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After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Understand what is meant by relocation cost.

• Explain the management and disbursement of relocating costs.

• Critically evaluate the calculation of relocation costs.

• Reflect on the role of human resource managers in relation to the future of the costs of relocation.

Understand what is meant by relocation cost.

Explain the management and disbursement of relocating costs.

Critically evaluate the calculation of relocation costs.

Reflect on the role of human resource managers in relation to the future of the costs of relocation.

This paper reports on a study of the efficacy of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand's (the Institute) Professional Accounting School (PAS) programme in developing a set of competencies in candidates. The study surveyed Institute candidates' perceptions of their competence levels for 16 specified skills at the commencement and conclusion of the 1999 PAS programme. The findings indicate that candidates perceived their levels of competence, for both cognitive and behavioural skills, to have been significantly improved by the PAS programme. Tests of two secondary hypotheses in the study indicate certain gender‐ and firm‐based differences in the perceived level of competence of candidates. The results of the study provide the Institute with feedback on the PAS programme and facilitate the further development of the programme. Other professional accounting bodies may consider replicating this study using data collected on similar programmes. The results of such studies may then be compared to enhance the existing knowledge of competency development in professional accounting education.

A pronounced rise in postpandemic immigration is creating consumption opportunities and challenges for countries worldwide. Past research has shown that immigrant homeownership indicates advanced consumer acculturation. However, critical factors which differentiate immigrant decisions to purchase a home remain underexplored. This study aims to examine the importance of different identity resources in determining homeownership gaps between immigrant groups in Spain during a dynamic decade.

A mixed methods research design with triangulation was used. First, the critical “historical research method” is used to empirically assess 15,465 household-level microdata files from the National Immigrant Survey of Spain. Second, the analysis is corroborated through informant interviews, an evaluation of digital news archives and other historical traces such as relevant advertisements in Spain from 2000 to 2009.

Results provided an account of immigrant homeownership whereby foreign-born consumers leveraged resources to promote social identities aligned with an advanced level of acculturation through housing investment during this period. Furthermore, marketing focused on specific targets of ethnic minority consumers coupled with government policies to promote immigrant homeownership reinforced the “Spanish Dream” as a new paradigm for housing market integration.

Spain provides an unprecedented historical context to explain marketing-related phenomena due to a perfect storm of immigration, job availability and integration supports. Contrary to popular wisdom, immigrant consumer homeownership gaps are not solely a result of differences in income and economic mobility, but rather an advanced acculturation outcome driven by personal and social investments in resources that lead to consumer identities.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the use of social media platforms in teaching/learning in the period of lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

The study adopted a survey method and an online questionnaire was designed using SurveyMonkey for data collection from students in the Department of Library and Information Science (LIS) in some universities in Nigeria. In total, 1,290 students and five lecturers participated in the survey from five universities in Nigeria. To supplement the data from the questionnaire, the five LIS lecturers were engaged in an interview.

The study found that Zoom and WhatsApp were used by the lecturers to deliver lectures to their students. Lecturers are always available, the opportunity to store lectures and files for re-use at convenience, allows for collaborative learning, sharing learning materials, freedom in asking lecturer questions and conducive learning at home were mentioned as some of the benefits of receiving an online lecture. Some challenges associated with electronic teaching and learning were also identified. The LIS lecturers interviewed mentioned some benefits and challenges of engaging in electronic teaching during the period of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

The research offered educators an additional method for teaching and learning in situations where physical contacts are not possible. Because electronic learning platforms are free and can be used at liberty, they require self-discipline and more responsibility from students and lecturers, which might be a challenge. It requires lecturers to generate new skills, be cognitively sensitive and well-sequenced.

Teacher/students relationship can be improved significantly with the use of social media platforms for teaching and learning.

The study reported the use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Zoom in the teaching/learning process in the university system in a developing country context.

Socially responsible procurement is increasingly attracting public attention, but little is known about the use of social requirements in public procurement process in developing countries. This study explores the use of social criteria in public procurement in Nigeria. Data was collected from two websites being used for advertising public sector contract opportunities in Nigeria and by means of a questionnaire. Results show that public procurement is mostly used to promote a range of government policies and programmes. Based on the findings from this study, it cannot be concluded that a milestone has been reached in the use of public procurement to drive social benefits in Nigeria. The extent to which the findings of this study could be generalised is limited, because the findings are based on analysis of tender documents and a smallsized convenience sample of public procurement experts. A larger sample size may lead to improved accuracy or dissimilar results. Nevertheless, the research offers some baseline data against which future studies on social procurement can be conducted and evaluated.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the current nature and content of biodiversity reporting practices adopted by English local councils. By adopting a multi-theoretical framework that relies on economic and social theories such as agency, stakeholder, legitimacy and institutional theories, this study also aims to investigate the factors that explain the extent of biodiversity disclosure provided by local councils.

This study uses a self-constructed disclosure index to analyse the biodiversity-related information published in the official websites of 351 English local councils. A multivariate analysis was conducted to analyse the association between local councils’ characteristics and biodiversity disclosure.

This study shows that the information disclosed on local biodiversity is limited and does not allow the interested stakeholders to get a comprehensive picture of the current status of local biodiversity. It also provides evidence that the level of biodiversity disclosure is significantly associated with the level of local council’s population, the presence of councillors from environmentally oriented parties and environmental non-governmental organisations operating in the local council area, poor biodiversity management practices and local councils’ visibility.

This study is one of the few accounting studies that provides a comprehensive analysis of biodiversity disclosure by analysing its nature and content and investigating the factors associated with such disclosure. It extends agency, stakeholder, institutional and legitimacy theories, by showing that local councils use voluntary disclosures to satisfy the informational needs of the main stakeholders and to assure that their strategies and practices conform to the values and expectations of the community they represent.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how the internet interacts with businesses and markets. The authors aims to focus on the internet press releases of annual results to illustrate how corporate communication is used and managed strategically online.

The authors describe the increasing importance of the internet for communicating firms' performance to investors, financial media and the stock market, then identify and discuss a number of techniques that might be used to potentially manipulate the online presentation of financial results. Thus the authors conducted a content analysis of the internet press releases in two consecutive years (2008 and 2009) by a wide range of companies listed in the IBEX 35 share index.

This paper provides in‐depth insights into content analysis techniques by providing examples of how potentially misleading disclosure practices are included in press releases. Moreover the paper investigates the use of seven potentially misleading disclosure practices appearing in press releases that optimise the way in which company results are presented.

Regulators may consider the normalisation of the content of internet press releases to avoid or reduce opportunistic disclosure practices. Moreover, investors should be aware of the use of these practices to reduce the misleading effect when processing corporate information.

This pioneering study analyses and provides evidence of potentially misleading internet‐based disclosure strategies. Furthermore the paper proposes a set of measures for corporate information presentation.