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Healthcare policymakers and managers struggle to engage private physicians, who tend to view themselves as independent of the system, in new models of primary care. The purpose of this paper is to examine this issue through a social identity lens.

Through in-depth interviews with 33 decision-makers and 31 fee-for-service family physicians, supplemented by document review and participant observation, the authors studied a Canadian province’s early efforts to engage physicians in primary care renewal initiatives.

Recognizing that the existing physician–system relationship was generally distant, decision-makers invested effort in relationship-building. However, decision-makers’ rhetoric, as well as the design of their flagship initiative, evinced an attempt to proceed directly from interpersonal relationship-building to the establishment of formal intergroup partnership, with no intervening phase of supporting physicians’ group identity and empowering them to assume equal partnership. The invitation to partnership did not resonate with most physicians: many viewed it as an inauthentic offer from an out-group (“bureaucrats”) with discordant values; others interpreted partnership as a mere transactional exchange. Such perceptions posed barriers to physician participation in renewal activities.

The pursuit of a premature degree of intergroup closeness can be counterproductive, heightening physician resistance.

This study revealed that even a relatively subtle misalignment between a particular social identity management strategy and its intergroup context can have highly problematic ramifications. Findings advance the literature on social identity management and may facilitate the development of more effective engagement strategies.

This commentary reflects on possible disruptions for the accounting profession, accountants and academics in the next 25 years. The traditional and highly valued role of the accounting professional, accountants and academic scholarship is rapidly changing in an intensely networked and interdisciplinary world. The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of AAAJ activities for 2015 and in the next few years, it also delivers a call to action to interdisciplinary accounting researchers to undertake innovative research that reflects on what these turbulent times mean for society, nations, organisations and individual accountants, practitioners and educators.

The paper employs a literature-based analysis and critique to provide a critical reflection on current and future developments in academic accounting research.

In highlighting disruption to traditional accounting practice and research the authors provide a foundation from which researchers should contemplate their motivation, informing theories and values to ensure that their academic endeavours make a contribution to practice, policy and a wider societal good.

It is hoped the practical and research issues explored in this commentary will invoke more interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting and the accounting profession, and assist scholars to reflect on the challenges they face.

Providing a forward looking vision on the important role of academic researchers, the authors urge colleagues not to limit their vision to the narrowness that is an increasing feature of North American economics-based accounting research and to not simply observe, but rather construct an enabling accounting that can benefit society more widely.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the focus and changing nature of measuring academic accounting research quality. The paper addresses contemporary changes in academic publishing, metrics for determining research quality and the possible impacts on accounting scholars. These are considered in relation to the core values of interdisciplinary accounting research ‒ that is, the pursuit of novel, rigorous, significant and authentic research motivated by a passion for scholarship, curiosity and solving wicked problems. The impact of changing journal rankings and research citation metrics on the traditional and highly valued role of the accounting academic is further considered. In this setting, the paper also provides a summary of the journal’s activities for 2018, and in the future.

Drawing on contemporary data sets, the paper illustrates the increasingly diverse and confusing array of “evidence” brought to bear on the question of the relative quality of accounting research. Commercial products used to rate and rank journals, and judge the academic impact of individual scholars and their papers not only offer insight and visibility, but also have the potential to misinform scholars and their assessors.

In the move from simple journal ranking lists to big data and citations, and increasingly to concerns with impact and engagement, the authors identify several challenges facing academics and administrators alike. The individual academic and his or her contribution to scholarship are increasingly marginalised in the name of discipline, faculty and institutional performance. A growing university performance management culture within, for example, the UK and Australasia, has reached a stage in the past decade where publication and citation metrics are driving allocations of travel grants, research grants, promotions and appointments. With an expanded range of available metrics and products to judge their worth, or have it judged for them, scholars need to be increasingly informed of the nuanced or not-so-nuanced uses to which these measurement systems will be put. Narrow, restricted and opaque peer-based sources such as journal ranking lists are now being challenged by more transparent citation-based sources.

The issues addressed in this commentary offer a critical understanding of contemporary metrics and measurement in determining the quality of interdisciplinary accounting research. Scholars are urged to reflect upon the challenges they face in a rapidly moving context. Individuals are increasingly under pressure to seek out preferred publication outlets, developing and curating a personal citation profile. Yet such extrinsic outcomes may come at the cost of the core values that motivate the interdisciplinary scholar and research.

This paper provides a forward-looking focus on the critical role of academics in interdisciplinary accounting research.

Nach den vorliegenden österreichischen Erfalirungen kann der Fremdenverkehr ein wertvolles Element der regionalen Wirtschaftsentwicklung sein. Dabei ist es gleichgültig, ob ausländisches oderinländisches Gästepublikum gewonnen wird.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of the participants and the success of the recruitment methods and increase in knowledge of participants in reproductive health peer education. Dutch perinatal mortality rates are relatively high compared to other European countries. Non-Western ethnic minorities show particularly adverse outcomes. They seem to have low health literacy and less access to health care.

These groups were specifically targeted, and reproductive health education covering the full spectrum of obstetric care was developed, led by specifically trained female peer educators coming from the targeted communities.

“Active” recruitment methods were the most successful methods; 1,896 women and 275 men were recruited and participated in the intervention. Sixty-five per cent of the total female participants had a first-generation immigrant background. Significant knowledge improvements were found on all five measurements of reproductive behaviour and antenatal and postnatal health care system knowledge (24 per cent average knowledge increase in already knowledgeable participant group and 46 per cent in the not knowledgeable group). Active interpersonal recruitment methods were most successful in reaching the target groups. Peer education resulted in knowledge increase in these groups.

Invest in training of educators for peer education reproductive health. Organize recruitment by verbal advertising by community organizations and social networks of peer educators.

To the authors’ knowledge, no studies have been conducted combining investigation of the results of specific recruitment methods, the characteristics of reached participants in a multi-ethnic population and their increase in knowledge about reproductive health and care.

The development of self-service technologies, while intended to better serve customers by offering them autonomy, has created situations in which individuals may require additional help. The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions of chat as an assistance channel, to identify its perceived role in a customer service environment.

In all, 23 semi-structured interviews held with both chat and non-chat users assessed perceptions of chat in an assistance encounter. A thematic analysis was used.

The findings highlight a paradoxical perception of chat in a customer assistance context. On the one hand, customers perceive live chat as mainly beneficial in a customer service context, alleviating embarrassment, perceived threats and potential dissatisfaction linked to assistance requests. On the other hand, the elusive nature of a chat conversation interlocutor (human or artificial) adversely affects how customers interpret assistance from companies.

This research underscores the perceived threats of assistance encounters and shows the ambivalent role of chat in such a context. It also highlights chat’s specific features that make it a relevant medium for assistance requests.

This study helps companies better understand customers’ perceptions of assistance requests and chat in that context. Companies can use the findings to develop better ways to address assistance needs and offer transparent and fully personalized human chat to provide an inclusive service.

This paper highlights the ambivalent role of chat as an assistance channel, easing assistance requests but also entailing a potential negative spillover effect, when negative chat perceptions of an artificial interlocutor have consequences.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to gain knowledge on public–private partnerships (PPPs) in emerging markets; understand how to apply the sensing element of the dynamic capabilities framework in analysing context, especially in emerging market context; and understand how to apply the dynamic capabilities framework to the process of developing brand equity.

On 20 March 2020, in Johannesburg South Africa, Dr Barbara Jensen Vorster, the head of corporate communications and marketing at the Gautrain Management Agency, was considering her dilemma of how to manage stakeholders at a time when the patronage guarantee was under question. The nature of the Gautrain PPP transport contract entailed a revenue guarantee that was called a patronage guarantee. How did they build their Gautrain brand equity during the Gautrain PPP patronage guarantee controversy? This case study highlights the perspectives of multiple stakeholders which places the Gautrain brand equity under strain. The Gautrain brand identity was created to project an integrated, overarching brand position for the construction project and later the operating company. The logo illustrated Africanisation, and the slogan “For People on the Move” represented a modern collaborative approach. Upholding the status of the brand is an important quest for the corporate communications and marketing team, and therefore the issue around the patronage guarantee must be addressed. This case study illustrates contrasting views about the Gautrain being elitist versus the rapid rail train enabling economic prosperity. The pro-prosperity versus pro-economic development values were at the heart of the different opinions around the patronage guarantee. Students are therefore confronted with their own values while the case study aims to drive an awareness or consciousness around these issues in an emerging market.

This case study is appropriate for advanced undergraduate and Master of Business Administration courses focused on marketing, communications and/or stakeholder management, such as in business and society courses. At both levels, the case study will be valuable in generating discussion on communications models and how to manage stakeholders ranging from government to community representatives. In courses where dynamic capabilities theory is taught, this case study will offer a specific application of this model in the context of brand communications and building brand equity in times of controversy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.