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The study examines the changes in audit market concentration, auditor choice and audit quality in Russia following International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption. Scholars have called for further examination of the effects of IFRS adoption on auditors, with an emphasis on the importance of analyzing emerging markets that are characterized by enforcement challenges and lack of proper infrastructure. It focuses on a unique feature of Russian companies – dual audits under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) and IFRS – and investigates changes in audit concentration and audit quality for the two audit markets.

The authors rely on the audited financial statements of Russian public companies and perform pre-/post-IFRS adoption estimation using a logit regression to ascertain whether public firms change auditors from local firms with limited IFRS expertise to those with global reputation, namely Big 4 audit firms. Further, they examine whether the change in audit market concentration post-2012 affects audit quality as proxied by companies' propensity to receive a modified audit opinion and discretionary accruals. Auditor attributes were hand-collected from audited financial statements and matched with financial variables from Datastream.

The IFRS audit market was dominated by the Big 4 audit firms prior to 2012, and there is strong evidence that audit market share (concentration) increases for IFRS reports but not for RAS reports. In addition, companies are more likely to choose a Big 4 audit firm for an RAS audit, conditional upon a Big 4 firm conducting the IFRS audit. The authors do not find evidence of decrease in the probability of audit firms issuing a modified audit opinion under either RAS or IFRS, indicating that, in the Russian setting, increased auditor concentration post-IFRS adoption does not lead to enhanced risk or decline in audit quality. Moreover, they find that discretionary accruals decline post-2012. Overall, the findings indicate that the concern of global regulators regarding audit market concentration is not justified.

The Russian reporting environment is unique and generally characterized by significant agency problems, and the study’s estimation sample is not large, compared to prior studies conducted predominantly in Western jurisdictions. Nevertheless, the authors shed light on the audit concentration phenomenon within emerging markets, for which empirical evidence is scarce. Future research could explore the impact of other capital market events and exogenous shocks, not limited to IFRS adoption, on the characteristics of Russia's audit market.

The IFRS reporting regime is commonly associated with enhanced reporting quality and improved information transparency among public companies. Yet, impairment of audit quality as a result of IFRS-driven increase in audit market share of Big 4 can potentially negate these capital market effects. This study shows that the concerns of global regulators are not valid and that audit quality does not change with increased share of Big 4 post-IFRS adoption.

Dual audits, whereby companies must prepare two sets of financial statements per the IFRS mandate, are not unique to Russia, and the evidence of IFRS reporting on the structural changes in the audit market and implications for audit quality under a dual regime is scarce. Accordingly, the study's findings are important and timely and are expected to aid regulators of countries that have announced or are contemplating the adoption of IFRS for public reporting purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanisms through which the use of enterprise systems (ESs) enhances buyer-supplier integration (BSI). More specifically, the authors explain a model where ES enhances BSI indirectly, mediated by inventory management capabilities (IMCs), as the way ES enhances BSI remains under-explored in the literature.

Application of the resource orchestration framework to explain how capabilities and mechanisms interplay to enhance BSI. Data were collected by means of a survey instrument. Data collection took place as part of a larger project, sponsored by the Spanish Government, to evaluate logistics competitiveness in Spain.

ES enhances BSI by serving as a coordinating mechanism that maintains capability configurations in a value-creating alignment. IMC plays a key, yet under-explored role as a mediating mechanism that supports ES-enabled BSI.

First, this research does not fully capture the multi-party nature of the supply chain context. Second, data collection was limited to companies that were more likely to have a systematic approach to logistics issues (i.e. large- and medium-sized companies) and companies based in Spain.

This paper enhances both scholarly and practitioner understanding of the mechanisms through which the implementation and use of ES contributes to BSI. In addition, this paper integrates literature from different fields (e.g. strategy, information systems, and operations) to gain a better understanding of how the implementation and use of ES affects BSI.

This study aims to understand the technical and operational challenges encountered by multilingual digital libraries and their strategies to solve problems in sustaining multilinguality services for digital libraries.

Using the multiple-case method, this study investigated two digital libraries that have sustained multilinguality for over a decade: the World Digital Library and the Digital Library of the Caribbean.

This study identified eight factors that contributed to the success of the two multilingual digital libraries and eight technical and operational challenges they have faced. A framework for digital libraries to sustain multilinguality is proposed. This framework illustrates the challenges and strategies to address the challenges in 11 aspects: creation, leadership, collaboration, content, metadata, translation, funding, technology, preservation, staffing and copyright.

This study focused on two multilingual digital libraries administered in the USA, though they do not fully represent multilingual digital libraries in the USA. Therefore, the findings from the study may not apply to multilingual digital libraries the USA or other countries. As on-site interviews of both digital libraries were conducted at the beginning of 2019, the timeframe of this study is up to that date.

With more users worldwide seeking information online, more digital libraries will be providing multilingual services. This study provides guidelines to digital library developers and archivists for building and sustaining their digital libraries or archives. The experience and lessons learned from these two digital libraries may also help to better understand challenges and use effective strategies in building and sustaining multilinguality.

The users and communities of digital libraries will be able to learn the benefits and challenges as related to building and sustaining digital library services. These services always need support to better serve their users and communities.

As the first multiple-case research that investigates in-depth challenges and approaches of digital libraries in sustaining multilinguality, this study presents a general picture of how the two digital libraries have succeeded in sustaining multilinguality. Theoretically, the study enriches the literature by providing a more comprehensive sustainability framework for multilinguality. This framework specifies possible aspects to consider for gaining sustainability of multilingual digital libraries and offers useful guidelines and insights for the digital library community to build multilingual services.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how hotel guests can be nudged for more active engagement in hospitality plate waste prevention and moderation at buffets, through designing effective persuasive interventions. Plate waste is a main sustainability challenge, and it is considered one of the major drivers of food waste in the hospitality sector, whose operations generate excessive amounts of waste. The hospitality industry, featured by all-you-can-eat buffet-style settings, is somehow encouraging consumers to increase the amount of food ordered or taken and not been eaten.

This study reports a field experiment conducted in a real hotel setting, where persuasive interventions were targeted to consumers at the croissants buffet, when guests were making their selections. The research tests the persuasiveness of functional and experiential appeal messages to nudge hotel guests towards a more active engagement in avoiding plate waste. Each single treatment was carried out for three weeks in varying sequence.

The findings are based on 63 rounds of data collections and show the superiority of experiential appeal messages in positively influencing guests’ behaviour. This implies that appropriate messages can persuade tourists to avoid plate waste in buffet-style settings, especially if these messages are grounded in participatory cues with an emphasis on altruistic values.

This is one of the few studies that empirically tests the effectiveness of different persuasive interventions in a real consumption setting, thus measuring actual behaviours which have been rarely studied. This study further contributes to the identification of concrete communication tools that can help to mitigate plate waste generation.

To achieve higher customer satisfaction (CS), companies implement continuous improvement (CI) programs, regardless of the growing evidence of their failure to achieve declared goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify whether companies are able to improve CS through the application of CI; and, second, to identify what organizational practices are able to facilitate the impact of CI on CS.

To test the developed assumptions, the study uses the structural equation modeling technique. The data for analysis were collected from 304 service companies via a custom web-survey.

The research confirms the direct positive impact of CI on CS. Further, the study demonstrates that management commitment and rewards system that encourages employees to participate in CI play the major facilitating role in improving CS through CI. These practices accompanied by quality-oriented culture and employee training in the improvement tools provide necessary infrastructure to sustain CI in the companies over time. Additionally, regardless of the vital role of goal setting for CI established in previous research, the proposed study finds a limited ability of goal setting, as compared to other organizational practices, to facilitate CI–CS relationship.

The study contributes to the scarce field of research on CI implementation in the services environment. Further, the research assesses CS as a variable of interest, as opposite to the previous studies, considering CS as a part of the composite variable. The research assesses the impact of the training in CI methodology on the CI–CS relationship, while previous research focuses on the general, work-related training. The findings provide an important basis for further academic work in the area of quality management. The identified practices can serve as guidance for managers, implementing CI in their companies due to the high fit of the proposed model.

The purpose of this paper is to study the current state of the Russian banking system in the context of digital economy development, to establish and identify the benchmarks and needs of legal regulation, to study the potential possibilities of digitalization of relations in the banking sector in the mechanism of implementing prudential rules.

Using the method of political and legal analysis used in this study, the legal guidelines for the digitalization of the banking sector and the financial services market have been determined, which in the Russian legal system are strategic planning documents.

International research in the field of banking indicates that digitalization and globalization of the economy stimulate the processes of international regulatory cooperation and harmonization of legislation, the use of new approaches in the development and adoption of regulations in the financial market. The growth of digitalization of relations in the banking sector will contribute to the effective implementation of prudential rules, including those related to the need to protect public interests.

The study revealed a number of issues related to the digitalization of the activities of credit institutions that are professional participants in the securities market and the central bank as a financial mega-regulator, requiring a legal solution. Measures aimed at improving the current legislation and procedures of state regulation and supervision are proposed.

The purpose of this exploratory consumer research study was to examine demographic and behavioral characteristics and motivations of wine travelers on the recently established Iowa Wine Trail in rural Northeast Iowa. An array of data on visitor lifestyles, interests, attitudes and values can provide more powerful and actionable research information than demographics alone. Equipped with an understanding of visitor motivations, wineries and vineyards can provide their customers the experience they want and expect, and not products and services they are assumed to desire.

Data for this study were collected using a questionnaire-based survey administered at three participating wineries over the period of April-November 2005.

The demographic profile of visitors on the Iowa Wine Trail falls within a common stereotype of a wine tourist: middle aged (36-55 years old), highly educated (college or postgraduate), in the moderate to high income bracket (higher than the median household income in Iowa), living in close proximity to the Iowa Wine Trail (mostly Iowa residents). The main motives for visiting the wineries were (in order by mean scores) “to taste wine”, “to enjoy the scenery”, “to have a good time with friends and family”, “to relax”, “to support local wine producers”, and “to taste locally produced foods”. This finding supports the statement that wine tourists are often drawn by the whole “local experience package”, and not only by the wine product itself.

Findings of this study provide demographic and behavioral characteristics and motivations of wine tourists in rural Northeast Iowa only and should not be generalized to other rural areas.

The Iowa Wine Trail attracts typical wine customers, but also younger visitors and females. Rather high incidence of repeat visitors for a trail that is still in its infancy (52 percent), with the mean number of previous visits being 2.64. Importance of word of mouth and eMarketing: over 40 percent of visitors to the Iowa Wine Trail based their choice on word of mouth (to include prior recommendations, suggestions, or reputation), and almost a third of travelers indicated utilizing web sites for information seeking – a number that is higher when compared to other specialized markets in Iowa. The Iowa Wine Trail appeals both to stereotypical wine tourists and those visitors who are not primarily involved with the wine product but nonetheless still visit wineries. Power of rural ambience and appeal of the Iowa landscape: while wine tasting appeared to be the main motive of visiting the wineries, scenery and landscape of the Upper Mississippi River, along with the opportunity to enjoy time with friends and family and taste local foods, scored similarly high.

While demographic characteristics of wine tourists have been explored, few studies focused on visitor motivations. In addition, most of wine tourism research has focused on established and functioning wine regions/appellations. Not much is known about the emerging wine culture in rural Midwestern states embracing opportunities of wine and tourism development, en route to diversification from traditional agriculture.

A new approach to investigate serendipitous knowledge discovery (SKD) of health information is developed and tested to evaluate the information flow-serendipitous knowledge discovery (IF-SKD) model. The purpose of this paper is to determine the degree to which IF-SKD reflects physicians’ information behaviour in a clinical setting and explore how the information system, Spark, designed to support physicians’ SKD, meets its goals.

The proposed pre-experimental study design employs an adapted version of the McCay-Peet’s (2013) and McCay-Peet et al.’s (2015) serendipitous digital environment (SDE) questionnaire research tool to address the complexity associated with defining the way in which SKD is understood and applied in system design. To test the IF-SKD model, the new data analysis approach combining confirmatory factor analysis, data imputation and Monte Carlo simulations was developed.

The piloting of the proposed novel analysis approach demonstrated that small sample information behaviour survey data can be meaningfully examined using a confirmatory factor analysis technique.

This method allows to improve the reliability in measuring SKD and the generalisability of findings.

This paper makes an original contribution to developing and refining methods and tools of research into information-system-supported serendipitous discovery of information by health providers.

There is a growing need for school-based nutritional educational programs that promote healthy eating attitudes without increasing an unhealthy focus on restrictive eating or promoting a poor body image. Research suggests that intuitive eating (IE) approaches, which encourage individuals to focus on internal body signals as a guide for eating, have had a positive impact on eating-related psychological outcomes in adults. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects an IE education program on the eating attitudes of high school students.

In a quasi-experimental study, 48 high school students (30 females) in a Midwest town in the USA received instruction on IE or a comparison program over seven days during health classes. Repeated measures analyses of covariance were conducted to examine changes in eating attitudes in sexes across conditions.

Students who received the IE program made significantly greater gains in overall positive eating attitudes on the Intuitive Eating Scale than students in the comparison program (p=0.045), as well as on the Unconditional Permission to Eat subscale (p=0.02). There were no significant effects of sex on any of the analyses.

Because of the relatively small sample size and short duration of the program, the results should be generalized with caution.

The results suggest that IE instruction may encourage the development of healthy eating attitudes in high school students, and health teachers may wish to consider including IE instruction in the health curriculum.

This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of an IE program in a K-12 population, with instruction provided in the context of the school. The results are promising and suggest that this may be a fruitful area for future research in nutrition education.

Employees in community pharmacies play a far significant and distinct role compared to the employees in traditional retail stores. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of employee performance (EP) on customer loyalty of pharmacy services.

Data were collected through a self-administered survey filled in by the customers of 25 community pharmacies. A total of 679 completely filled-in questionnaires were analysed. The proposed model was tested through structural equation modelling using AMOS 22.

EP positively affects pharmacy customers’ perceived value (PV), trust and loyalty. PV and trust fully mediates the relationships between EP and customers’ attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Unlike short-term customers, the long-term relational customers’ PV was found to have significant impact on their trust and behavioural loyalty.

This study is based on the Australian community pharmacy industries; hence, caution must be exercised in the generalization of the results to other countries. The study has considered only PV and trust in examining the link between the EP and customer loyalty. Other variables such as commitment could possibly influence the link, which has not been considered in this study.

The study contributes to the existing literature by focusing on how EP affects both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty of pharmacy customers. It shows empirical evidence that EP influences customers’ PV and trust en-route to influencing their loyalty. The study measures EP based on both empathy and service provider performance covering a broader spectrum of the construct.