credibility and reduce the prospect of further reforms. Yet persisting with subsidy reforms could damage government legitimacy and political capital among the youth and lower classes. Successful reforms will improve the long-term economic outlook, and the succession prospects of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

How to strengthen the social media interactivity of e-government

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
xiaoling Hao ◽  
Daqing Zheng ◽  
Qingfeng Zeng ◽  
Weiguo Fan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Popular Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how to use social media in e-government to strengthen interactivity between government and the general public. Design/methodology/approach – Categorizing the determinants to interactivity covering depth and breadth into two aspects that are the structural features and the content features, this study employs general linear model and ANOVA method to analyse 14,910 posts belonged to the top list of the 96 most popular government accounts of Sina, one of the largest social media platforms in China. Findings – The main findings of the research are that both variables of the ratio of multimedia elements, and the ratio of external links have positive effects on the breadth of interactivity, while the ratio of multimedia features, and the ratio of originality have significant effects on the depth of interactivity. Originality/value – The contributions are as follows. First, the authors analyse the properties and the topics of government posts to draw a rich picture of how local governments use the micro-blog as a communications channel to interact with the public. Second, the authors conceptualize the government online interactivity in terms of the breadth and depth. Third, the authors identify factors that will enhance the interactivity from two aspects: structural features and content features. Lastly, the authors offer suggestions to local governments on how to strengthen the e-government interactivity in social media.

scholarly journals Human resource management: the promise, the performance, the consequences

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Brewster ◽  
Paul N. Gooderham ◽  
Wolfgang Mayrhofer
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Cross National

Purpose – The dominant focus of HRM research has been that of “strategic HRM”, that is a focus on the impact of HRM on firm performance. The authors argue that not only are the cumulative results of this “dominant research orthodoxy” disappointing in terms of their external validity, but also they are of limited practical value. Further, it has failed not only in terms of its narrow firm performance-oriented agenda, but also the tenets of its agenda have contributed to serious levels of employee dissatisfaction and to the failure to deal with pressing global issues. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – In order to assess the contribution of the dominant research orthodoxy the authors analyse the 16 most cited journal articles in the field of HRM. Findings – The authors find a predominance of US-centric studies and therefore a questionable cross-national generalizability of the dominant research orthodoxy. The use of cross-sectional data means that long-term effects cannot be gauged. The authors observe a lack of consensus on how to operationalize HRM and firm performance. National context is generally absent. Practical implications – The authors show that for HRM to realize its potential for governments, media, or philanthropic agencies, HRM must abandon its restricted scope and mono-dimensional sources of inspiration. Originality/value – The authors not only point to the shortcomings of the dominant research orthodoxy within HRM, but the authors point to how HRM could become significantly more “centre-staged” by addressing the actors searching for contributions to the big questions of the world – the governments, media, and philanthropic agencies.

Processes of vulnerability in England? Place, poverty and susceptibility

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 586-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Lewis ◽  
Sarah A.V. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Disaster Impacts ◽  
Food Nutrition ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to emphasise how vulnerability is not only “place-based” and to explore by example how vulnerability to hazards in England may comprise additional economic, social and psychological contributors to poverty. The mutuality of poverty and vulnerability is demonstrated, as are examples of susceptibility of the vulnerable to stigmatic disregard and cruelty. Design/methodology/approach – “Place-based” vulnerability is exemplified by coastal vulnerabilities and causes of their increase. Poverty and its causes are explained, followed by examples of possible contributors, indicators and consequences in incomes, living costs and debt; housing welfare and homelessness; food, nutrition, health and mental ill-health. Susceptibility to stigmatic behaviours exacerbate personal vulnerabilities. Findings – Dynamics of mutual inter-relationships between poverty and vulnerability are demonstrated. Behavioural responses to either condition by individuals and by society at large, to which those who are vulnerable or in poverty are susceptible, are described in the present and from history. Research limitations/implications – Findings form a “theoretical reality” upon which some measures may follow. An additional need is identified for long-term social field research to follow adults’ and childrens’ experiences, and consequences of poverty in vulnerable situations. Practical implications – Vulnerability accrues irrevocably between disasters, the results of which may be exposed by disaster impacts. Social implications – Recognition of linkages between economic and social vulnerability and disasters is essential for subsequent action to reduce the impact of disasters upon society. Originality/value – Though vulnerability has been explored for many years, the dynamics of its contributing processes require further explanation before their wider comprehension is achieved.

The impact of knowledge and motivation management on creativity

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 732-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía Muñoz-Pascual ◽  
Jesús Galende
Keyword(s):  
Employee Behavior ◽  
Employee Creativity ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Joint Influence ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence that two variables related to human resources (HR) have on employee creativity – namely, knowledge management (KM) and motivation management (MM). Design/methodology/approach The linear regression analyses are based on a sample of 306 employees from 11 Spanish companies belonging to three innovative clusters. In addition, “creativity” is considered an antecedent of technological innovation. Findings KM and intrinsic MM are shown to inform creativity, whereas extrinsic MM has no such effect. Practical implications Although this study is based on cross-sectional data, the findings might induce researchers to investigate the effects of other HR variables, such as the types of relations between employees and their long-term impact on creativity. Management should encourage KM and intrinsic MM across employees, as the results indicate that tacit KM, explicit KM and intrinsic MM encourage a positive attitude toward creativity among employees. Originality/value The main contribution is new empirical evidence on the joint influence of aptitudes (KM) and attitudes (MM) on employee creativity. In addition, the study includes a key measure of employee creativity. The evidence reveals the types of KM and MM that encourage or inhibit creative employee behavior. The results show that once employees have reached a medium-high level of extrinsic MM, creativity will be affected solely by intrinsic MM.

The impact of religiosity on corporate loans and maturity structure: evidence from China

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fansheng Jia ◽  
Yilin Zhang ◽  
Kam C. Chan ◽  
Sujuan Xie
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Private Firm ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Maturity Structure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relation between religiosity and formal financing in the context of long- and short-term corporate loans. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses archival methodology to conduct a multiple regression analysis with the amount of long- and short-term corporate loans as the dependent variable and a measure of religiosity as the key explanatory variable. Findings This paper offers four findings. First, when a private firm locates in a high religiosity region, it is more likely to get more corporate loans and the amount of corporate loans is positively correlated with the extent of religiosity. Second, religiosity drives a private firm getting more (less) short-term (long-term) loans. Third, a private firm in a high religiosity region is able to incur lower interest cost associated with more short-term loans. Finally, the results are confined to Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity. Practical implications Overall, the findings are consistent with the notion that religiosity shapes the local culture so that individuals, some of them are borrowers and lenders, show the religious traits in the formal lending and borrowing relationship. Originality/value Overall, findings of this paper are consistent with the notion that religiosity shapes the local culture so that individuals, some of them being borrowers and lenders, show religious traits in the formal lending and borrowing relationship.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document